# Baby Bunny, oh dear



## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Good luck with her Indy, but as you said, wild bunny babies generally don't make it. The trauma is usually too much for them, and she's awfully young.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

Baby bunnies are some of the trickier bunch - I do wish you (and the little one) the best, though!


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

Good luck. It's better then just leaving her outside I suppose. They are hard ones though...


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Thanks guys. So far so good. She got warmed up and seems less shocky, though I'm keeping her very quiet and minimizing handling because they can be so stressy. I waited until 5 pm to feed her so she wasn't feeding on a shocked system. She was moving around in her box a little, and was "popping" when I went to pick her up and feed her a few minutes ago. I think she might be a touch older than I originally thought, because on looking at her closely when I fed her her eyes are actually mostly open, I thought they were closed this morning when I found her but it appears she was just keeping them tightly clenched closed *l*. So she's probably around 10 days old. I was able to get about 2 cc in her, fed with my tiny p-pod (1 cc preemie oral syringe) and got her to potty readily with the ol' paper towel. By the end of the feeding she was actively sucking off the syringe, so hopeful that this is a good sign.

Anyways, a couple pics.


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## AlmostThere (Oct 31, 2009)

Awww, so cute. 

About 12 years ago my dog was after a baby bunny and I managed to get it away from her before she killed it. Unfortunately, I only managed to keep it alive a couple of days, but I do *not* have a knack for keeping truly wild creatures alive. 

It sounds like that little baby is in good hands with you looking out for it.

Good luck!


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Almost there, thanks, I'm willing to give it a try, though I don't have super high hopes. I have hand reared a lot of baby possum, raccoon, and groundhogs, but bunnies and squirrels have never done great for me.

That being said, for now she seems to be doing better than I expected. When I went in to feed her this morning, she climbed out of her towel and toddled over to the side of her box to greet me, and ate enthusiastically, I didn't even have to hold her, she just pushed her little feet against the blankets and sucked off the syringe. I've discovered she does have an injury on the inside of one of her hind legs, and a small section where the skin is gone, I went ahead and put ointment on it but the bone seems sound and she is walking on it. In trying to piece together what happened and how she ended up in my back yard I am guessing she was caught by one of my barn cats, was either carried or managed to escape and run into my back yard, where she probably spent a good part of the night getting rained on before my Bonnie discovered her in the morning. I wouldn't count on her making it through such a scare but she does seem to be rallying very well. Generally if they make it past 3 days you are okay, so one day down. She does seem very strong compared to bunnies I have raised in the past, so with luck that's a hopeful sign!


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## Wild Child13 (May 7, 2010)

My sister and I nursed three squirrels that fell out of their nest. Two of them made it, and we still see them in the yard. Good luck!


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## grayshell38 (Mar 9, 2009)

Good luck! I hope the little fella lives. I had a cocker spaniel that was the best little hunter. You could tell her to "got get those rats/mice" and she would run off to the barn and be back in ten minutes with what you asked for, but that also meant that bunnies and other critters fell victim to her as well. She killed the mama bunny that was living in our back pasture at the time and we luckily had bunnies of our own at that time too. We rubbed the wild babies all over the domestic ones that our broodiest doe had and she raised them just fine. We had to fix up the cage though that they were in eventually. The wild bunnies kept spooking and getting their heads stuck in the wire of the cage. All of them lived until we let them go. Best wishes for this little one too!


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Aww, what a great dog you've got! My border collie brought us to a crow once. He sat next to it and hollered his head off until we got there. We put the crow in a make-shift nest on the side of the garage and whenever it fell out, Louie would be there to bark for us. =]

Best of luck for your little bunny. It's probably in good hands. =]


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

riccil0ve said:


> Aww, what a great dog you've got! My border collie brought us to a crow once. He sat next to it and hollered his head off until we got there. We put the crow in a make-shift nest on the side of the garage and whenever it fell out, Louie would be there to bark for us. =]
> 
> Best of luck for your little bunny. It's probably in good hands. =]


Thanks, she's a great dog, all my girls are. I love the old working blood, these girls have very similar mentality to BCs, though less intense and are upright loose eyed herders.

So far so good with the bunny. She's got quite an appetite with the nursing, and as soon as I find a local rabbit breeder I can get cecotropes from, I'll start her on dandelion greens and stuff, she should be about ready to start. She's active and exploring her basket, I had to put a screen over the top because she climbed out twice *l*


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## hillarymorganstovall (Mar 27, 2010)

Well... It sounds like she's doing good.... I think I'm cautiously optimistic.... Normally if the little critters don't have diarreah and will eat and are perky they do well.... so good luck!!! sounds like he may have made it past the 'critical' stage!


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

hillarymorganstovall said:


> Well... It sounds like she's doing good.... I think I'm cautiously optimistic.... Normally if the little critters don't have diarreah and will eat and are perky they do well.... so good luck!!! sounds like he may have made it past the 'critical' stage!


Cautiously optimistic is the perfect way to put it. She's still doing well, so far. No diarrhea (her poops are about the size of a pinhead, she's so tiny! She's pottying on her own now though.) Her ears are up now, and her eyes are all the way opened, so she is ready to start on some greens, but I can't start her on them until I find some rabbit owners in my area to get the yucky stuff from. Not having luck so far, I finally just put an ad on CL - but all the while thinking, people are going to think I am really weird wanting to come collect bits of their rabbits poop...*lol* But she does seem to be strong and certainly has a good will to live, so i'm hopeful.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

Indy, I know very little about rabbits, but do youngsters on the way to weaning eat their mother's cecotropes until they can start producing their own?


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Yes, sort of. All rabbits practice a sort of coprophagia. Dirty little secret in the rabbit world I guess *l* They don't eat their "regular" poop. The cecotropes are different feces than their normal pellets, and they re-ingest them to gain additional nutrients, as well as to keep the intestinal flora healthy. Not all that different, in reality, from a ruminant chewing it's cud. However, nursing babies do not have the intestinal bacteria necessary for breaking down greens, and that's why so many hand reared baby bunnies are lost - even though they are eating, their bodies cannot digest the greens without the intestinal bacteria, and so they essentially starve to death, even with a full belly. As babies, they get their first few doses of intestinal bacteria from ingesting their mothers cecotropes, until an age where they have sufficient levels of bacteria in their stomach to make do with eating their own poop. Aren't bunnies cute? Don't you just want to kiss one? :lol:


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

My dog is a poop eatin' machine, too. Grosses me out. 

She doesn't eat her own feces, just that of every other animal she can find. Cat and horse poop are especially delicious, as far as she's concerned. Blech!!! :-x

Then she'll drink a quantity of water, and come drooling over to me for a kiss. GET AWAAAYYY!!!! :shock:


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Glad to hear your bunny is doing well. The odds are greatly against you in general so very impressed you have made it this far.

Keep up the good work!


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## Kashmere (Nov 30, 2009)

Adooorable pictures!!


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Speedracer, haha dogs are lovely like that, aren't they. When my old neighbor comes to visit (she's a frequent visitor out here, although we no longer live next door to teach other we remain close friends - I've been after her for some time to move in with me, I feel silly living in a 5 bedroom house with just myself and my son!) But she always brings her dogs - it's quite a sight, between her 4 dogs (one of which sure counts for two, it's a 200 lb English Mastiff) and my 6 dogs, all galloping around my yard! But she gets all horrified at her dogs eating the horse poop - I just shrug and smile - gross, yes, but normal!

Alwaysbehind, I know, I think I've only ever been successful with 1 bunny in the past, and it was older than this one when I found it - already eating greens, but injured. I've done better with squirrels, but not had great luck there either. I've NEVER lost a **** or possum, but they are just hardier babies. Thanks for the well wishes!


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Indyhorse said:


> I feel silly living in a 5 bedroom house with just myself and my son!


I'll take a bedroom, please. =P Haha.

I'm glad to hear your bunny is doing well so far. I didn't know there were two different kinds of rabbit poop, lol. Very interesting. My rabbit will eat his own cocoa puffs sometimes, but I didn't realize how very important it is for them.  But I still think he's the cutest little stinker. Even if he humps everything in sight.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

Indy - contact your local farm store and ask who they get their bunnies from each spring, that should point you in the direction of the local breeders/keepers.


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## speedy da fish (May 7, 2009)

Speed Racer said:


> My dog is a poop eatin' machine, too. Grosses me out.
> 
> She doesn't eat her own feces, just that of every other animal she can find. Cat and horse poop are especially delicious, as far as she's concerned. Blech!!! :-x
> 
> Then she'll drink a quantity of water, and come drooling over to me for a kiss. GET AWAAAYYY!!!! :shock:


haha, my dog tends to roll in it first, to attract the laaadies (apparently):lol:

The bunny is so sweet though, lucky to be still with us  hope she does well, love her little 'star' x


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

themacpack, oh, brilliant idea, thanks so much! I will make calls now!

Speedy, actually all wild cottontails have that "star/blaze" when they first fur out. It's called their nursing blaze, and it goes away after they wean and stop nursing - part of how you can gauge age on a baby, by how "long" it is. Weird, huh?


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Indyhorse said:


> Speedy, actually all wild cottontails have that "star/blaze" when they first fur out. It's called their nursing blaze, and it goes away after they wean and stop nursing - part of how you can gauge age on a baby, by how "long" it is. Weird, huh?


Learned something today!


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

She's still doing really well! Moving around a lot more, I let her out of her box to run around in my closet for a few minutes twice a day right now. She's being fed 3 times a day, morning noon, and night, and I don't feed her overnight. She's doubled weight since I've found her, she weighs 1.4 ounces now!

Just thought I'd take a few new pics of the lil thing when I went to feed her this morning.










(Then she realized I was there to feed her and came toddling over to me)










Please excuse my fingernails *lol* I rarely wear nail polish, and have a bad habit of just letting it wear off when I do rather than bothering to remove it :lol:










(she didn't pee, on my leg there, she just dribbles a little when she eats. And yes I'm in sweats, it's morning still!)


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

What precious pictures!

Cute, furry baby animals just make me go, AWWWWWWW!!!! 

Glad she's still holding her own.


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Speed Racer said:


> What precious pictures!
> 
> Cute, furry baby animals just make me go, AWWWWWWW!!!!
> 
> Glad she's still holding her own.


Took the words right out of my mouth Speed Racer! It's just precious, and I'm really glad things are going well so far. Keep up that good work, little bunny!


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## speedy da fish (May 7, 2009)

Indyhorse said:


> themacpack, oh, brilliant idea, thanks so much! I will make calls now!
> 
> Speedy, actually all wild cottontails have that "star/blaze" when they first fur out. It's called their nursing blaze, and it goes away after they wean and stop nursing - part of how you can gauge age on a baby, by how "long" it is. Weird, huh?


yeah slightly weird lol! i didnt know that. Ive seen lots of baby bunnies around at the moment but they look older and bigger than her, maybe thats why ive never seen it. shes doing really well though, double the weight she was :shock: determined!


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## ShannonSevenfold (Oct 11, 2008)

We found a baby bunny last year in our front yard. Looked like mom had been hit by a car nearby, and this was the only baby to be found. We took it in. It stayed in my room in a box with a heating pad and blanket. I fed it with a syringe, even waking up at night to feed it. It got better very quickly, but then we had to go to Minnesota to see my grandparents and we couldn't leave it home alone. So we put it in a tiny pet carrier and it came with us. We stopped at times along the way so we could let him out to hop around. But I think the trip was too much for him because 2 days after the trip, he took a turn for the worst and ended up dying. :'( Not gonna lie... I cried. :lol:

Anyways.. There's my story of my baby bunny.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

How's little bit doing?


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Still trooping along! I found a local breeder to pick up a few cecatropes from (thanks to your advice, themacpack!) and mixed a little in with her formula the first few days, and then have since just placed them in her box, along with some clover and dandelion. She's been eating up all the greens and dropping back on the amount of formula she'll take. Today, I gave her greens when I got up this morning, and then went to feed her formula at about nine, and she only took 1 cc, but most her greens were gone, so she's well on her way to being weaned now. Yay! I've put a very shallow dish (actually it's a petri dish *lol*) of water in her box and she's been drinking that as well. Still going good at this point - once she's completely weaned I'll start putting her outside on the grass in a cage for a few hours a day to get sunlight and nibble. From there we can hopefully work towards release. She's so little still, size wise, I worry about my own cats getting her


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

What a wonderful update!!! It isn't often you get to hear a good outcome with these little ones, she definitely found her way to the right home (with a little help from the pupster).


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

I'm glad you found a good breeder. I was worried when themacpack suggested it....I was in the rabbit showing and raising business for a few years and I discovered a lot of the pet store breeders are "Bunny mills" per se. Either that or they're generally 4-H kids who get rabbits not well enough conformation wise to show at the end of June. That's what I did with all my rabbit conformation failures 

I've found a good many baby jackrabbits and cottontails too. Out of about ten (Guess) over seven years only two lived, and we brought them in after we found their mama dead from our hounds (Bad dogs!) so we brought them in and I set them on a pan and put or oven on really, really low and put them in it with the door open. Then once they perked up I gave them to one of my English Lop mamas and she raised em' up really well. They were Jacks, so I guess she thoght they were her own 'cause of the big ears, even if they were sticking u in the wrong direction! 

She's a precious little thing, by the way! If you ever get sick of her I have an extra cage in my barn that she might take well to, Lol ^^


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Well, we lost baby bunny Friday night. 

Not sure what happened, in her case. She'd been doing so well, eating great, seeming great. Friday morning, she was her normal self, Friday at noon she didn't eat a lot but was still hopping around her box and acting herself. Friday about six o'clock she got really lethargic, and by seven o'clock she started showing definite neurological signs, twisting on her side, pulling her neck back, etc. By 7:30 she died. It was so fast. I don't know what caused it in this case, she had been transitioning to greens fine for several days, and I don't think it was dietary. I would have guessed some kind of poisoning/pesticide toxicity, but I do not treat my property, it's not sprayed with pesticides or weedkillers or anything at all. However, I have lived here less than a year - I suppose I don't know what was done here before I moved in, and that stuff can live in the soil for some time. But there are wild bunnies all over my property, so I wouldn't think that's the case. 

So many things can go wrong. I never allowed myself to get my hopes up too much about her, but she had been doing so well - I am sad and bitterly disappointed.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

I am so sorry. You truly did all you could for her.


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

That's so sad, I'm sorry to hear it. =[


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm sorry, Indy. 

Wild baby bunnies are just _so_ hard to raise.

You did your best, and are to be commended.


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## speedy da fish (May 7, 2009)

Oww  she was doing so well and you tryed very hard, i am so sorry xxx


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## SorrelHorse (Apr 9, 2009)

Aww, I'm sorry. You did good though, keeping her alive that long. Baby Bunnies are just so fragile that its so hard to keep them alive, even domesticated ones with their mamas. At least you tried


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## ilyTango (Mar 7, 2010)

There are not many creatures alive cuter than baby bunnies. They're useless, but they are SO adorable. When I was little I had my own hutch that I kept my rabbits in, and I went out twice a day to feed, water, and clean them (though that aspect was often overlooked >.<). The only problem is you start with 2 or 3, and in a few months you're up to 14, and I had to sell all but 2. It got ridiculous. Lol. Still, I love rabbits. Sorry to hear that little one didn't make it, though


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## AlmostThere (Oct 31, 2009)

Oh no :-(.

So sorry :-(. She sounded like she was doing so well. So sorry :-(.


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## hillarymorganstovall (Mar 27, 2010)

I'm sooo sorry!!! Poor little baby...


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## Icrazyaboutu (Jul 17, 2009)

We too have tried to raise baby bunnies. When any of us kids see our cat come running into our garage it means she has one so we run out there and try to save them. The only one that has made it past a week was peter. He had to be humanely euthanized because he broke a bone in his lower back by jumping onto the hardwood flooring from my moms shoulder. It was so sad...
All the babies that milkshake(cat) had already hurt too much/were about to die twitched for a few minutes then die. That's what normally happens at least.


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