I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as we live in the Midwest (bunny central), I have tried to raise oodles of baby bunnies with little success. Apparently, their intestinal tracks need a different sort of enzyme to transition from milk to food, and they only get it by eating adult rabbit poop. Yes, you heard me. Otherwise, they simply keel over one day. I don’t know whether you have a rabbit-owning friend who would give you some poop or not – we have gotten some from a pet store, which worked.
“Excuse me, sir, can I have some rabbit poop?” Weird looks ensue.
Chocolate Moose is doing quite well. His weird limpy thing has totally resolved (apparently just a pulled muscle or something - not splay leg as we first worried).
He’s getting quite big - probably 2.5 times as big as he was and has a pretty cute personality.
When you’re petting him he rolls over on his back to get his tummy rubbed - it’s kind of hilarious.
Anyhow, SS is doing well with him - she’s contacted the authorities to see if she can import him back with her into Europe. There’s probably a rule against it but she’s going to check.
If she can’t bring him back with her, Mr. W and I have been looking into a local petting zoo where he could be around other bunnies, get attention and interaction with people and be a little bit protected from getting eaten.
When I was in about 6th grade or so, a kid at school brought a couple of orphaned baby jack rabbits. Our family had a sizable rabbit cage from a pet rabbit that had died when I was a baby, so I talked my Mom (who worked at my school) into letting me raise them until they were releasable. It was a very cool little rehab project, and one of the experiences that got me interested in biology which eventually led to my BS in Zoology (even though that now seems like a lifetime ago…).
We had no issues with them. We bottle-fed them for awhile, then graduated them to solid food, and once they got to a good size, we let them go on our 60 acres of forested hills, where jack rabbits are often spotted and a good distance away from any roads.
I can still vividly remember watching them slowly hop out of the cage and away to their next big adventure.