Arthur and Alice have escaped!! THEY ARE BACK!!!!

Hi everyone

I haven't been on here for a while but I had to let you all know that Arthur and Alice have escaped and are living wild!

Its only been a few days but last week in the morning I went out to feed them as normal and noticed that the bolted door to the run had been pushed and pulled (I'd duct tape the screw ends to protect them but the bunnies had used the tape to pull) till the bracket had bent enough to allow the door to open slightly.

My heart was in my mouth at this point and I frantically searched the garden only to find a deep hole burrowed under the back fence and under the wire I had buried! After searching for 4 hours I couldn't find them anywhere and had to go to work.

Since then my partner and I have been searching non-stop. On Saturday I walked with my son to the local picnic site, its next to an allotment ground and surrounded by farmland of fields and woodlands. Well imagine my surprise when Arthur sticks his head out of a rabbit Warren!!!! I also saw Alice sitting amongst the trees and I tried to catch her but because I've not petted the rabbits and let them come and go as they please she isn't very tame and she just ran off down a rabbit hole and joined Arthur. I have little choice now other than leaving them there. I have tried to coax them out with food but the area is food rich and Arthur bearly even looked over. Instincts have clearly kicked in. I have phoned the R.S.P.C.A incase they have any calls from people about them. Otherwise I don't know what to do. I don't want to hassle them and make them move on again but I am worried about them living wild. They are both up-to-date with injections and both have had the op so they can't breed. I am annoyed with them though for being ungrateful little things but I guess they are just following their instincts. I am worried though when the winter comes and the food stops. I still go everynight to see them and try to coax them home but no luck so far.

oh god I must admit I dont know what to say! I would be gutted and frantic with worry if this happened with my buns. What a horrible shame I mean... there are worse things I am sure than a rabbit living wild but if it were one of mine I just couldnt sleep. So sorry, I am not trying to make you feel worse than you already do I am just being honest. Have they merged into a warren or are they on their own?

oh no, how awful. and how frustrating that they keep popping back down holes. i really feel for you. one thing is i would leave the tunnel into your garden open just incase. Are they living in a disused warren or in with a load of wildies? perhaps you could keep visiting them/keep an eye on them in the hope that when food does start getting scarce you can catch them but keep trying in the meantime. maybe if you went and sat there and read a book every evening for an hour or so they might start coming over to investigate etc and then after a few weeks you might be able to grab them?

The little so-and-so's
Digging under the fence!
Talk about the great escape

The RSPCA may be able to lend you a trap in an attempt to catch them but as you say the last thing you want is to scare them away.

I wish I could think of something else to help. As Rachel has said maybe all you can do is keep visiting and try to tempt them nearer - into a dog cage maybe?

Excellent ideas thank you. I don't know if the burrow is live but there are certainly zillions of rabbits around there. The thing I find weirdest is that they've never shown much interest in digging in the garden. Alice was certainly the foreman though as she had started digging the peat in my plant pots. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time when I saw Arthur's cheeky head. Perhaps it is all novelty at the moment for them. I have left the tunnel they made open and I've half cleaned the hutch so they would smell something familiar if they did come back. I have been up there so hours just sitting but those warrens are vast and I never know where I will see them next. I am pleased of course that they are both alive and thats all I have to hold on to at the moment. I'll just have to keep at it and hope they come home soon.

Oh hun I don't know what to say..... little devils... they need a macked bottom. If and when they wanna come home, I am sure they will show up. I would be gutted too, ungrateful little so and so's.

god rabbits ARE ungrateful little so and so's arent they!!! they just dont think like we do. I am so sorry hon what a nightmare for you. How long have you had them?

First let me tell you I nearly fell off my chair reading this, I thought I had posted it myself!!
But my Arthur died last month. How on earth is it possible that you also have Arthur and Alice!!

Then regarding your problem, don't panic yet. My friend's rabbit went walkabout once and turned up in a garden close by.
Do inform everybody in the neighbourhood and try putting things they extremely like. My rabbits (especially Alice) went walkabout a few times and they can survive perfectly on what the garden offers, so you have to tempt them.

I hope you will be able to cuddle them real soon!

What a worry for you. We had a doe who used to escape but she didn't venture out of the garden and would hide in the huge leylandii hedge that surrounds our garden. She was a devil to catch and it always amazed me how quickly they can run and how slippery they are when you grab them.

All I can suggest is that you follow the advice about visiting them and hope that you can catch them. We once caught Holly, but just leaving her and putting food into the hutch. Eventually she went in to eat and we just shut the door.

Good luck. At least you know they are safe and relatively happy.

I second what Davina said about the live traps, the RSPCA should be able to set a couple up...or at least tell you where to get some. Other than that he next best thing is to coax them out, cover the burrow and arm yourself with a net....problem is if you scare them you run the risk of never getting near them again should you fail to catch them.

I hope you manage to find a solution and get them home safe and sound.

I've said it a million times and I will say it again: I believe you have a masochistic streak in you if you have rabbits.

Jesus I agree with Sooz, could you not wait til they go into a burrow & then put something over the end so when they do decide to come out they have no choice but to be captured? OMG this is scary, I'd go insane!!

Thanks everyone. the RSPCA have given me a humane trap and I've put posters up around the area asking for the publics help. Nothing this morning though and I haven't seen them again since the other day

Fingers crossed though, positive to the end.

Oh poor you Kay - what a worry for you. Tibbs did it once and I was distraught.

You could use the old trapping technique of putting light, loose netting over all but one of the rabbit holes you can find on the warren, then borrowing a MUZZLED ferret and sending him down the open hole. The rabbits pop out of the other holes when they smell him and you grab 'em. It's not nice but it might work as a last resort?

THEY ARE BACK!! Just turned up in the back garden and Arthur had the cheek to grunt for food! naughty bunnies have turned me grey this past week - perhaps they are the real Easter Bunnies!

Oh my god!!!!!!! Have you managed to contain them? What NAUGHTY little bunnies!!!! Oh they are so cruel arent they!! What has happened? Are they in their run safe & sound?

That is excellent news, I'm so pleased for you!
Do they seem to be OK (apart from hungry)?

Holy hell!!! That's amazing - I'm so pleased for you!!! Have you actually had your hands on the little devils?!

fantastic .r they ok

I'm really pleased they've come back, definitely a naughty pair of bunnies! They've obviously realised that looking after yourself is not all it's cracked up to be!

Hope they are both OK

They sound like very naughty teenagers & need the car keys taking away! I want pics of these rabbits!

This is what I saw when they came back! Camera is shaky because I couldn't believe it!


She is either going to pick the lock again or she wants a part in Kung Fu Panda! (thats hay not teeth )


Both checking out their new run and hutch - reinforced!


They are both fine and I've had them vet checked. Had their jabs updated just in case.

she looks very spoiled in that pic with the hay!

In that first picture are they in or out of their enclosure?

I can't believe it, this is so fantastic I am so happy for you

Little monsters tho, how could they do this to you and then decide they are better of being pampered after all. OH laughed so much when I told him they had decided to return home, he couldn't believe the cheek of them either. We are both so pleased that this story has a happy ending.

Guess they have just been on a 'spring holiday'

It is the spring madness isnt it!