Raising Baby Cottontails Part 2 (The Cuteness Grows!) : The Ladybug Chronicles

It's been awhile since I posted about our

baby rabbits. The sweet things!

I tried while I was in Ohio but alas...
getting groceries,
shopping for a family reunion,
taking time to eat some
delicious Wendy's chili
(one of my favorite snacks while traveling)
having some Facetime with My Love,
(whom I hadn't seen in four weeks)
and catching up on some texts
because I don't have cell
service at the cabin..


This all took a toll on my blogging time.
A sad reality when I'm traveling.
I try not to stress about it but, in the future,
 I plan to work on very short posts and
a picture. Just to keep things fresh. 
So... here are some pictures and 
a bit of what's going on as they
were getting older.

Roo.. Piglet and Eyore :)

They really go after that milk!
I wonder if they miss their mommy?

This wash cloth that we put in the tub became somewhat like a security blanket to them.
And they used it to keep warm.
We always kept the window open
because we wanted them to stay
pretty acclimated to being outside.

They also liked hiding out in the open-ended oat container that we stuck in there.
Even though they were very easy to handle,
they still acted like wild rabbits.
And we tried not to handle them more than
we needed to so they wouldn't be too friendly. 
Since our goal was to return
 them to the wild.

Look at that! OMGoodness.

love ..
love ..
love.. 

swoon...

The sweetest little cotton tail. 

Still pretty small but they are losing that baby-baby look. And by now,
as you can see, 
they are eating native grass.
I would go out and pick it 
for them once a day. 

When they were about 10 days old, 
we noticed that their nest grasses
were disappearing. 
We came to the conclusion that 
they were eating it and
recognizing what type it was, 
I was glad that we had so much
growing in our field. 
It's amazing how much they eat how
fast they grow. Here, they were close to three weeks old.

 Hmmm..
Where are the bunnies?

Oh.. they have grass.
When they hear me crinkling the
grocery bag, and see me put the grass out,
they're quick to come out to eat!

You can see the size of the tub.
We had to transition to a large one
because they were already jumping to the 
top. Rabbits can jump about four times
their length...
and that is straight
 UP! 

Sometimes, two of them would
 grab the same piece of grass and touch 
noses as they came to the middle.
Such cuteness!

At about three weeks, we introduced
rabbit pellets. And I was so relieved that they could have them because spring is our dry time here and I was having a hard time
picking enough grass to keep up with
their growing appetites.
I think they eat pretty much constantly
during their waking hours!
But we were so happy knowing that they
were growing and thriving! 

They were starting to drink a little less milk
at this point and so we
put a water bottle in the tub.
They were getting drinks in no time at all. 
Such smart little things!
And soooo cute!

I found this screen in my stash pile and it worked
marvelously to keep the little jumpers in
their pen!

 Shortly after they started eating pellets, 
we were able to feed
them dandelion greens as well. 
Although there isn't a lot of 
grass here in the spring, these grow in ABUNDANCE!
That looks like a lot of greens but my goodness
can these little babies put away
the food. I was careful to give them
a nice variety and they
had made the transition
to solid food very successfully
and we were so thankful.
According to others, that's where
they sometimes lose them because they
don't transition well.

I am very thankful that we
grabbed the nesting grass
with the newborns. I believe
that that made a big difference!
And feeding them yoghurt in their
milk gave them the extra
pro-biotics that helped with digestion.

My daughter researched well before
deciding what kind and how to feed
the milk they needed.

Awww...

This is better than Mr. McGregor's garden!

Our sources actually were very
specific about solid food.
No lettuce...carrots or cabbage
or anything of that sort.
Only native grasses and pellets..
So, that's what we did!

The internet.
What a wonderful resource.

So that's the progress up to this
point. Babies growing
and happy so far..

But soon, they will begin changing their
little bunny minds about captivity!

More on that next time.
Thank you so much for stopping by.
I hope that your
week has been wonderful.
I am SOOO glad to be home.

I've had some interesting health
developments.
Nothing serious but a possible concern.
My BP is up above normal.
I'm going to find out what that is all about.

I would love to hear about your
nature experiences and stories!

Have a very blessed weekend.
Tamara xoxo