Wild Rabbits - Babies found by cat!!

[SarniaTricia]

Hi ALL
A friend's cat has found 2 wild baby bunnies!!
She has texted me in a panic!

I have her looking her yard over for a nest, as I am sure I read that it is best to just put them back and let mama take over........

However, I do have a litter with kits that look the same age.....

What are their chances and what are my risks?

 

[MaggieJ]

I wouldn't do it, Tricia. The risks of importing a disease are significant and the wild buns will probably not survive anyway. Even if your doe could raise them to weaning, cottontails do not do well in captivity. They are too nervous and when confined tend to panic and bash themselves in an effort to escape.

If their eyes are open and their ears up, they are old enough to manage. Your friend should release them as near to where she found them, under some kind of cover-- a bush, long grass or weeds etc.

If they're younger than that and she can't find the nest, a wildlife rehab centre may be able to take them. I could be wrong, but I think it is illegal to keep wild animals here in Ontario.

Keep in mind that in the wild cottontail kits often don't even get to the stage of getting their eyes open. They are lunch for so many creatures. The statistic that comes to mind is that 1 in 4 survives to maturity. I don't mean to sound hard-hearted, but baby cottontails are just about at the bottom of the food chain, at least when you're talking about mammals.

 

[SarniaTricia]

That is exactly what I was thinking Maggie!!

Their eyes are closed and they look about a week old.
Their tummies were full, so they do have a moma bunny around somewhere.

She didn't see were her cat got the bunny, so would any were on the property work??
She is so frantic and upset.... I hate to see her like this, but I agree; nature is not kind or nice, she is brutal and beautiful!

Thanks again!
Patricia

 

[MaggieJ]

Wildlife rehab centres in Ontario:
http://www.ontariowildliferescue.ca/wildlifecentres/

This one is near Amherstburg:
http://www.wingsrehab.ca/

If her yard is not too big, I would put them in a sheltered corner. If she has acreage, it is anyone's guess if momma bun will find them.

 

[SarniaTricia]

Thanks again Maggie

Yes it is illegal for me to try and raise these....
and the risk of disease and infection into a healthy domestic herd is too great

I have passed on the WINGS website to her so she can deliver the bunnies to them.
I haven't heard back from her, so I am hoping she found a nest and just put them back!

<3 Maggie

 

[MaggieJ]

Good for you, Tricia. :goodjob: Both for helping your friend with good information and for not succumbing to the temptation to take on the wild kits.

By the way, I read your area got "shaken, not stirred" last week. I hope you didn't suffer any damage.

 

[akane]

I don't know of too much that passes between wild cottontails and domestics since North American native species don't get several of the serious diseases that spread through countries with European (our domestics) wild rabbits. Especially since mine were exposed to things on the ground already so your general internal parasites that nearly all mammals can get were already something I watched for. However, it is illegal to keep native wildlife without a rehab license in the US and cottontails do not take to growing up around people and in a cage. It would be slightly better with a mother rabbit but they never calm down and even a normal human voice can send a baby into shock or if they get big enough they frequently break their spines bolting into the side of a cage when spooked. They then take months to a year of properly acclimating to the outdoors in large ground pens to fully rehab back to the wild and you don't want them to adjust to people or dogs in that time or they are more likely to get killed. Kept in captivity without being adjusted for release they most often live short, stressful lives. Since there are few cottontail rehabbers for the number that get displaced from nests around here most people look the other way and vets will give you supplies under the table to help hand raise them. On occasion we do find some very healthy ones with a better than average chance of survival that cannot stay where they are so try to get them to the point they could go outside in a big circle pen my mom picked up from somewhere. When my akita grew up I just used her soft sided puppy crate with the cover zipped over the mesh or pointed at a wall most of the time so no view of people or animals suddenly walking by and it gives if bolted into.

That's if they survive contact with a cat. Just being exposed to cat saliva without a break in the skin has killed baby rabbits. I find it 50/50 whether a baby that appears completely unharmed even survives the first couple days of being caught by a cat to do anything to save it. We might have successfully released less than 1 in 10 out of 100+ individuals (so more like about 8....) over my lifetime if you count all the ones that succumbed to injuries, usually the infection or stress rather than the actual injury, as well as those that appeared unharmed. A full nest being in the way of farm equipment, in an obvious spot for repeated cat/dog attack, or a couple times a hole at the end of my practice barrel racing course and then a few extra dog or cat captures from unknown locations were pretty much a yearly event.

 

[golden rabbitry]

same thing happened to me and i must say the best thing to do is to let them go at whatever spot they could be near the nest, like were ever the cat put them. We did that and he just ran.

 

[akane]

That works if they can get around by themselves and eat grass. They will take shelter in the area and can locate their nest to a point. Mother rabbits don't move kits though. If they aren't running around and cannot be raised where you place them they will die regardless of the mother finding and wanting to take care of them.