Iris and her Bunnies by Carrie Noring
Iris had two litters for me, both of them large and both of them
with a 100% survival rate. She was such an excellent mother that when
my other females were due to give birth, I always put Iris in with
them. She always helped care for the babies and never squabbled with
the new mothers. It even seemed as if the younger females respected
her.
Her wonderful maternal instincts coupled with her sweet and loving
disposition are why this story came to be. In the early summer of
2001, I was visiting with a friend. We were in the backyard watching
Luther, his Springer Spaniel, play. All of a sudden Luther came running
up and dropped a small furry object at our feet. He then proceeded
to run off and return with another. I questioned my friend about what
was going on and he told me that Luther had found a nest of Cottontail
rabbits. Luther had been removing the babies from the nest for a couple
of days and my friend had been replacing them. Unfortunately, because
of all of the disturbance, the mother rabbit never came back. I volunteered
to take the babies and raise them. We went to the nest and gathered
up the baby bunnies. I brought home a total of seven babies that day.
On my way home, I stopped at the pet store and asked for advice. I
was told to use Kitten Milk Replacer, so that is what I purchased.
I also bought a puppy bottle and some extra nipples.
At home, I set up an aquarium with bedding and a heating pad underneath.
I made a little nest for the bunnies with paper towels. Then I went
to do some research on the Internet. I found out that mother rabbits
only feed their young a maximum of three times a day, with two times
a day being normal. After gathering as much information as I could,
it was time to feed the bunnies. Feeding always went very well. The
babies eagerly sucked the milk replacer from the puppy bottle. But,
I noticed that the bunnies weren’t staying very warm.
I came up with the idea of using Iris as a foster mother. I put
her in with the babies and anxiously watched to see what would happen.
After a little bit of sniffing, she settled right in and started cleaning
the baby bunnies.
After everyone was cleaned to her satisfaction, she rearranged the
nest to her liking. Then it was naptime.
As you can see, Iris was very content to be a foster mom. I truly
think that Iris’s favorite part of life was taking care of babies,
no matter who they belonged to.
Iris did an excellent job as foster mom. Without her, I don’t think
I would have been successful. I fed the babies and she kept them warm
and clean. The babies were very happy to have a warm, caring, furry
body to cuddle up to. They grew astonishingly quickly. Iris took her
"mom" duties very seriously. Even when the babies had opened
their eyes and were starting to eat solid foods, Iris always made
sure they were meticulously clean. She also made sure they didn’t
stray too far from the nest. It was quite a sight seeing her drag
a baby bunny, which was just as big as her, back to the nest for naptime.
Iris and I were both sad to see them go. But all
babies eventually grow up and have to make it on their own.
Iris was a Snowshoe Siamese purchased from Naraah's Ark in 2000. She passed away at three years old on April 15, 2003.
