# What to do and what not to when if your bunny escapes (outside your house)



## larryng

_*Peanut DID NOT ESCAPE in any way .*_

With that said, does anyone have any advice to offer on

1) What to do

2) What NOT TO do

in the nightmarish situation of your rabbit escaping outside of your house.


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## Blue eyes

This may sound simplistic, but just don't let it happen.:big wink: I've had many rabbits over the years, but never had one "escape."


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## larryng

I never had any experiences with escaped rabbits. The closest experience to a rabbit escaping was my encounter with what was 99% chance a "throw away" rabbit.

My mother used the flower beds in front of my condo as a vegetable garden. One day she saw a rabbit nibbling away at her vegetable. She told me about the rabbit.

I came out and approached the rabbit. The rabbit didn't make any attempt to escape as I approached, so I picked it( I never checked bunny's sex) up.

The rabbit was a very healthy weight and it seemed very very healthy and active. I brought the rabbit inside my house. This happened around 8 am.

My first thought was that this might have "escaped" from it's owner. I made "found rabbit" paper posters and posted them on around my condo complex.

Around four pm I realized that this rabbit was most likely (99%) a throw away. The time I "caught" the rabbit was in the height of the recession a few years back.

I called animal control and animal control came at seven pm to pick up the rabbit.


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## iLuvMyLilBuns

*My 17 month old female holland lop rabbit has escaped 3 times. She lives outside in a hutch with a playpen attatched and we live in town.

The first time part of her playpen fell through and she escaped but we found her safely in our shed. The second time it was an extremely windy day and the top of her hutch blew open and she jumped out. I found her safely behind my neighbors house in a wooded area. The third time the wire on the bottom of her hutch fell through and I found her safely in the wooded area like the time before. 

All the times my rabbit escaped I freaked out. What if an animal had hurt her? Or traffic? So many thoughts were going through my mind. I am blessed that nothing happened to my rabbit. Just so you know, rabbits don't run away. They will usually only go a few blocks from home or stay in the yard. My advice to you if you bunny ever escapes is to calm down and take a breath. Look around your home and decide where you think your rabbit might of went. For me I got my whole family together and we searched for my rabbit. If you have any family/friends to help you that would be great. They can help keep you calm and also find your bunn faster.

Also my rabbits are very tame and when im outside with them they will run around loose and they don't leave my yard. It just takes patience to teach your lil bun where he lives. I wouldn't be worried about taking your rabbit outside as long as you have control over them  My rabbit didn't go far when she escaped and it could of been because she is very tame. So if your rabbit escapes she might wander farther because you don't take her out in the fresh air and sunshine.

I have fixed up my rabbits hutch/playpen because it was not good that she escaped so many times and I didn't feel comfortable. It happens and don't feel bad if it does. Mistakes happen. My bunn hasn't escaped in a while and I hope that she doesn't ever again 

My advice is if you keep your bunn outside keep the hutch/cage very sturdy so the rabbit cannot escape. I don't have much advice for keeping bunns inside but im sure it's about the same as keeping them outside 

I hope I don't get any rude comments aboout keeping my bunnies outdoors. Just so you know I am very aware and take precautions. I'm always checking on them because I would hate for either of them to run off  *:apollo:


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## larryng

I know what you're talking about. I had my last rabbit, Peanut, for three and a half years. 

I only took Peanut outside of my house for around six to seven times the whole time I had Peanut. I planned every outing meticulously as I was terrified of an escape. 

Peanut never escaped.





I agree with poster that said mistakes and accidents do happen. That why I started this thread.

I do with Blue eyes wrote:


> This may sound simplistic, but just don't let it happen.:big wink: I've had many rabbits over the years, but never had one "escape."


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## larryng

Does anyone else have experiences like iLuvMyLilBuns and mine (with throw away rabbit) where a tame escaped rabbit just allow you to approach it and pick it up with no resistance?

I wonder if this is the norm for escaped tame rabbits?


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## Blue eyes

*larryng wrote: *


> in the nightmarish situation of your rabbit escaping outside of your house.


This sounded like you keep your rabbit indoors and worried about it escaping to the outside. Is that the case or is yours already outside and you were referring to situations Kylie describes?

I do know that our local rabbit rescue is often called in to "rescue" a throw away rabbit. Sometimes it can literally take them hours and many people to round one up and catch it. 

If yours is kept indoors, it should be virtually impossible to escape out the house unless one routinely leaves their door wide open and it becomes curious enough to venture out. An indoor rabbit isn't typically going to dart out into the unknown outdoors the way a dog might the moment a door is open. They prefer the safety of their familiar surroundings.


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## larryng

All my buns live in indoors.


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## nc_bunnys

It simply cannot ever happen here. We are infested with hawks. They stalked my Mini Rexes thru the sliding glass doors so often we have to put up shades.

All Buns are indoors!


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## larryng

My original intention of starting this was to ask other members was my experience of just picking up the throw away rabbit with no resistance at all the "norm".

First, I would like to say EVERY rabbit is an individual and individual responses vary from rabbit to rabbit.

Every escape situation is DIFFERENT. Every rabbit will respond somewhat differently under a escape situation. 

Escape prevention is the key.

Once a rabbit does escape there is NO BLANKET RULE that will apply to every situation.

I came this conclusion by reading the responses to this thread.

The end.


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## ldoerr

We used to let our rabbits run around the yard when we were out there watching them. One of the times we let them in the front yard to run. Tiger was a crazy 6month-1.5yr old at the time. When it was time to catch them to put them back in their cages, Tiger did not want to go. We tried to catch her with a BIG fishing net. She ran under my neighbors parcked car and would not come out. We ended up having to use a pole to push her out from under there and then net her. It took at least 1 hr to catch her. She was the best rabbit that I have ever known. I really miss her. (My dogs killed her early this year).


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## wendymac

Well, I've had some escapes, and only 1 was my fault. LOL The first one was Spaz, but that was because the bottom on the cheap hutch I had bought from TSC fell through. I couldn't find him, after searching for a few hours. Finally I gave up...and then my Texas Heeler started barking. I went back to the top of the barn and there was the rabbit, sitting there looking at the dog. LOL

The second time was a 8 week old baby buck. This one was my fault, because I have some of my cages open from the top...and I forgot to snap the lid when I left for the night. He was just hopping around the barn, having a heck of a good time. Thankfully he came hopping right over to me and I stuck him back in.

I do have a Houdini rabbit, though. Agent Gibbs was out of his cage one morning. The cage door was still shut, and he was hopping around. He, too, came right over to me and I stuck him back in. The very next morning, no Agent Gibbs. Again his door was still latched, but this time he was nowhere in sight. I searched for about an hour, went and got the kids and we searched most of the 10 acres around the barn...no sign of him. Kitty went up to the house and let the dogs out. The Texas Heeler, once again, started barking and there was Agent Gibbs. He was apparently hiding in the loose hay shaft by a stall.

Luckily my rabbits know me, so catching them is never the issue. Finding them is where I'd be lost without the help of the dog!


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## wendymac

Oh, and to this day I have NO idea how he not only got out, but how his cage door was shut. We only have 2 neighbors, and none with kids.


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## larryng

This illustrates that sometimes a tame rabbit can snap into "prey" mode when they are being persued even by their loving owners.

The original reason for the rabbit running away in the first place was " I still want to stay and play" run.

Once the loving owner starts a full pursuit the rabbit can snap into prey mode and run as if it's life is at stake.




*ldoerr wrote: *


> We used to let our rabbits run around the yard when we were out there watching them. One of the times we let them in the front yard to run. Tiger was a crazy 6month-1.5yr old at the time. When it was time to catch them to put them back in their cages, Tiger did not want to go. We tried to catch her with a BIG fishing net. She ran under my neighbors parcked car and would not come out. We ended up having to use a pole to push her out from under there and then net her. It took at least 1 hr to catch her. She was the best rabbit that I have ever known. I really miss her. (My dogs killed her early this year).


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## cassnessxox

My girl Cleo got out once. We just moved into a new house and the back yard LOOKED very secure. She must have squeezed under the gate :confused2: We live in a complex of 8 other houses all with a bit of grass out the front. To my relief she was happily on a patch of grass near the back but I was terrified she would run.

I followed her around a little and she would just hop away from me. I decided to get down very low and crawl towards her (how embarassing). I managed to grab her quite easily in the end (almost cried with relief and vowed to never let her out back again)

I have heard that if you lie down on the ground completely still your bun will get very curious and come over to see what you are doing. It seems to work when we need to get Cleo out from under the bed.


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## BlueCamasRabbitry

I've only ever had one rabbit actually escape from my barn and get outside when he wasn't supposed too. The latch on his cage hadn't gotten closed/shut right, and since it was summer, the barn door was open. I think my sister went out to feed or check on the rabbits and when she came back in she said my rabbit, Magic, was not in his cage. I of course started freaking out and we started looking for him. 

He didn't go far - he stayed in our yard and was just grazing and digging. Made me really glad that I always took my rabbits outside in my yard and let them just run around by themselves. They seemed to get a sense of a boundary, and they knew that the barn was where they got fed, so why go far from it? 

All the other times I've had rabbits escape, the door has been shut so I just get a surprise when I open the barn door and see a huge mess and a rabbit scurrying for cover. lol. 

Emily


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## ldoerr

I used to have a rabbit named Big Boy. One day I was feeding the rabbits and when I got to his cage I noticed that he was gone. The cage door was locked. There was no way for him to open it. I started to freak out. Then out of know were here he comes hopping down the hill twards the barn wanting food. I finally figured out that the wire was not tight to the cage. (It was the first cage we had built. Made out of chicken wire stapled to thin wood.) A few of the staples had come out and there was a fairly big opening if you pulled at the wire a little bit. He must have slipped through that. 

That same rabbit eventually got moved into a traditional all wire rabbit cage with the standard wire latch. It was not long after that that he learned how to OPEN the cage door. He did that for fun. He was a nut. I had to keep a carabeiner on that cage to keep him in. I almost had to go the padlock route. I loved that rabbit and hatted him at the same time (he was not the sweetest thing ever). He was my first rabbit to win a leg at a show. If I had continued to show him and he had a pedigree he would for sure have been a regestered grand champion. I only took him to a couple of shows. When he showed he won.


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## Nancy McClelland

I came home form the vet with a new bunny and there was another bunny on our front lawn--the sprinklers were on next door. I got out of the car and said, "come here Bunny" and she came right to me and let me pick her up. Our neighbor on the next block told me that a friend adopted her when I asked where their rabbit was. I never told them I had her as I knew they had thrown her away. She was a very sweet little dutch girl.


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## littledwarflop

larryng said:


> Does anyone else have experiences like iLuvMyLilBuns and mine (with throw away rabbit) where a tame escaped rabbit just allow you to approach it and pick it up with no resistance?
> 
> I wonder if this is the norm for escaped tame rabbits?



Depends how 'tame' is tame I think!
When my rabbit escaped she didn't allow us to catch her until we shined a light in her eyes and she froze completely.


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## Azerane

It does largely depend on the individual rabbit and the situation. However I think a general rule, is simply not to chase them. Because obviously they are prey/flight animals, so chasing down a rabbit is only going to end up in a rabbit running from you. Best to approach slowly in most cases.


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## Bville

We have one of those live animal traps, I think it's called "have a heart", that we bought a long time ago to try and catch some critter that was getting into our attic and I have thought that it might come in handy if any of our rabbits ever escaped. I would be a little worried though that if they did trip the door that the sound of it slamming shut might scare them to death. I would probably put that out as well as put out food in an open exercise pen or something and still do a search around the house and neighborhood. 

Luckily, my rabbits have never escaped. I have carelessly left the door of the exercise pen open a couple of times with the same rabbit, Smokey. Once he was in the garage with the door closed and the other time he was on our deck so he was not out in the open per se. He had a little adventure sniffing around outside the pen, but he was exploring very slowly and cautiously so I just approached him slowly as well and he either went back in the pen by himself or I was able to pick him up.


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## Bindi

I've had a few accidents in the past... Oren used to be easy to corner thankfully, especially after he lost his full eyesight. Pandora not so much... she used to hide in a big bush and if you went one way, she'd go the other. Thankfully Mattie hasn't escaped so far, although he's tried it a few times!


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## lovelops

ldoerr said:


> We used to let our rabbits run around the yard when we were out there watching them. One of the times we let them in the front yard to run. Tiger was a crazy 6month-1.5yr old at the time. When it was time to catch them to put them back in their cages, Tiger did not want to go. We tried to catch her with a BIG fishing net. She ran under my neighbors parcked car and would not come out. We ended up having to use a pole to push her out from under there and then net her. It took at least 1 hr to catch her. She was the best rabbit that I have ever known. I really miss her. (My dogs killed her early this year).




Oh my gosh I'm so sorry to hear that... I hope you did something to your dogs. My dogs try to mess with my rabbits and if they do they are getting a can of whup ass..

vanessa


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## lovelops

larryng said:


> I never had any experiences with escaped rabbits. The closest experience to a rabbit escaping was my encounter with what was 99% chance a "throw away" rabbit.
> 
> My mother used the flower beds in front of my condo as a vegetable garden. One day she saw a rabbit nibbling away at her vegetable. She told me about the rabbit.
> 
> I came out and approached the rabbit. The rabbit didn't make any attempt to escape as I approached, so I picked it( I never checked bunny's sex) up.
> 
> The rabbit was a very healthy weight and it seemed very very healthy and active. I brought the rabbit inside my house. This happened around 8 am.
> 
> My first thought was that this might have "escaped" from it's owner. I made "found rabbit" paper posters and posted them on around my condo complex.
> 
> Around four pm I realized that this rabbit was most likely (99%) a throw away. The time I "caught" the rabbit was in the height of the recession a few years back.
> 
> I called animal control and animal control came at seven pm to pick up the rabbit.



That's too bad you didn't keep it. It seems like it had a nice temperment..

Vanessa


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## lovelops

nc_bunnys said:


> It simply cannot ever happen here. We are infested with hawks. They stalked my Mini Rexes thru the sliding glass doors so often we have to put up shades.
> 
> All Buns are indoors!



Same here... We have red tailed hawks here, owls, feral cats, everything... you name it. The hawks were stalking my smallest chihuahua's one time. I had to go out with a baseball bat to drive the owl away. I had a friend whose Chihuahua was carried off by an Owl before and am not going to have it happen to any of my pets.

Vanessa


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## Shadow_Bunny

My family just got a rabbit from another family a week ago and they said to keep him outdoors because he hated being inside and a couple days ago he escaped his cage and we live by an 80 acre yard with coyotes. We have set his food out with treats but he hasn’t come back yet and we are worried. What do we do?


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## JimJam

I can’t see what more you can do Shadow_Bunny except wait and hope he comes back... good luck and I hope you find him safe and sound xx


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## Whiterabbitrage

I had a houserabbit years ago that slipped outside when I wasn't looking. When I stepped outside and saw our rabbit, I started scolding her and she mad a mad dash back into the house!


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## Cookiemonster

Set out food for him and maybe a live trap to catch him... the live trap will not hurt him in anyway...


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## Hermelin

You can walk around and see if you find your rabbit and try to catch him, I’ve catch rabbit before and you need to be fast. It was my friends rabbits that ran away which was my rabbits kits, I manage to catch both with my hands with luring and being fast. 

Because your rabbit was new to the surrounding it might not be close and find the food. And he dosen’t know the area. 

But sometimes they come back after some days as one breeder I know, one of the better show rabbits ran away but after 8 days she found her and her dad manage to catch the rabbit. 

I hope you find the your rabbit.


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## Kevins' grandbunny

Kevin, my minirex, escaped his outdoor run a few days ago. My husband and I slowly herded him back to the pen where my husband lifted it up (open bottom) and he went right back in.


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## A_Ponderance

Rabbits are prey animals, reacting negatively to any fast motion in their vicinity. I have an escaped rabbit about once a month (total barn count over 100) and they are sometimes very easy to catch, sometimes very challenging. 

Step 1: Locate the escapee but do not approach. 

Step2: Do your normal work outside, near it, moving slowly. At first, the bunny with always move away. After a while (anything from half an hour to a few days) the rabbit will start to ignore you, thinking you have no interest in it. A more tame bunny will even come up to you while you work, as if to say "Here I am, why aren't you looking at me?" The less docile / socialized rabbits will often just start to hop around you thinking you are not a threat, assuming you have not made any wild attempts to grab it or moved fast around it. 

Step 3: When the bunny moves near enough to you, grab it. Often you can move slowly within a safe range to grab the animal with ease after time. A large fishing net can help a LOT with this task.

I fear putting out treats rarely does any good. Sometimes a bowl of their regular food will entice them but you have to remember to let them become accustomed to your presence because I can guarantee the first time they come to the food, they will be looking for an attack. 

Some bunnies simply will not let you get close if they can help it. If you can, create a sort of maze near where you have seen them. They will wander in and they you have the advantage. 

Hope this helps anybody who has an escaped rabbit. I wish I could guarantee this would work but, I figure it can't hurt.


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## jamesewaller

Nancy McClelland said:


> I came home form the vet with a new bunny and there was another bunny on our front lawn--the sprinklers were on next door. I got out of the car and said, "come here Bunny" and she came right to me and let me pick her up. Our neighbor on the next block told me that a friend adopted her when I asked where their rabbit was. I never told them I had her as I knew they had thrown her away. She was a very sweet little dutch girl.


hi larry,-I am sure there are allot of horror stories out there,we humans forget we are of the animal kingdom-and depending on our environment-determines our fate-we are all potenial-throw aways..-just look at the ie.homeless a health epidemic is about to unfold-similar to the black plague of Europe which killed over 20 million humans..history repeating itself on many fronts--may god help us-sincerely james waller joseph r cottontail rip


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## Mariam+Theo

When my rabbit was young he escaped from his hutch and into the garage. The garage door was cracked so that the cat could get in. When I got home I freaked out scared that he was gone for good. We looked around the garage and there he was! He came running straight towards me. Now I check his latches every time after I feed him so it will never happen again.


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## Liung

Mine are purely indoor rabbits, though when I lived in a house with a fenced in yard I VERY THROUGHLY rabbit proofed the fence and brought them out occasionally. The trick with closing gaps at the bottom of a fence is to have chicken wire going down, but instead of stopping when it reaches the ground (they can always dig under that), about half a foot of excess should bend into a corner and lay flat on the ground. Rabbits trying to dig under the fence don’t realize that they need to dig half a food back from the fence, rather right at the edge of the fence. And the grass will quickly grow through the wire and nicely hide it. 

But I personally am always paranoid of what might happen if my bunnies get away from me while outside. I take Delilah out a lot, because she LOVES meeting people, and Lahi goes out too to the vet and such. What if something happens? How will they be returned to me if they somehow get away? Lahi hates being touched and will run from anyone who looks like they might pick him up, and Delilah loves to be pet but is scared of being lifted, and will run from hands if she’s not in a petting mood. In the hypothetical situation that they’re outside and have gotten away from me, they’re probably scared and even if I’m around won’t neccessarily come toward me. To a certain extent I’ve trained Lahi to see me as a way to get out of a strange and scary situation, he’ll come over to me and reach up to put his paws on me, but that’s no guarantee. 

So: before they leave the house, always, they both have y-front harnesses with tags attached that have their names as well as my phone number, same as dogs would. Even when I was just letting them run around in the backyard, they’d have their harnesses on. The tags made some noise that helped me keep track of where they were, and if I needed to grab them in a hurry the harnesses made that easier. If they ever got out, anyone else who found them had a way of returning them to me. 

Delilah, who goes out more than Lahi, and doesn’t stay in a carrier when she does, is also microchipped. Tbh the chances of anyone thinking to check a rabbit for a microchip are low, but there is a chance, and therefore I have done it. I once had someone come into the clinic I was working at with a black lab that had no collar, and asked me to check for a microchip. There was none. That dog probably never made it home. 

When I bring Delilah out in her stroller to meet people, I also have a leash clipped to her harness as a “safety belt”. She’s never jumped out of the stroller, but in the event that one day she does, I have a way to catch her that doesn’t require me to actually get my hands on her first when she’s potentially scared, in pain, and trying to hide. 

In terms of finding rabbits escaped outside... I have seen once, a little cream bunny sitting out in a bush by a sidewalk. He wasn’t scared but when I got too close he hopped away. He’d begun living in a small wooded area behind some houses. I knocked on the door of the house he was in front of and the lady said that she’d seen him around for the past few months, and had been leaving carrots out for him, which was why he was so fond of that bush. She hadn’t known that that cream colour meant he wasn’t a wild rabbit. Based on what I saw of him, and the fact she said there were more, either someone had dumped a bunch of really young baby rabbits, or a pregnant mom who subsequently gave birth. I helped the lady set up a live trap for him and put her in contact with the local rabbit rescue, who wanted to come out and catch the bunnies, but I never heard what happened. Either way... these bunnies had been living outside long enough that there was no catching them by hand.


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## palemazy

We have two bunnies and a big garden. Today we let the bunnies out when it was a couple of hours until dark. I turned my back for a few seconds and when i turned back one of my bunnies had disappeared, we looked for her for hours and she wasn't to be found anywhere, when it was dark my Mummy wen't out to put some pak chow in the run, in the hope that it would tempt the bunny back over night, she spotted the bunny eating something in the raised bed, she must have been hiding in our giant herb and medicinal plant patch. Our bunnies our quite tame like "apollo" in this thread, that message gave us hope so thank you. So if your bunny is tame and it escapes there is some hope although i feel I must agree with others in this thread, don't let them escape, so everything in your power not to let it happen!


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## Kbarela

We have 2 rabbits that have been coming into our yard to eat. They have become semi tame in that they don't run from us. We are consented that they will be killed so my husband made a big cage for them. One went in and my husband tried to shut the door to catch it. It escaped and ran. Will it return and go back into the cage where it's food will be ?


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## Blue eyes

Kbarela said:


> We have 2 rabbits that have been coming into our yard to eat. They have become semi tame in that they don't run from us. We are consented that they will be killed so my husband made a big cage for them. One went in and my husband tried to shut the door to catch it. It escaped and ran. Will it return and go back into the cage where it's food will be ?



Are these domestic rabbits? You are right to be concerned. If coyotes don't get them, the coming summer heat will. 

By chance are you anywhere in the Phoenix or surrounding area? If so, I know of a rescue that may help to catch them.


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## Sulley Mohammed

My rabbit gave birth to 7 bunnies but gradually, they all died


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## MonsterBun

I’m currently in an active escape situation right now. My rabbit Max, or Monster, has escaped(definitely not the first time) and is currently hiding underneath my neighbor’s shed. He had been under here for at least an hour now. I’ve got apples at the opening to try to lure him out, but he’s not budging. There is only one exit, which is the one I’m staking out. Any ideas on anything else I can be doing?


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## MonsterBun

MonsterBun said:


> I’m currently in an active escape situation right now. My rabbit Max, or Monster, has escaped(definitely not the first time) and is currently hiding underneath my neighbor’s shed. He had been under here for at least an hour now. I’ve got apples at the opening to try to lure him out, but he’s not budging. There is only one exit, which is the one I’m staking out. Any ideas on anything else I can be doing?


Ok, we caught him.


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## Alicia0307

I’m so stressed out. My bunny Bugs escaped Yesterday. She spends the days on a bunny proof (or so I thought) patio. She move a board on the fence door and shifted a brick. Insane. For over 24 hours now we have been playing a game of tag. She hops around my building between my garage door and front door at dawn and dusk. Looks for me and then runs. She’s been hiding in an insanely thick shrubbery of my neighbors and I can even stick a hand in with thorns and succulent thickness. Well after 8 hours of catch yesterday I had to let it go. She survived the night and was staring at me at dawn today. Played this awful game for awhile til her day nap in bushes and then no sighting. Tonight again staring at me thru a window. I’m at a loss with this hunting game and feel like an awful human. I’ve tried treats, food, fruit, vrooms, blankets, laying, crawling. Everything. Leaving my gate open for her to hop back into the patio she has loved. She even while running chase has sprinted by with a tap of the nose (her kiss) to my foot. Ughhhh! Advice?


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## Hermelin

Alicia0307 said:


> I’m so stressed out. My bunny Bugs escaped Yesterday. She spends the days on a bunny proof (or so I thought) patio. She move a board on the fence door and shifted a brick. Insane. For over 24 hours now we have been playing a game of tag. She hops around my building between my garage door and front door at dawn and dusk. Looks for me and then runs. She’s been hiding in an insanely thick shrubbery of my neighbors and I can even stick a hand in with thorns and succulent thickness. Well after 8 hours of catch yesterday I had to let it go. She survived the night and was staring at me at dawn today. Played this awful game for awhile til her day nap in bushes and then no sighting. Tonight again staring at me thru a window. I’m at a loss with this hunting game and feel like an awful human. I’ve tried treats, food, fruit, vrooms, blankets, laying, crawling. Everything. Leaving my gate open for her to hop back into the patio she has loved. She even while running chase has sprinted by with a tap of the nose (her kiss) to my foot. Ughhhh! Advice?



Have you tried herding her to a solid wall and close her in with a x-pen. This will make her have a smaller area. Otherwise try the treats way, have her favorite treats throw it a bit to her and lure her to go into the patio or other place.

I have always lured my bunny Toste into a corner and closed him in when he escaped. It was a lot easier. Myself herd my bunny towards a direction while my little brother waited for him to run into the corner and close him in.

I hope you manage to catch your bunny.


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## Preitler

From my experience:

First, stop playing tag. Doesn't work, and just makes the rabbit nervous - it will avoid to go where you want it to go at all costs. You can't grab a rabbit if it's just in reach, they have otherworldly reaction times, and know exactly how close they let you come to always get away.

Plan ahaed.

If you are lucky you have a location where to corner her, but a lenght of fence, or connected playpen panels, or whatever to block her way back is a great help.
You can create such a corner or fence trap (rather big, several meters, U-shaped, so she doesn't realise at once that it's a dead end) in an area some meters away from that hedge or unaccessable hiding spots, putting something there to hide under might help too.

Then block all directions she could go that would make things worse, that is farther away or under other covers, with whatever is at hand.

To get her to your corner or trap, try to lure her there. Shake the pellets box, and put a bowl with pellets there, and retreat, read a book, dont stare at her. If she doesn't come out repeat several times after 5 minutes.
If luring her out doesn't work, herding can. 2 long sticks, about 2m/6ft each really help a lot to herd rabbits, if they are under something you can tap their behind, and once outside you can form a shallow V with the sticks so you can herd her appr. in the right direction.

Well, actually, its less herding, than nagging. Whatever you do, stay calm, move relaxed. If you are hectic and nervous, your bunny is too - see above, goes everywhere, just not where you wont it to.

Just move slowly closer, and stop just before she hops away, and wait. That is an uncomfortable situation, and she will hop away a few steps eventually. Use the sticks to avoid that she goes around you. Repeat.
If she bolts, just do nothing, no fast movements, no hectic attempts to grab her. Start from 0 5 minutes later.
If she keeps going left everywhere but where you want her - patience. Rabbits have quite limited endurance, and after 10-15minutes of keeping them moving they tend to be a tad more cooperative.

Once cornered, first make sure all escape routes are closed, espacially they way she went there. You can move that barrier closer and catch her when there isn't enough room to escape you anymore, or you can put a carrier, hidey house etc. there and herd her in.

But again, whatever you do, stay calm. No running, shouting, grabbing, act determined but not stressed.

My fences are more or less symbolic, and the garden is quite big anyway, so my rabbits learn from early on to return to their hutches, but sometimes they get other ideas.

Good luck.


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## Alicia0307

Thank you both so much! I am moving the Xpen to the driveway area now and get ready to build my walls for when she does her hiding under my car move. She made it another night! And nicely ate her food and bananas..... but still not the veggies she least prefers. I had a rabbit years ago but not one as sassy as this girl. It’s fascinating. The herding begins today!!


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## MonsterBun

If this becomes a persistent problem, investing in a large butterfly or fishing net might help. We got one for our two escape artists, and it helps immensely.


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## Hermelin

Myself taught my bunnies to come when being called, so the bunny that have run away at least 20 times always came when being called.

I just need to throw a treat to him and he would follow me like a shadow back to the house, if he stopped I called his name and he comes running again 

But no use trying to pick him up or try to reach towards him if he’s not cornered otherwise he will avoid me. The downside having a bunny that have bad eye sight and a bit scared of humans.

At least it made it a lot easier to capture him, myself live near the forest so when he run away it’s really hard finding him 

Myself believed he had run away again a few days ago. I had left my window open, so he could fit through and I saw the things at the window sill had fallen down. Wouldn’t be the first time he escaped the house but turn out he was hiding in one of the rooms in the house. He came running after calling for him a few times.


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