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Rescue centres

Pipkin01

Warren Scout
I'm looking for a female to bond with my single male rabbit. Went to a rescue centre today and found a lovely girl bunny. Enquired about her and filled in all the paperwork only to be told that we woud fail the home check as we don't have a run in the garden. My rabbit is a house bunny who has free range of the house when we're at home to supervise him. He's not in the garden as it's not grassed and I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving him outside all day while I'm at work like the women at the rescue centre said I should.

I've found a lot more rescue centres by looking online and emailed them to find out their re homing policy. Just wanted to know what peoples' views are, is it cruel to have a house bunny that doesn't go outside?
 
We have no problem if a bunny is to be a permanent house rabbit.

I find rescues that do, tend to be more old school.
 
I have 2 pairs of indoor bunnies at the moment. One pair are out as soon as the back door is open and the other pair don't bother even with the conservatory door open they just prefer to be inside. Think it depends on the bun in question. If they have lots of room indoors it shouldn't matter in my opinion. :)
 
Mine very rarely go outside. I've had two rescue buns, Ollie from Kris (starlight) and Marnie from Liz (rainbow rabbits)
Ffinding out about different policies is a good plan :wave: Hope you find a bun soon :D
 
The rescue I used to work for wouldn't rehome without a run in the garden. They had no problem with house buns as long as they had a run of some sorts in the garden, although weren't fussy about size.

I can kinda see where they were coming from as they said "rabbits are outside animals in the wild" which is true, although these days rabbits are even more domesticated than they used to be (I think, house rabbits are a fairly new concept-I could be wrong though) and live happily indoors as well as out.
 
The rescue I volunteer with wouldn't have a problem with a house rabbit; it would just need to have a 'base' of it's/their own so that it/they could be put away if they were being a pain or whatever, and could be safe (be this a room, an NIC creation, Dog crate and attached pen, etc).
 
My rabbit is a house bunny who has free range of the house when we're at home to supervise him.

What size space is he kept in when you're not home? And how long each day is he out free range? They might be trying to get at the fact that if your house isn't bunny proof enough to leave him out with more space when you're out all day, that a suitably sized garden run might be an alternative?

I'm sure you'll be able to find a suitable rescue bun for your little one somewhere, though :)
 
He has this cage: http://www.petsathome.com/shop/rabb...a-pig-and-dwarf-rabbit-cage-by-ferplast-15992 . Planning to buy a bigger one once he gets a friend though. He's out for at least 8 hrs a day, all day at the weekend when we're at home. House is bunnyproofed I'd just worry too much having him out all day, he's good at getting into places he shouldn't! I am considering fencing off an area around his cage so he can come out in the day and have a totally safe area to play in.
 
Some rescues do have a problem with house rabbits!

I contacted quite a few before I got Jessie. One told me no because I couldn't let them outside- I have no garden so it isn't an option.

Another rescue said that the base cage I have (ferplast 120) was too small as a base for two rabbits, even though they are NEVER shut in there and there isn't room for anything bigger. They said they need a large enclosed 'bolt hole'- even when I explained that there are carriers, boxes, tents, etc. all over the house it still wasn't enough so I gave up!

I got Jessie from Starlights :D Different rescues just have different policies.

I would suggest getting a bigger cage/base if they are shut in at all though, that one is quite small. Would free-ranging 24/7 be an option? Bun proofing doesn't take too long, and it works out cheaper in the long run, plus you don't have a massive cage/run in the middle of the room!
 
Or if you really love the girl you have picked out see if you can either buy a small cheap run or borrow one from a friend for the home check day... or is that really wrong?
 
Or if you really love the girl you have picked out see if you can either buy a small cheap run or borrow one from a friend for the home check day... or is that really wrong?

A rescue needs to be able to trust an owner and if someone is being deceptive then likely a good home visitor will pick up something 'amiss' even if they don't understand what, because the gut instinct of the home visitor should be able to identify something 'off'.

ETA- as your accommodation currently stands we would not rehome to that setup, but if you added a permanent puppy pen or your new cage was significantly bigger (and wireless storage grid cage could be a very good possibility), then we would reassess. :)
 
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I know of a rescue that won't home to people planning to keep a rabbit outdoors. The rescue I got Honey from is happy to home to both indoor homes and out though.:)
 
ETA- as your accommodation currently stands we would not rehome to that setup, but if you added a permanent puppy pen or your new cage was significantly bigger (and wireless storage grid cage could be a very good possibility), then we would reassess. :)

We're looking into different options at the moment and will either be getting a large dog crate and attaching a pen to it for when we're not at home or getting a larger three storey cage and attaching a pen to that for exercise when not supervised.

My bunny is a fairly small bunny and is able to hop around, stand up fully and lie stretched out in his cage at the moment, I know that his current cage is nowhere near big enough for two buns but not got a bigger one yet as want a neutral cage for the two buns to live in that hasn't already been scented by my male bun.

My bun is out all the time when we're at home, he usually runs around madly for 20 minutes or so and then flops out in the corner on his blanket for the rest of the time with occasional visits to the sofa to say hi :)
 
I emailed the RSCPA lincolnshire about my base for my current house rabbit as I want to adopt a female and asked whether I needed a run and they said no as they would be house rabbits. They would be just checking my pen to make sure it is suitable
 
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