My little gray dogs

[caryc]

I keep a water dish outside for the animals and birds and starting feeding them. Now these guys seem to think they are my little gray dogs. They will sit up just like dogs do.

The little guy in the first pic was about half that size about two weeks ago. I have as many as a half dozen come around at feeding time.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

Ha. Nice pics. I've been seeing lots of young rabbits, too. Don't really hunt rabbits anymore but I like to see 'em around. I was raised on rabbit hunting. I had a pet cottontail when I was a kid.

 

[Jim Puke]

Neat!

I just showed these pictures to my 20yr old daughter and she thought it was great.

 

[stevemb]

Neat pics, thanks ! We had a really long cold winter and I took to putting out corn along with the suet and seed feeders here. Along with the deer and turkey, now have a few rabbits too. Am awaiting a herd of little ones soon.

 

[Kevin]

What cute little dogs. Keep feeding them and i bet they will tell their friends....

 

[6gun]

Just wait till they start to repopulate and over run your place, :lol: :lol: :lol: always a bad idea to feed wild critters no matter how cute you think they are.

 

[caryc]

Just wait till they start to repopulate and over run your place, :lol: :lol: :lol: always a bad idea to feed wild critters no matter how cute you think they are.

I've lived here for over 40 years and the rabbit population always remains the same. There are coyotes and bobcats and birds of prey here to control them. There were three of those baby rabbits a couple weeks ago and only the one little one left now.

Me throwing out some bread for them is not going to change anything. Now if we were talking bears or mountain lions, I wouldn't be feeding them.

The only thing I need to keep under control is the ground squirrels. I don't feed them and I shoot them when they start to get overpopulated. They are too destructive with their digging especially under my sheds. They never stop digging. Once they start they'll pile up dirt two feet high if I don't stop them.

 

[6gun]

One of these morning your going to walk out of your house and not be able to take a step without stepping on a rabbit. :lol:

Aint enough predators eat rabbits fast enough once they find a free meal ticket and move in, just keep up feeding them and see what happens. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[caryc]

One of these morning your going to walk out of your house and not be able to take a step without stepping on a rabbit. :lol:

Aint enough predators eat rabbits fast enough once they find a free meal ticket and move in, just keep up feeding them and see what happens. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think I know better what's going on on my property than you do. Like I said, I've lived here for over 40 years. I have always provided water for the animals here. I have always thrown food scraps out for the animals to take care of. These rabbits have not moved in. They have always been here. A couple weeks ago I was watching out the window and saw a bobcat grab a rabbit at the water bowl.

If the predators find a good population of prey they will also stay in that area and feed. As I said, I don't think you know more about what's going on here than I do.

But thank you for you knowledgeable advice. Everybody dotes on that old chestnut "Blank like a bunny". It's just not true. The rabbits have never over populated this place in 40 years.

 

[contender]

Rabbits multiply so well because God knew he was making a tasty meal for other critters,,, man included.

Cary lives there, knows his land, his animals & such. Nobody else does. To criticize him for his habits shown above is wrong. I for one found it cute to see.
And I deal in stuff like this daily. I'm a certified Animal Damage Control Agent.
I see MORE problems with wildlife due to one simple billion dollar business daily. Bird feeders. I also see too many cases of people hand feeding potential dangerous species, as well as species that can be rabies vectors.
But hand feeding a few rabbits, when you see them eat all of the food you give, is not nearly the problem that has been presented.

Cary,,, Miss Penny loved the pics too!

 

[caryc]

Rabbits multiply so well because God knew he was making a tasty meal for other critters,,, man included.

Cary lives there, knows his land, his animals & such. Nobody else does. To criticize him for his habits shown above is wrong. I for one found it cute to see.
And I deal in stuff like this daily. I'm a certified Animal Damage Control Agent.
I see MORE problems with wildlife due to one simple billion dollar business daily. Bird feeders. I also see too many cases of people hand feeding potential dangerous species, as well as species that can be rabies vectors.
But hand feeding a few rabbits, when you see them eat all of the food you give, is not nearly the problem that has been presented.

Cary,,, Miss Penny loved the pics too!

Thank you Contender. I think some people here got the wrong idea. It's not like I saw a bear in my yard and starting feeding it. I have always fed the rabbits here by throwing out scraps. They have gotten used to me going to and from the house and walking and working around the yard. They don't move away until I get within 8 or 10 feet from them.

One morning in a very hot spell I went out to fill the empty water bowl as I always do and the rabbits didn't wait. I guess they were so thirsty they just came right up and started drinking with me right there. That was last summer.

I just decided to see if I could get them to eat out of my hand so I was very patient and sat on the steps and talked to them and finally they started to get brave and came up to my hand. As I said, the rabbit population has remained about the same for 40 years. I don't think it will explode because I got a few of them to eat out of my hand.

What's really funny is to watch them fight. They never hurt each other because when one rabbit charges another one he just pops straight up like he's on springs and the charging rabbit goes right under him. They'll do that over and over and just can't catch each other. It's really funny to watch.

I have some really tall trees about a hundred feet from my house. Some raptors have taken up residence there for the last couple of years. I started shooting bothersome ground squirrels but when those raptors moved in the squirrel population just kind of went down on it's own. Those guys are always around, I can hear them screeching up in those trees. Last week I saw one flying over my yard and it has what looked like a long ribbon hanging from it's feet, then it dawned on m that it must have been a snake. Oh well, I guess the raptors have to eat too. It wasn't the gopher snake that has been hanging around my place though because I saw him after that.

In the past, I have posted pictures of those raptors drinking from my outside water bowl too. Last week one of them actually took a bath in the bowl which was kind of hard for him because it's a round crockery bowl about a foot across. He did a lot of flapping around in that little bowl compared to his size.

What I should do is get a game camera and put it out aimed at the water bowl and see what other critters are drinking from it. As I said, I have bobcats and coyotes here too and some mornings the bowl will just be dry. The rabbits don't drink enough to empty the bowl.

 

[6gun]

And just what does someone from NC know about Jack rabbits out west? :roll: ever lived or even gone Jack rabbit hunting in the SW desert? I have hundreds of time.

So caryc I take it your not in a very remote area or living out in the desert then? Jack rabbits heavily repopulate very fast in the remote SW desert, if you live to close to town you also won't see many Jack rabbits just a few strays looking for water or food like your finding now.

 

[Badger Matt]

caryc - Thanks for the pics. We've got a couple rabbits that come out of the briar patch behind the yard to nibble on our grass...now that I've fenced off the grape vines, as well as the pear & peach trees. The dogs watch through the window with eager anticipation.

 

[caryc]

And just what does someone from NC know about Jack rabbits out west? :roll: ever lived or even gone Jack rabbit hunting in the SW desert? I have hundreds of time.

So caryc I take it your not in a very remote area or living out in the desert then? Jack rabbits heavily repopulate very fast in the remote SW desert, if you live to close to town you also won't see many Jack rabbits just a few strays looking for water or food like your finding now.

Well, I don't think you know that much because the rabbits in my pictures are not jack rabbits, they are cottontails. I don't live close to town. I live in the Lakeview Mountains. There are no jack rabbits here.

I don't know about hunting jack rabbits, they would be pretty tough and stringy to eat, unless you didn't mean hunting but just killing jack rabbits.

 

[6gun]

They look like jack rabbits not much difference, heck we don't shoot Jack rabbits to eat, we shoot them to keep the population down and to feed the buzzards they got to eat too. :lol:

 

[caryc]

They look like jack rabbits not much difference, heck we don't shoot Jack rabbits to eat, we shoot them to keep the population down and to feed the buzzards they got to eat too. :lol:

Well, since you've gone killing jackrabbits hundreds of times, I would think you'd know the difference between a jack rabbit and a cottontail. There is actually a big difference. This is a jack rabbit and below it is a cottontail. I think even you can see the difference. And why do you think you need to keep their population down out in the desert?

 

[CraigC]

Truth be told, I love rabbits. I like seeing them around. I used to like raising them. I love hunting them and I love eating them. So much finer a critter than squirrels.

One of these morning your going to walk out of your house and not be able to take a step without stepping on a rabbit. :lol:

Aint enough predators eat rabbits fast enough once they find a free meal ticket and move in, just keep up feeding them and see what happens. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You obviously don't know your ass from a hole in the ground if you can't tell a cottontail from a jack rabbit. Get a life and move on.

 

[caryc]

Truth be told, I love rabbits. I like seeing them around. I used to like raising them. I love hunting them and I love eating them. So much finer a critter than squirrels.

One of these morning your going to walk out of your house and not be able to take a step without stepping on a rabbit. :lol:

Aint enough predators eat rabbits fast enough once they find a free meal ticket and move in, just keep up feeding them and see what happens. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You obviously don't know your ass from a hole in the ground if you can't tell a cottontail from a jack rabbit. Get a life and move on.

CraigC :mrgreen: I obviously wasn't as blunt as you, but you did get right to the point.

Obviously living here for 40 years with all the rabbits around, I've shot and eaten some of them. The thing is, living where I do there is just not enough "green" for them to eat and the meat gets a little tough. If there is a year with ample rain and they get enough green stuff to eat they can be a little more tender. Since it's kind of a chancy thing, I just don't shoot them any more. But I am very fond of fried rabbit.

 

[WendyZXZ]

Those are some fun pictures!

 

[6gun]

They look like jack rabbits not much difference, heck we don't shoot Jack rabbits to eat, we shoot them to keep the population down and to feed the buzzards they got to eat too. :lol:

Well, since you've gone killing jackrabbits hundreds of times, I would think you'd know the difference between a jack rabbit and a cottontail. There is actually a big difference. This is a jack rabbit and below it is a cottontail. I think even you can see the difference. And why do you think you need to keep their population down out in the desert?

Rabbits is rabbits to me, my old eyes don't see much difference now days, all I see is the one in the bottom picture looks fat from being hand feed to much. :lol:

 

[caryc]

They look like jack rabbits not much difference, heck we don't shoot Jack rabbits to eat, we shoot them to keep the population down and to feed the buzzards they got to eat too. :lol:

Well, since you've gone killing jackrabbits hundreds of times, I would think you'd know the difference between a jack rabbit and a cottontail. There is actually a big difference. This is a jack rabbit and below it is a cottontail. I think even you can see the difference. And why do you think you need to keep their population down out in the desert?

Rabbits is rabbits to me, my old eyes don't see much difference now days, all I see is the one in the bottom picture looks fat from being hand feed to much. :lol:

Yeah, and his legs got shorter and his ears got longer. He must be wearin' shaded contacts too, cause his eyes got darker. If you can't see that, you really need to see your eye doctor.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Thanks for the laughs Guys. :wink:
Caryc,
Son has had a COTTONTAIL in their back yard in Corpus that they have been feeding for a month or so. It now has had 4 little ones that they have enjoyed watching growing up. Yep they are taking over their yard just like those ferrous ones you have. Yep before long they will have a rabid rabbit farm :wink: :wink: Yep there all also a few Jacks out in the fields.
Great pictures and will have to tell Son that he can hand feed them also.
Thanks

 

[contender]

Just because I'm a hillbilly from the mountains of NC,,, doesn't mean I'm uneducated. In fact, as I've mentioned, I make my living dealing with animals.
But to educate you about me a bit.
I was stationed in Texas for 2-1/2 years with the Army. I've chased jackrabbits with a Huey. I've shot my share of them as well. Plus,, I've traveled to many western states & enjoyed Jack shooting in many places.
And I do understand the ecosystem better than most folks. And not just the one around here.

 

[CraigC]

CraigC :mrgreen: I obviously wasn't as blunt as you, but you did get right to the point.

My patience with stupidity is wearing quite thin.

Rabbits is rabbits to me, my old eyes don't see much difference now days...

You need to get your eyes checked. It's about like look at a whitetail and an elk and saying, "deer is deer". Dumb.

Even this big dummy from Florida knows the difference between a cottontail, a marsh rabbit and a friggin' western jackrabbit.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Even this big dummy from Florida knows the difference between a cottontail, a marsh rabbit and a friggin' western jackrabbit.

Hi,

Craig, we don't have marsh rabbits out here, so I might not know what I was looking at if one marched up and knocked on the door, but as dumb as things often are here in CA, we do have to be able to tell the difference between cottontails and jack rabbits if we're gonna shoot 'em legally! Cottontails have a season and a limit, jacks are all year and no limit... dang, looks like we need to be able to count to five, too! ;)

As for the original idea of Cary feeding them, I'm at a loss to see the problem. I've never been to Cary's place, but have friends who live in his general area, and their places are a little bit sparse concerning fresh greenery the critters like: for every green sprout, seems like there are 50 rocks! Mean time, down the hill from him, someone in Hemet's wasting water as their HOA makes 'em water that lawn and keep it green all summer long, and then on the edges of town there are thousands of acres of alfalfa, and sod farms, which I'm sure get nibbled a bit. So who's really causing a "problem?"

Rick C

 

[wolfsong]

Coyotes do a real fine job of keeping the rabbit population in balance in most locales... Inbreeding also knocks their numbers down periodically, as their genetic make-up weakens them over time and they die off naturally. The strongest survive, mate, and start the cycle all over again.

It ain't complicated, folks. Nature has been humming right along for quite some time without much assistance from us. I suspect that it is capable of doing so for a bit longer...

Peace and God bless, Wolfsong.

 

[TinStarFirearms]

I really enjoyed these photos. I enjoy watching cottontails here in Oklahoma but I was not seeing as many as I wanted to. Last fall I started cutting cedar trees and instead of making one huge brush pile, I left the trees along the fence lines. I drug the trees away about a month ago to a central pile but the results were huge. I have seen an increase in the number of rabbits. I like to watch as they take a "dirt bath" in very fine dirt. They flip and flop every which way.

Andrew

 

[caryc]

I really enjoyed these photos. I enjoy watching cottontails here in Oklahoma but I was not seeing as many as I wanted to. Last fall I started cutting cedar trees and instead of making one huge brush pile, I left the trees along the fence lines. I drug the trees away about a month ago to a central pile but the results were huge. I have seen an increase in the number of rabbits. I like to watch as they take a "dirt bath" in very fine dirt. They flip and flop every which way.

Andrew

If you get them to trust you and feed them by hand, they will sit up and eat out of your hand just like a dog.

 

[mohavesam]

I've read this a couple times but have yet to see anyone refer to the jackrabbit correctlly - they are Hares. As different to a rabbit (cottontail) as a whitetail is to Wapiti. Sheesh! Public schools much fellas?

Seriously, the jacks around here are good eating when they feed on green grasses. Backstraps seared in butter and spices get turned into burritos easily. Sure, they have stringy silver tendons and tough feet meat, but - YA DON'T EAT THE TOUGH PARTS! Thought everyone knew that?

As for the OP, good on you for interacting and gaining just a little understanding of the behaviors! In deference to some prodding here, we don't need to kill everything we encounter. God will put edibles in our sights when and where we need - including pests. We only have one life; Take the time to interact if you are given that gift. ;)

More pics please. I recall some wild cottontail juveniles at our farm that all wrestled over a couple of tennis balls rolled their way. What a sight Wish we had taken pictures then.