AHH!!!!!
by Elizabeth
(AZ)
About a month ago, my mom said she had seen a wild bunny in my backyard checking out my domestic females. We occasionally let them out to play, so I'm not sure if they and the wild bunny could've gotten together in this time. They soon built a massive tunnel so big that you can't see the end of it when you look inside. Anyways, I haven't seen them in about 5 days now and I'm afraid they are down there giving birth!!!!!! What do I do?!
****Karen Sez****The biggest problem is that tunnel! The rabbits might be in the next county by now. Or in the neighbor's garden 5 houses down.
Um, are you sure both those rabbits were does??
I highly doubt cottontails can interbreed with domestic rabbits, because the chromosome counts are very different between the two species. But I'll hedge my bets by suggesting that any such offspring would most likely be sterile, as are mules.
What can you do?? I'm not sure. I'd probably put a live trap into the hole, and bait it with some delicious-smelling fresh dandelions, carrots, carrot greens, etc. (Bruise the greens and score any carrots, so the smell is very strong.) Plus, I'd probably try searching all the streets in a 2-3 block radius from your house! Canvas the neighbors - ask them if they've seen any domestic bunnies hanging around. The best times to search are early evening until it gets dark, and at first light in the morning.
Good luck!
K