Baby bunny season already.

Meowy Catkin

Meowy Catkin

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I'd just finished changing the mare's poultice and put her in the sand school to stretch her legs, when I noticed that the brown cat had caught something. It was a tiny baby rabbit and he gave it straight to 'his' kitten (in my sig).

I don't mind the cats hunting, the brown one is very quick at killing his catches but he does insist on eating them inside the house :mad: and now he's teaching the spotty one to do the same. :rolleyes:

Has anyone else got baby rabbits in thier fields yet? It's definately sooner than last year.
 
Oh no! Last year was awful. My big ginger cat pulled all the babies out of one nest and only ate their heads! Expect i will start finding dead bunnies in the tack room soon.......or rather headless bunnies!
 
yep, there are regular half eaten baby bunnys in the tack room, or you come across the cat eating them in the haybarn :-/
 
china said:
yep, there are regular half eaten baby bunnys in the tack room, or you come across the cat eating them in the haybarn :-/
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That just reminded me of our old yard cat: he used to catch adult bunnies, eat the front half then stash the back half in the hay barn, tail end up, for future use.

I used to know there was one there by the screams that came out when one of the girls bent down to pick up the 'cotton wool bud' someone had dropped.... :D
 
Yep, one of our cats has been catching at least one a day for the past week. She comes into the house looking about 8 weeks pregnant after scoffing them, unfortunately she leaves the remains in the hay shed, and the dogs have already sussed this out and dive in there at every opportunity.:p
 
When I was younger (much, much younger!;)) we lived in a bungalow. My old tabby mouser was a mean baby bunny killer and would insist on bringing his meals home and finishing them in the bath.........:eek: The window was always left open during the warmer months of the year, so I suppose this was the ideal environment for him to enjoy his meals. :eek:

As most of his killing sprees were at night, and Dad was always up first in the mornings, it was his task to clear up after Tod's dinners. Eeeewwww! At least the bathtub was relatively easy to wash out! :D
 
Yep, loads of 'em- and they're already quite big.Think my paddock must be feeding the equivilent of another equine mouth the amount I've caught sight of. Haven't seen yard cats with any yet though.
 
Mine bought his first one in today!! At least i am assuming it was a bunny as had one small ear and a heart!! (why do they always leave an organ of somesort??..usually where i will tread on it in bare feet!!)
 
I used to know there was one there by the screams that came out when one of the girls bent down to pick up the 'cotton wool bud' someone had dropped....
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That's so funny!

why do they always leave an organ of somesort??..usually where i will tread on it in bare feet!
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Blackhorse, I've done that too. I think the cats leave those bits purely so that they can laugh at us for treading on them! ;)
 
I have a slightly icky/depressing baby bunny tale from a couple of weeks ago.

Came home after going to Crufts on the Saturday and turned the heating on. Cue a horrible scream and smell of burning fur from the vicinity of the back boiler (situated in the chimney behind an electric fire). Obviously shut the heating off asap and twig that both cats are hanging around the fireplace.

Evict both cats and remove grill under fire and spot baby bunny that is now in a crevice right at the back of the chimney. To get there it must have managed to somehow squeeze through the small hole at the side of the fire and hidden under the boiler.

No access down the side of the chimney, solid wall with cables and gas piping. So we then spend the next hour and half or so extracting bunny from under the fire using (amongst other things a snooker cue and loft ladder grabber). Finally retrieve it when it is persuaded under the half-dismantled fire and found it has myxi. So we decided to bop it on the head, poor little blighter...
 
Faracat said:
The heads must be tasty because ours like the heads best too.
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Yes, male cat eats from ears to waist, then his friend female ex-feral eats the torso! Often under my bed. Fleas are the other nightmare, they jump off the rabbit onto the cats - but think MAY have found a solution!
 
Faracat said:
Please share! :D I Frontlined the cats earlier this week and I've just been got by a flea today. :mad:
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Well, it's early days with the testing....been feeding them a pinch of brewers yeast since last autumn as wanted to see if there was anything other than strong chemicals i could use for this. (They get tape worm too dont they from the rabbit, but that's another story!) Knew yeast was good for them anyway, but pick this tip up somewhere. The two rabbit dinners so far have produced the fleas, and the flicking ears, scratching but then they seem to disappear. No trails in the fur, or me bitten. I also dust the cats with human grade,diatomacious earth powder if think there's fleas-not great for the one with mild asthma, but damp his fur on the surface and he's fine. However, I'm not sure how long the gestation period is for these little nippers...they may have gone to ground then reappear very hungry and blow my experiment away!!
 
Fleas can go without food for six months,look like an empty husk and on vibration jump up and feed.I knew a vet nurse doing a paper on it,and she put one in a blood tube (empty) to test that out. Flea eggs are also very hardy ,and hatch to vibration.Which is why ,in Kenya, when the settlers moved down to their coast houses for holidays the floor would be covered in Pyrethrum powder and the house sealed.On return it was the practice to roll in a big empty tin ,,such as a Tate and Lyle Syrup one,filled with pebbles.As it rolled accross the floor the hatching fleas jumped up into the powder and died.
 
EAST KENT said:
Fleas can go without food for six months,look like an empty husk and on vibration jump up and feed.I knew a vet nurse doing a paper on it,and she put one in a blood tube (empty) to test that out. Flea eggs are also very hardy ,and hatch to vibration.Which is why ,in Kenya, when the settlers moved down to their coast houses for holidays the floor would be covered in Pyrethrum powder and the house sealed.On return it was the practice to roll in a big empty tin ,,such as a Tate and Lyle Syrup one,filled with pebbles.As it rolled accross the floor the hatching fleas jumped up into the powder and died.
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Thanks East Kent, very interesting-may be the powder-which is also supposedly anti flea is part of the effect? I'd better think about rolling in DE powder everything a rabbit's eaten!!
 
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