Raising Cottontails

[Budd]

I have a small 3/4 acre pen, would cottontail be able to live and breed in a pen that small? They will not be ran with dogs, just breeding stock. Can they ever be put in smaller rabbit hutches once they are conditioned to seeing and being around people?

[allniter]

yes--they will breed in a fence in pen on the ground -need a net over them -in some states it isn't legal with out permits --

a small pen or cage they will died --

[allniter]

they never get use to people --even the ones born in the pen

[T LEE]

Over the years we have had wild rabbits at different times .Years ago a doe rabbit got ran over in front of the house. My kids found a nest of rabbits in our front bushes. They were just big enough to start leaving the nest . Eyes open , still small , fast but the kids could run them down. They ate small pieces of apple in an above ground pen until they were big enough to eat rabbit pellets. We had 5 but only 2 doe and a buck lived. By the time the rabbits were adult size....the kids had them so tame they ate from their hand and came indoors to run around at times. Crazy sounding but true.

I seperated the rabbits. Each to their our pen. I tried putting the doe rabbits with the buck . They would fight an pull hair out of each other. I put a tame Buck rabbit (that would breed ANYTHING) in with one of the wild doe. She smelled of him and then the fighting started. Bad enough that I could Not leave them togather.

I Never got the wild rabbits to breed . Even with each other. I do wish you the best of luck. Maybe there was something I could have done different.

[warddog]

Over the years we have had wild rabbits at different times .Years ago a doe rabbit got ran over in front of the house. My kids found a nest of rabbits in our front bushes. They were just big enough to start leaving the nest . Eyes open , still small , fast but the kids could run them down. They ate small pieces of apple in an above ground pen until they were big enough to eat rabbit pellets. We had 5 but only 2 doe and a buck lived. By the time the rabbits were adult size....the kids had them so tame they ate from their hand and came indoors to run around at times. Crazy sounding but true.

I seperated the rabbits. Each to their our pen. I tried putting the doe rabbits with the buck . They would fight an pull hair out of each other. I put a tame Buck rabbit (that would breed ANYTHING) in with one of the wild doe. She smelled of him and then the fighting started. Bad enough that I could Not leave them togather.

I Never got the wild rabbits to breed . Even with each other. I do wish you the best of luck. Maybe there was something I could have done different.

A friend of mine with about a 5 acre pen did the same thing with a nest of wild rabbits he found in his yard. he actualyl put them in with a tame doe that had a litter pretty close in age as they appeared. She raised them and they all lived BUT not a one would breed in the cage be it tame to wild or wild to tame. He said that the wild does would nearly kill the tame buck as well as the wild one in the cage.

[TC]

A friend of mine with about a 5 acre pen did the same thing with a nest of wild rabbits he found in his yard. he actualyl put them in with a tame doe that had a litter pretty close in age as they appeared. She raised them and they all lived BUT not a one would breed in the cage be it tame to wild or wild to tame. He said that the wild does would nearly kill the tame buck as well as the wild one in the cage.

Did that Exact same thing here TWICE Found two litters of young cottontail 6 in one batch and 4 in the other two years apart tame rabbit raised all the young Tried many times to breed them No Luck at all they actually Killed each other the first time we tried we put them in a 3 acre pen and they did breed there and we still have wild ones in there One other problem this created was that When and if we turn semi tame rabbits in the pen it aint but a few months the Wild ones will kill the tame off!!

[S.R.Patch]

I've never found any to be aggressive to harm each other lest you put two bucks together. Most the problem was, the wild by nature are not close quarters type breeders and will bang themselves to death off the box and wire in their antic manner of trying to breed.
I've never raised any wild from fledgling, that their wild nature didn't increase with age, it is programed in them from the eons of survival, those lax or less vigilant in their wild nature do not survive, so my doubt is that it can be overcome.jmho

The best chance for survival would be to keep your buck in a separate lot, put them in together an let him breed your does, then trap the does out to raise the young. Bucks will kill babies, the does will have to keep him out of the nest if you leave him in, but some will survive.

Hutches are not for the wild, they worry themselves to death.imo

[Chip E]

I would say you could put 6 to 8 Does and 2 or 3 Bucks in the 3/4 acre pen and be alright but good luck catching that many Does. Last year I 23 Wild Rabbits and only 3 Does out of that many. As I have about a 5 to 6 acre pen.

[mn_beagleboy]

I have two pen now. One running n one starting. I Will use the starting pen for breeding cottontail n hare this year. I just put my first two hare n running pen tonite.

Sao

[gwyoung]

Placing tame and wild rabbits together in the hopes of having young is an exercise in futility. They cannot cross and produce young.

[Budd]

Placing tame and wild rabbits together in the hopes of having young is an exercise in futility. They cannot cross and produce young.

Not what I had planned.

[Haire-Bear]

i have personally seen my friends ct raising pen and he uses pallets with old rubber roofing on top to keep the nest dry. Christmas trees cut in 1/2 set in the corners and c-trees in small piles and plywood pieces layed against a tree or something stationary. Never had a problem with the buck killing young. usually raise 40+/- with a 4-5 does to 1 buck. He feeds medicated rabbit feed along with apple branches and maple whips. Once young get about 1//2 grown there removed to the running grounds. Good Luck. oh by the way the pen is 35 x100 and has 6"x6" grid on top to keep hawks and owls out and electric fence at the top of the silt fence on the outside if the pen and bury the apron of the silt fence and another hot wire at the top of the pen all the way around.

[gwyoung]

I understood that Budd, but somewhere in the posts I thought I saw where someone had touched on that. I hear it often and have also saw where people had advertised wild croosses with tame for sale.you probably have saw those ads before also. Just wanted to save someone the time and effort! As for raising wild rabbits in a 3/4 acre enclosure place 1 doe and 1 buck in and then remove the Buck, The doe will raise the first litter just fine , If you place the Buck back in to breed her again you will then lose most of the litter if your cover is not extremely dense. Ifyou keep the Buck out and let nature take it's course you will probably end up with at least two Bucks in there from the litter that was born in there, along with three or so females. This is too small an area for this many rabbits . But if you just want to raise one litter to about half-grown it will work fine. Wild Rabbits whether Buck or Doe do not seem to harm young unless they are confined