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TracyQ
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: New York
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| Posted: Aug 31 2006 at 6:37pm | IP Logged
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If you see the post I have here about *I love my sweet daughter*, this is PART 2.
When I asked our oldest to mow the front and back lawns today, I said, Just be careful not to run over *Peter* (the bunny we named outside that is bold).
Jake came in and said, *Mom, you know how you said not to run over Peter? I just ran over "HIS" BABIES!!!* He said, I don't think I killed them, but there's blood on one of them! 
I went out to look with them, and behind a tree, there was a hole dug in the ground with at least three little baby bunnies in there! Now WHY would a bunny choose a hole in the ground at a house with two DOGS????? 
I saw that one of the curled up little bunnies looked like he had a cut on his body, with blood showing, but he looked OK???? I don't know. Jake felt bad, but I told him you couldn't have ANY idea! They were so well hidden!
When I went to look awhile later, the hole was empty. Then I saw one of the tiny bunnies hiding in the grass by the tree. Could mommy Peter have come and moved them? Or would they be moving already? They're pretty tiny, but not too, too tiny. They have brown fur, and are adorable! But I couldn't see any of the other bunnies!
Then awhile ago, we saw Peter/Petrova in the driveway eating away like we always see him/her.  I told her she needed to learn a thing or two...she's too trusting of our family!
I didn't think this bunny would be old/big enough to have babies. He/she's been growing fast, but was small herself only awhile ago. I wonder if that's even the mommy bunny???
Does anyone know when bunnies are old enough to have babies? And how big they are before they go off on their own? These babies were still a *family*.
I don't know much about them.
What a day! 
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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momwise
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Joined: March 28 2005
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| Posted: Aug 31 2006 at 6:49pm | IP Logged
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Tracy,
I enjoyed pt. 1 this morning...what fun! I'm sorry, I don't know much but we've had lots of baby bunnies around and the dc did find out that rabbit mothers leave their babies alone much of the time. She will come at night (can't remember but she may "call" them) and gather them to eat (so "Peter Rabbit" is correct in more ways than 1!!). You've got more to worry about than the dogs and mower. We haven't seen our bunnies around in a while; we've got plenty of well fed hawks, owls and coyotes though
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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ALmom
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| Posted: Sept 02 2006 at 9:33pm | IP Logged
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Bunnies become old enough to have babies very rapidly - and then reproduce very frequently. We had 5 rescued baby bunnies (had to wipe with warm cotton balls to get them to pooh and feed them with an eyedropper of kitten formula) since the mom was killed by a dog. I don't remember exactly how long it took, but I do remember these bunnies just being weaned, taking them to the vet (someone had to tell me which were male and which female - but the vet couldn't tell so I gave up hope of me telling). Within about a week or so of that vet visit, if I can recall, one bunny must have been pregnant. I do distinctly remember that her babies were born on the very day that our son was - cause I remember sitting in the garage nursing a few hours old baby and watching these darn bunnies. We had to pull the males out, but I couldn't afford to pull out the mom accidently and end up with bunnies to eye dropper feed again. I remember going - Ok that one is a female, I just saw it nurse. We did successfully seperate the males (we only had one female in the 4 surviving original bunnies - one died from licking a tiny bit of anti-freeze off my dh shoe which we didn't know was there) and then had 16 babies that survived the dad's stomping run.
Lesson #2 - never believe anyone if they tell you that with 5 newborn bunnies, you will be lucky if one survives. Either we were darn good at the eye-dropper thing or the babies are much more resilient than the wildlife rescue person led us to believe. Maybe it was the fact that these were not true wild bunnies - they were white and the mother must have been abandoned out in the country.
Anyways, they are mature enough to have babies very quickly and reproduce very rapidly in huge quantities - for the very reason that they have a natural high fatality rate from other critters. I'm not a science expert - but I remember being darn surprised at the babies when they showed up as the "adults" seemed hardly grown.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Changing Peter's name to Petrova! LOL
