yup, brought the little cuties to me this morning, all three hanging out of his mouth! found the nest, but looks like he got them all....and dug the hole to china to boot! I looked in all the digging for more, and there wasn't any. They are cottontails, about 8-10 days I am judging. One has his eyes partway open. Too bad my momma rabbit isn't due until next monday! Any suggestions? Sissy

-- Sissy (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), April 25, 2002

Answers

Put your dog in a pen,house dogs and housecats do alot of damage to wildlife if let run loose this time of year.

-- Gary (burnett_gary@msn.com), April 25, 2002.

stew,, rabbit or dog,, your choice

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), April 25, 2002.

We also had a lab that would do the same thing,they were never hurt,just held in her mouth. We had luck by putting the babies back in the nest,the mom would come back to them,pen the dog up of course.We also took one away from our cat once,that we ended up bottle feeding until big enough to be free, cuz we didn't know where it went.Also,we put wild babies in with domestic babies once and the doe killed them,would not try that.Glad we no longer live where there are so many close by wild nests!!Or is it just the lack of a lab who thinks she is a retriever?

-- Michelle (davmic25 @hotmail.com), April 25, 2002.

it's illegal to take care of wild animals...so either...keep it on the DL or take it to your local wildlife rescue center. hehe. it'll have more of a chance of living at the wildlife center...they have everything to keep it alive and healthy, plus they introduce the wild animals back into the wild after teaching them how to survive. your tax dollars at work...i'd make the most use out of em!! :)

-- C (punk_chicadee@yahoo.com), April 25, 2002.

Can I borrow your dog? Someone dropped of some "Easter" bunnies in our barn. One is white and the other is gray. Since it is hawk migration time they won't last long if we don't catch them. My husband, daughter and I spent and interesting evening racing around the yard and field trying to catch the white one. The gray one holed up under the barn and won't come out. Any suggestions?

-- Mary R. (cntryfolk@ime.net), April 25, 2002.

i don't know where everyone else is from but here. the vet. ,police everyone has raised a wild animal at one time or another. i'm raising two wild baby jack rabbit right now for the first week i force feed them kitten milk . the people that gave them to me brought it. as soon as they could lick up their milk i stopped forcing them .. now they eat their milk out of a small bowl and rabbit pellets. they are great, healthy and happy. don't feel guitly about the dog. their mother did a bad job of findinfg a good home. if it was not the dog it would have been the raccoon, coytes,,,,etc..... don't lock the dog up as long as he is staying on your land. he will chase off many things.. things you don't want on your land... back to the bunnies... i feed them every hour for a day or so.. then as they got better at eatting i gave them more food but less often.. be sure not to drown them in their nose. one drop at a time....ma

-- ma. perry (kernnlove@pop.netzero.net), April 25, 2002.

When my hubby was a woodcutter (many years ago!), he happened to come across a nest of rabbits. There were two babies in it. He brought the babies home, and one of my mother cats that just recently had given birth to three kittens, took care of the rabbits til they started nibbling on fresh veggies! It was really cute watching "mom" kitty bathing her little bunnies! We handled them as little as possible...and did return them to the wild.

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), April 25, 2002.

I agree with putting them back in the hole and mom will come back looking for them.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), April 25, 2002.

Now is a good time to train your retriever to stay away from rabbits. Since you have a live rabbit to train with.(Don't worry shannon this can be done without hurting the rabbit). Especially if you are going to use your retriever for a hunting dog.

As for the rabbits you can feed them natural foods that they forage on and don't handle them anymore than you have to. When they get a couple of weeks older you can release them and they will probably have a better chance of surviving than if your retreiver hadn't found them. A female cottontail will have in the neighborhood of 10 batches of babies in one summer and only 1 or 2 babies will successfully live to see its first birthday.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), April 25, 2002.

One of our dogs' jobs is to chase and kill rabbits/mice/coons/possums etc. This helps make it easier to maintain our garden and other domestic space. I agree that the rabbit made a nest in a bad place. This is what rabbits learn about our land. Meantime my garden has a better chance to survive with less cost on fencing and other deterrents.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), April 25, 2002.