What to do next...

Hello everyone, I'm just wondering if I'd be able to get some advice about a rabbit that I found last week...
Last Thursday I saw a rabbit in our garden but unfortunately I couldn't catch him until the Friday which meant he/she spent a night out in the freezing rain. On Friday morning I managed to catch him (he's very small and fluffy so we've just presumed its a boy) he was freezing cold and very wet so he spent the day with a hot water bottle in one of our spare guinea pig cages and he was warn and dry in no time. He looks like a young English lop cross and he has been in a cage on our kitchen sideboard ever since. I've put up posters all over the local area as well as leaflets through doors but no one has come to claim him.
What would you all do as the next step?
I've got 3 guinea pigs at the moment so adding a rabbit to the family wouldn't be a massive step but I'm first to admit I know nothing about rabbits as I've never had one before.
The cage he is in at the moment isn't ideal at all and if I were to keep him he would have to live in a hutch outside but I'm reluctant to buy one just yet in case his owners turn up! How long is a reasonable amount of time to wait? It's been a week now and not a sound from anyone so I can only presume he was dumped. I've spoken to a few local rescues about taking him in but they're all at capacity and I'm falling for the little rabbit more and more as the days go on. So, I've just got a few questions...
He's currently eating guinea pig pellets. I went out and bought him some rabbit ones but he's not keen. Is he ok eating them in the short term or should I get him to eat the rabbit ones ASAP?
He's had a little bit of a runny nose since I found him and I presumed it was because he spent at least 1 night outside however he has still got it. Should I be overly concerned at this stage and is there anything I can do to ease it? He's bright eyed and not sneezing and seems ok apart from the wet nose!
What would you advise vaccination wise? I've no idea if he's had them or if it'd be ok to give them to him again?

Thanks and sorry for all of the questions!

Solymo

Bless him, poor little thing. Well, if you would like to keep him, if no-one turns up, I would let some time go by, let him settle in, get to know him a bit see if his runny nose gets better and then you start to think about buyinng a new hutch for him, or her. Rabbits should be eating 80% hat. some dried food and a little bit of veg. As we don't know what he was eating before it's a bit worrying if new food will upset him but just keep going and hopefully he will be ok. I doubt anyone will come forward and as he has a runny nose don't use shavings as that will make it worse. Hope he gets on all right and it sounds like he has found a loving new home. As regards the pellets he can eat gp ones. Please let us know how it goes.

I'd get him vet checked immediately if he has a runny nose. He also needs the new vaccination against VHD/myxy asap. A vet would be able to assess whether he was well enough to be vaccinated and if not what treatment he needs. He's very lucky you found him :wave:

Thanks I'm keeping him/her on megazorb with loads of hay in his bed. Should i change bedding or is that ok? It's what the guinea pigs are on for their breathing but i dont know if it is ok for him too. I'm really just treating him like one of the guinea pigs with the care and food side of it!

Megazorb and hay is fab :thumb:

I agree with going to the vets and yeah rabbit food, I think guinea pig food has somethings in it that rabbits don't need but I don't know about it affecting them, science selective would be a good pellet to move him onto :wave: rabbits don't need unlimited food but I think at the moment it doesn't matter if you wanted to save on megazorb you could line his house with newspaper and just fill it with hay

Instead of a hutch could you have a playhouse with a run? Or a shed? minimum hutch size is 6 x 2 hutch with attached run

You've brought him indoors?
If you are thinking of keeping him and he's going to be outside, you need to get him back outside, once he's acclimatised to in inside and the weather has turned cold putting him back out could kill him. I would keep him in a bathroom or something with the window left open and the heating turned off to bring the temp down. Sorry if I misunderstood that.
I think legally speaking you have to wait two weeks before the owner no longer has a claim on him.
As far as I know I think rabbits can eat guinea pig food but not the other way round. The main difference being guinea pig food has much more vitamins in. Ideally you would put him on a high fibre rabbit pellet such as science selective, allen and page pellets, excel, oxbow. If he prefers the muesli rabbit royale is a good one but you need to keep an eye that he isn't selective feeding. As with piggies any change of food would need to be over a week or two to avoid upset stomach.
He will need vaccinating against Myxi and VHD which you can now get done in a combined vaccine, and ideally neutered. This is good for boys mainly to reduce sexual frustration and reduce behaviour such as spraying urine although it does have health benefits too. With does they need spaying as they have an 80% chance of developing uterine cancer.
They are very rewarding pets though and good at stealing hearts
Are you going to post a pic?