Rabbits & Cigarettes, I need to know ASAP

I have a feeling I know the answer to this already :?

Aside from the smell of tobacco making for rather unhappy bunnies, does anyone know if them eating the ash of discarded cigarettes is dangerous?

In-laws are here again, last time they smoked in the house (our tenancy is strictly non-smoking...) this time they smoked in the garden as it wasn't raining at the time but before I knew what was happening they were just tapping their cigarette ash straight onto the grass and discarded their hand-rolled cigarette butts into it too

I can go around and pick up all the cig ends first thing in the morning before i let the buns out but the ash is already being rained in and it's too dark to see it to clear it up now :? What I really want to know is, is the ash dangerous to rabbits if ingested?

They've only been here 2 hours and alerady causing havoc AGAIN with their constant smoking causing it problems in one way or another. If it's dangerous then I need to stop them in their tracks at the front door tomorrow and really stress that they NOT do it if it will affect the buns health

Very very bad for them.

I can't imagine it's good for them, although after a few days with rain and stuff I doubt it is too harmful, I imagine the quantity of ash is small compared to the size of the garden, and if it was detectable I doubt they'd eat it anyway. Definitely try and get rid of it but at the same time, try not to worry yourself sick! :wave:

Seriously??

Ditto to all of the above...

Also - why are you running around cleaning up their butts??! Stand up for yourself. Provide them with an empty can to ash into and firmly but politely tell them to please use this for ALL their refuse. If they don't comply, I suggest you continue to pick up after them and then tuck the bag of butts away in their luggage.

I'm a smoker, and I would never dream of inflicting my habit on other people in this way.

SarahGonzales said:

Ditto to all of the above...

Also - why are you running around cleaning up their butts??! Stand up for yourself. Provide them with an empty can to ash into and firmly but politely tell them to please use this for ALL their refuse. If they don't comply, I suggest you continue to pick up after them and then tuck the bag of butts away in their luggage.

I'm a smoker, and I would never dream of inflicting my habit on other people in this way.

Click to expand...

I can imagine she is serious, I have smoking in laws that do this to ... although since having my bunnies they now go out the front rather than the back!

Thanks guys,

His parents are much older than my parents (even though my husband is younger) and they're very much stuck in their old ways and extremely stubborn. Smoking never hurt anybody, there's been no definite link between smoking and bad health, and the killer - "we've smoked for 45 years and we're fine so it's a load of nonsense" They almost seem to put their fingers in their ears every time there's a news report confirming links between smoking and cancer etc :?

Anyway - Their smoking has caused a major argument between me and them in the past (before I married their son) so much so that his mum refused to talk to me for a while. It's an extremely senstive subject these days so if I even breathe a word about their smoking it brings the argument back up and it's not somewhere I'd like to go unless I have good reason :?

Husband doesn't want to upset them because he's really close to his parents and they will stop visiting and we'll have to visit them all the time instead (220 miles away, impossible to do without putting the buns in boarding for a weekend) so he said he would only say something if it was bad for the bunnies. Now I know for sure that it is and he can say something to them and be able to say 'It's too dangerous for the buns' rather than just 'we think it might be bad'.

To be honest I didn't realise what his dad was doing last night until it was too late, he just kept disappearing for 5 mins at a time and discovered him on his 4th cig in the garden tapping ash etc :evil: I would have given him a cig tray if I'd known what he was up to, but fortunatly the damage seems not to have been too bad this morning and I've cleared as much up as I can see.

Fortunatly the bunnies keep the grass super short anyway so it's easier to see :thumb:

I guess you should just do whatever you are prepared to do. No one is suggesting they quit smoking - that's a personal choice. Personally though, if it was my house and hospitality being treated like that I'd put my foot down - I expect respect from my family members as much as they expect it from me - and I would certainly expect my husband to back me up 100%. YOU are his family, just as much as they are, and by him allowing their treatment of yourself and your home, he is disrespecting your relationship as much as they are. If my inlaws or parents decided not to visit because I had asked them to respect my property, that would be sad - but ultimately their decision. People will only do to you what you allow them to.

Good luck tigerangel!!

if they are gonna smoke at least they should use a ashtray not flick ash everywhere its rude..:shock:

I agree with Sarah. I don't understand how smoking etiquette evades some people. I am a smoker and there are certain unwritten rules to abide by.