Killer cottontails!!!

[yoteslayer]

I caught a cottontail on monday and I caught another one last night, I put them both in a large box trap for safe keeping for training this weekend. When I got home tonight from work I noticed that one of the rabbits had scratched all of the hair off the back of the other rabbit, down to the meat. Can anyone explain this to me? was it possibly 2 bucks fighting? Im at a lose and had no idea this would happen. I let the BALD rabbit out and he took off so I let my female run him around the yard and he acted fine, but went in a rock pile shortly after I let him out.

[Casey Harner]

Ruttin bucks!!

[Ed Brown]

I don't know about cottontails but I always keep hare seperate. I use burlap bags.

[Big River Beagles S]

any 2 wild rabbits of same sex will do this in a cage its a teritorial (SPELLING) thing. I have seen this a couple different times. Had a litter of baby cottontails that my dad hit the nest on that I raised when I was younger I ended up having to seperate them out when the got bigger because of all the fighting and they never did breed in captivity so I turned them all loose. Scott

[Cooz's Beagles]

Rabbits are very territorial... I was told a few years ago when I bougt a domestic bunny from an auction that even tame rabbits of the same sex will kill each other when caged together unless raised from birth and even then sometimes they get mean! Don't know how tru it is never had more than one rabbit caged.

Cooz's Beagles
Cooz's Just Snoopin Around

Lone Pine Cooz's Nicci
Lone Pine Cooz's Swampin Sammi

[yoteslayer]

Live and learn I guess!!! The one rabbit was obviously the dominant one he didnt have a scratch on him, the other rabbit was not so lucky!!!

[jlupem]

I have raised rabbits before and am getting back into it. As far as tame rabbits go when they reach a certain age they get territorial. No matter the sex. I had a litter once and kept them in the same cage and after they were around 6 months old they started beating the hair off of each other. Needless to say I had to srperate them.

[rabbitearl]

Are you sure it was the rabbit and not the cage.I ve seen it were it was the rabbit trying to get out.Beating himself in the cage or box.Had a man last week that brought me two rabbits in a big cage.Both were in bad shape.Not saying rabbits want fight.But I think they be wanted to get free than fight.JMO.

Over the years of catching rabbits,I ve learn that its best not to handle the rabbits and let the rabbit out of the trap the next day.Not in a box or cage.Longest I ve ever had a growm rabbit to live, by himself in a cage and beaten himself up.Was 7 days.

Look at it this way.Can anybody raised wild rabbits in cages.Thats the reason ther s a big demand on wild rabbits.

[T LEE]

any 2 wild rabbits of same sex will do this in a cage its a teritorial (SPELLING) thing. I have seen this a couple different times. Had a litter of baby cottontails that my dad hit the nest on that I raised when I was younger I ended up having to seperate them out when the got bigger because of all the fighting and they never did breed in captivity so I turned them all loose. Scott

Years ago a girl next door gave me 3 Cottontails that she hand raised. The mother rabbit had got hit in the road and she removed the baby rabbits from a clump of hair in her rose garden (no bigger than rats) . When I got them from her they were big enough to eat apples and did so until they were old enough to eat rabbit pellets. They were as tame as pets. I ended up with 2 females and 1 male. I seperated all 3 when they were grown. I could Never get them to bred. I tried putting a female in with the male and they would fight and pull hair from each other. I tried putting a tame red back male rabbit in with each female and that Never worked (and he would have bred Anything that stood still long enough). They would fight also .

All the rabbits were released and we saw them from time to time. I just could never figure out how to raise a liter off them.

[warddog]

An old friend of mine that has a starting pen that I take rabbits to went through the same thing as T. Lee has described. He had found a next of babies just as described and put them in with a tame doe that had a litter. The tame doe raised the wild ones as her own but he had to seperate them when they got a little age on them. He also tried to breed them wild buck to wild doe, no way, wild buck to tame doe, no way and then tame doe to wild buck and ALL the wild rabbits would fight the others. He said the wild does would nearly kill the much larger tame bucks. He also had them in larger pens so they had enough room to have their own space but still they would fight. He also ended up turning them all loose in his pen. He had no trouble with the tame doe raising them when very young after he rubbed them with hair from her nest and put vicks on her nose but once they got to weaning age he had to seperate them from the tame ones and each other.

[yoteslayer]

I guess I just assumed the one rabbit did this to the other, but i could be wrong. When I found them the bald rabbit was cowering in the corner and the other was bouncing around like he was just put in there. Not sure what happened but this never has happened when I have just one rabbit in the cage.

[Bugs Bunny]

Rabbits are very solitary animals. As far as breeding them from what I have been told that they are only in heat for a short period of time I believe if I remember right it's around 24 hours. So if you don't catch them at the right time then don't bother. If they do get bred then right after they have a litter they are ready to be bred again. Thats why they have 3-5 litters a year up here in Michgan. I trapped a wild female and a wild male once and the female had babies but I waited a few days after she had them because to try to breed her because thats when I caught the male and she killed that male.

[bill huttozac]

As for breeding wild rabbits to domesticated ones, most Biologist tell me that they will not breed or conceive. Genetically, the two are close but not close enough same as with chimps and humans, simply put, they are two different animals.
I have had domesticated Does raise cottontail babies without any problem whatsoever. The cottontails were never calm in the cage and for their own safety were returned to the wild at 6 to 8 weeks of age.