Dog found bunny nest
Hi everyone, so about five days ago our dog uncovered a bunny burrow in our yard and got one of the bunnies out of the nest and in his mouth. The bunny seemed okay and was moving so we gently moved it back to the nest and covered them with the fur we found around our yard. Unfortunately it must’ve had some internal injuries because when we checked them this morning one was dead (pretty sure it must’ve been the one our dog got). We’ve removed the dead bunny because we figured it probably wasn’t healthy for the other bunnies if it stayed.
Anyway, one thing I wanted to ask about is that the mother bunny never covers her babies back up. We have seen her once (pics included) but every time she leaves they’re still exposed. We had taken to re covering them with the fur and grass but the fur is pretty much gone now and when we try to cover them with grass now they’re more alert they get scared and try to hop up. One thing we’ve been doing is stacking some stones and putting our fire pit grate over top of them to give them some cover during the day (and to keep our dog away from them) and then we take it off in the evening after our dog goes out for the last time and leave it off for a few hours in the morning so that mama has time to feed them.
I’m wondering if you think it would be okay to just leave the set up all of the time so that they’re protected overnight? Right now we stack it two stones high but we could do it three stones high so mama has more room to get in there. I just worry that the change would deter her from attending to them.
Any thoughts?
(Located southwestern Ontario Canada)