Last fall a rabbit just showed up at our home, ( we live in 96 acreas of woods), and has stayed ever since. It is a little skiddish, but knows to come to us for food. Only then can we touch it and pet it. It has been living under our house this winter but now we have 3' of snow, and the hole it has been using is filling in with ice and snow from the roof. I have chiseled it open a few times, but its not something I want to do everyday. Can the rabbit scratch thru the ice himself? Should I capture the rabbit and take care of it ( my husband made a nice hutch for it)? Or, I can plug the hole and hope the rabbit will start living in our garage/barn. I would really appreciate some advice about this since I don't know anything about rabbits. Thanks!!!!!!!

-- Diana Creedon (ebddjc@aol.com), January 08, 2001

Answers

Diana- are we talking domestic or wild rabbit here??? If it is domestic I would probably capture and place in a hutch. If it were wild I would plug the hole and put a little feed out someplace else.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 08, 2001.

A woman I used to know turned loose a white domestic rabbit. It crossed with the local wild rabbits and you should have seen the "pinto rabbits" she had. Unfortunately, they all stayed around her house and continued to do what rabbits do best. Because they stayed close to her house, she didn't have the usual predators to keep their numbers down. Her dogs saw them as family pets and wouldn't bother them. Her trees and rose bushes were girdled by them and her garden was destroyed until her husband started trapping and shooting them. They still hadn't gotten them to a managable number when I moved away and lost touch with them. If it's a domestic rabbit, catch and pen it. If it's a wild one, why create problems for yourself? I don't mean to be harsh but be prepared if your visitor is a female.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), January 08, 2001.

When our domestic rabbits got frozen into their burrows one winter, my grandfather had to use an ice spade to open the tunnel so they wouldn't die. If the ice is thick, the rabbit won't be able to let itself out. If it's a wild rabbit, it will likely dash itself to pieces on a cage you might put it in, but if you can be *sure* the rabbit is out, you might want to plug that hole so you don't have to keep opening it. If you plug it with the rabbit IN, it'll die in there and the stench in the spring is Not Fun, nor removing the corpse.

Might you try situating your new hutch alongside the entrance to the existing burrow and put in food and hay to entice it to use that instead?

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), January 08, 2001.

I've had a few wild rabbits as pets. They make dandy pets as a matter of fact. They don't have a lot of meat on them, but if you just want to save the bunny like it sounds, I would try to catch and put it in the hutch and just enjoy it...and it's leftovers are about the best possible thing for the garden.

Rabbits can drink out of a small pan, so you don't need a water bottle and they can eat veggie scraps and pellets. There's any number of sites to help you get a start with bunnies if that is consideration. Take care!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@excite.com), January 08, 2001.

Can you maybe stick some kind of extention into the hole so it doesn't freeze right there? Maybe PVC pipe? Or lean plywood against the house so the snow can't fill it in. I would think it would be warm under the house that is why he chose it.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), January 08, 2001.