how do u take care of wild baby rabbits?

Question

my dog found the nest the mom wont come back sooo what do we put them in what do we feed them .,....ect

Answer 1

The best advice comes from this website: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

"If your dog disturbs a nest or you find a wild bunny with its eyes open, please put him back if not injured. Mom will be coming back at night to call and feed him only once in the middle of the night. Do not take the bunny inside or feed him. That is the mom's job. IT IS A MATTER OF HIS/HER SURVIVAL AND UP TO US AS HUMANS TO LEAVE NATURE BE AND LET THE MOM CARE FOR HER YOUNG. We often hear of mothers moving their babies and their nests, and have seen moms come back every night for up to a week to look for her missing baby. Do not take the baby from the mom or she will be frantic.

If your dog destroyed a rabbit nest, remake the nest as best you can with grasses, hay, straw in the same place. Nests can be moved to a safer place up to 10' away from the original site and can be reconstructed if necessary. To make a new nest, dig a shallow hole about 3" deep and put into it as much of the original material as you can recover, including the mother's fur. Add dried grass as needed, and put the young back. Mother rabbits return to the nest to nurse only at night, staying away as much as possible so as not to attract predators. To determine if the mother is returning, create a tic-tac-toe pattern over the nest with straw, grasses or tiny twigs. Wait 24 hours to see if the twigs have been disturbed. She may be able to feed them without moving the twigs much, so double check--If the babies look healthy, are warm, then the mother is coming back. If they are cold, dehydrated, get them to a professional; do not care for them yourself. Please contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator or rabbit vet immediately.

Many people mean well when they contact HRS after discovering an "abandoned" nest of wild rabbits. Often they wish to "rehabilitate" them with some advice from others. The reality is fewer than 10% of orphaned rabbits survive a week, and the care that people attempt to provide can be illegal, unnecessary, and potentially harmful. The best thing you can do is put the bunny right back where you found him, in the general area, as the Mom will only come back at night to call and find him. Leave the area. If injured, please contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator or rabbit vet immediately."

If you need a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, look here: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.htm

Answer 2

Leave them the heck alone- you'll only kill them. First, you don't even know mom won't come back, you've been hovering around the nest with a dog. Second, after they are done nursing, baby rabbits can feed themselves. You can't reproduce rabbit milk, because all of the artificial milks on the market are made for carnivores, and rabbits are herbivores, so those formulas would probably make them horribly sick.

Wild animals are meant to be wild animals- leave them outside in their nest and stay far away from it, and they will be just fine. It is both wrong and highly ILLEGAL to bring wildlife into your home- if anyone found out, they'd be taken away, and you'd have to pay a fine for breaking the law.

Everyone thinks wild animals need to be 'saved' all the time, when the reality is, 9 times out of 10, people who try to 'save' wild animals end up KILLING them, when they would have survived just fine if you'd left them alone.

Answer 3

Leave them in the nest. If you do touch them, it's fine. It's a MYTH that a mother rabbit will abandoned the babies if you touch them because of your scent. This is totally false and the mother will not abandoned the babies because of this. They have a better chance out in the wild of the mother coming back than being raised by humans. Try to stay away and keep your dog away from that area and everything should be ok :).

Answer 4

I'm sorry to say, but if you don't find it's mother, it will most likely die. Put some of the other rabbits poop in there. It needs it's mother's poop for nutrients, I had a baby rabbit my cat caught, and it only lasted 2 weeks in a nice cage. Do NOT HANDLE IT!!! Normal water and baby formula should help too. Give it a card board box to hide in the dark. That should help the shock, and if you can, go to your vet. But try your best to fins it's mother! :) good luck!

Answer 5

It is extremely difficult to hand raise baby bunnies, especially wild ones. They usually die, even with experienced rehabbers. It doesn't matter that you've touched them...put them back and lock up the dog. The mothe should come back--instinct to take care of the young is too strong to ignore. If you don't put them back , then you must contact a local rehabber to give them the best chance possible. Don't attempt to feed them! Call animal services or a local vet for a rehab number.

Answer 6

Contact a vet and ask them where the nearest Wild animal rehabilitation centre is. You can't keep the bunnies yourself if they are wild.

For now, put them in a smooth-sided box with towels, and a hot water bottle wrapped in an old rag.

Don't try to keep them yourself!

Answer 7

If you have touched the bunnies, you have left your scent on the babies and thats why mother isnt coming back. If you have already pulled them from their hole, then call animal control, you need to have a wildlife license to take care of wild animals. For the meantime put a blanket in a box and kind-of make a fist-size hole in the blanket so they can climb in and get cozy for the night.

Answer 8

leave them in the wild and let nature take care of them.

Answer 9

I will take them inside because their mother could be dead.

Answer 10

the mother will come back LEAVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw WELL SAID ALYSSA!!!!!!!!!!!