Wildlife Clinic
Found an animal?

Your answer

This rabbit is already independent.

Cottontails leave the nest at about three weeks, when they are roughly the size of a fist and still look far too small to be alone. They are fully weaned at that point and no longer have a mother in any practical sense. Sitting motionless while you watch is not fear paralysis or injury; it is the animal doing the only thing that has ever worked.

What to do right now

  1. 01Leave it where it is and step back out of sight.
  2. 02Bring pets indoors for an hour and let it move on in its own time.
  3. 03If it is somewhere genuinely lethal — a road, a pool deck, a fenced dog run — move it under cover within about thirty feet, no further.

What not to do

  • Do not take it home. A weaned cottontail in a box will die of stress within a day or two.
  • Do not relocate it to a park or woodland. It has a home range it already knows.
  • Do not offer lettuce, carrot, or water.

Change your mind if any of this is true

Any one of these changes the answer above. Call a rehabilitator instead.

  • Obvious wound, blood, or a dangling limb.
  • It lets you pick it up without struggling at all.
  • Flies or fly eggs on the fur.
  • A cat or dog had it in its mouth, even briefly and with no visible mark.

Get professional help

Showing rehabilitators permitted for small mammals.

Accepts Eastern Cottontail

This list is not complete. Some licensed rehabilitators choose not to publish their details, and the state list is updated quarterly. Always call ahead: a rehabilitator may be full even when listed.

All 43 rehabilitators permitted for this animal.

Choosing a county puts the nearest first. It never hides anyone — someone further away may still be the one who can take it.

Understand the animal

Knowing why this happens is what makes the next one easier to read.