Question:Yes I know that I should leave it alone but its only 9:00am and already 80 degrees out. I start sweating when I go outside. I found the bunny in my front yard ( I live in an apartment complex) It's been there for a couple of hours. It's the size of a golf ball. It's going to get in the 90's today. I live in CT so it's not dry heat...it's humid hot. What can I do?
Answers:
oh so small - get it, take it in and keep it cool - give it food and water, you can advertise if anyone has lost it. If not, keep it, rabbits are great pets! I'm from Australia, where is CT? It's bluddy freezing here!!!
don't let him die.
must be that time... I'm in NJ and we just found 2 a few days ago - they were perfectly fine though and they do know what's best for them - unless they appear injured, leave them in a shady area and they'll figure out the rest... If they look injured you may want to call your local animal rescue or animal control... otherwise, they're hot and bothered just like us, but will find what they need .....
Put the bunny outside so its mother can find it.
Put a bowl of water nearby
You can try to put it near a tree or dense bush, out of the sun, so that it won't get hot... But bunnies are good at handling the heat.
Happened to me a bit ago. I called the Conservation Dept. and they said leave it be- don't touch it. I asked if I would be able to keep it alive if it didn't move after some time. They said wild kits are very hard to take care of and often die. So I just left it to nature and it moved along- hopefully found it's mom.
Mother bunnies do not tend to their babies accept to feed them. This means mom is probably somewhere close by. Keep it in the shade if you can, and try to keep kids, cats and the like away from it. If that is not possible, you might need to take it in. However, baby bunnies are extremely hard to take of... unless you have experience, calling a vet or rescue is the best idea.
it's very hot out! here in italy there are 40 °C and it's humid hot...oh my god! it's horrible!
anyway i think about the bunny...for two-three days you keep it with you but later you must found his mother,too!
if the mother is still alive i would just give it shade and water. but if the mother is gone quickly take it to a vet. they usually take in wild animals 4 free. if you want to try and raise it just make sure you do research. but sometimes things like that don't work. i tried to rescue a bird egg when its mother dyed but it was hard to keep it warm and then things just didn't work out. trust me i know.
i was in a similar situation, first, if you look closely, there should be a hole in the grass around where you found the bunny...it is best to create shade around this hole. (try placing a chair over the hole)...for a color temperature, sprinkle cold water around this area...but not too much. then, put a clean sock on your hand and pick up the baby from the bottom, it will be stubbon...place the bunny by his hole where you have created shade...do not offer the bunny anything to drink...they wont take milk or water (depend on mother's milk)..if you want, drop small pieces of lettuce, rich in water...after awhile, the bunny should be able to go inside his hole...(if there is no hole, place the bunny by a bush) good luck!
for me, the mother came back a couple of hours later...you want to make sure that the mother finds the bunny by her hole
With a pet taxi and some rabbit food you can probably save the little fellow, I'd a least give it a shot...I have a rabbit story you might find amuseing, one nite while me and some of my buddies were being drunk and bored in the trailer park in my
back yard, we saw this big fluffy grey rabbit. Well bubba had a 12 gadge in his truck right handy so we got the shotgun and shot and skined the rabbit. Well next thing you know here comes another one only this time its black, so needless to say we shot and skined it and into the ice chest it went to join the other.It didnt take long and we found a big fat fluffy white one to join the other two. Well before it was all said and done we had five fat juicey rabbits ready to hit the pit the next day. Sooo along comes the next day, the rabbits were a sizzling and the beer was a flowing, all was right in the trailer park...when here comes this lady from the trailer park just down the road wanting to know if we'd seen any rabbits, it seems her pet rabbits had somehow gotten loose...So being the "Good ole'boys" we were we invited her to sit down to a beer and a piece of what was cookin on the pit. We waited till she was most done with her first piece of meat and we started tellig her how this had all come about the evening before. At first she was MAD as all get out but after a moment she saw it wasnt gonna get her anywhere so she just laughed it off and ask for another beer and piece of rabbit. It just go's to show,Not only is honesty indeed the best policy, but alls fair in love, war and shootin rabbits in the trailer park...lol!
TAKE HIM TO THE ANIMAL SHELTER OR THE PET STORE...
Best advice comes from this website: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orpha...
"Many people mean well when they contact HRS after discovering an "abandoned" nest of wild rabbits. Often they wish to "rehabilitate" them with some advice from others. The reality is fewer than 10% of orphaned rabbits survive a week, and the care that people attempt to provide can be illegal, unnecessary, and potentially harmful. The best thing you can do is put the bunny right back where you found him, in the general area, as the Mom will only come back at night to call and find him. Leave the area. If injured, please contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator or rabbit vet immediately."
The website also says, if a nest has been destroyed: "Remake the nest as best you can with grasses, hay, straw in the same place. Nests can be moved to a safer place up to 10' away from the original site and can be reconstructed if necessary. To make a new nest, dig a shallow hole about 3" deep and put into it as much of the original material as you can recover, including the mother's fur. Add dried grass as needed, and put the young back. Mother rabbits return to the nest to nurse only at night, staying away as much as possible so as not to attract predators. To determine if the mother is returning, create a tic-tac-toe pattern over the nest with straw, grasses or tiny twigs. Wait 24 hours to see if the twigs have been disturbed. She may be able to feed them without moving the twigs much, so double check--If the babies look healthy, are warm, then the mother is coming back. If they are cold, dehydrated, get them to a professional; do not care for them yourself. Please contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator or rabbit vet immediately."
Also: "Older baby bunnies who are found outside of the nest may not be orphaned or in need of assistance. Baby cottontails are born without fur but develop a full coat in a week. Their eyes open in 10 days, and in three to four weeks they are weaned. At this age, they may explore the world outside of the nest but return there to sleep. They are not ignored by the mother but stay with the family group until four or five weeks of age...If he is just out and about, leave him be. He is discovering his world, waiting for mom to return at night when we humans are asleep. If he is injured - The best thing you can do for an injured wild baby bunny is to get in touch with a skilled rehabilitator."
And, as far as the temperature, wild rabbits ARE wild...they live outdoors, and they survive the temperature extremes of their native habitat. They do not seek air-conditioned malls and pools when it gets hot.
More Questions & Answers...