Cool Rabbit Tale.

[Whitebird1]

Last year I found 3 baby cottontail rabbits. Thing was this was inside a building that I worked, sitting in the hall way. No clue how they got in there! They seemed too small to be separated from the mother who was no where to be found. OK now I have pets. I put then in 5 gal tank and finally got them to eat, grass, apples and finally rabbit food.
This spring I could tell that they were not happy being caged up, by now i have a rabbit condo. These are still wild rabbits. So I decided to let them go in my yard.
Well one hung out!! It even comes when I call it, named it Rabbit, neat, eats at my bird feeder. Well I'm watching her the last few days, she jumps the rabbit fence into my garden, she lived under my zucchini plants this summer, and she starts gathering mulch up and makes a nest. This morning, shes on the nest and it looked like shes having little rabbits!
Well I just carefully checked the nest, yep, got babies, cool. Shes gonna get extra food and the little ones have a uncle (me) to keep a eye on them.
Just wanted to share, this really put me in a good mood today!
Pic of the original 3 musketeers!

 

[shipwrecked]

Thats great to hear!! Congrats. I did this many yrs back when I owned my own Landscape design biz and came across a few babies and found the mom had been run over by a car.So I too took them and reared them,finally letting them go on our 2 acres of land.Up until that time we were short seeing any rabbits,maybe due in part of people letting cats run around.Wouldnt you know that a few yrs later,we counted over 15 rabbits hoping around..lol Good luck Uncle Wabbit Whitebird

 

[Scottyrock]

baby rabbits this late in the year? odd....

 

[Whitebird1]

End of summer, little wine, Barry Madilow in the background, it happens.

Does (female rabbits) don’t come into a "true" heat (estrus) like other mammals do. They are "induced ovulates", which means that they release an egg after breeding with a buck (male rabbit). It is possible for a doe to accept a buck for breeding at any time of the year

Read more: http://mammals.suite101.com/article.cfm/rabbit_reproduction#ixzz0RflOMjUN

 

[Scottyrock]

very true....just odd

 

[Hawkeye]

that is really cute. Surprised they don't mow down your zucchini.

 

[Scottyrock]

that is really cute. Surprised they don't mow down your zucchini.

yeah really. we had a rabbit eat all of our beans this year

 

[MadReefer]

Very cool. Few years back had a similar situation. The mother/father rabbit abandoned 3 babies in our yard, never came back. Took them in and kept them in a large dog crate. They were so small we had to bottle feed them for 2 months. They grew and were let go in the woods behind the house.

Mark

 

[Whitebird1]

Well I have Rabbits. Read a lot on them, still not weaned, but the cold-Big Problem!!! Started with 6 and they left the nest in my garden. Found one today off by itself, did not make it. Fed mom and she jumped into the garden and started feeding the babies, only three, found one more away from the rest, gone too. Found another one chilled and in distress. After she was done, I gathered them up, with some of their nesting material and greens and they are now in a 5 gal pail next to me. I have read that getting chilled is a big mortality factor, i did not think that they would make thu tonight.
ANY ADVICE????