Apparently a mommy rabbit has had babies in our garden bag. What are our options?
They have already eaten the lettuce planted in the bag. There is plenty more bags and garden beds near by. We don’t want them to eat them too. We haven’t touched them.
by Motor_Assignment9157
32 Comments
They are still quite young, look maybe two or three weeks old. Not eating much of plants yet, that’s mostly mom looking for heavy calories to feed her babies. Not sure best humane options here. Sorry.
Put some other high calorie foods in the planter and they’ll probably focus on that instead of the rest of your garden for a while. You could slowly move the planter further away from your other planters, slow enough that mom can find them when she returns. I know many people will say that the only solution is to remove them, but I can never do that.
Awww well there’s a children’s book cover!
Where do you purchase your seeds?! 😉
Now I want to grow a baby bunny plant! Lol
I would leave them be. Lost my dill/coriander to black swallowtail caterpillars as well as 2 cucumbers and a pepper plant to a rabbit. Everything else made it or regrew after they were nibbled on. Most of them will move on when they grow up some hanging around in the neighboring acres.
I would just let them be, they will be out of the nest in no time. Maybe cover up the other grow bags and beds with some row covers for a bit to deter mama rabbit from eating the veggies. But I had a mama rabbit have babies in my yard recently and the only thing they munched on was some of my strawberry plants, my echinacea plants. Let some of your grass grow a lil taller and mama will munch on that 🙂
I thought these were mushrooms for a moment
I have been raising rabbits for over 10 years, and have a healthy wild population as well. I can tell you pretty definitely that these guys are about 7–10 days old, as they are fully furred and have their eyes open. They are 100% on mom‘s milk right now. She will only come to the nest once, maybe twice a day at dawn and/or dusk to feed the babies, so as not to attract predators to the nest. So don’t be concerned if you don’t see the mama around, that is normal. In another 10 days or so, they will inexplicably all be gone. Big enough to find their own food, they will have hopped out and left. Yes, they will likely go for the easy crops in your garden. I hope you can find space in your heart to share your garden with the wildlife ❤️
Hit me up if you have more questions about rabbits!
You planted your seeds too close to each other!
I found baby bunnies twice one year, a few months apart and in different garden beds.
Bunny tax: [https://imgur.com/a/pro-mix-with-bunny-plant-t6R5lDs](https://imgur.com/a/pro-mix-with-bunny-plant-t6R5lDs)
They didn’t do much damage. Each time the mom(s) left the immediate area most of the days. Once they were big enough, they scattered and I still didn’t see much damage. They ate some leaves, but soon left the garden beds to mostly eat weeds and grass.
However, I wasn’t growing lettuce.
As you’ve got grow bags, any chance of raising them up a bit?
I raise rabbits. These guys are almost ready to be out on their own. Give them another couple days and they will probably be gone on their own. If they aren’t, then you can gently tip the bag over and let them do their thing. Rabbits start eating solid food as soon as two weeks of age and are pretty much eating solid food and three weeks. These guys are at least 2 weeks old because their eyes are fully opened. They are probably a bit older. In a week and a half these guys will be on their own. The mother rabbit will only feed them two or three times a day. If you put some good stuff in the grow bag, she will probably eat that instead of your lettuce.
Pick some weeks like dandelion greens, ragweed, giant ragweed, plantain, clover and lay it in the grow bag. Heck if you have wild rose bushes or tame rose bushes that aren’t sprayed rabbits love rose bush trimmings lay some of those in there. I feed my rabbits weeds and clover all the time. They love it!
Leave em. They’ll be gone in a week or so
Where can I find those seeds?
Put some protection around your other plants until they’re gone. Give them the scraps from your harvests to focus on.
Your kittens look weird.
🩷🐾🐾
Call your local Wildlife Rescue, they will know what to do, and might even come to retrieve them themselves. Since the mom rabbit knows you have found them she might move them tonight. PLEASE don’t hurt them. So many around me have killed so many cotton tails and jacks that we never see any anymore all because of their home vegetable gardens.
Where did you get the bunny seeds?
Congratulations!
I was once watering a potted blueberry bush, the dirt moved, pulled some back and found a rabbit nest
Ahhhhhhhh how cute
So tiny!
Cuties.
OMG I’d rather grow baby bunnies than lettuce 🥹🥹🥰😂
Did you kindly nibble on their ears?
Can I just say, this thread made me have hope for humanity? ❤️
Donate them to your local raptor rescue?
https://preview.redd.it/w1qf50c8nl8f1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec99117f262457bef813cf37152b09ca889bfbc8
I had babies in my raised bed! They moved out in a few weeks… just had to wait. Luckily they were so cute I didn’t mind too much.
those little white stars on their heads is precious!!
RIP your garden
Pepper Joe’d