I apologize for the length of this post...
Lost another rabbit today. *sigh*. It's become clear we can't continue doing what we're doing. We're looking at getting a dog in the next month or so, but the dog won't be ready to sleep out with the animals full time for at least a year, and we can't wait that long.
We started our colony with 5 New Zealands - a breeding pair and 3 8 week olds. We're down to the breeding pair and one baby from that group. I rescued 4 does and a buck last week, and today we lost one of the does.
So we've had rabbits for less than a month, and I've only managed to retain 7 of 10. I'm not liking my numbers here.
Whatever is taking them is leaving nothing behind. My experience with raccoons and possums has been them just taking heads and leaving everything else behind...
What's crazy is whatever is taking them isn't bothering my 2 cats or my 4 chickens - the cats are in the woods all day, and the chickens free range all day and are in their coop (not yet shut) right across from the rabbits when the rabbits get taken. It's usually somewhere around 4-6pm, right when it gets dark, because they're usually gone by the time I go outside to close the chicken coop and secure the rabbits in their house.
Our current setup is a giant fenced off dog run...something like 30ft x 16ft. The bottom 2 foot of fencing is doubled with a layer of hardware cloth. There's no signs of digging or of anything being pulled through the bigger holes of the rest of the fence, so the only options seem to be a bird or something that's climbing the fence and taking them back out the top. But there's no fur laying around...NOTHING to suggest there was any kind of disturbance. I'm really completely stumped.
They are safe in their house at night - I have never lost one who was housed. Short of only letting them out for a few hours during the day (which would seem cruel to me - their house is only 4ft x 3ft for 6 of them (out giant NZ buck has his own area and he's never been bothered) - I can't figure out what the solution is. My husband wants me to put them in cages until we figure it out, and that breaks my heart to have to cage them after all the freedom they've had. But it also breaks my heart to keep losing them... Advice on the easiest way to predator proof such a large space would be appreciated. I'm considering electrifying the fence at this point...
Lost another rabbit today. *sigh*. It's become clear we can't continue doing what we're doing. We're looking at getting a dog in the next month or so, but the dog won't be ready to sleep out with the animals full time for at least a year, and we can't wait that long.
We started our colony with 5 New Zealands - a breeding pair and 3 8 week olds. We're down to the breeding pair and one baby from that group. I rescued 4 does and a buck last week, and today we lost one of the does.
So we've had rabbits for less than a month, and I've only managed to retain 7 of 10. I'm not liking my numbers here.
Whatever is taking them is leaving nothing behind. My experience with raccoons and possums has been them just taking heads and leaving everything else behind...
What's crazy is whatever is taking them isn't bothering my 2 cats or my 4 chickens - the cats are in the woods all day, and the chickens free range all day and are in their coop (not yet shut) right across from the rabbits when the rabbits get taken. It's usually somewhere around 4-6pm, right when it gets dark, because they're usually gone by the time I go outside to close the chicken coop and secure the rabbits in their house.
Our current setup is a giant fenced off dog run...something like 30ft x 16ft. The bottom 2 foot of fencing is doubled with a layer of hardware cloth. There's no signs of digging or of anything being pulled through the bigger holes of the rest of the fence, so the only options seem to be a bird or something that's climbing the fence and taking them back out the top. But there's no fur laying around...NOTHING to suggest there was any kind of disturbance. I'm really completely stumped.
They are safe in their house at night - I have never lost one who was housed. Short of only letting them out for a few hours during the day (which would seem cruel to me - their house is only 4ft x 3ft for 6 of them (out giant NZ buck has his own area and he's never been bothered) - I can't figure out what the solution is. My husband wants me to put them in cages until we figure it out, and that breaks my heart to have to cage them after all the freedom they've had. But it also breaks my heart to keep losing them... Advice on the easiest way to predator proof such a large space would be appreciated. I'm considering electrifying the fence at this point...
