I disturbed a rabbits nest
 

What do I do?

I was raking around my air conditioner compressor and I raked up a rabbits nest. I hurt the bigger one but it seems fine now. It was stunned so I scooped it up and put it in a box. I had to fight my Choc. Lab away from it, she tried to pick it up and it squeeled at her so she dropped it.

Then when I was moving the leaves along I found a second, smaller rabbit.


I found their burrow but I took off the layer of leaves on top of it. I put some back and put a piece of wood over it.

I was going to just scoop them back into it and hope for the best. Or should I call animal control?

Not sure what to do here.

The big one:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/DSC_0428.jpg

The little guy:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...3/DSC_0427.jpg

They are both old enough to fend for themselves. If they were babies and they had your smell mama would abandon them. Just put them back where you found them.

I did that once and the place I called said to just put them back. Two left out of 5 or 6...I ran over the burrow with a riding lawnmower. Bad day.

Throwing cash at the problem isn't going to make it go away- necessarily.

LOL!! I am sure you know I was just trying to give prespective of their size.

I routed through the leaves and found portions of the nest, put on soem gloves and built the nest back up. I just put them back in there and they seem content in there.

Thanks for the suggestions / help.

That little one was so cute. It was hard to put the little fella back in there. I was careful to never touch them so they should be o.k.

it's rabbits... they breed like rabbits, strenght in numbers
they'll be fine, and if not, they'll breed a new nest within half a years time...

I knew that! Just trying to take a poke at some bunny humor. Not trying to be political or anything. I mean some corollaries could be made...

pretty tasty grilled on a Weber with charcoal, bet TABS has a great marinade recipe!

stew em with heavy abbey beer...

Refer to Jim's charcoal grill post!

Salt, pepper, garlic.

Actually , a Vet said this is not quite accurate...seems to be accurate with birds, but not rabbits and other mammals.

My Boa would make short work of that.

About 10 minutes ago my Choc. Lab founf the little one eating in the grass picked it up and brought it to me. It looks like she broke its back and killed it. :(

Here I am worrying about disturbing them and my dog is killing them.

I can't get mad at her, its her instincts taking over. She was only trying to pick it up and bring it to me. Irony is a ***** sometimes.

Bummer :(

On the bright side, they make great gloves.:D

They are cute. All over the place around my property. Eat grass, but also like the garden.

Sorry to hear that. :(

Ensure this never happens again. Take the dead one's foot and attach to your keychain. ;)

sorry to hear it, jim. i'm a rabbit lover...have had them for 10 years. lilbear, my oldest, will be ten in september. he lives inside with me, has his whole life. i have another that's a new zealand that lives in the fenced backyard.

My 14 y/o son was begging me to let him keep the little one he wanted it as a pet. I told him no way, it goes outdoors it will do better there. Boy did I underestimate the dog factor.

I also discovered I "had" a mouse problem in my garage while we were gone. They ate a hole in a dog food bag I had on a shelf and bird feed. Their big mistake was heading into a tall kitchen garbage can I left in the garage before we left, they must have smelled a food odor and went in looking for it, too smooth to get back out. I found 6 dead mice in the bottom of the can when we arrived here.

I might set it up again with easier access in. I am worried now about putting the 911 in the garage for the summer and the mice building a nest in the engine.

here's lilbear...he's his daddy's bunny.. ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1183344915.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1183345046.jpg

wild rabbits generally won't work as indoor pets..better to buy domesticated breeds. also, make sure if you do purchase a rabbit some day, that the shop doesn't buy rabbits from breeders that are less than a month old. they have a poor survival rate in the store..or in your home. too susceptible still at that age to digestive tract problems.