# Advice needed on rabbit care please



## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

I have had three sets of rabbits before , but they never lasted long ,I even did research before buying certain breeds of rabbits in case of extra nutrition needed , but all my attempts at keeping rabbits have failed unfortunately . My last case of keeping rabbits ended badly as at the time I had two siblings together and I was told they were both females and they attacked each other one day .i took them to the vets and we’re both males they had to be put down . If no advice can be given I will never go near rabbits again .but if there is anything please as I love every animal


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## Tiggers (May 27, 2014)

You have had a run of extremely bad luck with your previous rabbit keeping. Many factors may have contributed to your losses; temperature, diet, genetic health issues etc. Did you source your rabbits from responsible, ethical breeders or purchase them from pet shops? If pet shops, this could have contributed with incorrect information given to you. I would suggest you source a responsible breeder, ask if he or she will mentor you in rabbit husbandry for a few months and then see how you feel about taking on another pair.


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## Corneal (Oct 30, 2018)

why did they have to be put down?

Also, The basics of rabbit keeping are al follows

rabbits should be neutered and spayed, no matter the gender combination you have, they NEED to be neutered and spayed
they need to be vaccinated every year from Myxomatosis and RHD1&2
rabbits should be on a diet of 15-30g of fibre based pellets each day, Lots and lots of hay each day and a selection of fresh veg each day, stay away from lettuce and carrots
they need lots of space to run around, more than you would expect
you cant just put two rabbit together and hope they get allong, you have to take them through the bonding process to help them get to know each other slowly
look out for Gastronintestinal stasis and make sure they keep eating and pooping


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Whereabouts do you live? Rescue rabbits from a good rescue will already be neutered, bonded,and over the tricky delicate baby stage. 

my last rescue pair lived 12 and 13 years.


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

Thanks for all the advice , I source my rabbits from breeders never pet shops , when I buy a rabbit I keep them in a rabbit box in the garage for a week to ensure they get to know me and transition them to the outdoors in that time for summer heat , I have never had my rabbits vaccinated or neutered as with the source cost of my rabbits only rannging from 10 to 30 pounds , I used to do weekly health checks on the rabbits ensuring physical health , digestion health and quality and of life, on the last pair of rabbits I had two lion head lop crosses and during one night they had attacked each other and the next day when I woke up they were covered in cuts , so I took the rabbits inside and cleaned their cuts , separating them , they were still eating and drinking I made sure of that , but by the next day taking them to the vets just to make sure as I was attached at this stage , I was told they had to be put down due to the severity of the cuts and the likelihood that they would get infected .i am obsessed with every kind of animal and I genuinely believe in the natural cycle of every animal as long as it is controlled in a responsible and mature way. Before when getting my first rabbits my cousin (a vet) told me that it is not necessary for the vaccine and that if the rabbit was on a pedigree certificate it was only a matter of making sure all the boxes were ticked and in general on the casual keeping of rabbits no extra costs other that’s food would be necessary apart from monthly maintenance to claws and deep cleaning.


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

I find it very hard to believe that a vet considers vaccinations unnecessary .
And I hope I misunderstood, but are you saying you wouldn't pay for vaccinations or treatments beause the initial cost of the rabbits was low?
I don't think you're really asking for advice, more telling us what you did and expecting a pat on the back.


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## Merixie (Mar 4, 2018)

I would say you should expect rabbits are expensive and they need to be neutered and spayed if they will love together. Specially when it’s in a small area. 

Myself bought one of my bunnies for 10 pounds but the money I have put on him is over 2000 pounds. Giving him yearly vacciantions, health check ups and right now I up on vet cost trying to fix his ear inflammation and he’s neutered. That’s the only money for one bunny and I have always had three bunnies at home one bonded pair and one running around indoors. So you should be ready to pay for the extra costs to make your bunny stay healthy. 

I would say per month I just lay 30 pounds for food, litter and insurance. But when something happens my budget for the bunnies go off the roof because rabbit savy vets it’s expensive. Just getting health check ups and vaccinations cost over 200 pounds for me

Cats is much cheaper to own than bunnies, myself have compared my firends vet cost and mine. 

If you don’t want to pay for a neuter/spay try to find bunnies that have already been spayed/neutered. If they aren’t spayed/neutered and live in a cage same sexed bunnies will have a larger chance to fight with each other when all the hormones kicks in.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

What country are you in? Not all countries require vaccines - they certainly do in the UK. And if you're in the US, they are now encouraging VHD vaccinations as the virus has travelled there.

My last pair of rabbits passed away at 12 and 13 years old, as mentioned above. They were both spayed/neutered at a much younger age, before I adopted them, and always up to date on vaccinations.

You can never expect a pair of intact rabbits to live together happily, especially in a small enclosure. Hormones make them increasingly territorial and they are very likely to fight with horrific consequences. Neutering is a must for a happy bonded pair of rabbits.

Rabbits are expensive, I spoil mine, to the point I just don't look at how much I've spent as it will be too distressing for my bank account! Their enclosure alone cost about £1,000, albeit not all at once as the shed has been going over 6 years while their aviary is only 3 years old. How much you spent to buy an animal is irrelevant to their long term care.


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## Calvine (Aug 20, 2012)

Merixie said:


> Cats is much cheaper to own than bunnies,


How do you work that out? I know someone who said she had paid a massive amount to neuter guinea pigs (more than it cost me for a female cat) but other than that? I'd be genuinely interested to know.


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## Merixie (Mar 4, 2018)

Calvine said:


> How do you work that out? I know someone who said she had paid a massive amount to neuter guinea pigs (more than it cost me for a female cat) but other than that? I'd be genuinely interested to know.


Maybe depends on which country, my insurance dosen't cover as much and finding an exotic vet cost more. The vaccination of cats it's also cheaper than of the bunnies shots at my place, also neutering/spaying. I had emergency operation at 5000$ which I had to pay for one of my bunnies. Even though I have insurance it's too low for bunnies, if they are heading for an operation my insurance only cover 2000€. And when you do many check ups it won't cover everything. Also doing a health check up on bunnies is more expensive even the vets told me that, so they gave me a bit of a discount

If I compare with my friend on how much she pay and myself is paying my costs have gone up a lot more.

Myself also heard that doing a cesarean operation on bunnies it will also cost more than cats. I know a person that couldn't pay for such an operation because the insurance won't cover or help with that. So they choice to let the bunny had to struggle, all the kits survived but the mother passed away. Many people reacted when they heard how much it would cost. But the price vary depending on which vet and where you are also.

For example at some places vaccination of a bunny can cost 150€ and in other cities it can cost 45€. Myself only need to pay 100€ for each bunny every year to get their yearly vaccinations.

Litter cost is the same, then I need to pay for veggies, hay and pellets for my bunnies. I don't even have money to buy fresh veggies for myself every week, the price drop down during summer but winter time I can get cheap carrots which is just treats. Veggies is expensive, so my bunnies don't get the daily amount they are supposed to get right now. But it's summer time so I can get greens outdoor and can save money.

Because bunnies is classified as exotic pets they don't get deals as cat owners can get. It can be hard finding a vet and a few bunny owners need to drive 4 to 5 hours to get to a rabbits savy vet. Myself only 40 min away from a rabbit savy vet but on the way to my vet, I pass 10 different cat and dog clinics, even though one it's called for small animals they are specialized on cats, 4 of them even handles horses and farm animals but none handle bunnies. Nearest cat vet is just 5 min away from my place. So they press their prices to make more people come to them and have different deals.

The worse is that you get dependent on how good season the hay is. One year we had a really bad hay season because it was too dry. The prices of hay sky rocked and farmers didn't want to sell because they was saving it for their own animals and all the horse stables in the area had stocked piled hay from all the farmers.

That winter I spent 100$ every month on hay for just 3 bunnies. The winter held for 7 months. Myself tried to find other hay but one of my bunnies gut slowed down because the other hay was not up for standard. Myself had been through before when one bunny passed away because of bad hay and I couldn't get good hay anywhere. That was my neglect. But that year farmers started to order hay outside the country trying to fill up the short supply and many farm animals had to be put down because there was no food.

I just think it's wrong saying bunny are cheap pets when it can cost a lot. Yeah they can be cheap but when things happens, you need to be prepared to pay for it. I know cats can also be expensive and it all comes down to what happens and how you take care of your pets ☺


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## Calvine (Aug 20, 2012)

Merixie said:


> Maybe depends on which country, my insurance dosen't cover as much and finding an exotic vet cost more. The vaccination of cats it's also cheaper than of the bunnies shots at my place, also neutering/spaying. I had emergency operation at 5000$ which I had to pay for one of my bunnies. Even though I have insurance it's too low for bunnies, if they are heading for an operation my insurance only cover 2000€. And when you do many check ups it won't cover everything. Also doing a health check up on bunnies is more expensive even the vets told me that, so they gave me a bit of a discount
> 
> If I compare with my friend on how much she pay and myself is paying my costs have gone up a lot more.
> 
> ...


Thank you for your detailed reply; I had no idea that they were so costly to keep. My son's ex-girlfriend had guineas and I remember the expense of castrating, but other than that I wasn't aware of any massive expense. As far as I can remember she used the Medivet not far from where she lived and they are very expensive anyway.


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

Well , I will be investing money in vaccinations on a single rabbit , a pedigree lop rabbit naked Jessica , she is a house rabbit and my dog is surprisingly extremely careful around her , she however is not going to get fixed and we hope to breed her once then neuter so the pedigree line continues. We got her off a very nice man who already had her vaccinated, flead , wormed and ticced. We got her for fifty pounds and he showed us the pedigree certificate and blood lines of her , however I am unsure if she is registered but he did say I could arrange to have you bred and ensure no relation as he has you bloodline papers


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

I would like to add she has her own little room at night so the dog doesn’t do anything chancy and if we are away for a few days she I put in the hutch with automatic feeders and water dishes . I know , I seemed stupid but a rabbit is what it is a wild animal, and they only really think of three main things , where to get food , where is safe and where to sleep safely . Now she is literally jumping up to get cuddled and sleeps belly up showing her belly like a cat looking it to be pet


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Tuxedo2002 said:


> I would like to add she has her own little room at night so the dog doesn't do anything chancy and if we are away for a few days she I put in the hutch with automatic feeders and water dishes . I know , I seemed stupid but a rabbit is what it is a wild animal, and they only really think of three main things , where to get food , where is safe and where to sleep safely . Now she is literally jumping up to get cuddled and sleeps belly up showing her belly like a cat looking it to be pet


Not sure it's advisable to leave her in a hutch with auto feeders when you go away, feeders can fail so she could be without food. You would need to get some-one to check on her at least once a day.
Also you say rabbits are wild animals, but when you have one as a pet it becomes dependent on humans to meet it's needs. You can't just go off and leave it to it's own devices. How long would you be away for ?


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## Tiggers (May 27, 2014)

To leave any animal for several days alone is irresponsible. Pets depend on their keepers totally. I wouldn't leave my chinchillas alone, even overnight. If illness or injury occurred during your absence, how would you deal with your guilt?


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## bestdoggroomingtips (Jul 13, 2020)

nice post


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## Calvine (Aug 20, 2012)

bestdoggroomingtips said:


> nice post


Out of interest, which of the 15 previous posts are you referring to?


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Calvine said:


> Out of interest, which of the 15 previous posts are you referring to?


That's a spam bot.

I also agree that leaving rabbits alone for a few days is definitely not advised. I've saw my old girl go from absolutely fine playing in the garden to in gut distress within 20 minutes. My current girl was fine one evening, but by morning was in gut stasis and had to spend 24 hours at the vet on a drip. They can go downhill far too quickly. And auto feeders can easily go wrong.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Tuxedo2002 said:


> Well , I will be investing money in vaccinations on a single rabbit , a pedigree lop rabbit naked Jessica , she is a house rabbit and my dog is surprisingly extremely careful around her , she however is not going to get fixed and we hope to breed her once then neuter so the pedigree line continues. We got her off a very nice man who already had her vaccinated, flead , wormed and ticced. We got her for fifty pounds and he showed us the pedigree certificate and blood lines of her , however I am unsure if she is registered but he did say I could arrange to have you bred and ensure no relation as he has you bloodline papers


What type of Lop is she? Has she ever been shown? Bloodlines are one thing, but do you know the health and longevity of her family history going back at least 2-3 generations? Lops have the most number of health problems due to our designs on them - their head is a mess basically, especially the ones with the shorter muzzles. They're the Pugs of the rabbit world.

Breeding is not all sunshine and rainbows either. It can change their temperament. It can kill her. She could get seriously injured by the buck. She may end up with no kits, or one kit, or you may end up with a litter of orphaned kits and it's extremely difficult to hand raise. I know of a poor rescue girl who was handed in by a breeder because she "wouldn't breed", when she went for her spay the vet found a dead litter inside her. It was a miracle she was still alive.

What is so special about her bloodline that it needs to be carried on?


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## Merixie (Mar 4, 2018)

Refering house rabbits as wild animals is wrong, they won’t survive alone outdoors. One of my bunnies would be killed on the spot, the other will be able to handle cats and not stupid enough to stay but still not survive. Because both my bunnies don't dig burrows and one of them is half blind while the other is extremly small, having trouble running through the forest. So I would never say they are wild animals, wild animals have personalities that can survive in the wild if they lived there, they are adapted to survive and not dependet on humans. Bunnies are domesticated animals and really far from being a wild animal, at least my bunnies would never become adults in the wild. 

Bunnies have been breed to be more social and not as flexible as wild bunnies. Even though it haven’t been that many years with bunnies as a house pet, they have been breed to be social pets, that often need attention and love. I can't compare a dog with bunnies because dogs have more years of controlled breeding to be domesticated animals. There are research that shows that bunnies can become depressed living alone and not having anyone around them. There have also been research that pet rabbits brains are different to wild bunnies, which shows they have been selective breed and not the same as their wild part. It will need more breeding generations but bunnies aren't the same as wild animals. Some breeds will have 0 surviving chance alone while other breeds will have a larger chance to survive but it's still small, for example angora and english lop can't survive as wild animals. 

Aren't there laws that say bunnies need to be supervised at least once during the day? Leaving them alone for a few days with automatic feeder won't work and it can go down hill fast. At least make someone check and take care of the bunny once during the day, that can chance water, check the bunny and fill up hay.


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

Jessica has partial hetrochromia which means one eye is one colour and the other is a different colour , they are only a few shades different but the eye on her left is on the bright blue side and the one on the right is semi blue ,but basically grey. She can be traced back about seven generations of rabbit and they lived around 12.5 years on average which I hear is good. The breeder is actually going against the go to look and is trying to get their mouths slightly more elongated to fix the issue , on her mothers side ,(her mother is still alive ) she was a partially short noes but the father was his selective breeding with the pedigrees and the end result a longer nose , so Jessica has an average size nose , and she has been vet checked and money invested in getting her tested in many ways to see if she could breed safely and He wait to the males are a year and half old and the females are at least two before breeding and they have one kit a year for two years , then two kits a year for two and then they are fixed and placed in his general bunny enclosure, where they can live out the rest of their days or be bought as a pet. He usually stops breeding when they are about six. But I will only have her breed once and a vet check half way through to see if she is healthy and the babies are. But she will be two and a half. She is quite big already for four mouths old and has plenty of growing to go


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

She has automated feeders indoors and the feeders in the hutch are container then pour down a metal shoot into the bowl , and I definitely have someone go check on her once a day as I have other animals that need tenting to, the hutch is still inside and next to the hamster cages, my cousin lives next door so when we go away anywhere we give her the key to the back door and check up on her, the hamsters, dogs and cats ,(two outside dogs ,one inside small dog) (three outside cats ,one indoor kitten)


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Does she have hay as well as these feeders? Mine get new hay twice a day but pellets just once in the evening. If she's in a hutch when does she get exercise? They can lose muscle tone and have more gut problems if kept cooped up for extended periods of time. 

Funny coloured eyes isn't particularly rare. You see it a lot in rabbits with "split" (Dutch-type marking) genetics, from crossbreeds to purebreeds.


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

We have sheep hay racks which I have installed in her hutch and if I was away ,I would only be for a long weekend (three days). We tested out the hay rack in j the house and it took her four days to eat all the hay so I took that as a base line as for how long her roughage would last , this is the first time I have had a pet rabbit that actually wants attention and not just tolerates it because it has to , i have learned from past mistakes but I had my heart in the right place


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

I was shocked at how little hay she eats , we have the rack above eatable pellets in a litter tray to make sure when she snacks she poos in the right places as rabbits poo as they eat I never knew that until Jessica


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

Also I mean as in it’s non toxic as if she decided to eat it it would be roughage nontoxic, no harm


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Does she have constant access to pellets or are they rationed? Did the breeder feed much hay? I find rabbits prefer to eat from under their paws more than above their head - they like to dive in head first and dig through to find the juiciest bits. This is why I have to give fresh hay twice a day, my guys make a proper mess with it all. They don't want "old" hay either, they'll start to ignore it after it's been sat around too long, it needs a shake up and a refresh.


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## Tuxedo2002 (May 9, 2019)

the pellets are rationed, but I do admit to giving her more on some occasions. I have tried to go completely out with pellets for a week and just a balanced meals and hay, but it didn't work out so well, so i decided that a 20/80 diet was most suited to her.


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