AWOL

[Kelly Pfitzer]

Well, I've paid the price today and left a hutch door open. Historical encounters with this have proven to be non-events as they usually just hang out around the hutches until some human scoops them up. last nighti left a hutch door open and 3 got out. I was able to find one after my cat cornered it (he's fine) but the other two are still at large. I don't have many preditors around the property as my dog does a good job of running off the bigger stuff and the cats do a good job on the smaller stuff. That said, the two that escaped are REW's....so they are as white as Christmas snow. Did not return this morning, so i'm really struggling with this. These guys are about 3 weeks old. Are they write offs at this point?

 

[Preitler]

From my experience, they quite likely hide somewhere close by, under or behind something. Put food out, close to the hutch, to see if they come back. Put some sticks of straw around it vertically, or some fine dirt to be sure it wasn't mice theat went off with the pellets. A wildlife camera would be better - very useful tool in more than one way.

I also use a DIY marten trap to catch escapees, but that's almost never necessary (mine are allowed out of the hutch as soon as they dare, if they can get on the ramp over that 20cm board I put at the entrance of the hutch)

Good luck