Mi Bunny

Hi everyone my name is Joanna and i live in Texas. About 2 days ago, I found a baby rabbit in my yard in a little hole and the mother wasn't taking care of it which i found out is common. Anyway, i decided to keep the rabbit. i know how to take care of a pet rabbit because i had one, Thumper, but she passed away about a month ago. (old age) But i was wondering if anyone has any good tips on taking care of a wild baby rabbit. i've been giving the rabbit goats milk which the ppl from petco told me to do but the rabbit is probably 2 or 3 wks old now and has teeth. so should i start giving it solid food? if so, what kinda food do I give it? if anyone has been in this situation before or knows about this, your suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

There is hardly any difference when raising a domestic rabbit and a wild rabbit. It is important to keep the baby rabbit in house for around 4 weeks so as to keep them warm. Ideally put them in high sided cardboard box with hay placed in it so they can hide or lay on top of it.

One important aspect when it comes to raising the rabbit is judging their age.

Here is how….

Rabbit eye open around 11 to 12 days after their birth.
Until they are 14 days old you need to hand feed them.
At about 14 to 15 years the rabbits will feed by themselves, they will start eating carrots, hay, pellets.
The Wild rabbits should especially be released into the wild when they are around 4 to 6 weeks old.

An important note – It is always better to keep the wild rabbits separate, if you have more than 2 wild rabbits, DO not keep wild rabbits together after two months. They are wild they will fight and tear each other apart.

Having said that Do not keep domestic and wild rabbits together especially when they are 2 months old.

Another reason to keep the wild and the domestic rabbits separate is to avoid spread of diseases and parasites from wild to domestic rabbits.
You may need to use an eye dropper to force feed small Bunnies.

Regarding the food some suggest baby formula, cow milk. Wild animal groups do suggest milk, according to them rabbits are lactose intolerant and should be fed Pedialyte. But there are complaints from some people stating pedialyte is harmful for the bunnies and often fatal. Hence it is advisable to feed baby bunnies with 2% cow milk only.

When they start eating at about 2 weeks, they will eat alfalfa hay, rabbit pellets and carrots. Don't feed them lettuce or cabbage.

It is not at all difficult to raise a wild rabbit but it is rather difficult to domesticate the wild rabbits. The baby wild rabbits are really active and jumpy and always trying to find an escape route. If you handle them daily, they may become more familiar with people and settle down.

Wild rabbits run very fast and they get scared easily. Well you cannot complain on that as it’s the nature that has made them fast, so they can be safe from predators.