Stahlke Adoption

Four More

Yesterday, Kentucky found a second rabbit nest in our back yard. These babies did not fare as well, though, as the other batch. Within minutes, he had pulled each one out of the nest onto the grass, and scattered the nesting material (mother's fur mixed with grass) all over the yard. Jonathan heard one of the babies crying and looked over to see it in the dog's mouth. "Kentucky!" he yelled, and our dachsund spit it out. He seemed to be just carrying the baby rather than killing it.

David and I put on gloves and gently placed the babies back in the nest, which is a hole in the ground near our young cherry tree. The first one back in the nest looked unharmed, and as I placed it on the ground it crawled further into the hole. The next one had a few superficial lacerations from the dog's teeth, while the third one looked unharmed but was not moving at all. I placed the fourth one, also with shallow bleeding cuts, on top of the third baby, hoping that it would keep the dying one warm. We recovered as much of the nesting material as possible, and stacked it on top of the hole. We covered the whole nest with a plastic milk crate and weighed it down with a heavy stone. Kentucky and other predators won't get to the nest during the daytime, at least.

This morning, there was additional fur on the nest, and it was a different color. Yea! The mother came back to nurse them. I've been perusing the internet for information on baby rabbits, since we now have twelve (!) of them in our yard. The mother rabbit only nurses for about 5 minutes every 24 hours, which is possible because her milk is so rich. She'll lick the babies to stimulate them to urinate and defecate, and will then eat all the waste to keep the nest clean and odor-free. The mom then leaves to spend the day elsewhere to avoid attracting predators to the nest. So . . . we uncover the two nests at dusk, and return the protection in the morning.

I wondered what would happen if the third baby is actually dead. According to several websites, the mother rabbit will eat the body, because otherwise the odor will give away the location of the nest.

So . . . I've decided not to check on them, as tempting as it is. They are SO cute. But the less I disturb them, the better chance of survival they will have.

posted by Stahlkes @ 8:57 PM