[Aurora Borealis]

My dog has evidently found a couple of rabbit nests that I can't find and has been bringing baby cottontail rabbits into the house. She isn't hurting them just bringing home "gifts" it seems. I have researched how to care for them and I have raised lots of rabbits in the past including san juans that are as close to wild ones as you can get but are still domesticated, but if anyone has ever been successful in doing so or has any good advice to share I would really appreciate it. I can't fault the dog she is just doing what she is meant to do but lord help she is doing it too well. I can't find the nests to put them back and there are no wildlife places close to give them to so I want to give them a fighting chance rather than feed the neighbors cats.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

I have infant formula (it said to use kitten formula but I already have human infant) I am mixing double strength and am getting goats milk or heavy cream to mix it with like the sites on it says to do and adding the good bacteria via poop like it says also. I am keeping them warm in a box with towels and feeding them til they reject it every several hours via syringe. I know how hard these little buggers are to keep alive so if anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong or helpful advice I would appreciate it.

 

[Optimist]

After the dog has gotten scent on 'em, and you have gotten scent on 'em, momma rabbit won't take 'em back anyhow. I'd say you need to see if you can get 'em to eat, and raise 'em. They might make good breed stock into an overbred gene pool....

 

[Aurora Borealis]

So far I have 2 and I think judging by pictures they are a week or two difference in age, one has its eyes open and is larger the other still eyes closed and half the size of the other. They are eating and pooping so far.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

After the dog has gotten scent on 'em, and you have gotten scent on 'em, momma rabbit won't take 'em back anyhow. I'd say you need to see if you can get 'em to eat, and raise 'em. They might make good breed stock into an overbred gene pool....

The site I looked on said that the scent wouldn't make her turn them away but I can't find the nest anyhow so it really doesn't matter. I would like to raise them if possible, Me and my husband were discussing getting meat rabbits the other day to raise, but I would also like to boost the natural population as well, lol, guess the dog understood, LOL!

 

[Optimist]

Good dog. I have seen the scent thing happen with doe and fawn, and have had it happen to me when one of my nieces was petting a new-dropped calf. It took Vicks Vapo-rub on mamma's nose, and salt on the calf's back before she would nurse it again. My niece was appalled at what she had wrought. She knows better than to come around the stock wearing strong perfume now, though....

 

[Aurora Borealis]

Good dog. I have seen the scent thing happen with doe and fawn, and have had it happen to me when one of my nieces was petting a new-dropped calf. It took Vicks Vapo-rub on mamma's nose, and salt on the calf's back before she would nurse it again. My niece was appalled at what she had wrought. She knows better than to come around the stock wearing strong perfume now, though....

wow, I had no idea cows would do that. She is a very good dog, a little too good it seems, lol. I've raised beagles that didn't do this good of a job, lol. she is a Labrador/Pitbull mix. Guess the retriever in her just surfaced.

 

[alaska_freedom]

Hey at least you know you have a fighting chance at meat when SHTF. Your dog will help save your life so extra treats for a job well done. Its rare they bring animals home alive and unhurt. That's one dog you hold on to:thumb::thumb:

 

[Aurora Borealis]

she was a pound puppy too, guess she is repaying me for saving her life, lol, however I wish she would stop cause these rabbits are probably gonna die. I still plan on getting some meat rabbits from a friend of mine and if you get the ones that are colored like wild ones if you turn them lose they will still multiply, we turned easter rabbits that over populated our pens loose one year and saw multi color rabbits for years after that, lol. The white ones dont make it very long, lol.

 

[Mountain]

The problem you will run into with baby bunnies is that no has ever been able to figure out the chemestry in rabbits milk yet... go figure...

Rabbits milk is unusual in the fact that it comes out liquid and turns into a curd in there stomache. The curd then slowly digests over a period of hours.
I have searched and searched and basically all of the vet sites I have found say it is virtually impossible to make a substitute.

We have tried many times to do this, we raise milk goats and used goat milk cream mixed with a formulae for cats and fed it with an eye dropper. The longest we have ever been able to keep one alive is 7 days so far.

Rabbits can be weaned rather early if they are eating on greens at the point that you find them. If they are not eating greens yet you are in for a lot of work and very unlikely to save any of them.

We recieved 9 cottontails last summer from Uncle Dana, his cat brought them to him, we tried everything but just the same as all times before they all died.

I don't mean to discourage you, we still try ourselves, but it is near to impossible to save baby bunnies if they are not eating yet. One thing that we thought of last time around after we lost them all, was to soften cheese with the saliva in our mouths and try to get that down them, I do not know if it would work, but may be more the proper chemistry and consistency.

If you get anything to work please post what you did here, I would love to know something that works.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

The problem you will run into with baby bunnies is that no has ever been able to figure out the chemestry in rabbits milk yet... go figure...

Rabbits milk is unusual in the fact that it comes out liquid and turns into a curd in there stomache. The curd then slowly digests over a period of hours.
I have searched and searched and basically all of the vet sites I have found say it is virtually impossible to make a substitute.

We have tried many times to do this, we raise milk goats and used goat milk cream mixed with a formulae for cats and fed it with an eye dropper. The longest we have ever been able to keep one alive is 7 days so far.

Rabbits can be weaned rather early if they are eating on greens at the point that you find them. If they are not eating greens yet you are in for a lot of work and very unlikely to save any of them.

We recieved 9 cottontails last summer from Uncle Dana, his cat brought them to him, we tried everything but just the same as all times before they all died.

I don't mean to discourage you, we still try ourselves, but it is near to impossible to save baby bunnies if they are not eating yet. One thing that we thought of last time around after we lost them all, was to soften cheese with the saliva in our mouths and try to get that down them, I do not know if it would work, but may be more the proper chemistry and consistency.

If you get anything to work please post what you did here, I would love to know something that works.

One thing that I found on a wild rabbit rescue site is that one reason they die even after they seem to be doing well and eating good is that they dont have natural bacteria in their intestines and if you dont supplement this then the unnatural bad bacteria will take over. They said to feed them wild rabbit poop from the yard at about 1-2 weeks of age to put the good natural bacteria in their intestines. I am betting that may be the reason yours were dying after 7 days when they seemed to be doing good. It also said everything kills them though even getting too scared once can kill them. I know when I raised san juans they are close to a wild rabbit as you can get but still be domesticated, I didn't have a lot of luck with them . Thanks for your input I may try a softened cheese mixed with formula for higher calories, thankyou!

 

[Optimist]

Wonder if the vicks trick would work with a doe rabbit? then she could wet-nurse 'em....

 

[Aurora Borealis]

Wonder if the vicks trick would work with a doe rabbit? then she could wet-nurse 'em....

A friend of mine who raises tame rabbits told me that a couple people have brought her orphaned wild rabbits and she put them in with her nursing tame ones and they took. Only prob. with that is she lives too far away. Gas is spensive these days, lol.

 

[klickitat]

Wonder if the vicks trick would work with a doe rabbit? then she could wet-nurse 'em....

Very dangerous to the rest of the litter. Does can be quite fickle and may end up stomping the whole litter. You might get away with something like this, but I would not chance it.

 

[NHP1127]

We had a Beagle who once brought home a baby skunk. It was so young its eyes were still closed. We raised it with a doll feeder then cat / dog food. It was a great pet (played like a kitten) until it hit maturity /puberty, then spring fever makes a wild animal wild again.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

We had a Beagle who once brought home a baby skunk. It was so young its eyes were still closed. We raised it with a doll feeder then cat / dog food. It was a great pet (played like a kitten) until it hit maturity /puberty, then spring fever makes a wild animal wild again.

I'm planning on turning this one loose if it lives long enough.

 

[Mountain]

We have tried to graft baby bunnies onto our nursing females as well, so far it has never worked, usually the mom will bite the little ones, they have never killed one yet but they do bite and refuse to let them nurse. I am sure one could hold the rabbit in place and allow nursing, one might get away with that, but you then potentially endanger her young by stressing her out.

It is amazing to me how difficult it is get a baby rabbit to survive without it's mom, we have raised newborn kittens up many times with hand feeding, we have even raised a baby mole, wild baby birds, an orphaned baby porpucpine, baby tree squirells, and baby chipmunks, we have successfully hand raised most everything we have come across but rabbits seem to be impossible, for us anyway.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

well mine lived about 5 days and kicked the bucket, went to go feed it and it was dead. Found out why I have been finding so many baby rabbits lately, saw a huge gray fox in the yard last night toting one in its mouth. Guess it got in a nest and destroyed it and is now picking off the babies. I had released on baby rabbit and last night the dog brought it back, lol. It has a small white spot on its head so I knew it was the same on I had released. Hopefully I can trap the fox this week and solve the rabbit killing problem.

 

[Aurora Borealis]

Question: Are foxes carrion eaters?

 

[Mountain]

Yes foxes will eat carrion, most all, dog type animals will eat some carrion as well as their usual hunting. I assume for baiting the fox? I have never had to deal with a fox before, so I do not have any ideas on that, good luck....