wild baby rabbit.. help plz

[Dutchess]

Hey, stick around, filianta

Don't be put off, as Pippa said.

Best,

D.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by filianta

i didnt sign up to this site to get moaned at for having cats.

I didn't moan at you 'filianta', I just spelt out how it is - cats _will_ catch and kill wildlife. If you keep cats you have to get used to it.

Anyway, stick arround!

Jim

[numeniusaqua]

I brought 2 up when I was about 12 years old (er, this is more than 30 years ago) . A local ferreter had been feretting (as you might expect from the name ), but quite early in the year, not expecting any litters - his ferret brought out a doe (dead) in milk and he managed to retrieve 2 babies which I heard about and got off him. In the absence of anything else available then, I reared them on (believe it or not) ordinary cows milk! There were no wildlife hospitals or anything and the internet hadn't even been dreamt of ! - all you could call for advice was the RSPCA who would give the stock answer - "put them outside & leave them alone" (yeah, 'cos unweaned orphaned animals with barely open eyes are going to do really well left out in the cold alone aren't they?). They were weaned off and released at the same warren they'd come from. My main memory is waking up through the night to feed them (good practise for later life!! ) for a couple of weeks until they were fully weaned. Everyone told me they'd die etc, but I proved them wrong!
Word got about and over the years I ended up with various injured odds and sods and most memorably bringing up 2 woodpigeon squabs whose tree had been felled, the next year a baby jackdaw and so on - all went back to the wild except those beyond repair when the other option was kinder for them though harder for me.
The woodpigeons were absolute characters - something I'd never have discovered under normal circumstances.

[filianta]

wow impressive! luckily for me there is wildlife places now, id get too attached if i had to raise them myself lol.
And im planning on sticking around

[Bethy]

I was looking after a baby sparrow yesterday, but i left it outside with it's mother in an old nest box and it didnt survive the night. I suppose some people are better at looking after things. As for cats, mine does catch a lot of things, but she also shows me things i never knew. e.g i didnt know there were feild mice round here until she brought one home.

[jeanne]

Originally Posted by filianta

Hi, im not 100% if im posting this in the right place but im hoping it is.. well yesterday my (evil) cat brought home a baby rabbit.. it was screaming thats how i knew.. i got it off her and she'd done barely any damage.. there was a slight bit of blood on my hand when i picked it up.. nothiing to worry about though i dont think.. so i put it in a cardbord box with some shavings in and left it for a few hours.. thinking it would die of shock.. ((she brought it back about 1pm)) well it was still alive at night so i put some grass in the box and a small bowl with water in.. as it has teeth and about 5inches big with adult fur so i presumed it was off milk.. well its still alive.. the waters gonedown slightly but some of the shavings are wet so i dont know if thats the water of wee.. lol.. but no grass has gone.. so worst is.. its not ate or drank so maybe its still on milk? now i dont know what to do with it.. id prefer to release it however im surrounded by fields and lakes so no idea where she got it from.. so if it needs mummy to live.. i have no idea where to put it.. or if i should try make it drink etc.. when i look at it its usually hiding in a corner of box.. not suprising i know.. but it does move to different places.. sorry about the essay.. just wanted to mention everything.. any advise is welcome.. thanks

hi saw your message how old do think the rabbit is? what i would do is see if there is an animal sanctuary near you they will know what to do,i used to keep rabbits but not wild ones they like domestic rabbits like hay,carrots my rabbits used to love spinage do not give lettuce to if you think its very young you could get milk from good pet suppliers but i would take to animal sanctuary he could be stressed after the cat got it as animals get stressed very easily. and they can die ,but domestic rabbits are normaly taken from the mother at about 6-8weeks so it could survive if you dont have a animal sanc,near you see if he starts to eat keep him for a while and if you think he is old enough you could let him go,as if he old enough he should survive jeanne

[jeanne]

ps re rabbit if you go to google search type in feeding rabbits it will tell you what they like to eat jeanne

[swmoore1971]

Hi Filianta
Wonderful news about the rabbit you saved.
I've had 4 cats in my long life-- They were couch potatoes, almost never caught any living creature. I loved my cats.
We did see one catch a butterfly, and another once killed a baby rat. I was very upset by both murders. I kept them in at night for their own safety as well as for wildlife.
We now have two rabbits who are peace loving vegetarians. They have a HUGE bungalow with a 3 story extension at one end and a long passageway leading to a 2 storey conservatory at the other. Altogether this is their 'cage' area when we are away from home for more than a few hours. The rest of the time they have access to a fox proofed pen about 20 by 12 foot, and daily access to a grazing corral of about 30 by 30 foot. They are safe and happy and quite wild.You did great to keep the baby rabbit alive-- they are delicate and if rabbits don't eat at least every few hours the gut stops and it can be fatal. So when ours have stopped eating due to being ill we have to syringe feed Rabbit Recovery mix bought at the vet.

The bells on the cats are a good idea. Their catches tend to be at dusk. Bells help to offset the problems prey animals would have to see the cats in low light.

Elliot