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Should i rehome my bunnies?

Skylar

Mama Doe
I'm not sure what to do for the best for them, i love them so SO much and they mean the world to me, so I want them to be completely happy and healthy and have the best life possible but I'm not sure i can give them that :(

I have three bunnies, two of them have still to be neutered/spayed and one is still to have vaccinations. But i have literally no money to have any of this done, can't get a job and my parents won't let me borrow anything. Well right now i have £70ish, but after having Trixie spayed I'll be back to no money. I save all the money i get and i have to buy anything and everything they need. They're accomodation is really bad too, but i don't have the money to get better and i never knew it was unacceptable when i bought it :oops::oops::( And also, even when i have them all neutered and ready to live together, I'm not allowed to bring them in the house so i have no way of being able to bond them :cry:

I really don't know what to do. My heart is breaking at the thought of having to rehome them, i love them more than anything, but just loving them isn't enough :( the poor things have hardly ever had shop bought treats and toys, they have a log, toilet roll tubes stuffed with hay and herbs or cardboard boxes with holes cut in :oops::cry: not fancy hay or fancy tunnels, proper boxes or special hidey castles :( i feel like such an awful bunny mum, they deserve so much more than i can give them but my life would be so much duller without them:(

what should i do? Any advice or suggestions would really be appreciated:( xx
 
Don't worry about shop bought treats and toys. Most bunnies are just as happy with the homemade types you describe. I buy Spenser toys, but to be honest he gets just as excited about a ball made from an old kitchen roll with a small treat in it (and you could use a couple of pellets instead of the treat).

We can all only do our best for our bunnies. The fact that you have money put aside for Trixie's spay is a credit to you, and a good start. :thumb:
 
Aw Sweetie.

Bunnies dont care if their toys and treats are shop bought or not, they will love the things that you do for them, they will enjoy their toys and will be healthier than buns who get far too many shop bought treats.

Are all three of them living apart? what sex are they and what is the sex of the one who has been done? You could still mix them if say you have 2 girls and 1 boy so long as the boy has been done.

Stop fretting and just get on with enjoying them, there is no real need to feel bad, the fact that you do means that you really care and that all buns need, someone to care enough to make sure they are clean and fed and watered and safe.

Can they see each other where they live? I have had 2 sets of buns that have lived really happily side by side on different sides of their enclosures. I am thinking that as they have done so for over a year, I might slowly start to let them together and see how they get on.

I think you are a really good bunny Mummy, cut yourself some slack.
 
I agree with what susiebun said, its not about shop bought treats,etc, its about the love and care which you give to them and you have lots of love for your bunnies, I think if you rehome them you would miss them too much, I had to rehome one of my 5 bunnies because the other 2 bunnies she was bonded to were bullying her and I had nowhere else to put her, and I didnt want her to be a bun on her own, so luckily kayj took her in and rehomed her with a bun that had just lost her partner, I feel guilty about doing that, but did it for the good of the bun that was getting hurt, and what I am trying to say is have a good think about it because you really do miss them if you give them up :cry:
 
Aw Sweetie.

Bunnies dont care if their toys and treats are shop bought or not, they will love the things that you do for them, they will enjoy their toys and will be healthier than buns who get far too many shop bought treats.

Are all three of them living apart? what sex are they and what is the sex of the one who has been done? You could still mix them if say you have 2 girls and 1 boy so long as the boy has been done.

Stop fretting and just get on with enjoying them, there is no real need to feel bad, the fact that you do means that you really care and that all buns need, someone to care enough to make sure they are clean and fed and watered and safe.

Can they see each other where they live? I have had 2 sets of buns that have lived really happily side by side on different sides of their enclosures. I am thinking that as they have done so for over a year, I might slowly start to let them together and see how they get on.

I think you are a really good bunny Mummy, cut yourself some slack.

Yeah all three of them are living apart :oops: I have two boys and a girl, my boy Muffin has been neutered and he lived with Trixie when she was younger but then she got hormonal and they fell out. :( Yeah they can all see each other. Im not sure when I will be able to put them together, id obviously have to bond them properly and I'm not sure how I'd do that without bringing them inside? :?

I think your right that I would miss them too much, scarlett. I just wish I could give them more. Trust me, the hutches they have just now are awful and if I were to post pictures id probably get attacked(though since its summer and I'm off school they don't spend much time in them which is good). my names been on the waiting list for a paper round since last September and I'm not old enough for any other job so there's nothing else I can do sadly :(
 
For a start, rabbits can live a long time, so you have plenty of time to gradually improve things as and when you can.

You're clearly very devoted to your buns and it's a credit to you that you've saved up to have Trixie spayed, not many people your age would be so selfless.

What is the accommodation they have? Maybe people could give suggestions of relatively low cost ways to improve it.

I suspect by the time you've managed to save up for all 3 to be fixed and gone to the effort of making some housing suitable for 3 your parents would see how much it all means to you and come around to having them in the house for a short time. Otherwise, you could bond them in the summer and stay outside in a tent. Maybe even have a friend or two over to make it a bit more fun.

You're right, love isn't enough, but you have more than that. You have the best of intentions and are devoted to improving their lives.

Shop bought treats and toys aren't even the best things for our rabbits. Mine do have proper "furniture" and what some people consider luxuries but those things aren't for the rabbits, they're for me! If I'm honest my rabbits love cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes a lot more than their hide outs and plastic toys, but I can't be dealing with the constant tidying up of destroyed cardboard and having to replace it every few days so cardboard has become a special treat for my buns :lol:
Foraging is free and beats shop bought treats every time :thumb:

If you feel like having the rabbits is too much for you then it's worth putting a lot of thought in to rehoming them, but if you really want to keep them and are willing to keep making sacrifices to keep them then you can make it work.
 
I have to reiterate the points made about toys. If I took away all the toys that Stephen didn't play with I'd be left with some hay toilet roll tubes, a tunnel made out of a microwave box and his willow stick tunnel.

The time and care going into making your own toys is just as important and means just as much to your buns as toys bought from a shop.
 
For a start, rabbits can live a long time, so you have plenty of time to gradually improve things as and when you can.

You're clearly very devoted to your buns and it's a credit to you that you've saved up to have Trixie spayed, not many people your age would be so selfless.

What is the accommodation they have? Maybe people could give suggestions of relatively low cost ways to improve it.

I suspect by the time you've managed to save up for all 3 to be fixed and gone to the effort of making some housing suitable for 3 your parents would see how much it all means to you and come around to having them in the house for a short time. Otherwise, you could bond them in the summer and stay outside in a tent. Maybe even have a friend or two over to make it a bit more fun.

You're right, love isn't enough, but you have more than that. You have the best of intentions and are devoted to improving their lives.

Shop bought treats and toys aren't even the best things for our rabbits. Mine do have proper "furniture" and what some people consider luxuries but those things aren't for the rabbits, they're for me! If I'm honest my rabbits love cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes a lot more than their hide outs and plastic toys, but I can't be dealing with the constant tidying up of destroyed cardboard and having to replace it every few days so cardboard has become a special treat for my buns :lol:
Foraging is free and beats shop bought treats every time :thumb:

If you feel like having the rabbits is too much for you then it's worth putting a lot of thought in to rehoming them, but if you really want to keep them and are willing to keep making sacrifices to keep them then you can make it work.

Muffin lives in a 4ft hutch with a 8x3 run attached but he hardly ever goes in to the hutch part so i'm not too worried about his because he can go out when he likes. But Trixie & Snowball are in 4.5ft hutches with no runs attached :oops::oops: its like a two storie hutch but halfed because it was originally only for Snowball and Trixie & Muffin were living together, but then they two had to be seperated :( they do spend around 6 hours each in the bigger pen (not sure what size it its, about 9 x 7) but they still spend far too much time stuck in the hutches :(

They aren't allowed to come inside because my mums allergies and there isnt enough space, but I like the idea about of doing it in a tent! The only problem is I dont have a tent, anything to bond them in & i'm just scared about bonding in general - i don't know how good i'd be at splitting up a fight or telling the normal behaviour from bad stuff :? but since they aren't neutered or ready to bond yet I guess i don't need to worry about that right now. :roll:

Thanks everyone, im glad its not seen as mean to not have any shop bought treats are toys and its not just my bunnies who prefer home made stuff, i just thought they preferred it because they hadn't had anything else :oops:
 
When it comes to bonding, are there any local rescues or experienced people on here who would be able to do it for you for a donation to a rescue? I'm not sure who is local to you, but it might be worth putting up a thread nearer the time asking for help.

Regarding your hutches - yes, it's not ideal at the moment but from the way you speak it's intended to be temporary - if 2 or 3 of them bond, they can have all that space together if you join it all up. If Trixie and Snowball are each getting 6 hours out per day, they're doing better than thousands of other buns, and you are working towards improving things for them :thumb:
 
Dont know if you have things like freecycle up in glasgow?

Maybe put a few ads on there, we were given a 5ft hutch for nothing, maybe you could find something for free, hey if you dont ask, you dont get :)

It sounds to me that your buns have alot more than many others have, and have a very devoted owner.
 
well it sounds like Muffin is ok, the run is a good size and for a lot of rabbits hutch size isn't so important because they only go there to sleep anyway (like your Muffin by the sounds of it).

6 hours of run time is better than no run time, and it's a nice big pen so I'm sure Trixie and Snowball get to run off some energy. It will still be doing their health a lot of good, exercising their muscles and hearts :thumb:
Is there any way that you could attach the bottom level of the hutch to the run? That way you could switch them over after school every day so they'd each get 24 hours at a time with access to the run and still each get some run time every day. The only potential issue is that some rabbits might not be happy with the constant switching of territory.

I expect someone you know would have a tent you could borrow but you can get them really cheaply, I saw a 2 man tent for £12 in asda the other day and there's always ebay.
If you keep a close eye on them I actually think you could bond them in the tent, or if you can easily access them when they're in their run you could do it their run.
Bonding is a scary prospect but if you do a lot of reading and arm yourself with the right tools (I used a tennis racket!) then you'll be fine. Like you say though, you don't need to worry about that just yet.
 
For a start, rabbits can live a long time, so you have plenty of time to gradually improve things as and when you can.

You're clearly very devoted to your buns and it's a credit to you that you've saved up to have Trixie spayed, not many people your age would be so selfless.

What is the accommodation they have? Maybe people could give suggestions of relatively low cost ways to improve it.

I suspect by the time you've managed to save up for all 3 to be fixed and gone to the effort of making some housing suitable for 3 your parents would see how much it all means to you and come around to having them in the house for a short time. Otherwise, you could bond them in the summer and stay outside in a tent. Maybe even have a friend or two over to make it a bit more fun.

You're right, love isn't enough, but you have more than that. You have the best of intentions and are devoted to improving their lives.

Shop bought treats and toys aren't even the best things for our rabbits. Mine do have proper "furniture" and what some people consider luxuries but those things aren't for the rabbits, they're for me! If I'm honest my rabbits love cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes a lot more than their hide outs and plastic toys, but I can't be dealing with the constant tidying up of destroyed cardboard and having to replace it every few days so cardboard has become a special treat for my buns :lol:
Foraging is free and beats shop bought treats every time :thumb:

If you feel like having the rabbits is too much for you then it's worth putting a lot of thought in to rehoming them, but if you really want to keep them and are willing to keep making sacrifices to keep them then you can make it work.

what a lovely post :D
 
Fairly Beloved Rabbit Care can help with bonding, and I don't think I'm too far from you so I could help out a bit too if you wanted.
It sounds as if the bonding will be a wee while away anyway, so i'd just concentrate on getting them neutered etc. for now.
 
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