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Confession - help please!

BinkyBun

Wise Old Thumper
I am terrified of letting my buns out in the garden:oops::oops: When we moved in last year I was so happy as we have a lovely shared garden. I bought a huge rabbit run from Zooplus which is safe in my shed.

I had the excuse of no time as doing up the flat....then bonding....then it was winter. Now its getting a bit warmer (ish). I want my buns to be able to enjoy the garden as well but I'm just so scared.

I have them vacc'd - due top up next month. I would stay with them in the garden (and take millions of pics no doubt!!) but I'm still scared of foxes (we have lots in the area), my neighbours cats, rat wee (someone told me if a rat wees on the grass and your rabbit eats it can be deadly).

I really don't want to be this anxious and worried about it. Please can you help me get over this?:oops:

(I admit I even get paranoid at the vets if there is a dog or cat scratching a lot near us. I don't want it being too close to my bunnies just in case.:oops::oops:).
 
I think it's mommy worries, the same kind of thing you get when taking your children to school the first time, you just have to bite the bullet and do it.
 
rat wee (someone told me if a rat wees on the grass and your rabbit eats it can be deadly).

Well I can safely say I think that's a myth - I discovered a rat eating out the bunnies food bowl which was in the run with her, and I used to move the run around the garden so I'm sure she ate rat wee grass. She lived for another 3 years after I moved from there!

Wait until it's a sunny day and then get in the run with the bunnies - you'll have so much fun watching them explore and crawl over you that you'll forget all your fears.
 
I'm pretty sure it's a myth too as there are rats in my sisters garden and so they must have eaten it at some point, and even if it is poisonus, bunnies have a *mostly* acurate sense of what's bad to eat and avoid it anyway.
 
Thanks guys. I feel pretty stupid admitting it but I just had to get it out. I want my bunnies to enjoy their lives to the full and I feel really bad that I'm being such a stupid wuss about the garden.

What do you do if a cat or a fox comes up near your rabbit run? Do they if a human is there? I was thinking of having a water spray bottle with me to squirt them?
 
I'm no help because I've become the same way. They used to have such fun outside, but I am now afraid they can pick up the disease racoons spread calcivirus(sp) or the diseases from infected bird or mice droppings.:cry:
 
I'm no help because I've become the same way. They used to have such fun outside, but I am now afraid they can pick up the disease racoons spread calcivirus(sp) or the diseases from infected bird or mice droppings.:cry:

(hugs) glad I'm not the only one.

I feel like one of those overprotective mothers that people moan about. Now I even make people take their shoes off in my flat as I'm so paranoid of vhd on shoes or something..:oops::oops: And yet the funny thing is I'm fine about Bunny wee and poo. :oops:
 
Oh don't if it makes you feel better, I'm paranoid too, especially as I was talking to a builder (Who'd seen my poster about Desty and came out of his way to ask me about her) and apparently the foxs in our area aren't shy. There was one across the road at noon while he was working on the house so not exactly shy round my end.

I rarely let mine out in the garden. But when I do I usuually have my TV on really loud to scare away anything that comes close. I don't have to worry about cats as I'm pretty sure Desty could take them out by herself. But foxs? If your buns are used to noise have some going and a spray bottle is pretty good. But generally speaking foxs don't come too close to people and if they do, make yourself as big as possable and they'll usually flee.
 
Well I am fat so maybe that will scare off the foxes!!:lol:

I think seeing Myrtle tonight has just really upset me (like it has everyone). And I just felt this awful guilt about being so scared to let them outside. I want them to live as long as possible healthy and happy and safe.
 
I doubt a fox would come in the garden if you were there supervising.

Is there any way you can use the panels from your run to block part of the garden off so you can let them start off in a smaller space that you feel you can keep an eye on easily?

At the moment I do the same to block off the bottom part of my garden to let my little bunnies out in, as I worry about all 3 being out at the same time in a big space and me not being able to keep an eye on all of them at the same time.
 
Well its a shared garden so I can't leave the Rabbit Run up permanently. I bought a foldable one which is more like a giant dog pen really - massive! I had a puppy pen for Darcy as baby but this is bigger than that.

One side of the garden is pebbled and paved and the other side is lovely grass surrounded by plants on the sides if you see what I mean. I'm really not a gardener!:oops:
 
hehe well with no offense intended, yeah. See most predators only bite off what they can chew. If you make yourself look bigger (Spread out your arms, stand tall etc) most predators will back off, if you run they'll chase. So if a larger person spreads out they'll scare more than a skinny wippet.

A bit of survival training there. It's also what you're meant to do with bears. Just in case you ever need to know that.

Yes, that mytel thread really upset me too, I was sat here crying reading back on it. How aweful! It did do some good though, it reminded me that I need to stop by the vets on my way home in the morning.

I'm sure you do a good job with your buns and the fact that you're so scared for them is proof. What you need is another bunny mommy to hold your hand while you let your babies frolic in the grass ^_^
 
I've never actually seen any rats around here or in our garden - fingers crossed. I'm just assuming as we're in London that they are about. :( I'd go beserk if I saw one trying to get near one of my bunnies.
 
*nod nod* I've never seen a wild rat, I know they're around though because well, where I live. There's probably badgers too!

If I ever saw a rat near my buns I'd freak out and go mental on it. Rats once got to one of my sisters bunnies and you should have seen the mess! The bunny is now living indoors again because he was that badly attacked. And when he got well it was too cold to send him back out. They have a new hutch though with finer mesh.

Rats do run away from people though. I know that much.
 
Technically Weil's disease (also known as leptospirosis) can be spread by rat urine but it's not actually that common. I did a quick Google search and even found one article about lab animals etc that says adult rabbits are resistant to leptospirosis.
As long as you do your bit to avoid attracting rats you should be OK - they only hang around if you leave a food source available and nice cosy place for them to set up home, they're just another animal trying to survive around us!
 
Ohhh I knew about Weils disease but I've never heard of it in bunnies.

From a quick glance it seems like they can catch it - don't know whether that refers to juveniles/adults/both though.
I think I've heard of one case of it in humans so it can't be that common because people are forever laying on grass etc that's had wild rats on it (our garden's probably riddled with rat wee because of living on farmland) without getting ill
 
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