I live in a house with 5 other people, well, one we never see, and my girlfriend also spends all her time here because her housemates are horrible people, but that's not the point.
Me, my girlfriend, and 3 of my other housemates have shared custody over Chaplin, who was a rescue rabbit. We all put money in towards her food, vet bills etc but she lives in one of my housemates rooms. When it comes to the end of University one of us will take her, me and my girlfriend would definitely be capable of doing so, but apart from that only the one who has her cage could possibly take her but considering she can't even take her rats at Christmas I'm not so sure.
Granted, the idea to get a shared rabbit probably wasn't the best idea, not because of the level of care or anything but because decisions obviously have to be okay with everyone. Now me and my girlfriend want to get her a boyfriend (she's spayed) because we know rabbits do best in pairs. I see so many lovely boys on the rehoming board and I know one of them would probably be perfect. However, the housemate who keeps her in her room says that she doesn't need a friend, that she gets much better care than most rabbits (an absolutely terrible argument in my opinion, it's not about providing your animal with better care than someone else it's about giving them the best life you can). She's a welfare student yet had the audacity to say that if we did get Chaplin a friend then maybe she wouldn't be as affection towards us. It makes me sick, surely a animal welfare student should want to give their pet the best life and not be so selfish and prevent her from the basic need to socialise with their own kind.
There is nothing I seem to be able to do though, I tried linking her some articles on it, and I don't know if she decided to just ignore it, or read it and disagreed, my girlfriend has also brought the issue up with her. I'm not very good at face to face arguments and I don't want to anger her... I have to live with her for the next 20 or so monthz. One of my other housemates also said that if we got another rabbit the house would smell and she'd move out (she also said that about anymore rats >.>), I wish she would. I joked whilst in pets@home about getting this boy in the rehoming section and the way she snapped "no" back at me was quite uncalled for.
We have 5 guinea pigs, 13 rats, 2 hamsters, a snail and a rabbit in the house, which sounds a lot but between 7 of us isn't really. Point being one more rabbit would not make the house smell. All the animals are kept clean (especially my 8 male rats, I'm constantly on top of making sure they don't smell too much as not to offend people), we make up for the fact that we have so many animals in a student house by making sure that the house is constantly kept hoovered and tidied.
What can I do to convince her. The rabbit obviously has her moments where she's happy, she binkies around the house a lot, but there's days when we're gone for a few hours and she obviously gets no attention at night. She's sit underneath the table in the kitchen looking grumpy and sometimes she just doesn't leave you alone like she's craving some kind of attention. I just think she'd be so much happier with a friend, and no less affectionate that she is now.
I'm sorry this is a bit more of a rant about a person that about the rabbit, but I thought I'd gotten away from other people controlling my pets when I moved away to University. I've had rabbits before, I was young when I got them and obviously my mother was technically in charge of them. I always told myself if I had more pets, especially rabbits, I wouldn't let anyone do that because I know I know what's best for them. Being able to take my rats to the vets just because I think they seem a bit down gives me a huge sense of satisfaction, and not being able to provide Chaplin with the best care I know I could give her really gets me down.
Me, my girlfriend, and 3 of my other housemates have shared custody over Chaplin, who was a rescue rabbit. We all put money in towards her food, vet bills etc but she lives in one of my housemates rooms. When it comes to the end of University one of us will take her, me and my girlfriend would definitely be capable of doing so, but apart from that only the one who has her cage could possibly take her but considering she can't even take her rats at Christmas I'm not so sure.
Granted, the idea to get a shared rabbit probably wasn't the best idea, not because of the level of care or anything but because decisions obviously have to be okay with everyone. Now me and my girlfriend want to get her a boyfriend (she's spayed) because we know rabbits do best in pairs. I see so many lovely boys on the rehoming board and I know one of them would probably be perfect. However, the housemate who keeps her in her room says that she doesn't need a friend, that she gets much better care than most rabbits (an absolutely terrible argument in my opinion, it's not about providing your animal with better care than someone else it's about giving them the best life you can). She's a welfare student yet had the audacity to say that if we did get Chaplin a friend then maybe she wouldn't be as affection towards us. It makes me sick, surely a animal welfare student should want to give their pet the best life and not be so selfish and prevent her from the basic need to socialise with their own kind.
There is nothing I seem to be able to do though, I tried linking her some articles on it, and I don't know if she decided to just ignore it, or read it and disagreed, my girlfriend has also brought the issue up with her. I'm not very good at face to face arguments and I don't want to anger her... I have to live with her for the next 20 or so monthz. One of my other housemates also said that if we got another rabbit the house would smell and she'd move out (she also said that about anymore rats >.>), I wish she would. I joked whilst in pets@home about getting this boy in the rehoming section and the way she snapped "no" back at me was quite uncalled for.
We have 5 guinea pigs, 13 rats, 2 hamsters, a snail and a rabbit in the house, which sounds a lot but between 7 of us isn't really. Point being one more rabbit would not make the house smell. All the animals are kept clean (especially my 8 male rats, I'm constantly on top of making sure they don't smell too much as not to offend people), we make up for the fact that we have so many animals in a student house by making sure that the house is constantly kept hoovered and tidied.
What can I do to convince her. The rabbit obviously has her moments where she's happy, she binkies around the house a lot, but there's days when we're gone for a few hours and she obviously gets no attention at night. She's sit underneath the table in the kitchen looking grumpy and sometimes she just doesn't leave you alone like she's craving some kind of attention. I just think she'd be so much happier with a friend, and no less affectionate that she is now.
I'm sorry this is a bit more of a rant about a person that about the rabbit, but I thought I'd gotten away from other people controlling my pets when I moved away to University. I've had rabbits before, I was young when I got them and obviously my mother was technically in charge of them. I always told myself if I had more pets, especially rabbits, I wouldn't let anyone do that because I know I know what's best for them. Being able to take my rats to the vets just because I think they seem a bit down gives me a huge sense of satisfaction, and not being able to provide Chaplin with the best care I know I could give her really gets me down.