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Don't know what to do :(

I'm at a loss I really am and sat in tears not knowing what to do for the best. I bought my bunnies and I expected them to live together and that would be that. Had I known they would need to be neutered to live together I would have only purchased the one. I'm mad at the previous owner (who is an experienced rabbit owner) for failing to tell me this and mad at myself for not knowing.

Now I'm in a dilemma. Faith is in a lovely big chicken coop lots of space to run and plenty of room to stand up in the hutch. When she had babies (unfortunately didn't survive) Jessie drew the short straw and she had to move out of the lovely big chicken coop she shared with Faith (up til this point I didn't know they couldn't live together). I managed to get hold of a hutch and that is where Jessie is now but it's only small not ideal at all for her and although she has access to her run all day I hate knowing she has no room at night to stretch like Faith has.

This is where my dilemma lies I want to purchase a bigger hutch for her but buying one big enough for her to stretch out in and stand up in will cost more then I can afford add on that I need to pay for them both to be neutered and it's going to mean making sacrifices (and potentionally effecting my children I.e days out with them etc) hubby is on a low wage and I'm in the process of setting up my own business so money is tight til that takes off properly.

My only other option would be is to rehome one but the the thought of that leaves me heartbroken as I'm very much in love with them both :( I hate this and I don't know what to do for the best both for my family and the rabbits.

Please don't lecture me about how I should of known what I was getting myself in for when taking on rabbits and I should of researched. I did as much reading up on how to look after a rabbit before getting one and if I had known that rabbits needed to be neutered to live in harmony I would of only bought Jessie and then later added a second bunny (funds allowing).

Anyways I just had to get that down. Hubby won't understand and he's snoring his head off :(

Please someone give me some advise or what you would do in my shoes. I want to keep both my bunnies but can't see how we can juggle our money to do so :( X

Edited to add: I see a lot of you have sheds for your bunnies if I can find one reasonably priced would it be better for Jessie to have her hutch placed in there so she can use it for sleeping but still have the run of the shed on a night.
 
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Why don't you buy a second hand shed or wendy house and convert it for the bunnies? How old are your rabbits? Have they been vaccinated? Unfortunately neutering isn't the only financial worry there is unexpected vets bills too which can be very steep. Do you qualify for PDSA? Your doe will be the priority to spay as 80% develop cancer of the uterus if left. They are expensive pets :( We all me included have to make sacrifices for them.
 
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Just copied this from another thread I posted on to show you what I did
















This is mine, 8x6 shed and 8x8ft avairy attached, the avairy is screwed into concrete. We used corrugated heavy duty Perspex and slopped the avairy roof slightly, then it has guttering along the back for the water to run into which feeds into a water but. My avairy is 90% recycled panels from runs I had, only had to make one extra panel and the shed is also recycled.
 
Is there any way your vets could set up a payment plan for you where you pay a little bit of money a week/month until your bill is paid off?
So you can get both bunnies spayed and in a few weeks re-bond them.

Maybe ask on here if anyone near you can lend you a larger hutch until you can get the bunnies done maybe so Jessie has more space.
I've given a hutch to someone on here before who needed one :)
 
Why don't you buy a second hand shed or wendy house and convert it for the bunnies? How old are your rabbits? Have they been vaccinated? Unfortunately neutering isn't the only financial worry there is unexpected vets bills too which can be very steep. Do you qualify for PDSA? Your doe will be the priority to spay as 80% develop cancer of the uterus if left. They are expensive pets :( We all me included have to make sacrifices for them.

I've been searching locally for one on gumtree and various other selling pages with no luck. No the previous owner never had them vaccinated (they are 6 months old) but I have read about the vaccinations and was planning on getting them both vaccinated (til Faith had her babies and completely knocked me for six). Both are does and no sadly we don't qualify for pdsa as we aren't in receipt of housing or council tax benefit (though we are entitled it's only a few pounds and we didn't think it would be worth bothering with).

Thank you for posting those pictures it really looks fab and we have the space in the garden for something like that but both of us aren't brilliant at diy x
 
I've been searching locally for one on gumtree and various other selling pages with no luck. No the previous owner never had them vaccinated (they are 6 months old) but I have read about the vaccinations and was planning on getting them both vaccinated (til Faith had her babies and completely knocked me for six). Both are does and no sadly we don't qualify for pdsa as we aren't in receipt of housing or council tax benefit (though we are entitled it's only a few pounds and we didn't think it would be worth bothering with).

Thank you for posting those pictures it really looks fab and we have the space in the garden for something like that but both of us aren't brilliant at diy x

Oh crikey, I'd get the vaccinated, maybe ring round the vets and find out prices as they vary quite a bit. The combo vaccination (myxi and vhd) is annual and costs me £35 at my vets. So I take it the previous owner had Faith in with a buck if Jessie is definitely a doe? :shock: I'd ring and see if any vets would consider a payment plan too.

Ah I'm sure you could get friends to help convert a shed, doesn't have to be as complicated as mine, wendy houses are great, you can attached a run to the side of one via a catflap. Keep an eye on ebay/gumtree/freeads.
 
Is there any way your vets could set up a payment plan for you where you pay a little bit of money a week/month until your bill is paid off?
So you can get both bunnies spayed and in a few weeks re-bond them.

Maybe ask on here if anyone near you can lend you a larger hutch until you can get the bunnies done maybe so Jessie has more space.
I've given a hutch to someone on here before who needed one :)

I could ring them and ask. It would take the strain off us moneywise but then there is the cost of buying two seperate indoor cages to allow them to recover. Again had I know all this had the previous owner told me this I would never have agreed to take both on. To be quite honest I'm fuming with her.

I will see if anyone has a larger hutch I could borrow where would be best to post.

I just wish we had more money as I adore them both so much and even though they have been here only 2 weeks I have made such strong bonds with them especially Jessie which is why I feel so rotten about her being in a smaller hutch. She escaped her run today and it was so wonderful seeing her doing binkys across the grass (she wasn't impressed when I herded her back to the run though lol) x
 
If you qualify for housing or council tax benefit i think you can use the pdsa, it would be a good idea to apply for the benefit if you are entitled to it and then you would also get help with the neutering and vaccinations of your bunnies.
 
I could ring them and ask. It would take the strain off us moneywise but then there is the cost of buying two seperate indoor cages to allow them to recover. Again had I know all this had the previous owner told me this I would never have agreed to take both on. To be quite honest I'm fuming with her.

I will see if anyone has a larger hutch I could borrow where would be best to post.

I just wish we had more money as I adore them both so much and even though they have been here only 2 weeks I have made such strong bonds with them especially Jessie which is why I feel so rotten about her being in a smaller hutch. She escaped her run today and it was so wonderful seeing her doing binkys across the grass (she wasn't impressed when I herded her back to the run though lol) x

Can you not borrow a dog crate from someone? Otherwise they're as cheap as £18 delivered on ebay. Get one done at a time then sell the dog crate on, probably get your money back almost! Definitely apply for housing/council tax benefit, it will help with your situation.
 
Oh crikey, I'd get the vaccinated, maybe ring round the vets and find out prices as they vary quite a bit. The combo vaccination (myxi and vhd) is annual and costs me £35 at my vets. So I take it the previous owner had Faith in with a buck if Jessie is definitely a doe? :shock: I'd ring and see if any vets would consider a payment plan too.

Ah I'm sure you could get friends to help convert a shed, doesn't have to be as complicated as mine, wendy houses are great, you can attached a run to the side of one via a catflap. Keep an eye on ebay/gumtree/freeads.

Thank you I shall ask the vets about the vaccinations it was on my to-do list once I got the rabbits as it was the first question I asked the owner. She claimed that one of her females must have been male but to be honest I don't believe her as she had a buck she was trying to sell and she told me all her rabbits played in the same run. Who knows.

Sadly myself and my hubby are loners we don't have any friends most of mine live in my laptop lol and hubby has a couple at work. I'll certainly keep my eye out for any preloved sheds or Wendyhouses though.


I just want to say thanks to for being so nice to me all of you it means so much as I care deeply for these rabbits and if money was no object I'd want to adopt more from rescue centres (makes me feel sad that there are rabbits out there who's owners couldn't give them the care they needed ) I refuse to let that happen to my buns x
 
Thank you I shall ask the vets about the vaccinations it was on my to-do list once I got the rabbits as it was the first question I asked the owner. She claimed that one of her females must have been male but to be honest I don't believe her as she had a buck she was trying to sell and she told me all her rabbits played in the same run. Who knows.

Sadly myself and my hubby are loners we don't have any friends most of mine live in my laptop lol and hubby has a couple at work. I'll certainly keep my eye out for any preloved sheds or Wendyhouses though.


I just want to say thanks to for being so nice to me all of you it means so much as I care deeply for these rabbits and if money was no object I'd want to adopt more from rescue centres (makes me feel sad that there are rabbits out there who's owners couldn't give them the care they needed ) I refuse to let that happen to my buns x

When you get them vaccinated get them sexed to double check, or have a look yourself, there are pictures on the web of what to look for :lol:
 
How big is her hutch? X

It's roughly about 3ft long I know way too small for her and I feel awful but it was the only one I could get at short notice from a local selling group and I've been trying to find something bigger within budget ever since to no avail. All hutches within my budget are not much bigger and not very tall .

At times like this I wish I had a fairy godmother :( x
 
When you get them vaccinated get them sexed to double check, or have a look yourself, there are pictures on the web of what to look for :lol:

I got Jessie sexed a few days after she is definitely female (and doesn't appear to have got pregnant by the buck from her previous home which was another worry of mine). X
 
If you qualify for housing or council tax benefit i think you can use the pdsa, it would be a good idea to apply for the benefit if you are entitled to it and then you would also get help with the neutering and vaccinations of your bunnies.

Thank you I will look into it and see if we still qualify.
 
Can you not borrow a dog crate from someone? Otherwise they're as cheap as £18 delivered on ebay. Get one done at a time then sell the dog crate on, probably get your money back almost! Definitely apply for housing/council tax benefit, it will help with your situation.

My plan was to get them neutered one at a time but then that would mean longer for Jessie to wait especially stuck in that hutch it's unfair on her :( but yes I can pick up a dog crate fairly cheaply. All of this is so complicated I just want to give both my bunnies the best home they can have ( why did I marry someone who lacks in the diy department lol). X
 
My plan was to get them neutered one at a time but then that would mean longer for Jessie to wait especially stuck in that hutch it's unfair on her :( but yes I can pick up a dog crate fairly cheaply. All of this is so complicated I just want to give both my bunnies the best home they can have ( why did I marry someone who lacks in the diy department lol). X

That takes work, the intial cost of un-neutered/unvaccinated bunnies is a lot, plus they really do need space to be happy. These are all busy suggestions to try and help you achieve that as soon as possible :wave:
 
That takes work, the intial cost of un-neutered/unvaccinated bunnies is a lot, plus they really do need space to be happy. These are all busy suggestions to try and help you achieve that as soon as possible :wave:

And thus it brings me back to my dilemma of not having the money to do all these 3 things at one and all 3 things add up to healthy happy bunnies :( hopefully I can find a way to muddle through it as my last resort would be to rehome one of them and I can't bring myself to do that.

All your suggestions have really helped though.x
 
If it were me and I were trying to make the best of the bad situation, and some will possibly disagree but that's inevitable ;), I would forget the size of the hutch in the short term. Yes it's very small, but as a *short term* solution for what is still a small bunny it's not going to be the end of the world. We had to keep Rosie in a 4ft hutch post-spay and while it wasn't ideal, I knew that long term she'd had an 8 x 6 shed and a large garden to run around it so I think it evens out.

I would then concentrate all of my efforts on scraping together the money to get them castrated. Preferably both at once so you've not got a staggered healing time but separately if necessary. Once healed, I would then rebond which means they could both go in the bigger hutch and then I'd sort the vaccinations.

Rehoming one isn't really a solution because then you still have a lone rabbit which is not ideal. Better to have a short term "not ideal" hutch than a long term issue of loneliness IMO.
 
In the short term, you could swap the 2 bunnies round (eg. every few days) so they each get time in the larger accommodation? It may also help with bonding them back together later as they will be used to each others' smell. Then you could concentrate on getting the neutering and vaccinations done one by one. Maybe you could use the smaller hutch as the recovery area after a spay and bring it inside. It may not be ideal, but it is a short term solution and would allow you more cash to put into the vet fees rather than equipment you may not need for long if you intend to bond them again.
 
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