Childrens farm rabbits

I took my son to the childrens farm local to me in Tamworth. I wasn't impressed with the rabbit set up at all. All but 2 of the rabbits live alone. The sizes of the hutches are good, but they don't appear to come out of the hutches except for cleaning and there are no toys. They are stunning rabbits but from when we got there to when we left 5 hours later they barely moved. They looked so depressed, it was really sad. The guinea pigs were better where they were in enclosures, but the single ones in the rabbit room were gnawing the bars and didn't look happy. I was also very sad for the turkeys, who had a pen that was dark and there was nothing for them to do and they didn't seem to get out of the pen at any time
















Here are the guinea pigs, the aby's,

The rex's




The shelties


The poor fowl stuck in hutches


They also have female cats there that breed. The sell them for £50 "because we can't homecheck so we hope that a price of £50 will ensure a good home". More like an impulse buy for the kiddies in my opinion. Wonder if anyone ever told them about feline Fiv or FeLV??

that's sad. it happens at most children's farm. there was one that we went to and children could go into their enclourse, but they never came out of their house of course. Some famrs allow children to handle them too on their lap but some children may harm them so this is not good for their temperant i suppose.

Oh I forgot about the giant, he was gorgous, we got a picture as one of the chicks came and sat on his shoulders



In the next enclosure there was a pair of black rabbits and a single guinea pig

Looks great compared to most children's farms - big hutches, lots of hay, clean, water in bowl - it's a fact that rabbits don't do a great deal in the middle of the day, and hay is the best toy you can give them. My single bunnies are perfectly happy - what matters most to a rabbit is comfort, care and routine, and these farm bunnies don't look at all badly off.

elve said:

Looks great compared to most children's farms - big hutches, lots of hay, clean, water in bowl - it's a fact that rabbits don't do a great deal in the middle of the day, and hay is the best toy you can give them. My single bunnies are perfectly happy - what matters most to a rabbit is comfort, care and routine, and these farm bunnies don't look at all badly off.

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Companionship is just as important to a rabbit, and if they never get let out of the hutches when do they get a decent run around??

Just to comment on the bunnies living alone, I guess those guys aren't neutered? Un-neutered rabbits very rarely get along (occasionally sisters or other females indroduced early get along). By three rabbits all live seperately. The two females don't get along, the male keeps wanting to breed the females (despite the fact Zakura is neutered) so they're happy enough when they're able to smell and see each other trhough the fence.

Kind of reminds me of my school, cept I think most of our cages are smaller (only used for small breed rabbits, big breeds or nursing mothers have the largest cages). All need to be housed seperately since they don't get along. We used to have a few sibling pairs but they didn't last for long before we had to seperate them. I set loose one or two rabbits in the floor when I feed them (that takes some time, lots of animals) so they get exersize. But I won't do that if there's lots of kids around:roll:

I think if they have other rabbits all around them, they have companionship enough to be happy - I didn't say these farm rabbits were in perfect conditions, but it looks very good compared to most public 'farms' - I'm sure they are quite happy living there. Just because they are asleep during the day doesn't mean they are depressed, bored and lonely - most rabbits are asleep during the day.

How did I know Elve would argue with the fact it's a sad life

Although they have a large hutch and are clean, I truely believe there is way more to life than that for a rabbit. How sad that they just sit there lonly, no exercise, no companionship. Would you recommend that for pet rabbits? Why is it different because they are on a farm? You guys are unbelievable sometimes

The amount of money that place makes, I don't think it would be unreasonable to get them neutered and give them a companion.

Their accommodation looks a nice size so it would be quite easy to make a few changes to make things a bit more interesting.

I would be tempted to contact the RWA for copies of their leaflets on neutering/matching up/vaccinations/diet etc. (or print them off the web) and send them along with a polite letter and some contact information for rabbit suppliers where they could stock up on toys.

It looks like they're interested in show casing different breeds so I would include the suggestion that by neutering they could keep two rabbits together one of each breed and that way show twice as many different breeds.

Tamsin

I was thinking of writing a letter, especially about the cats and rabbits. I will have a look at that info as well.

would that be ashend by any chance Lucy?

The childrens farm near us always has a group of buns living together in huge pens with loads of imagenative stuff. At the min one of the pens is done up as egypt with pyramids as rabbit housing :lol: Only down side is that they do breed rabbits, but they take the new owner on a one hour care course first which is a start.

Denny said:

would that be ashend by any chance Lucy?

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Indeed it is

if u did want a really bad one I can name a couple! .... the thing is though , its hard to report them.. when they have the essentials. I went to the one in Barleylands... and the way the lady there handled them was disgusting!!!!! :evil: How their oldest rabbit managed to reach 8 is beyond me.

Maybe some of you are misunderstanding me. I am not saying this is a childrens farm that keeps the animals in a very bad state. I am saying that it's sad that animals are left to live solitary lives and have no exercise etc. Sure they're clean, but these clever little bunnies are mentally rotting away. I hate to see lonly animals which are kept like this for profit. There is a lot they could easily do to improve their lives.

Lucyhp said:

The amount of money that place makes, I don't think it would be unreasonable to get them neutered and give them a companion.

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Exactly!!! :evil:

I have only been to one 'pet corner/childrens farm' which I have been impressed with and that was a couple of weeks ago while in Dartmouth.

We actually were camping on the site and it has a theme park aswell as an animal zone. Its called Woodlands Leisure Park.

The rabbits were ALL paired and all had lovely big roomy hutches with runs underneath.
Even the giant pair were rolling over in contentment and I witnessed a binky from one
the guinea pigs were in groups in enclosures on the floor which had logs and rocks and lots of hidey holes and plenty of hay.
The rabbits all had plenty of hay too and clean water bottles (a joy to see!!!)
This was a brand spanking new barn so I suspect the old hutches etc were not as impressive.
Each breed had a plaque with details but the only thing is that although none of the pairs of buns or pigs 'looked' pregnant there were 3 baby lionheads in one set up and I do wonder whether they breed them or not :?
There was a sign in the old building that if interested in a baby animal to ask staff but it there was no signs in any of the new buildings so hopefully they have stopped.

Anyway all in all a really nice surprise to see a company paying out for their animals for once :thumb:

know it well Lucy but have not been for many years now since a goat tried to eat me (a very traumatic and embarrassing experience I might add ). Looking at your pictures, it has come on alot since my days there, believe me it was 100 times worse when my kids were little they used to sell the bunnies too and they were all housed together un-neutered/spayed in the dark dingy barn so needless to say, we used to see a fair few injured buns there

I take it that it is the kids parties that still brings them the money in:roll: Are they still selling the bunnies and piggies do you know?

Lucyhp said:

Maybe some of you are misunderstanding me. I am not saying this is a childrens farm that keeps the animals in a very bad state. I am saying that it's sad that animals are left to live solitary lives and have no exercise etc. Sure they're clean, but these clever little bunnies are mentally rotting away. I hate to see lonly animals which are kept like this for profit. There is a lot they could easily do to improve their lives.

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Totally agree Lucy. Just being kept clean and fed isn't going to give an animal a great quality of life.

I only went once before and as it wasn't terrible I didn't mind taking my son again, plus it gave me a chance to look round and if there was anything I didn't like so I can write to them about it.

Last time I went I saw baby rabbits and guinea pigs for sale, this time there were kittens and goats for sale. Maybe they get pregnant or unwanted rabbits/gp's dumped there. I certainly wasn't impressed with the amount of goats, sheep and pigs that were pregnant though.

christmas is horrible Lucy as they have the turkeys in running around and needless to say you can put an order in for one wells thats if they still do it