# Baby rabbits in my backyard: pet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163 "2003-09-07T22:08:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xphoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/839c29/32.png) [@xphoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xphoenix)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/1 "2003-09-07T22:08:32Z")
I just discovered some strangers in my backyard: two baby rabbits. They look like they were just born, they’re just kinda rolling around. Technically three rabbits, but I accidentally killed one with the lawnmower earlier. I suspect there’s probably more. I’d like to keep one as a pet, but I know that they have to be given milk by their mother first, so I haven’t even touched them. Would it be safe to simply pick one up and keep it? What precautions should I take to make sure that it is not rabid, and safe to keep as a pet? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/2 "2003-09-07T22:12:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xphoenix \* > **…but I accidentally killed one with the lawnmower earlier…** :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/3 "2003-09-08T01:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by xphoenix \* > \*\*… What precautions should I take to make sure that it is not rabid, and safe to keep as a pet? \*\* Switch off lawnmower. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/4 "2003-09-08T02:26:33Z")
A quick google turned up this: _The worst rabies culprits, in order of incidence of reported disease are: skunks, raccoons, bats, cats, foxes, cattle, dogs, horses/ mules, mongooses (in Puerto Rico), groundhogs, sheep, goats, and swine. Rats, mice, squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, chipmunks, and rabbits are very rarely infected._ So it looks like that’s one thing you probably don’t need to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/5 "2003-09-08T02:45:52Z")
I have no cite, but I was told when I was younger that rabbits were too fragile to be rabies threats. They would die before they could infect anything. This could be the reason for the info that Xema found. Then again, whoever told me that could have been wrong. ---
**Author:** ![shawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@shawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shawa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/6 "2003-09-08T03:11:33Z")
Make sure you don’t touch the rabbits you don’t want to keep because if the mother smells human scent on them, she won’t feed them. That’s what I’ve heard anyway. Incidently, once when I was a kid a rabbit decided to make her nest and have her babies in the middle of our front lawn. It was strange because they were out in the open, no cover at all. The neighbers cat killed the babies ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/7 "2003-09-08T03:26:43Z")
I rescued a baby rabbit once (whose mother had been killed by a dog moments before). We called the Natural History museum, and they told us it needed to be bottle-fed, and have a heating pad. It survived for some time, and then we turned it over to the children’s museum. They were surprised we had kept it alive. Maybe you’d be better off letting it grow up a bit, then adopting it. If you can catch it by then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Antimanics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71c47a/32.png) [@Antimanics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antimanics)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/8 "2003-09-08T04:02:47Z")
At the beginning of the summer we had a family of rabbits in our neighbours’ backyard. One evening our cat caught one of the rabbits and batted it around for a while but, ultimately, left it unharmed. Feeling bad for the rabbit, we brought it into the house and placed it in an old aquarium with some water, lettuce, and left over hamster chips for the night. The next morning when we woke, we found a dead rabbit and a cat in the aquarium. ---
**Author:** ![cdhostage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/9 "2003-09-08T06:06:54Z")
Rabbits are good eating. My dog loves to go snuffling around under all the bushes in the forest out back, because once in a while there’s a nest of baby bunnies and she pigs out. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/10 "2003-09-08T07:56:11Z")
We’ve had baby rabbits in our yard the past couple of years. I have dogs and my neighbor has dogs. Why the mommy rabbit chooses to go past all of the dogs and make her nest in one of the worst places possible is beyond me. Anyway, we tried the first year to just leave them in their nest and keep them away from the dogs and vice versa. They all got eaten. ☹ So last year we decided to try and rescue them when we thought they were big enough that they would survive, but small enough that we got them before they started hopping out of the nest (which was when they got eaten the year before). We asked the local vet for advice, did our best to feed them and care for them, and they all died. ☹ The vet told us that raising baby rabbits often doesn’t work out very well, so I’ll pass on the same warning to you. Ask your vet for advice. They’ll tell you how to best care for the little critters. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/11 "2003-09-08T08:00:00Z")
In a lot of places, it’s illegal to keep and domesticate wild rabbits, presumably because they carry nasty shit like tularemia. Check with your local authorities. (In North Carolina, you have to have a wildlife rehab certification to have squirrels and rabbits and such, but that sort of thing varies by locale.) If the bunnies are too little to survive on their own just yet, find someone who does wildlife rehab to take care of them. Your vet or the humane society should be able to give you some contact info. Incidentally, rodents and lagomorphs rarely get rabies because if something rabid attacks them, they’re usually lunch. It’s hard to become rabid, or to infect anyone else when you’re dead. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/12 "2003-09-08T09:49:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by shawa \* > \*\*Make sure you don’t touch the rabbits you don’t want to keep because if the mother smells human scent on them, she won’t feed them. That’s what I’ve heard anyway. > \*\* If they are out and about, doesn’t that mean that they will now be weaned? (even so, the mother may do something strange like killing them if they are handled). ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/13 "2003-09-08T13:58:00Z")
So why do you want to take the young animal away from its mother? ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-rabbits-in-my-backyard-pet/200163/14 "2003-09-08T14:10:58Z")
Oh, please, **please don’t try to adopt one as a pet.** There are MANY MANY MANY domestic bunnies that need homes, if a pet rabbit is what you really want. Contact your local animal shelter or the [House Rabbit Society](http://www.rabbit.org/) for info. Here is information about wild baby bunnies and what to do about them. [http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html](http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html) > [@](#): > > The reality is fewer than 10% of orphaned rabbits survive a week, and the care that people attempt to provide can be illegal, unnecessary, and potentially harmful. The best thing you can do is to contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator.