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We have bonded with a wild rabbit family. They have learned that we're not a threat and they seem to enjoy the company. Mama actually sits right next to us while we garden (2nd pic), and baby is not afraid of us.
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07-18-2022 07:54 AM
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Cute!
[Of course, after the interaction with humans, the mother ate the baby, but that's nature!]
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AFAIK rabbits do have a form of society so if these are all alone they may indeed have accepted you as a substitute. More likely it's other interests: very few of their natural predators will attack them when you're around and ... did you say gardening? You don't happen to leave or toss them "scraps"?
I don't know how birds are accustomed to people in your area, but back at my parents' home there were usually blackbirds near when we were gardening, keen on picking through freshly overturned earth or scavenge a freshly cut lawn.
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We have yard bunnies and they are a delight, if a bit stand-offish. We also have Red-Tailed Hawks that cull their numbers frequently. We have our second batch of homesteaders next door; it remains to be seen what their feline holdings are, and how their tastes run.
My favorite bunnies come but once a year, wrapped in gold foil with a red ribbon. Yum!
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Nope, not at all. They get enough on their own.
Originally Posted by RJVB
You don't happen to leave or toss them "scraps"?
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I dated a girl once who had a bunny. (That seems to cry out for a joke...) She let it run around in her house and on the deck while we grilled.
Not sure what was on the grill, but it tasted like chicken...
Too bad it didn't work out. She was a news presenter, and told me casually that if she moved to the Twin Cities market she would be making over $1 mi a year. (Let's get married and move to the Twin Cities! thinks I...) She had to get her network's approval for any changes to her hairstyle, which I thought was kind of funny.
Anyway, people who have bunnies as pets say they are great and can supposedly be litter box trained. I get along fine with the MANY bunnies in our yard, but they do not get along with my dog. We have caught her with a baby bunny once or twice and made her let it go. No permanent harm to the bunny. My current GF and I had a hound dog mix a few years ago that would catch a rabbit or squirrel or possum or coon consistently--probably once or twice a month. His catches didn't fare so well--by the time we got to them, they were history.
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When I was a kid we had a big black cat named "Killer." He was the neighborhood terror. 20 lbs all lean swift muscle. One time he dragged in a rabbit twice his size by the neck while it screamed. (Have you ever heard a rabbit scream? They do.) We had to chase them around the house to try to free the rabbit. Finally got it out safely. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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My father in law had a 3-legged cat (I think he saved him, doing the amputation himself) who would catch young rabbits - but manage to bring them in through the window. Cats ... if they have their mind set on something ...
I also had a violin student, the gf of a fellow PhD student, who had a pet rabbit. It would run circles around us during lessons (not distracting at all...), and I think it also had a taste for the couch. I confirm they can be litter-trained; they have the necessary instincts, just look in the area of a nest (den?) and you'll find their droppings concentrated in 1 or more "toilets" at some distance from the nest. I've also seen people walking them on a leash.
EDIT: to close this loop from cats back to long-aired rodents: guess what animal carries my hometown's slang name dakhaas (roof hare). An aachteleke daakhaos however indicates a bipedal individual with the IQ of an actual hare
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The scream of a rabbit is utterly horrifying. I hope never to hear it again. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Uhmm - those aren't toilets. They are snack bars. The digestive systems of rabbits are such that stuff has to pass through twice to get the most nutrition. Gross, but true, and why some folks won't eat them. Try not to think about it. Originally Posted by RJVB
My father in law had a 3-legged cat (I think he saved him, doing the amputation himself) who would catch young rabbits - but manage to bring them in through the window. Cats ... if they have their mind set on something ...
I also had a violin student, the gf of a fellow PhD student, who had a pet rabbit. It would run circles around us during lessons (not distracting at all...), and I think it also had a taste for the couch. I confirm they can be litter-trained; they have the necessary instincts, just look in the area of a nest (den?) and you'll find their droppings concentrated in 1 or more "toilets" at some distance from the nest. I've also seen people walking them on a leash.
EDIT: to close this loop from cats back to long-aired rodents: guess what animal carries my hometown's slang name dakhaas (roof hare). An aachteleke daakhaos however indicates a bipedal individual with the IQ of an actual hare
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Time for the inevitable Python reference:
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A wee bunny entered my yard the other day and in 10 minutes ate more salad than I've had in a month.
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Also, indeed. Easier than to invent rumination I suppose! Originally Posted by citizenk74
And they say lettuce isn't for rabbit (when I point out I'm not one)... Originally Posted by A. Kingstone
I don't get them here, but I do have snails. Lots of them, and huge ones. Without drastic measures I wouldn't have any produce from plants 1-year plants and I still have to keep my squash babies inside until they have become properly prickly.
And I can't even eat them (I'd have no qualms serving flora and fauna from my garden ^^)
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When I was a child, my mother fed a little wild bunny that she found in her vegetable garden. He became so tame he would sleep on the living room sofa and apparently would go to the refrigerator to beg for food. I don’t remember it, but my mother has ZERO imagination, so I believe the story is 100% true.
Eventually “Peter” disappeared. Likely a victim of an owl or coyote.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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As I tell my wife when we have a new family of goslings or ducklings out back, DON"T NAME THEM, it may lead to melancholy in the future!
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Re- Naming. When I first took possession of my little place 5 years ago a chipmunk ran across the roof and into the attic!
He and all subsequent generations - Freddie The Freeloader.
The red squirrels (way more interesting than chips) are Minnie The Moocher.
We now follow a contractual agreement that they are cool outside the structure, not inside. So far no litigation.
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My ex-wife's cousin moved to England--currently a chemistry professor at Cambridge--and his then-wife was French. She was nuts about Escargot. So when they had a little house in England with a typical garden out back, she set out to harvest snails. They put little saucers of beer out on the patio--turns out snails are nuts about beer. When we were there, there must've been 100 or so hanging round ripe for the picking. Originally Posted by RJVB
Apparently, there is a rather lengthy "purification" process to put the snails through before you eat them which gets rid of impurities and waste products. So it was a lot of work for a little protein.
I'm not squeamish about snails at all though. Love some escargot with butter and garlic.
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Dang, I mixed up 2 species. The voracious critters I meant are slugs. Snails can be a problem too but you need many more of them. We have snails, of course, mostly the common "petit gris" which can be eaten but isn't particularly tasty. We do have the actual Burgundy snails (huge and thus *old* ones; I know a spot where you can probably gather a good meal) but they're protected in France. Not that this would stop me from preparing a dozen or two once every so often if that were possible without endangering the population, but as you say, it's a lot of work. You first have to let them fast for a long time, then wash them, etc. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
I "save" the occasional wood dove from the neighbourhood cats roaming in my terrain; those are a lot less work to prepare and not something you can find easily in a supermarket deepfreezer
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That's a nice, big, sticky gal (and guy, presuming sea snails are hermaphrodytes too)! Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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I like bunnies.
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