Wildlife Guides · Baby Animal Identification
Baby Rabbit Age Chart: How Old Is That Bunny?
Use the size chart and photos below to age a wild cottontail in under a minute — and find out whether it actually needs help. Most of the baby rabbits people "rescue" every spring were never orphaned at all.
About the photographs on this page. Every image here was taken on our own 30 acres in Gratiot County, Michigan. These are the rabbits that actually live on this land.
On this page
The 10-Second Check
Before you age the rabbit, answer the question that actually matters. Most people who find a baby cottontail don't need a chart — they need permission to walk away.
If all four of these are true, the rabbit is independent
- It is about 4 to 5 inches long — roughly the size of a tennis ball, fits in a cupped palm
- Its eyes are open
- Its ears stand upright, not folded flat
- It hops rather than scoots or wriggles
That rabbit is not orphaned. It is on its own and doing exactly what it should be. A wild cottontail that size is fully weaned and living independently — it just looks impossibly small to us. Put it back where you found it and keep pets indoors for a few days.
A cottontail is independent at a size most people assume means "helpless newborn." That single misunderstanding is responsible for the majority of healthy baby rabbits brought into rehab centers every spring, and it is why cottontails have one of the worst survival records of any animal taken into human care. The kindest thing you can do for a bunny that passes the four checks above is nothing at all.
Baby Rabbit Size Chart by Age
Every bar below is drawn to actual scale against the ruler. Measure the rabbit's body from nose to rump, sitting naturally — not stretched out, and not counting the tail.
Notice what the chart shows: a newborn and an independent juvenile are almost the same length. Size alone will not tell you which one you're holding. What separates them is the eyes, the ears, and whether it can hop.
Baby Rabbit Age Chart, Week by Week
These stages describe the Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), the wild rabbit found across most of the eastern and central United States. Development runs fast — a cottontail goes from blind and naked to living on its own in roughly three weeks, which is quicker than almost any mammal you'll find in your yard.
Born pink and nearly hairless in a shallow ground nest lined with dried grass and fur pulled from the mother's own chest.
- Size: about 3–4 inches, roughly 25–35 grams — about the weight of five quarters
- Eyes: sealed shut
- Ears: sealed and pressed flat to the skull
- Fur: bare pink skin, or a thin haze of fine hair
- Movement: wriggling and squirming only — no coordinated motion
The coat comes in fast. By the end of week one the rabbit looks like a rabbit — but it still cannot see or hear. Fully furred with the eyes still sealed is the clearest marker of this stage.
- Size: about 4 inches, roughly 40–55 grams
- Eyes: still closed
- Ears: still folded down, beginning to loosen
- Fur: soft brown-grey coat covering the body; the adult pattern is already visible
- Movement: crawls, burrows under siblings, cannot hop
The eyes open somewhere in this window — the single clearest milestone on the whole chart. If the eyes are open, the rabbit is at least a week old.
- Size: 4–5 inches, roughly 60–80 grams
- Eyes: open, dark, slightly cloudy at first
- Ears: beginning to lift away from the head
- Fur: full, dense, correctly colored
- Movement: first short hops, still clumsy; stays in the nest
Now it looks like a miniature adult. Ears stand, the hop is coordinated, and it starts nibbling greens alongside nursing.
- Size: about 5 inches, roughly 80–110 grams
- Ears: upright
- Behavior: alert, reacts to sound and movement, sampling clover and grass
- Movement: hops confidently, makes short trips just outside the nest and returns
Somewhere around day 15 to 20, a cottontail stops being a baby and becomes a wild rabbit. It leaves the nest for good, forages on its own, and never sees its mother again. Nothing about that is abandonment — it is the normal, successful end of cottontail childhood.
Every stage above this line belongs in a nest. Every stage below it belongs outside, alone, and should be left there.
Fully furred, fully mobile, and out of the nest. This is the stage people find in the lawn and mistake for an orphan.
- Size: 4–5 inches sitting, roughly 110–140 grams — small enough to fit in your palm
- Eyes: open and bright · Ears: fully erect
- Behavior: freezes when approached, then bolts — a healthy fear response
- Needs from you: nothing
Completely weaned and eating an adult diet of grasses, clover, and garden greens. It will roughly double in size over the next month.
- Size: 5–7 inches, 140–250 grams and climbing
- Behavior: uses cover deliberately, feeds at dawn and dusk like an adult
Quick Reference Table
| Age | Eyes | Ears | Length | Weight | Needs help? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–3 days | Closed | Flat, sealed | 3–4 in | 25–35 g | Only if nest destroyed |
| 4–7 days | Closed | Flat | ~4 in | 40–55 g | Only if nest destroyed |
| 7–10 days | Open | Lifting | 4–5 in | 60–80 g | Only if nest destroyed |
| 10–14 days | Open | Upright | ~5 in | 80–110 g | Rarely |
| 15–20 days | Open | Upright | 4–5 in | 110–140 g | No — leave it |
| 3–5 weeks | Open | Upright | 5–7 in | 140–250 g | No — leave it |
Is the Nest Abandoned? Almost Certainly Not
Cottontail nests look neglected because they are designed to look neglected. A mother rabbit's entire survival strategy is to stay away from her young so that predators don't follow her to them.
She returns to nurse twice in twenty-four hours — once around dawn, once around dusk — and each visit lasts about five minutes. If you sit and watch a nest all afternoon, you will see nothing, and you will conclude the babies were left to die. They weren't. You watched the twenty-three hours of the day when she is deliberately absent.
The same instinct explains a rabbit that will not move when you approach it. A cottontail that flattens itself and holds still is not sick or stunned — it believes it hasn't been seen, and staying motionless is its best defense. Back away and it will run.
"The mother will reject a baby if a human touches it." This is false. Rabbits do not abandon their young over human scent. If a nest is disturbed or a baby is displaced, put it back — gently, in the nest, covered with the original grass and fur. Returning a nestling is nearly always the right call, and it is far more likely to survive with its mother than with anyone else.
The string test
If you genuinely can't tell whether the mother is returning, don't guess — test it. At dusk, lay a loose tic-tac-toe pattern of yarn, thin string, or light twigs across the top of the nest. Don't press down on it. Check at first light the next morning.
Pattern disturbed
She came back. The nest is active and healthy. Leave it completely alone and keep dogs and cats away from that part of the yard.
Pattern untouched after 24 hours
Now you have a real reason to call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Describe the age using the chart above when you phone.
The nest itself is worth recognizing so you don't destroy one by accident: a shallow scrape in open lawn or garden bed, about the size of your palm, filled with dry grass and soft fur, often with no visible rabbit at all. Check for one before you mow in spring. If you find an active nest, mark the corners with stakes and mow around it — the babies will be gone within three weeks.
When Baby Rabbits Leave the Nest
Cottontails leave the nest permanently at roughly 15 to 20 days old, and they leave for good. There is no gradual weaning period where the mother continues to supervise, no teaching phase, no family group. One evening they simply disperse into the surrounding cover and begin their adult lives at three weeks of age and the size of a tennis ball.
This is why so much well-meant intervention goes wrong. Compare it to a fawn, which stays with its doe for a full year, or a raccoon kit, which stays with its mother through the following winter. Judged against those timelines, a three-week-old rabbit alone in the grass looks like a catastrophe. Judged against rabbit biology, it's a success.
A female cottontail will raise three or four litters in a single season, often starting the next within days of the last one leaving. The species is built around volume and speed rather than long parental care, and the young are equipped for it.
What Never to Do With a Baby Rabbit
These are the mistakes that kill cottontails
- Never give cow's milk, kitten formula, or puppy formula. Rabbit milk is unlike any of them — far higher in fat and protein — and substitutes cause fatal digestive failure. There is no safe kitchen-cupboard formula.
- Never syringe water or food into the mouth. Fluid enters the lungs easily in a struggling animal and causes aspiration pneumonia, which is usually fatal and often not visible until it is too late.
- Never keep it "just for a day or two." Cottontails are exceptionally prone to dying from stress alone — a phenomenon called capture myopathy. Handling, household noise, and the presence of pets can kill a rabbit that had no physical injury at all.
- Never try to raise one yourself. Wild cottontails are widely considered among the most difficult species to rehabilitate successfully, and in most states possessing native wildlife without a permit is illegal regardless of intent.
- Never release a pet rabbit outdoors. Domestic rabbits cannot survive in the wild and are not equipped to escape predators.
There are genuine exceptions, and the nestling photographed above is one of them. A dog got into that nest — and contact with a dog or cat is a real emergency, because puncture wounds are often invisible under fur and cat saliva alone is lethal to small mammals without antibiotics. That rabbit needed a licensed rehabilitator, and it got one the same day.
The same applies to a rabbit that is visibly injured, bleeding, cold to the touch, or covered in flies or fly eggs. Place it in a ventilated cardboard box with a soft cloth, put the box somewhere dark, warm, and completely silent, offer nothing to eat or drink, and call a rehabilitator immediately.
Wild Cottontail or Escaped Pet Rabbit?
It matters, because the answer changes what you should do. A wild cottontail belongs outside. A domestic rabbit outside will not survive long.
Wild cottontail
Brown-grey agouti coat, rust-colored nape, white cotton-ball tail, brown eyes, ears proportionally short. Freezes, then explodes into a run. Never approaches people.
Domestic rabbit
Any coat that is white, black, spotted, or long-haired. Blue or pink eyes. Lop ears. Noticeably larger. Approaches humans or sits calmly instead of fleeing.
A domestic rabbit found outdoors should go to a local rabbit rescue or animal shelter, not a wildlife rehabilitator — different animal, different law, different care.
Finding a Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator
Wildlife rehabilitation is a licensed activity in every state. The people who do it are almost entirely unpaid volunteers working out of their own homes, and they are the correct call for any rabbit that truly needs help.
Most state wildlife agencies publish a searchable directory. Michigan's, for example, is the DNR Directory of Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitators — search your own state's department of natural resources or fish and wildlife agency for the equivalent list.
It's also worth understanding why the licensing exists rather than treating it as red tape. The Michigan DNR's wildlife rehabilitation permit information spells out the standard plainly: most wild young do not need rescuing, and many species hide their young and return later. Cottontails are the clearest example of that rule in the whole animal world.
When you call, have three things ready: the rabbit's age from the chart above, exactly where you found it, and whether a cat or dog was involved. That's most of what a rehabber needs to tell you what to do next.
About these photographs
All photographs on this page were taken on our own 30 acres in Gratiot County, Michigan — the same land the wildlife guides on this site are written from. Private Lands Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) wildlife habitat nonprofit.
Common Questions
What are baby rabbits called?
Wild baby rabbits are called kits or kittens. "Bunny" is an informal term for a rabbit of any age. Baby hares are called leverets and are a different animal entirely — leverets are born fully furred with their eyes open, which is the opposite of a newborn cottontail.
How can I tell if a baby rabbit is old enough to be on its own?
If it is about 4 to 5 inches long with open eyes, upright ears, and the ability to hop, it is independent. Cottontails leave the nest permanently at 15 to 20 days old, at a size that looks far too small to survive alone but isn't.
Why is the baby rabbit not moving?
A cottontail that flattens itself and holds completely still is using its freeze response. It believes it has not been seen, and staying motionless is its best defense. This is normal healthy behavior, not injury or illness. Back away and it will run.
Will the mother rabbit come back if I touched her babies?
Yes. Rabbits do not abandon their young because of human scent. If you have disturbed a nest, put the babies back and rebuild the covering of grass and fur. Returning them to the nest gives them a far better chance than any other option.
Why does the nest look abandoned?
Because it is supposed to. A mother cottontail visits only twice a day, at dawn and dusk, for roughly five minutes each time, to avoid leading predators to the nest. Use the string test to confirm she is returning rather than assuming she isn't.
A dog or cat got into the nest. What now?
That is a genuine emergency and one of the few times you should pick a cottontail up. Puncture wounds are often invisible under fur, and cat saliva alone is lethal to small mammals without antibiotics. Place the rabbit in a ventilated box with a soft cloth somewhere dark and silent, offer nothing to eat or drink, and call a licensed rehabilitator immediately.
What do baby rabbits eat?
Their mother's milk exclusively for the first ten days or so, then increasing amounts of grass and clover alongside nursing, and an entirely adult plant diet by three to five weeks. Never offer milk of any kind to a wild baby rabbit — no commercially available substitute matches rabbit milk, and the wrong formula is fatal.
How long do baby rabbits stay in the nest?
Roughly 15 to 20 days from birth. They leave permanently and do not return, and the mother does not follow or supervise them afterward.
I found a nest in my lawn and I need to mow. What now?
Mark the corners with garden stakes and mow around it. The nest will be empty within three weeks of the babies being born. Moving a nest is rarely successful, because the mother locates it by memory of the exact spot.
Keep Reading
Baby Rabbits: The Complete Guide
The full picture on wild cottontails — nesting, litters, development, and how to make your land better for them.
Baby Raccoon Age Chart
Raccoon kits stay with their mother nearly a year — the opposite of a cottontail, and a useful contrast.
Baby Opossum Age Chart
The seven-inch rule, and why a mother opossum never comes back for a joey that falls.
Rabbit Burrows and Nests
What a cottontail nest actually looks like, and how to spot one before you mow.
The Whispering Woods
A children's book about a girl named Elara, a puppy named Scout, and the forest animals they meet — written on the same 30 acres of Michigan habitat where the wildlife in these guides actually lives.
See the bookPrivate Lands Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) wildlife habitat nonprofit in Gratiot County, Michigan. This guide is educational and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed wildlife rehabilitator or veterinarian. If a wild animal appears injured or in distress, contact a permitted rehabilitator in your state.