Horror Stories -- How Not To House A Mother Bunny
Overcrowding and Neglect
In addition to making sure that
your female bunny has plenty of food and water, it's important that
she be provided with a safe and comfortable living space. We have
heard a variety of horror stories regarding what not to do.
For example, one person reported having kept the father rabbit
confined in the same small a cage with the mother and her new
offspring. This same person was also very neglectful about keeping
the rabbits supplied with rabbit chow. The result was that he
returned one day to discover that the babies had been killed and
partly cannibalized. It is important to realize that almost all
animals can become dangerously aggressive when forced into such
overcrowded and unhealthy circumstances. No bunny should be expected to
get by only on carrot and lettuce scraps, or on the occasional dish of bunny chow
-- and of course no
bunny should ever be forced to live in too small a cage, babies
or no babies. Under-confinement and Neglect We have also had the opportunity to observe what happens when a domestic rabbit has the freedom to dig her own burrow and raise her young au natural vs. what happens when she is given a nest box in a cage. We humans often think that our domestically raised animals will do "just fine" when placed in "more natural circumstances" (or even when turned loose in the wild). This is simply too large, and untrue, an assumption! What we discovered through our observations was that the more devoted mother bunnies will look after their babies no matter what. In fact, they may even hover nearby, much like a watchful mother hen, even when they are not feeding their young. However, less maternally inclined female bunnies will only visit their youngsters infrequently and may even abandon them all together. If this happens when the young are raised in a burrow, the outcome can be tragic for the baby bunnies. Especially when they are less than two weeks old. Note that a bunny burrow is typically dug very deep and very narrow, sometimes with a big elbow-turn midway down the tunnel, making it very difficult -- if not impossible -- for a human to get to the abandoned babies. What's worse, is that other females, and sometimes males, may enter into the abandoned burrow and kill the babies of the absent female. And once again, because of their deep location its often impossible for humans to intervene in this situation. So here's our advice: leave "au natural" to wild rabbits. If your domesticated rabbits have an outdoor run, be sure they can't tunnel down into the earth to have their babies in a burrow. Better still, have your rabbits spayed or neutered so such concerns need never arise.
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