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Saturday night we had crazy storms and flash flooding in the area. My wife and I got home at night and found a rabbit nest next to our driveway all washed out, looked like a mini mudslide. The nest was completely filled with water with 3 little rabbits just keeping their heads above the water clinging to the side. I took the little box my sunglasses came in, took some extra grass from around the nest and placed it in the box with rabbits and put them under my boat out of the storm about 5' from the nest. The next morning I went out, got the mud out of the nest, put all the grass back, put the babies back in and covered the nest with more grass from around the nest.
Today I checked on them, doesn't look like the grass I used to cover them has been touched and their little bellies are empty. I'm worried the mother has abandoned the nest. I read you can lay twine over the nest to tell if the mom came back to feed overnight. I'm going to try that tonight, if by morning nothing I'm guessing I should probably run them to some animal sanctuary as they'll prob be in bad shape after 48 hours with no food.
Wild babies are most often not orphaned! 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
Wild babies are most often not orphaned! 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
It also says:
Quote:
NOTE: Babies should never be put back into a nest that has been flooded with water, has bugs/ants visibly crawling in and out, or if a baby has been killed and there is blood in the nest. Use common sense. Baby bunnies who have fleas are compromised and should be immediately taken to a wildlife rehabber or humane society, rabbit vet.
If there's heavy flooding, it's entirely possible the mother has drowned or died some other way. If she hasn't been back in a while, she's probably dead.
If there's heavy flooding, it's entirely possible the mother has drowned or died some other way. If she hasn't been back in a while, she's probably dead.
We haven't seen her around, but we have a fair amount of wooded area around she could be hiding in. I don't think she drown, it was a poorly placed nest next to the driveway that had a lot of runoff from our driveway during the huge storm.
There were no bugs or anything in the nest, we removed all the mud and replaced all the nesting material with the stuff the babies had already been laying on to maintain their smell.
I took a piece of twine and made a circle with it around the top of the nest. If it hasn't been disturbed by tomorrow 9am I think it's safe to say the mom abandoned them.
They had nice full bellies during the storm so they must have been fed just prior to the down pour. After we put them back I took a mental image of the top of the nest, a clump of grass all facing the same direction, a small stick on one side, and it was all still there, didn't look like it had been disturbed at all.
Good news, we saw mama late last night in the area of the nest. I had put a little piece of twine in a circle on the nest, today the circle was slightly broken but not by much. Check the nest real quick, the three little ones looked good. They started moving around no problem when I uncovered the nest and seemed plenty alert. It's been over 48 hours, if mama wasn't coming back by now they'd have been in bad shape.
You always read "DONT TOUCH THEM" and all this crazy stuff. Had we not stepped in they would have drowned, it was the right thing to do and it all worked out. Don't play with them for the fun of it, but if they're in danger or too young to be out of the nest I say help out, put them back, give them a chance.
Good news, we saw mama late last night in the area of the nest. I had put a little piece of twine in a circle on the nest, today the circle was slightly broken but not by much. Check the nest real quick, the three little ones looked good. They started moving around no problem when I uncovered the nest and seemed plenty alert. It's been over 48 hours, if mama wasn't coming back by now they'd have been in bad shape.
You always read "DONT TOUCH THEM" and all this crazy stuff. Had we not stepped in they would have drowned, it was the right thing to do and it all worked out. Don't play with them for the fun of it, but if they're in danger or too young to be out of the nest I say help out, put them back, give them a chance.
Rabbits are diurnal, meaning you will mostly see them active during just after dawn and just before dusk. In my neighborhood there aren't too many predators other than one of my cats, a couple of the neighborhood strays, and a fox, so the rabbits are a little brave when it comes to staying out, but they still don't come out in the middle of the day.
Rabbits are diurnal, meaning you will mostly see them active during just after dawn and just before dusk. In my neighborhood there aren't too many predators other than one of my cats, a couple of the neighborhood strays, and a fox, so the rabbits are a little brave when it comes to staying out, but they still don't come out in the middle of the day.
You just defined crepuscular. Diurnal means active during the day.
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