Can I give young rabbit food (Alfalfa hay and young rabbit pellets) to the malnourished feral bunnies around my city?

[gelliebean]

Backstory: My city has a really bad feral rabbit problem. In select areas, you can find dozens of feral rabbits. I guess a few years ago some people released their pet rabbits and over time, a lot of colonies have popped up with the cutest little rabbits. My first rabbit was one of those. I found her beside a parking lot. She was surprisingly friendly and not scared of me at all (which makes me believe she was abandon and not born feral) so I picked her up, yes she willingly let me, and I took her home with me.

I rescued my bun at the beginning of October. She was estimated around 4 months, so she was eating alfalfa hay and young rabbit pellets from Oxbow. Now that she's almost 6 months, she needs to be on a full adult diet. I know a lot of people would not buy opened pet food on Kijiji, so I was curious to see if I could give her remaining food to the feral rabbits of my city. All of them are malnourished and underweight (Hell, I've had my girl for almost two months and she's still too thin). Because we haven't hit "real" winter yet, I'm guessing the babies are still alive. The vet told me that my girl wouldn't have survived the winter, and a lot of the small rabbits under a year won't either because there is no food. I really want to help some of them out.

 

[Preitler]

Worst thing to happen would be getting them in shape for making more rabbits, which then will be thin and malnourished, until the population is big and dense enough for a disease to spread. But one bag of food isn't going to tip the scale for survival anyway.
What you did, taking a bunny in, is the right way to fight that problem.

I would just fading out the pellets gradually by mixing them with the new ones until the bag is gone. All this "at this age they need this brand, this pellets this and that" is mostly overrated marketing, it doesn't matter much what pellets you feed since it shouldn't be the biggest part of the diet anyway, it's a nice addition but not fundamental.
When I was a kid rabbits were a cheap and easy to feed staple food around here.

 

[Blue eyes]

Funny, just yesterday happened to watch part of a show discussing the feral rabbits in parts of Canada. Apparently the problem is rather controversial. They are trying to figure out a way to reduce/eliminate the feral population. Definitely don't want to increase it.

The presence of the feral population has, according to the documentary, been a draw for predators. There's been an increase in coyotes, bears and other predators coming into (human) populated areas in search of the abundance of feral rabbit prey.

 

[gelliebean]

Worst thing to happen would be getting them in shape for making more rabbits, which then will be thin and malnourished, until the population is big and dense enough for a disease to spread. But one bag of food isn't going to tip the scale for survival anyway.
What you did, taking a bunny in, is the right way to fight that problem.

I would just fading out the pellets gradually by mixing them with the new ones until the bag is gone. All this "at this age they need this brand, this pellets this and that" is mostly overrated marketing, it doesn't matter much what pellets you feed since it shouldn't be the biggest part of the diet anyway, it's a nice addition but not fundamental.
When I was a kid rabbits were a cheap and easy to feed staple food around here.

Funny, just yesterday happened to watch part of a show discussing the feral rabbits in parts of Canada. Apparently the problem is rather controversial. They are trying to figure out a way to reduce/eliminate the feral population. Definitely don't want to increase it.

The presence of the feral population has, according to the documentary, been a draw for predators. There's been an increase in coyotes, bears and other predators coming into (human) populated areas in search of the abundance of feral rabbit prey.

Gosh I know... I just feel awful seeing the babies starve to death, especially since that was the fate my bunny had, and she's the sweetest rabbit I've ever encountered. After rescuing my bun I definitely considered keeping hay in my car if I ever encountered some, but I guess it's for the best to let them die off hey?

 

[Preitler]

If you feel better, feed them. As long as you don't make an obsession of it it won't change much.

Since you seem to have feral populations there, I wouldn't bet on starving bunnies, they are tougher than we give them credit for.

I'm a bit wary of feral rabbits where they can cause problems for people, a recreational canter here had a problem with multiplying released domestics, did a lot of damage to the landscaping. Hunting them was out of question since there were always cityfolk around who liked those sweet little bunnys.
Next thing I heard from an employee was that "something" had been done about the problem, some weeks later most of the wild population and 14 of my 15 rabbits were dead. Can't proof it was them who spread the Myxo, but it definitly solved their problem.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

Has your girl been tested for parasites?

 

[gelliebean]

Has your girl been tested for parasites?

Yes

When I brought her to the vet after I found her, she had a few diagnostics ran including a urine test, fecal test, and a test for the nose discharge she had. No parasites surprisingly but I had to give her antibiotics for some bacteria they found in her stomach and probiotics for yeasty poop. Also critical care as she was very underweight and we had nebulizer for her with sodium chloride.