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Rookie 'mistakes' in your early days

Mackers

Wise Old Thumper
So what mistakes did you make with your first rabbits before you were really 'clued up' on bunnies and their needs? I've kept rabbits for well over 20 years now and I've made some awful mistakes, despite believing I'd found out lots of information prior to obtaining my first bun. Thankfully, I now know better and I'm happy to keep learning and moving forward.

Here are some of my mistakes (I'm being totally honest here. And to Bunge, my first Bridge Bunny, I'm sooooo sorry baby - Mummy didn't realise what she did was wrong):-

1. Read an RSPCA book on the 'right way to keep rabbits' :lol:
2. Have a 3ft hutch and separate triangular arc run.
3. Keep a rabbit on its own.
4. Feed a museli mix and replace it when bunny has picked out all the best bits.
5. Feed very little hay.
6. Keep rabbits un-neutered.
7. Let rabbits get overweight.
8. Have a rabbit get flystrike:oops: (I nursed her back to full health but I'm so ashamed of this one. Ignorance is no excuse).
9. Have a rabbit die of uterine cancer - never, ever again:cry:.

I'm sure I've done other things that I'm ashamed of but these are a few of my rookie mistakes. What have you done?
 
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So what mistakes did you make with your first rabbits before you were really 'clued up' on bunnies and their needs? I've kept rabbits for well over 20 years now and I've made some awful mistakes, despite believing I'd found out lots of information prior to obtaining my first bun. Thankfully, I now know better and I'm happy to keep learning and moving forward.

Here are some of my mistakes (I'm being totally honest here. And to Bunge, my first Bridge Bunny, I'm sooooo sorry baby - Mummy didn't realise what she did was wrong):-

1. Read an RSPCA book on the 'right way to keep rabbits' :lol:
2. Have a 3ft hutch and separate triangular arc run.
3. Keep a rabbit on its own.
4. Feed a museli mix and replace it when bunny has picked out all the best bits.
5. Feed very little hay.
6. Keep rabbits un-neutered.

7. Let rabbits get overweight.
8. Have a rabbit get flystrike:oops: (I nursed her back to full health but I'm so ashamed of this one. Ignorance is no excuse).
9. Have a rabbit die of uterine cancer - never, ever again:cry:.

I'm sure I've done other things that I'm ashamed of but these are a few of my rookie mistakes. What have you done?

Agreed on these ones :(

We've all probably made mistakes at the start thinking we were doing the best thing, the important thing is is that we learn from them and not let them happen again - i know ive learnt so much from RU in the couple of months ive been a member :D
 
My main one is not know about panacur......i had kermit for 5 months and he developed head tilt, maybe if i had been told to panacur him then he would never have got it.
I did manage to get him back to relative health, but i feel that if he never got it then he would have been here, but then i might not have been so close to him as we developed a tight bond while i was nursing him.......thats what caused me to find RU, which in turn made me let him be free range all day, as i was keeping him in his cage for far too long prior!!
I suppose you just have to learn, shame it had to be rubbish on my best friend kermit!
 
Of the above list I did:


2. Have a 3ft hutch and separate triangular arc run (well mine was an indoor Nero cage 'suitable for rabbit' - yeah but only until he's about 4 months old)
3. Keep a rabbit on its own.

And I'd like to add:

10. Bought from private breeders rather than getting rabbit from a rescue.
11. Tried bonding the rabbits but didn't put them on neutral territory first.
12. Used sawdust. Never again! Carefresh or Megazorb is the only way to go:)
 
1. Have a non rabbit savvy vet (he told me status was a hairball and i lost my bunny)
2. Keeping a rabbit and a guinea pig together :oops:
 
1. Have a 3ft hutch and thinking I was being really generous by having a separate 3x4 run, instead of a small triangular one. :oops:
2. Keep a rabbit on its own.
3. Keep a rabbit with a guinea pig - and, yes rabbits will hump guinea pigs and terrorise them - they didn't stay together long.
4. Feed a museli mix and replace it when bunny has picked out all the best bits. :oops::oops:
5. Free fed a pellet mix.
6. Feed very little hay & use sawdust to line the cage.
7. Keep rabbits un-neutered & unvaccinated.
8. When the first bunny I had as an adult was unwell (Bugsy was all hunched over his food bowl looking very sory for himself :() I decided I would wait and see how he was by the afternoon to call the vets. Poor Bugsy passed away before the afternoon came. :cry::cry:
9. Let my bunny free range in the garden while I was indoors and couldn't even see him. Luckily, he never came to any harm but I couldn't do it now.

My list is embarassingly long, but this was all pre-internet when good info wasn't so easy to find & the books I read were pretty rubbish and mad me think I was actually doing right. All anybody can do is learn from their mistakes and continually strive to improve, which I think I have. :)
 
I agree with some of those things..... :oops:
Thank goodness that I found RU before Doona took total control of our house.
I think the best bit of advice was that Buns shouldn't be kept on their own. I wouldn't have got Humphrey, Daz or Catkin to keep Doona company. I love watching them play together.

The other bit of advice was how much to feed Doona when we first got her. We used to just feed her whenever she asked for it.....:shock: I am suprised she didn't grow into a ten tonne monster!!!!
 
The thing about life is that you have to be willing to learn, if you don't, and you make them again, then your mistakes are unforgiveable :evil:

When I was a teenager I used to breed rabbits :oops::oops::cry::cry: although I always kept my babies or found very good homes I shudder to think of it now :censored:
 
I had a bunny as a child/teenager.

He had a 4ft hutch with attached run (free ranged on garden every day though)
He lived with a guinea pig!
I had never heard of panacur
He wasn't neutered
He never had hay as he didnt eat it!
He had muesli mix and again only picked out the best bits.

Of all the mistakes I made I know he had the right vet treatment when he needed it. He got through an operation to remove his incisors and a dental absses which had to be drained daily and packed from the side of his face.
 
I joined RU the day I got my bunnies, so I avoided the main mistakes, but I should have joined RU beforehand, as I discovered that the hutch I'd had made was far too small. What an expensive mistake! :roll:
 
:shock::shock: lookie!

6680_229463655092_561930092_7704396_5990536_n.jpg


yep, I had a bunny and a guinea pig together :oops: both un-neutered males too... I feel guilty every time I think about it! However, both were free range, and were locked up in a 3ft double hutch with a permanant run overnight...
My god, I have learnt ALOT from being on here :lol:
 
1. Read an RSPCA book on the 'right way to keep rabbits' :lol:
2. Have a 3ft hutch and separate triangular arc run.
3. Keep a rabbit on its own.
4. Feed a museli mix and replace it when bunny has picked out all the best bits.
5. Feed very little hay.

6. Keep rabbits un-neutered.
7. Let rabbits get overweight.
8. Have a rabbit get flystrike:oops: (I nursed her back to full health but I'm so ashamed of this one. Ignorance is no excuse).
9. Have a rabbit die of uterine cancer - never, ever again:cry:.

I'm sure I've done other things that I'm ashamed of but these are a few of my rookie mistakes. What have you done?

I've done the ones highlighted :cry::cry: Coincidentally, my first bridge bunny was called Bungee :shock: But I was 'lucky' in her case that she needed a dental 6 weeks after I got her so the vet asked if I'd considered having her spayed, which I did while she was having her teeth done. She still died at 4 years 10 weeks though probably because of the other things I didn't know enough about :cry::cry::cry: Scrat was unspayed as she never needed a GA and I didn't have the courage to put her through it (vets should have been more supportive!!) She died at 3 years 9 months ... *maybe* a spay would have prevented that - I'll never know :cry:

I feel so angry at the pet shop that advised me to keep them separate - they still advise that even to me when I keep going on about bonded neutered bunnies :evil:
 
Now where to start!

1)Had two buns when i was about 8 kept in a 3ft hutch inside the greenhouse, with no run.
2) Had a bun as a teenager and kept him in a 3ft hutch not vaccinated or neutered!
3) Bought hester from P@H when i was 21, kept her in a 3 ft hutch unneutered, unvaccinated
4) bought a friend for her and moved them into a nice pen in the stables, both unnuetered
5) bought a boy bun, kept him next to my two girl buns, he lept the barrier and i had lots and lots of babies
6) finally got boy bun neutered after about the 5th lot of babies (4 different mums)
7) kept all the babies, but all girls unneutered

then i finally found this place and got a little more clued up!
 
1) Fed a muesli mix, but didn't stick to one. My mum bought it from a greengrocer and would either get russel rabbit or some mix with added molasses :shock::shock:
2) Never had hay, Flintstone just had straw and newspaper
3) She wasn't vaccinated or spayed
4)She was meant to be a male dwarf. She was a female huge thing!! Never had a free ad bun since her!
3ft hutch and 2 x 4 run my grandad made that had a wire base and we had to tip her out
5)Pushed her around the house in a dolls pram :shock: (i was 10:oops::oops:

Her hutch was spotlessly clean tho. I had to clean her out every wednesday after school and every saturday morning my mum had me armed with a bucket of hot disinfectant and a scrubbing brush and I wasn't aloud to leave the garden untill every nook and cranny of her hutch was scrubbed.

Despite all the bad Flintstone still lived until she was almost 10. She died a week before her birthday. I was at college by then and my mum had to phone and tell me. She was devastated.
 
some mix with added molasses

I remember that. When I was a kid my buns used to love that stuff. I seriously can't believe I used to feed it to them, may aswell just fed them on sugar!

I think my biggest mistake was not getting them vacinated. I learnt the hard way when as a teen we lost 3 to myxi. :(
 
I have a ton:

1)bought bun from a petshop (Smirnoff)
2) got him a 3foot hutch
3) left him free to roam in my un-bunny-proof room cos I'd heard about house rabbits. You can imangine the destruction:oops::lol:.
4) Bought him a friend. And un-neutered male (Joey). Tried to bond then on Smirnoff's territory. Both un-neutered.

Surprisingly they were still alive, & I knew we were all unhappy, so I researched & along came RU:oops::lol:

TBH - it doesn't really end there. I read my old posts sometimes, or think about stuff I've done & I'm a bit :shock::oops: Definitely an ongoing learning process:D
 
I had a guinea pig on his own - bought him with my friend from a pet shop, kind of joint pet cos I wasn't allowed any... friend couldn't keep him a year or so later, so I had him. He was in a 4ft hutch and had loads of time out in the garden... he was also fed mix. his name was Kai Kyah Kula Karl :lol: (or just Kai-Kai). My biggest regret though was letting my mum convince me to leave him there when I moved away - he got sick and neither of my parents would take him to a vet :evil: poor man died before I could get to him...
 
The rabbit I had when I was a kid wasn't really treated to badly, she had hay and was fed one of them mix foods, she had a hutch (3-4ft I think) and she was let out of it every day, all day. She hopped around the front garden, came in the house whenever she wanted and into the back garden if the door was open.

Oh, and she liked a roast potato on a sunday :oops:
 
Ooh so much I got my original two buns from a pet shop (I did work in it though and just fell in love with their characters) I'd give anything to have the room and money for another bunny give a rescue one a home :(
 
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