New to the Bunny 'Thing'

[dirtracer]

Ok, there aresome questions in this story, and Ido apologize in advance if these questions have been asked a hundredtimes. I searched the first 10 pages of this forum, and did not findwhat I was looking for.



We moved into this new house about three years ago. Wild rabbits areplenty. (We are in lower Michigan, so I had always thought these arecottentails?) Last summer, we had some new friends.

Full size image at http://drtmotorsports.com/photos/original3.jpg

To make a long story short, we know nothing about rabbits. These guyslive in our back yard, and pretty much run the neighborhood. We didlearn that our neighbor has rabbits, and some do get away from time totime. She does have a few in pens at her house, that she does care for.She does even care for these ones when it is needed. (That is a wholenew story)



At any rate, the questions.

1. Any idea what breed thay may be?
2. What should we be feeding them. They will eat carrots out of ourhands, but are very shy about it. (Well except for the one on theright) We do have afeeder out back for deer that is full ofcorn, and we do catch them out there alot.
3. Will they breed with wild rabbits? We have seen some wild ones thathavethat bronze color on the back of their necks.
4.What should be do withbabies? We had three verycute all white ones, and one all black one under our shed for about aweek. Then they all came up missing one day, but noticed a new cat inthe area that could get under our shed as well.While I wasmowing today, I noticed that we may have some new babies in about amonth or so. I was thinking about fencing off around our shed once weknow they arrived, until thay are fully grown.


That is all I can think of for now. While we do enjoy their company, wereally do not want to pen them up, or attempt tomove theminside. I know they would be safer in our custody, but the owner maynot be to keen of the idea. We do look out for them, and the only realthreat would be hawks.



By the way, say hello to Smokey, Dusty, and Cinnamon. I am sure we have more on the way as well.



Thanks all,



Duane

 

[trekcip5]

The buns in the picture do look like wildbuns. I know I will be opening a can of worms here, but asfar as I know domestic buns and wild cotten tails mating, will notproduce any offspring. The wild buns have a different numberof chromosomes than domestic buns. However, some of the bunsyou have hanging around could be domestic escapees, who have somehowmanaged to survive on their own and are mating with each other,producing the kits you are seeing that don't look like the wildcottentails. They may even be third or fourth generations ofthe origional escapees so have now adapted to a wild diet.Just continue to feed them what they will eat from you and enjoy yourbackyard bunnies. Donna

 

[bluebird]

They look like rex, kind of hard to tell from the picture.bluebird

 

[rabbitgirl]

They look a bit like Rex but the orange guy on theright looks like a palomino or New Zealand Red. Blocky head, eyes thatturn down at the outside corners with a cream ring around the eye,bright russet orange. Looks like a young version of my boy Bunbun.Actually I saw a mixed breed once that looks like the one in themiddle. The black one looks Rex. Rex have short incredibly soft velvetyfur--do these?

They're far too big for wild, and the ears are way longer. Not to mention the orange and black colors are definitely domestic!

If they have babies, why don't you grab the babies when they're weaned?If the breeder doesn't want them you could have some cute pets!Otherwise you'll have lots of mixed breed half wild domestic bunnies inthe neighborhood in the next year.

They sure are pretty!

Rose

 

[pamnock]

It's not unusual for people to irresponsibly settheir domesticated rabbits free (note that it isillegal). When we lived in Ohio, aneighbor girl had set her 2 large rabbits free. The rabbitsmade their way to my home and the 2 of them completely wiped out thelawnscaping around my home

The domestic rabbits usually don't do well enough in the wild tocolonize in the US, although there are a few areas where they have(such as San Jaun).

A very big concern is the fact that theferalrabbitscan carry and transmit VHD. An outbreak could result in theslaughtering of millions of rabbits throughout the US if it wassuspected that there was any exposure. Our native cottontailsare a different species and do not pose the same threat. Ibelieve there have been 2 or 3 outbreaks in the US. In thosecases, the disease was believed to be contained, but every rabbit hadto be slaughtered.



Pam

 

[dirtracer]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, these guys are largerthan the wild cottentails. In fact, we have fewer cottentails aroundsince these guys moved in. The bronze colored one is the largest, and amale. Also VERY friendly. He will come up and let you pet him, if youhave a carrot. If not, he turns away and goes back to grazing.



We are still talking about what to do with the next batch of babies. I guess we have a month to decide.



Speaking of lawnscape, there is nothing like waking up, and seeing thethem on your deck eating roses. The wife really did a great job ofrabbit proffing her flowers with fencing. We just never figured theyclimed stairs!

 

[pamnock]

dirtracer wrote:

Speaking of lawnscape, there is nothing like waking up, and seeing thethem on your deck eating roses. The wife really did a great job ofrabbit proffing her flowers with fencing. We just never figured theyclimed stairs!

We were discussing on a recent thread how well rabbits can climb.

I was finally able to catch the two rabbits near our house when they ventured into the building where we kept our rabbits.

Pam

 

[rabbitgirl]

dirtracer wrote:

Thanks for the reply. Yes, these guys are larger than thewild cottentails. In fact, we have fewer cottentails around since theseguys moved in. The bronze colored one is the largest, and a male. AlsoVERY friendly. He will come up and let you pet him, if you have acarrot. If not, he turns away and goes back to grazing.

Yeah, palominos are known for being friendly, if that's what he is. My boy is like a puppy.

Rose