Rabbit in shipping centre car park

[Bun99]

My mom works in a shopping centre and there is a rabbit in the underground car park. She thinks it's been there for a few days.

It won't go near anyone but she's left food and water out for it.

She phoned the RSPCA and they've said they can't do anything. She's not sure how it got in but it's obviously not been able to find its way out. It's in the center of a busy city so we are worried maybe it's someone's pet which has escaped?

What is the best thing to do?

Where abouts are you? I am a rabbit person if I was local I could have a go at catching it.

That's disgusting @TheNoodlesIncident

I am not going to eat the rabbit :(

It looks black with white underneath.

Put out a few big piles of dandilion leaves if you can.

They're v good for rabbits and they find them hard to resist. It's quite dangerous for rabbits to go without eating for more than 12 hours. Their stomachs start to shut down or something. Poor thing.

Black with white sounds like a domestic rabbit.

It might well go into a big hay filled box on it's side. Or hutch. Put out a dish of water nearby the bed too.

Good for you for doing this OP. I'd be the same!

Good luck catching it.. we have two rabbits and they are FOREVER escaping. They have wonderful and enormous runs in the garden. We have spent hours in the garden with our neighbours, chasing the little blighters round. I have a friend who is a vet who was awesome at catching them... she moved away, I almost didn't forgive her. Our neighbours have a dog and the rabbits escape into their garden and quite frankly, the rabbits just mock him. I can understand Mr McGregor's fury!

Put a pic on local fb page. Dd had a stray dcat for 2 weeks. Fed it small meals but hoping it had a home... Within hours the owner messaged back with her own pics. It was her dm's house dpet... A very happy reunion! AFAIK wild rabbits aren't b+w op.

I do agree that RSPCA often can't do much, and it is very easy to find out who to call to give money and very hard to speak to someone about an animal but...

The RSPCA are not a stray animal collection service, coming out and collecting stray animals is outside their remit and not their job.

Which is why they won't turn up to collect a stray rabbit that is not suffering and is not experiencing cruelty at this time.

Your local authority has a responsibility for stray animals, and the police should be your first port of call if someone is being cruel to an animal there and then.

Is it a shopping centre message the m6 in Birmingham? If so its probably wild as there is colony just outside, so best thing is probably to make sure there is food and water down available and hope it finds it own way out, unless you can get a humane trap laid

Hi OP,

Where are you based? Local FB groups, as many have mentioned here, could be very useful. One in particular I am on (I have pet rabbits) called “Rabbit advice and bonding UK” has helped rescue rabbits in the past when people have posted asking for help.

More immediate things you can do are -
To make the rabbit comfortable: bowl of water is vital and something you could hopefully sort very easily, along with spring greens and herbs (pretty much anything other than chives). Other things I’ll mention now would need to be sourced from a pet shop: hay (as much as possible), dandelion root, rabbit pellets. In lieu of hay, you could also offer up fresh grass - sometimes if rabbits don’t have this as part of their diet it can upset their bellies, but grass would be better than no food (and if they have had it before, unlikely to be an issue).
Place these in the last place the bun was spotted if it is suitable, or a a place close to this which offers some shelter and is away from moving cars. Rabbits are prey animals so they like to hide under things for safety, so see if there is somewhere that you could put food and drink for the bun which would also offer them
some cover from above.

To try and catch the rabbit: banana. Rabbits go absolutely bonkers for banana. If you could tempt it out with banana and get it into a pet carrier (we use a cat carrier for our bunnies) that would be best. I’d then try finding a local volunteer run rescue or a friendly vets to see if they could take them in. Or again, use FB groups to see if anyone can help.

A black and white rabbit is sadly very likely a domestic rabbit that’s been dumped. It will be absolutely terrified so in all honesty the chance of it coming out for you (even with banana) is quite slim - that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though, and well done for doing so! Rabbits are such delicate animals and they do not react well to stress, even a day of not eating hay and pellets for them can result in death so if you can get some sort of food / drink to the it could make a big difference.

What happened in the end @Bun99 did you manage to get someone to catch it?

This! I am sure local rescues would be keen to help.
Black and white would be a pet rabbit

This is the perfect time to initiate a change. Little by little. However, since you are due baby two imminently why not ask them to help out now? Maybe to babysit for an hour while you go for a hospital appointment? Depending on how it goes and hopefully they will offer, if they look after your son while you are in labour, it could bring about positive change. Be enthusiastically appreciative if they do and take a plant or some flowers as a thank you.

also, ask if you can visit your grandma with your mum and little boy, even twenty minutes if it is awkward. Someone has to make the first step and it may take a while but why don’t you give it a try?

Poor thing.

A wild rabbit wouldn't go anywhere near humans, they move fast when they sense them unless they are ill.

Black and white sounds like a dumped pet though. There are some arseholes around.