What to do if you find a stray rabbit …
Contributed by Tricia Bingham
Hello lovely bunny folks. As you know I am involved in a fair bit of bunny rescue so thought if you don't mind I might share a couple of observations about what to do if you find a bunny. Some of this won't be news for many of you but may help if you ever find yourself in this situation.
First of all do try to find the bunny's owner. Take the bunny to your vet and have them scanned for a microchip.
Door knock and post on local online community boards and Pets on the Net. Just as a word of caution though if you don't know the audience limit the description and ask any supposed owners for a description of the rabbit when they claim it is theies. Horrific as it is unfortunately some people do trawl postings with a view to getting a rabbit for the pot.
If you plan on keeping the rabbit for a period do keep separate from your own rabbits to avoid the risk of infection or transfer of fleas/mites.
Leave the rabbit in a quiet spot undisturbed to settle. They will be very scared. Monitor input and output. Initially feed hay water and a few greens (long grass and forage are best). Introduce pellets slowly to avoid tummy issues.
Be aware that the bunny may not have received much in the way of socialization or toilet training. None of the rabbits I have rescued have ever been desexed. Hormones are generally rampant and will contribute to lack of litter box training and behavioural issues.
If you can't keep the bunny contact a rescue or the SPCA as soon as possible.
And remember you can always ask for advice in Rabbit Advice and Support New Zealand.
Finding the Owners
Once you have secured the rabbit it is time to look for the owners.
If you decide you want to keep it, by law you must observe a 7 day ‘hold’ period during which time you must endeavour to find the owners. If no owner is found after advertising etc, then the rabbit can legally be considered to belong to you.
The following is a list of actions you can take to find the owners of a lost rabbit -
* First - take it to the local vet clinic or SPCA to scan for a microchip.
* Your local vet clinic may accept it as a surrendered found pet.
* Take to SPCA to surrender. If they cannot take it, then register it with them as found.
* Register on Pets on the Net - https://lostpetfinders.co.nz
* Register on Lost Pet https://www.lostpet.co.nz/
* Register in Trademe>Pets & Animals>Lost & Found
* Put flyers up at your local vet clinics, supermarkets, lampposts etc
* Do a letter box drop
* Go door knocking around your neighbourhood
* Advertise on your local FaceBook groups and the FB Marketplace
The following is an excellent article from The House Rabbit Society, by Amy Espie
How to Rescue a Rabbit Running Loose
Walking through the park one afternoon, you spot a rabbit. His lop-ears, or angora fur, or black and white spots, tell you that this is definitely not a wild rabbit. He’s one of the thousands of discards, tossed out to fend for himself. Or one of the thousands more who escapes from his obviously not very secure outdoor quarters in someone’s yard. You know what the future holds for him if he stays where he is: slow death by starvation, attack by a cat, dog, raccoon, or human, infectious disease, heat, cold-the list goes on, but the bottom line is constant: you have to get him out of there. Even if you can offer him nothing more than a quick, humane death at the veterinary clinic or animal shelter, you will have done him a kindness.You approach him. Naturally, he bolts. Now what? Catching a rabbit who doesn’t want to be caught, as house-rabbit people everywhere have learned, is difficult enough in the confines of your own living room. Outdoors, it can be impossible. But, as a matter of life and death, it’s still worth a try. Here are a few suggestions.
One or two humans, one or two rabbits
1. The quickest way is to use a net. However, nets are not easy to obtain, and they require skill to use. If you’re fortunate enough to have an animal shelter or Animal Control Department with the time, staff, and willingness, they’re the ones for the job. They have the equipment and the expertise. So start your rescue using the telephone. Animal Control will be listed in the phone book under city or county services. If they won’t send someone, call your local humane society or SPCA. It’s possible that they can offer you some suggestions or even some person-power. If you have a House Rabbit Society chapter near you, they may also have some help to offer.
2. If your requests for help leave you back where you started, your next option is to get hold of a humane trap. These can often be rented from the shelter or animal control. In many areas, you can rent them from commercial companies. Check the phone directory under “traps.” The best trap has openings at both ends, so that before it’s sprung it looks like a wire tunnel. Rabbits are less reluctant to enter if it looks like it’s got more than one way out.
Some skill is required in setting the control on the trap so that it springs at a fairly light touch from the rabbit’s foot. Practice using the controls at home until you get a sense of how they work. You can, in effect, make the trip-plate bigger by setting a piece of cardboard on top of it, and putting the bait on that. Use something with a strong, tempting (to a rabbit) aroma as bait. Bananas are a good first choice. Next would be grated carrot, as grating tends to release a stronger smell. Drape a sheet over the whole trap. This will make it less scary to enter and less stressful for the bunny once he’s inside. Place the trap in a shady, somewhat secluded spot, for the same reasons. You must check the trap at least every 4-6 hours. All your good intentions will be wasted if the rabbit dies of stress/shock from being trapped in the trap.
As you can see, humane traps are far from ideal. They require an investment in time, money, and effort. They are stressful for the rabbit, of course; but so is living outdoors, unprotected. This is rescue work at its most fundamental, and that bunny is lucky that someone has finally come along who is willing to at least try to save her life.
3. A much slower method is to make friends with the rabbit. Keep going back, as many times a day as you can, trying to get a little closer each time. This is a time-consuming task; try to enlist a friend or two to share it. When you approach her, do so crouching low and from the side. If she can see you only from one eye, her distance vision will be less acute. Sometimes a rabbit who runs from you is actually enough of a “people rabbit” that you’ll be able to get near him once he gets over his initial terror. Take treats with you – bananas, breakfast cereal, bread, apple, etc. Place them on the ground, and sit quietly about 10 feet away from them. Try putting the treats into a front-opening (not top-opening) animal carrier. Attach a piece of wire to the door, so that you can push it shut from a few feet away.
If you do succeed in rescuing the rabbit, you have three new choices ahead of you. You can adopt her yourself; you can try to find a good home for her; or you can take her to the shelter, where she will either be adopted or euthanized. If at all possible, keep her at your home for at least a few days before taking her to the shelter. This will give her a chance to begin to recover from the extremely stressful experiences of living unprotected and of being trapped, which will in turn make her more adoptable. The House Rabbit Society has extensive written information to help you with the first two options. We are also available by telephone for medical or behavioral emergencies.
Multiple humans, multiple rabbits
Sometimes rabbits survive abandonment long enough to reproduce. One female with one litter very soon becomes many rabbits, and it is not unusual for word of these rabbit dumping-grounds to spread. This happened in Orange County (CA), where House Rabbit Society volunteers managed to rescue about 80 rabbits from a lot in an urban area where people had been dumping them for years.
HRS fosterer Laurie Gigous writes:
Because rabbits are crepuscular, we’d go to work sometime between midnight and 6 AM. Sometimes we were there from midnight to 6 AM. The rabbits were normally outside their extensive burrows and tunnels at this time, foraging for food. When we tried daytime rescues we were unsuccessful unless the rabbit was very sick.
One scenario involved hooking together three “puppy pens.” These are sectioned enclosures used as play-pens for young puppies. We’d put them in an almost closed circle, leaving an opening just big enough that the rabbits wouldn’t really notice the pen (usually 2-3 feet, larger with very nervous rabbits). Someone would sit quiet & still inside the pen and throw SMALL pieces of carrot (or, in our more desparate times, cookies or whatever would work!) toward the nosy rabbits as they approached the opening. As soon as one took the bait, the person in the enclosed area would throw another piece that landed a bit closer to her. The idea is to get the rabbit far enough into the enclosed area so that the people stationed on both sides of the opening could (depending on how wild the rabbit was) RUN or quietly and slowly walk toward each other, bringing the edges of the run together. The rabbit(s) would either panic or sit quietly while someone picked him up. Okay, that last part didn’t happen often, but it DID on occasion! In addition to the gate-closers we had one or two people there to get into the enclosure quickly and help grab the bunny so he wouldn’t hurt himself. We used cardboard top-opening carriers (disposable to prevent infection), and we put the rabbit in the carrier while he was still inside the run (we learned from experience!). We gave the rabbits a few drops of “Rescue Remedy,” one of the Bach Flower Remedies available at health food stores. It really helped calm them. Great for stressed-out humans, too.
We used a slight variation of this method to trap rabbits congregated under bushes. We set up the same circle of dog exercise pens, using as many as necessary to enclose the bush(es) completely. Depending on the height of the humans and the height of the pens, we would stand either just inside or just outside the circle. As the bunnies emerged we reached in and grabbed them. This method does not work if there are burrows under the bush, as the rabbits will just wait you out, in the security of their tunnels.
Scenario 3: herding. We used this when rabbits were gathered close to a wall. After hooking 2 or 3 runs together, one person was stationed at one end of the run at the wall, with one section of the run folded against the wall, to prevent the rabbits from pushing it away. We use as many runs as necessary to give us enough distance from the rabbits so they didn’t get spooked. Then we’d walk slowly and quietly around the rabbits, ufolding the pen as we went, until we reached the wall again. The idea is to surround the rabbits using both the runs and the wall to enclose them. As soon as they were trapped in the run, we had several people ready to quickly but calmly pick up the rabbits and put them in the cardboard carriers.
A note on demeanor: when we acted nonchalant, as if we didn’t care whether the little stinkers came or went, we seemed to get more of them. When we were impatient, we didn’t get many at all. Also, we learned that stress and fear are contagious across species lines. No matter how tense we felt, we were most helpful to the animals when we kept our actions calm, our movements as quick as possible without rushing.
We didn’t use traps because we weren’t able to check them on a frequent and regular basis. Also, this rescue took place in an urban area. We didn’t want rabbits to be confined in a trap where anyone could walk by and take the trap or otherwise harm them.
We took them the very next day to the veterinary clinic. Many of them were sick with coccidiosis, and two of these died. All were spayed and neutered as soon as their health and age permitted.
https://rabbit.org/faq-how-to-rescue-a-rabbit-running-loose/