My cat brought a tiny baby bunny up to the house.

How do I feed this tiny baby. His eyes are still closed and a little bit of his umbilical cord is dry but still attached.

Please, don't tell me to just put him down.

Well this is sad but what I've found on the net so far tells me that only 10% survive their 1st week and I need to get them kitten formula.

I'll look for a wildlife rehabilitator too.

I have tried to raise many in my time.. Out of probably 30, only 2 lived. And they were already big enough to run around. I kept one for 2 years and let it go..the other I had almost a year and it actually died of something. Had him in the hall with kiddy gate up to keep him in the hallway. He just started running like super fast in circles for about 30 seconds and fell over dead..Heart attack maybe. Its very hard to raise them from the wild.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH good news!! My two younger kids followed that darn cat back to the nest for a third bunny and they found the nest! So we put the two bunnies my cat had brought up to the house back in their nest.

I think their mama is much better equipped to raise them than I!

We're also keeping that darn cat inside for a while!!

He can't help it....it's just too deeply engrained in his genes to be an awesome hunter!

That is good news. Our paper just ran an article saying how futile it was to try to raise a baby wild animal without it's mother/parents like in birds. The article did say that it was an Old Wives Tale that a bird or animal won't take the baby back once it has been handled. It recommended trying to find the nest and return the baby to it.

Good for you on finding the nest.

Bunny mother's milk is very rich and she only needs to feed them once a day, usually done at night. So even if you don't see momma bunny at the nest she will return to feed baby bunnies. Its always best to put the bunnies back. Rearing baby bunnies when they are that young is almost impossible. They succumb so easily to infection.
Glad to hear they are all back in their burrow.
Anne

OMG andigitallis... You are my new mentor... Tell me more about what you know about rabbits!
Or at least lead me to websites! You have told me more in your post than I have ever learned from my rabbit books or the rabbit websites I have searched. I have been keeping pet rabbits for 20 years now. I would get so upset with my mother rabbit for not feeding her Kits.. I think my mother rabbit is going to have a litter very soon.. She is certainly fat enough.

Do you know where I can find out more about being able to tell young males from females? It is such a guessing game with bunnies.I have better luck telling them apart when they are small than I do when they are 5-8 weeks of age!

I've had rabbits for over 10 years but I have to admit I try and prevent little ones from showing up,lol I have all mine fixed. I managed a pet store for many years as well and we did have one pair that we did let mate and raised the young, amazingly everything went okie dokie, cause we didnt bother Mom. Momma bunny is sooo much better at taking care of baby bunnies then we pesky people are.

Here is a good site for learning to sex a rabbit:
http://www.debmark.com/rabbits/sexing.htm
Its prob better you read it then me describe it. Want to stay family friendly, lol

I also have a website I created and write for all about pets. This is the rabbit section:
http://groups.msn.com/LandSeaSky/rabbits.msnw
And of course if you have any more questions just ask.

Its funny I saw your little rabbit picture and wondered right off if you kept rabbits too, now I know :-)
Anne

I know the feeling. As much as I hate the rabbits feeding on my young plants in the garden, I couldn't help it one day when my dog dug up a rabbit nest in the dirt in the grass of all places, and they were yelling for momma who was no where in site. So, we (not touching the babies with our hands) put them in a cardboard box at the property edge under the pine trees along with the nest materials we dug out of the ground. Momma still no where to be found. But at night, she did come back to feed them. She was very cautious though being out in the open. Then 2 days later we found the box empty. I think she took them somewhere else (because LO, I have more rabbits in my yard, bouncing everywhere). Anyway, that's my story.

Momma bunnies leave to help hide their litter, if momma is there during the day she would be an easy target for predators and they would be able to find the nest easily. Her main concern is to protect the litter. Hiding the young is the best defense. So when the nest was exposed she had to move them to a new location.
Also you can safely touch baby birds and rabbits or whatever this will not cause the parents to reject them. Birds for one have no sense of smell and parents have put a lot of energy into having and raising young they aren't going to just abandon them, it will only happen as a last resort, if the nest/den were flooded or something. Also if your ever in doubt about what to do with a wild animal you can call the Wildlife rehabilitator in your area these people are trained to care for wildlife:http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.htm