At this age the bunny must have it's mother

Is It Really Orphaned?

The most important question is: Does this animal REALLY need my help?

Around half of all animals that rehabilitators receive are animals that did not need to be rescued. 

 Animals are protective mothers and their babies are always better kept with them versus humans.

BIRDS are on the ground learning to fly. This is called fledging. Some bird species such as robins and blue jays remain on the ground for weeks. These birds look clumsy and injured. Unless you see a visible injury, please leave the fledglings to learn on their own. Mothers are often close by. Cats and dogs are the fledgling's worry. Please keep your cat or dog indoors during this time. If you see a fledgling on the street, gently place it under a bush in a cat or dog free area. Birds that have fallen out of the nest can be placed back in. These birds will have little or no feathers. If the nest is destroyed, then make a nest from a Tupperware type bowl with paper towel inside and vent holes. Please the “nest” back in the tree.

OPOSSUMS that are not injured and are over 7-8 inches long (not including tail) should be left alone. If they are less than 7-8 inches, please do not try to feed them as they do not have the ‘suckle” response and need to be tube fed VERY select formula. Opossums are prone to Metabolic Bone Disease due to diets. This can be fatal. ** If you should find a mother that is dead or hit by a car, check her pouch as more than likely, her babies are alive in there. They will need your help in order to live.

DUCKLINGS stay in groups, so if you do not see a mother around within a couple of hours, it needs rescuing.

RACCOON babies that have been seen for more than a few hours have probably lost their mother, since mother raccoons closely supervise their young and don’t let them out of their sight! You can put an upside down laundry basket over the baby (with a weight on top) and monitor for a few hours. Sometimes raccoon moms will wait until very late to retrieve her babies. Ask around to see if anyone in the neighborhood trapped an adult raccoon or saw one hit by a car. If you do not see the mother after a few hours, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator near you for assistance.

SKUNK babies do explore briefly at times away from its mother, yet it is more likely that the skunk has lost sight of the mother. Watch to see if the baby finds the den or if the mother retrieves him. You can put a plastic laundry basked upside down over the skunk to temporarily contain him while waiting for the mother to return. Approach the skunk slowly and talk softly – if the skunk gives a warning by stamping his front feet, then stand still or back off. You can approach again after the skunk calms down. As baby skunks get older, they sometimes come out to explore while the mother is away. Most of the time, however, they don’t appear without her – so if you repeatedly see the baby outside alone, he may be orphaned. If the skunk appears to be truly orphaned, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator near you.

SQUIRRELS should be taken indoors for the night if the mother hasn't come back and you can try again in the morning. Squirrels often have a secondary nest if one should fall out of a tree. The mom should come back to retrieve her babies when she feels it’s safe.

DEER will rarely be seen mother and baby together. If you should see a fawn lying down without its’ mother, leave it there until morning and if it has not moved, mom may not be returning and please do call. You may not see mom during he day, but she is probably watching you. Stay away from baby so mom will feel safe to return.

BUNNY nests can be repaired. Skewer sticks, thin string can be placed in a tic tac toe formation over the top of the den. If they are moved the following morning, the mother has come back to take care of them. If not, they need your help. If bunnies are over 5 inches long, eyes open, and can hop, they do NOT need rescuing.

                                                        URGENT

ALL ANIMALS will avoid coming to retrieve their babies if humans are around. Please watch for signs of mom without being too close or animals seeing you.

As a general rule:  If the baby is wandering around crying for an hour, it needs your help. If you do not know, place in a box close to where you found it. if the mother does not come back in 4-6 hours, it needs help.

Keep the baby or injured animal WARM and CONTAINED and QUIET. Put tissues or towels in the box or bag to keep it warm, and cover it. Darkness makes the animal feel more secure. Loud noises are scary, so keep that in mind when selecting a spot for the box. Keep it out of drafts and away from air conditioners. The box can be placed half on and half off a heating pad set on low. If the animal gets too warm it can move to the other end of the box. A water bottle filled with warm water taped (to prevent rolling around) to the inside of the box will work just as well.

 If an animal or bird has been caught by a cat or dog get help immediately. Even if wounds are not visible, the animal or bird needs to be given antibiotics.

                

 Please email if you need help

  fund4wildlife@gmail.com

Help! I Found a Baby Rabbit

The bunnies look so helpless in the little depression in the lawn. They are so tiny and you keep going out and checking throughout the day and still no mother in sight. Surly, she would be there sitting with her babies if she were alive. So the best thing to do is bring them in and try to bottle-feed or maybe find a wildlife rehabber. Wrong…wrong…wrong!

Actually, rabbit mothers nurse their babies for about 5 minutes a day. The milk is very rich and the babies fill up to capacity within minutes. Mother rabbits do not sit on the babies to keep them warm. This is not because they are bad mothers. It is because they do not want to draw attention to the babies so they leave, which gives the impression that the babies have been abandoned.

If you come across a nest of bunnies and the mother is nowhere in sight, please DO NOT disturb them! By removing them from the nest you are greatly reducing their chances of survival. In fact, I would say you are sealing their fate of a premature death. Studies with rabbits in rehabilitation centers show there is a 90% mortality rate with orphaned baby rabbits in human care. This number increases if the rabbits are very young and their eyes still closed. They are extremely hard to "save". There is no substitute for the enzymes and cofactors in their mother's milk. Often they die a slow painful death from the formula literally putrefying in their little tummies.

If you have reason to believe the mother is not there. The following test will help you determine if that is the case. That evening take flour and use it to make a large, wide circle around the nest. Then leave the nest alone until the next morning. Check to see if there are rabbit tracks going through the flour to and from the nest. If there are, either the mother is returning to the nest or the babies are old enough to venture from the nest and eat on their own. Now just leave them alone. Even if this means mowing around a small patch in the yard for a short time.

As the babies age and are about the size of a tennis ball they will begin to wonder around and forage on grass. They still stay with mom and may go back to the nest. Do not rescue a baby the size of a tennis ball. It is not lost, it is just growing up and needs a safe place to learn. The best advise it just keep you dogs and cats out of the area until the rabbits move on.
That said, there are times when you know your dog has killed the mother. Sadly, this happens a lot. If this is the case, you need to put them in warm box with a soft cloth inside. Place the box away from pets and children. Wild baby rabbits are unlike any other species. They can literally drop dead from fear. The sound of your voice, your sent, the noises in your home are all terrifying to a baby rabbit. Fear and compromise an already undeveloped immune system and cause death even later on.
As a wildlife rehabilitator I am always researching protocols to increase my success rate with all species but especially the cottontails. At this point I have 10 infant rabbits in my care, all with eyes still closed. The first 5 came in when they were just 2 days old. I am using a new protocol with my babies this year and I am excited about the results so far. I am incorporating Dr. Ohhira Probiotics into their formula. Although I have used probiotics before,these are unique in their composition and are manufactured for human consumption. I have lost only one baby thus far and am hopeful they may survive. Though, with bunnies with eyes still closed, things can change in instant. In addition, I will be using cecotropes into their diet since Blanca & Emy Aaron have graciously allowed me to borrow their beloved pet rabbit to provide the babies with life saving cecotropes. For this I am so gratful!

I will be posting my exact protocol from the first day the new babies arrived with photos and video soon.  

For emergency care of baby rabbits:

Step
1

Warm goat milk or Zoologic Milk Matrix ( available online) formula, so it is warm to the touch, but not hot.
Step
2

Hold baby upright. Using a small syringe, such a 1ml insulin syringe (needle removed) or eyedropper, slowly release formula into the side of the mouth. Newborn, hairless bunnies will need about a half milliliter of warm formula every two to three hours. Bunnies with their eyes tightly closed and ears flat to their head, but fully furred, will eat approximately approximately 2 ml per feeding. The amount increases as their size and weight increase. Generally, you want to feed until the stomach feels full and round, but not tight or hard.
Step
3

Immediately after feeding, stimulate the bunny to eliminate waste. This can be accomplished by gently rubbing its genitals with a moist Q-tip. This imitates the way the mother would lick the baby to stimulate elimination.
Step
4

If you have access to a healthy, adult rabbit, borrow some cecotropes (night droppings.) These nutrient-rich, soft stools are eaten by rabbits directly from their anus, and babies gain much nutrition from eating the cecotropes of their mothers. You can offer cecotropes to bunnies as their eyes are about to open.

Step
5

After the babies eyes open, beging putting the a jar lid filled with formula in the box. They leaern to self fed very early. At 3 to 4 weeks of age, begin introducing solid food,  such as baby rabbit pellets, dandylion greens. Gradually reduce bottle feeding once the rabbit is on solid foods.

 If you would like to contact me about a baby rabbit or other orphaned wildlife email me at fund4wildlife@gmail.com.