A sad day for my new bunny babies
I've been slacking severely on the landscaping in front of my house and the plants and weeds grew to ridiculous heights. Finally over the weekend, I realized it had reached embarrassing level and decided to start almost from scratch again and decided to get rid of everything. I went through with a weed whacker and knocked everything down and started pulling and picking everything up. As I was walking around, I stepped down and heard this crazy noise, that sounded like crying. It scared the heck out me but I couldn't find where it was coming from. We have a bunny that lives under the porch so I thought that maybe it was her and forgot about it. On Monday night, I was leaving my house and I saw the bunny but she was standing in the middle of the landscaping not moving-- even when I had walked right by her, which was odd. I was already in my car and got out to see what was going on and realized what was going on. She had a litter of babies in a little den that she had dug under the massive covering that the overgrown landscaping had provided. They were nursing off of her but looked like they couldn't reach as she didn't seem to want to make it very easy for them. I left her alone thinking it was me making her nervous and came back to check on them when I came home. When I looked later, I realized that she had had five and one was dead but she hadn't removed it from the nest, which I was told my a friend who raises bunnies, a good mom would've taken out of there. They had fur but still had cords from what I could see because I didn't want to touch them. I watched through the window until almost 2 in the morning and mom never came back to feed. By Wednesday morning, two more had died and I hadn't seen mom at all since Monday night. I decided that I was going to pull the last two and bottle feed if I didn't see mom by the evening. I called my vet and she said that wild bunnies were really hard to raise and didn't offer me a lot of advice. The Humane Society didn't want them either for the same reason so that left me to take care of them. So, I went out, got a bottle and tiny nipple for their little bunny mouths and some kitten formula (also recommended to me by my bunny raising friend) and came home. I pulled the 3 dead ones from the nest and, found that one little guy had escaped. I found him wandering alone by the house. Their eyes weren't even all the way open yet so he was all confused. 
I rebuilt their nest in a tiny box, taking all the thatch that mom had built and put them in the box where it was dry and free of dead brothers or sisters. I named them Peppers and McNutt, after a goofy project that I'm working on at work.  Peppers had a big white spot on his head so they were easy to tell apart.I mixed their formula and I got each one to take about half a teaspoon of formula. They were really tiny and were having a really hard time nursing, almost uninterested in eating. The smaller one could barely open his mouth on his own.
James thought the box might be too cold at night so he thought it would be better to rebuild the nest a little deeper where mom originally had them. (We wanted to leave them outside in case mom did come back.) So, I did that and put them back in. I got up around 2 to bottle feed them again, hoping that maybe they'd by hungry this time but neither one wanted to eat. This morning I went out to check on them and found that they had both died during the night. It made me so sad since I'd been so wrapped up in them the last few days and once I was holding them and feeding them they felt like mine. Poor babies. I wish I had gotten to them sooner but I hadn't wanted to mess up their natural situation. It makes me sad. I feel like I lost a couple of my own pets. |
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| I'm so sorry ,it really is hard to watch critters die and stand by helpless to do anything. But you did you best and that is all you could do!!!!! Thanks for trying!!!! |
| Awww Jill, thats so sad! At least you tried..poor little things. |
| If it makes you feel any better, wild rabbits are extremely difficult to raise to adults. Wild rabbits only suckle their young a couple times a day (usually early morning and at dusk) then leave them alone the rest of the time. Calling a wildlife rescue and rehab may give them the best chance but not all areas have them.
Here's more info on wild baby bunnies- http://www.rabbitweb.net/wild-babies.asp I know how bad you feel. |
| Aw, Jil. You tried your best. |
Awww, that's so sad. 
I wonder what happened to Mom? |
| That is so sad, Jill
It is amazing how quickly we become attached. |
| I'm so sorry Jill,
small bunny babies are notoriously difficult to nurse... My sister did this for the MN Zoo's rabbit exhibit (she was interning there) and out of a litter of 7 she only got 2 to survive. You did all you could, and much more then the average Joe! |
| Thanks everybody, it just sucks. After doing some reading and talking to my bunny people, I knew it was going against all odds for them to survive but I was really hoping I'd be able to do it. I was already planning out when I'd feed them in the evenings and how I'd fix up their shelter so other animals wouldn't bother them.
floofdog wrote: Awww, that's so sad.
I wonder what happened to Mom? I don't know but I'm gonna yell at her when I see her for being a crappy mom. She's doing a lousy job at "multiplying like rabbits." |
| Stupid mom bunny! |
| Ahhh, that is so frustrating and sad. |
| So sad. |
| Yell at her for me, too, 'cause now I'm bummed and it's all her fault. |
| Jill,
How sad, but you did everything you could. You should be proud of yourself. I had to nurse a puppy when my Boxer had her litter. Mom wanted nothing to do with her. We named the baby Bubbles because she used to blow bubbles when I would feed her. She went to work with me everyday, she even went on vacation with us. Sadly after all I did for the first couple of weeks of her life she died. I had brought her to the Vet at midnight, because she wasn't eating as much. They said she was dehydrated and they gave her an injection of fluids. At 3 am I finally went to sleep for the night after sitting there with her and petting her and trying to nurse her. I woke up at 7 am for her feeding and she was already gone. I did everything I could with her and I kept saying I should have stayed up with her. I am sure that would not have made a difference. You did a lot more than most people would. Thank you for trying!! |
| How sad, Jill! You did everything you could, so don't beat yourself up on this. The poor little things! How could their mommy just leave them?? |
| That's awfully sad. Sorry Jill. You really tried to help. You can take some consolation in that fact. |
| I feel like such a wiener for even being upset! Once I held those tiny little guys in my hands though, it was all over for me. James kept trying to keep me away from them and now I know why. He knew I'd get all upset if they died. He said he'd help me bury them when we got home tonight. |
| James is so sensitive. |
| He's a good guy. I think it's great that you tried, Jill. Not many people would've made the effort you did. Poor dears. |
| I'm so sorry.... that is hard to go through, I've been through it with bunnies and kittens.... bunnies almost never survive being hand raised though.... |
| So sad, but at least you tried hard to help the bunnies. Cuddles for you for having such a wonderful caring heart. |
| Awww. Poor bunnies. |
| Aw Jill, I'm sorry It just wasn't meant to be for them. We had almost the same thing happen last year, every day Benny would call me with a bunny count update, none of them survived either. |
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