Caring for young rabbit orphin

Question
We rescued a young bunny running/hiding from our neighbor's cat. He hid under a tree for over an hour and didn't move.  We were afraid to leave it out all night as it is going to be cold and there are alot of cats etc. around.  We broght it in and gave it a warm box with towels, but it won't eat or drink(from a toy bottle).  Any suggestions.  I plan to go to the pet store in the morning for whatever I need if he has made it through the night.  Thanks, Jenny Hoover

Answer
Hi Randy

thanks for taking care of (and caring about) this little guy.  Someday he will thank you for this.

I don't know how old he is, if he is tiny (fits in your hand or just a little bigger) he's still a baby.  If he's bigger than you need to get different things.

Cage:  I'd recommend a large collapsable dog cage with a big front door opening.  If you want to give him a partial second level, you can do this by making a wood shelf that sits on wood slats resting on the horizontal cage bars.  The large door makes it easy to pick him up when necessary.

I would get him two large heavy crocks - one for food, one for water.  He is used to drinking at surface level, so a crock wil lbe better.  Just change the water at least once a day and refill.  The tap on cold is good.  Especially in the hotter weather.

He will need litterpans.  Get several regular or large cat litterpans.  I say several so you can swap out a used one and immediately replace it with a new one.  Litter of choice would be somthing like Yesterday's News (recylced paper pellets) or Care Fresh.  If you can get hardwood wood stove fuel pellets these can work okay.  No cat litters at all, no pine or cedar shavings.

Also it will be good to use some of your old clean cotton towels to line the floor of his cage so that he doesn't wear his hock fur down to bare skin.  If he digs in it or moves it around that is normal.

Baby: Get to a pet store and get puppy milk replacement and a feeding syringe (ask if you can't find it).  You can make up the milk replacement thicker than they say because rabbits are used to richer milk.  use 1 1/2 to 2 times the amount of milk replacement to the same amount of water.

You need to feed this little guy every few hours.  Just be careful when you syringe feed him not to give him too much too quickly - just press a little to get some out, and when he starts licking, stop pressing, and let him finish licking, then start pressing a little again.

Right now he may need milk with a little solids like pellets and hay  You will need to start giving him timothy hay/orchard grass hay/alfalfa hay - any/all of these are fine.  This will be in addition to the milk replacement, but as you see him nibbling the hay, you can gradually start to feed him less milk.  By week 10-12 he can be off the milk entirely.

If a Juvenile:  Get hay (timothy and alfalfa) for him to eat.  He should have access to hay all the time.  You can get pellets (timothy/alfalfa) - only pellets, no extra junk in them.  I'd get Oxbow brand if you can find them.

Infant or Juvenile: I would also pick up some probiotics (acidophilus) for him as well - ask the store folks - BeneBac is a good product to look for (short for Beneficial Bacteria).

I should mention that if he is a domestic he will probably look different than a wild rabbit (ears may be down, coloring different than cottontails).  If he is not, he probably is a wild rabbit.  Rescuing a domestic rabbit isn't a problem.  Rescuing a wild rabbit in many places is not legal for regular folks like you and me.  What you can do is get him back to health right now with you, and start looking for a rescue group in your area that rehabilitates wild animals/orphaned wild animals and then releases them back into the wild.  Animal shelters and rabbit rescue groups are good places to start looking for rehab groups - often they know where these groups are and have contacts to them.  Just thought I should mention this.  

I would also spend time at the House Rabbit Society web site (www.rabbit.org) - at the top of the page they have a site search engine - search on "babies", "diet", "newborn", "orphan".  You will find useful articles you should print out and keep for reference.  Also check for "bunny-proofing", "supplies", "toys".

And since he's been out in the wild (domestic or wild) you may want to have a good rabbit vet examine him.  The vet may also be able to point you to a rehab rescue group if he is a wild rabbit.  You can look here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet in your area.

I would suggest picking up two good books:

1.  The House Rabbit Handbook, 4th Ed. by Marinell Harimann.

2.  Rabbits for Dummies (not implying anything!)

You can get both on amazon.com or a local big bookseller.  Get both, they complement each other and cover issues the other doesn't.  There is overlap, but you'll want both.

Lee