Found two rabbits - one looks stressed

Hi All,

Our family noticed two rabbits in the garden, they have been there for around 3 days and today we managed to catch them in a large dog cage with some lettuce as bait.

They definitely escaped from another persons home (both house rabbits) but we have called the RSPCA and are keeping them overnight till they arrive.

However - One is acting perfectly fine, but the other seems understandably stressed and is sitting in the corner of the cage not moving nor blinking when we enter the room.

Being more of a dog family, we have no knowledge of rabbits and how they react in certain situations, but we are worried that the rabbit may become so stressed that it may die overnight.

The rabbits are in a large dog cage with enough room to roam and we have placed in lettuce leaves with a small bowl with some water in it, we placed one towel to keep the chill out of the metal cage floor and placed a smaller one over the distressed rabbit as it may be cold (It was raining as we caught them)

I hope this is enough information for someone to help with, but is there anything we should do to the rabbits for now or just leave them until to RSPCA come as ourselves may be causing even more distress

Thank you

Good for you for taking them in! Do you have access to Timothy hay? They should be eating that above anything else.

Sadly nothing of the sort, just dog food and treats

Its also 11pm here so nothing is open for us get them in the local area

Any plain canned pumpkin? That's high in fibre. Any obvious signs of injury in the stressed one? I would keep them in a darker quiet place and keep the dogs away if possible.

No canned pumpkin either, however I will have a look if we have something similar + high in fibre. There seems no signs of injury and we've kept them in the conservatory well away from us and the dog. We did leave the light on, so I'll turn that off.

If you haven't already, it would be good to put them in a very quiet room, and as far away from your dogs as possible, as this will be something that could frighten them and cause them to panic. It sometimes will help to place a blanket over the cage, as it can make them feel more secure. If you have some long grass that you can cut, that would be much better for them than lettuce, plus it's something that they would be used to eating so won't cause them digestive problems., which lettuce can sometimes do when they aren't used to eating it. Also make sure the towel or bedding is going to be enough to soak up any urine.

eta: cross posted, I see that you do have them in a quite room.

Excellent news, the one that looked stressed seems significantly calmer now, has moved around and sitting in the middle of the cage. I've removed the lettuce and put some grass from outside, covered the cage with a blanket with the light off. The towel will also be able to soak up the urine too!

Hopefully they will be fine overnight - but thank you both for your help

Can you show photos? would love to see them