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Your first bunny

jemmy17

Young Bun
How much did you know about bunnies when you brought your first one home?

I regretfully admit that I knew very little. All I knew was that I wanted one since I was a child, and I was hopelessly in love right away and more than willing to be the best mommy I could be. I bought a starter book on rabbits, and educated myself with what I could find on the internet at the time. I had no idea what an incredible pet my Mina would turn out to be, and I'll be forever grateful that I had the chance to have her in my life.

Over the years, I researched and learned a lot more about rabbits, and to this day I still feel like I'm learning more and more! I feel that if I were to get another bunny in the future (it's still a bit too painful to consider this right now after losing Mina), I'd think a lot harder about all the details. I've never regretted getting Mina, but the big thing I *do* regret is that there is not a rabbit-savvy vet close to me, and none of the emergency facilities at my disposal will accept rabbits. This will be a big thing to consider if and when I'm ready for another bunny.

So, were all of you knowledgeable and ready for the beautiful adventure of owning a bunny when you brought your first one home? Did you have the rabbit savvy vet picked out? Were you aware of all the potential health issues, etc.?
 
I was only very little, so my parents were the carers of Pepsi, our first little Netherland Dwarf. They did a pretty good job really, looking back:lol: He lived inside, and I think he had a good life.. we adopted him when he was quite an old man.:)

It's a shame my parents aren't on keen on rabbits anymore!
 
I use to live with my nan when I was little and she always had rabbits but I was never to interested, as they were hers she did everything anyway and we weren't allowed to play or stroke them. Mainly due to her takeing on agressive buns so more safety of us.

I bought my first bun on 14th May 2009 and it was Blue :love: Still got the fat monster and have adopted others since him. He started of my craze by being the most loyal loveng bun ever
 
nothing at all tbh :shock: we had, had a bunny before so I knew he needed to eat hay, have vaccs and be neutered.
I only got him because my dad didnt want me to buy a pygmy hedgehog and wanted me to get a cheap pet :shock:
So I went into p@h looked in the adoption center and met Sebastian (or brad as he was known) he lived ina 3ft indoor cage but he had pellets and hay and was vaccinated quickly and then neutered asap :wave:
 
I shudder to think of how I treated our buns when I was a kid. They were put outside in hutches and we hardly ever looked at them. They were fed, healthy and cleaned and they did get a run outside in the summer, but looking back I feel so guilty now :( (please don't shout at me for that - I couldn't feel any worse).

When we got Bix I did so much research and we thought about it for months. When we finally got her though we made her hutch in the kitchen as it was February and we didn't want to make it outside. It was early hours when we finished so we popped her in and left her in the kitchen. The OH was then working for a couple of lates, so I couldn't lift the hutch out on my own. On and on it went and almost 2 years later, she is still in the kitchen, as a house bun, and lives with Badger. :shock::oops:

Although I did a ton of research and thought I was prepared, I am still learning even now. I think it is better to be that way than to think that you have all the answers though.

Bix & Badge are pampered beyond belief and they really mean the world to me. I love them so much, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how wonderful a pet a bunny could be, I had no idea they were so full of personality and such good company. I thought it would be a sort of passtime/hobby, not that I would be making two new friends :love:

Just wish I had been nicer to the ones I had when I was a nipper. :cry:
 
I thought I knew quite a lot and I did make an effort to ask questions in the pet shop, as did my Mum and we got a few books on rabbit care, but we were given a lot of miss information, such as being told to feed them as much musueli as they want and bed them on just straw!

We did know to give them plenty of hay and we got corret information from books about veggies to feed but sadly we were given a lot of incorrect advise and read alot of incorrect info in books. Our rabbits didn't have a bad life but I always think they could have had it better if I was older and as well informed and educated as I am now.

It's the same for a lot of new owners today though and unfortunately a lot of pet shop staff don't no much about correct rabbit care at all :(
 
I thought I knew quite a lot and I did make an effort to ask questions in the pet shop, as did my Mum and we got a few books on rabbit care, but we were given a lot of miss information, such as being told to feed them as much musueli as they want and bed them on just straw!

We did know to give them plenty of hay and we got corret information from books about veggies to feed but sadly we were given a lot of incorrect advise and read alot of incorrect info in books. Our rabbits didn't have a bad life but I always think they could have had it better if I was older and as well informed and educated as I am now.

It's the same for a lot of new owners today though and unfortunately a lot of pet shop staff don't no much about correct rabbit care at all :(

Yes, we were told this by P@H with their bunny nuggets, Biscuit put on about 1.5kilos in her first 6 months with us before we realised that we had been ill-advised :shock:
 
My first bunny was really my sister's bunny, Harry. He was very much like Locksley! :love: He was my sister's 17th birthday present and I don't think my parents had thought it through, nor did my sister! I used to read about rabbits a lot, so I knew more, so I kind of took over the feeding and taming. He was allowed the whole garden to run in and was often seen with a petal sticking out his mouth, quickly being eaten!!! i think he was well looked after at the time, but now I have my OWN rabbit, I think they both got treated differently. My rabbit doesnt have such a big garden to play in, but he is allowed inside when our cat's put in another room so cant get to him. he only has a few hours a week inside, but he loves it. harry was never allowed inside (unless i sneaked him in and got him in my bedroom without anyone noticing!), i think harry got more veggies though, but the wrong sort as he constantly had a messy bum, Zeke has NEVER had a messy bum!
 
Not very much. Mischa was my first bunny. I knew I wanted to get him neutered but I didn't know about vaccinations until he got ill from EC and head tilt aged 1. He'd get a whole bowl full of muesli each day and didn't get fresh hay apart from clean out days. He was also in a 4 foot hutch to begin with and he'd come in during the day and go out at night. It's amazing he shows no effects from it all to be honest!!
 
Ididnt have a clue my mam bought him out of a petshop he was a sandy coular lop :love::love: i didnt have a
cage for 2 weeks so he had the run of my bedroom,
i named him hazel like watership down bunny naughty bunny used to bite me
to wake me up i got a book on rabbit care shortly after then i got more bunnys my second fav was clover :love::love: a dutch she used
to jump on my knee for hugs and strokes
 
I knew absolutely NOTHING.
I went into Petsmart (now P@H) to buy dog biscuits and came out with an 8 week old Black Otter Rex Bunny.......................
 
We had two bunnies, Miffy and Biffy. Miffy was mine, i was five. Biffy was my sisters, she was 13/14.

Miffy died at 18 months due to Myxi, in 1993. I was very upset and hated that my dad has buried her :oops: so aparantly I ran outside with a little spade and started digging in the flowerbeds saying "she hasnt died". My mum said it was horrible! My dad then told me he buried her "far far away" so i didnt dig her up! Then when i got my bunnies in 2008 i said "why didnt you bury her in the garden?" and he said "I did" i told me why he fibbed!! i was a strange child!

Biffy lived until he was 9, when he caught Myxi too. He had a four foot hutch but he did have a 8 foot x 5 foot run all to himself and he was a nethie cross, he was very aggressive. I always wanted to stroke him but he would hurt me! :lol::lol: I loved hi, very much, but from afar.
 
Beano is my first bunny and I knew basic rabbit care but didn't plan on getting a bunny, I went to the garden centre to get something for my guinea pigs, saw Beano and knew I was meant to have her :love: when I got her home I read up on all the details of rabbit care, behavour etc.
 
My first rabbit was a 'pet shop netherland dwarf' Tiny. well she was my brothers (i wasnt even born), she was brought to keep our guinea pig company. she lived for 9 years
2nd rabbit was Tilly a rex x. she had blue eyes. I must have been about 3 when we got her, she died 6 months later.
3rd rabbits was sandy a cross breed from the pet shop. she was brought as a friend for Tiny when Tilly died. They didnt get along. Sandy died out of the blue, she was put in the run in the morning and when my mum got home from work her head was stiking out of her shelter.

my personel first rabbits was Dandelion, he was a grey nethie, my favourite bun of all time, (sorry R&R). we only had him for about 1 year. she had 'head tilt' and the vet PTS. she was my 9th birthday present
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my first rabbit was a blue and white dutch called smokey when i was around 4-6 years old but we always had rabbits since i was born my mum and sister looked after them, and my sister had a lots of rescues she would take in when they couldnt be found home due to illness or aggresion and we also had rex and mini lops the mini lops was show bunnies and won many awards
 
I shudder to think of how I treated our buns when I was a kid. They were put outside in hutches and we hardly ever looked at them. They were fed, healthy and cleaned and they did get a run outside in the summer, but looking back I feel so guilty now :(


Same. For me it was the '60's with my bro's rabbit. We were less pet savvy back then, no specialist out lets 'cept Python style pet shops (as in monty!). Although my brother had made a cage with run attatched it wouldn't have been as sturdy as the ones we have today.
I adopted 'Ince'(formally Bilbo) from my niece when she went to uni. Then I bodged up a run out of an old cot and never looked back. Started buying batons and wire mesh to make pannels to devise moveable temporary (supervised) runs, play tunnels etc. Have not stopped learning about rabbits needs/health; plus learning to use tools etc.
 
The very first time I could handle a bunny was when I was 8, my father tried to breed meat rabbits and took home a pregnant doe. Three (?) kits were born and one was a lovely REW that I named Milka (I had only recently seen the chocolate advertisement :oops:).
Of course by then I knew nothing at all and Milka and her nameless mother and siblings were in a very small metal net hutch. After a while they were given the run of the chicken yard, but of course as they were not pets I could do little to make their life better.
Once in a while I would catch poor Milka and stroke her. I even put a collar on her once :oops:
Incredibly, she wasn't aggressive towards me, and if I offered her a finger she nibbled it without biting. She and her siblings later caught ear mites and their destiny is a mystery to me, my father told me at the time he released them, but I suspect he killed them and put them in the freezer. :-(

After many years, I got Maia. She was my first per bunny and she has a totally different story. I got some basic info before taking her, and then while she was settling in her new home I started studying rabbits. And after a while I got Mango to keep her company. Mango fell in love with my OH and turned him into a rabbit lover totally from scratch (he only ever had goldfish before).... but this is a different story!
 
I shudder to think of how I treated our buns when I was a kid. They were put outside in hutches and we hardly ever looked at them. They were fed, healthy and cleaned and they did get a run outside in the summer, but looking back I feel so guilty now :( (please don't shout at me for that - I couldn't feel any worse)

We had a bunny when I was about 4 he was REW called Snowy I dont think a day has gone by since Ive had D&D that I dont think about him and feel such guilt and sadness. I know I was only 4yrs old but I still remember things about how he was fed and the tiny hutch he had and now know how wrong a lot of it was and how lonely he must have been. I can still remember the day he died and overhearing Dad tell mum he had blood in his ears :cry: This summer I was in the loft and found a pile of old photos, some from the early 70's, then spotted the tiny little hutch against our garage wall and bawled my eyes out :( never ever again will any furry that lives with me want or need for anything and I will do everything I can to make their life the best it can be.
 
Nothing at all. I got Olympia/Ollie through my aunts friend at work. She'd got a Dutch doe off a breeder who went on to have a litter of babies. Ollie had an indoor rabbit cage, we did feed her on pellets but I don't remember hay being a very important part of her diet.

Within a few weeks of having her she developed some teeth problems and had to have her top incisors removed. She was very much loved though and I soon added more rabbits or aquired more. I got got her in 2000 and she died in 2007. She was very much my baby though and one of those most trusting bunnies I've ever had.

Helen xx
 
We had a bunny when I was about 4 he was REW called Snowy I dont think a day has gone by since Ive had D&D that I dont think about him and feel such guilt and sadness. I know I was only 4yrs old but I still remember things about how he was fed and the tiny hutch he had and now know how wrong a lot of it was and how lonely he must have been. I can still remember the day he died and overhearing Dad tell mum he had blood in his ears :cry: This summer I was in the loft and found a pile of old photos, some from the early 70's, then spotted the tiny little hutch against our garage wall and bawled my eyes out :( never ever again will any furry that lives with me want or need for anything and I will do everything I can to make their life the best it can be.

same with me :cry:
 
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