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Terrifying, and wrong, things bunny owners say...and believe

catxx

Mama Doe
Found a breeder saying this on Instagram this morning

Rabbits need hay at least 1-2 times a week. They can be perfectly healthy without it 24/7. We feed ours hay every Sunday after we clean cages, then usually on Wednesdays or Tuesdays. Mine don't even eat it, they push it out the cage or poop/pee on it.

This is a Netherland Dwarf show breeder in the USA (I think). I dread to think what the state of their poops and teeth are like.

Anyone else found any gems lately?
 
Floki barely touches her hay. she uses it in her litter tray and pulls out the odd piece so I can see where they are coming from. She's a nugget girl with plenty of greens on the side
 
It's more worrying that this particular breeder doesn't understand the importance of hay in the diet. A high hay diet means less chance of dental disease and gut problems.

It takes time to convince rabbits that hay is the best thing they should be eating if they've been spoilt with pellets, treats and veggies instead. With any bun born at RRR, they are introduced to hay immediately, even then pellets are limited (although not as much limiting as adults of course) - as a result RRR bunnies grow up inhaling hay like it's going out of fashion!
 
Netherland dwarfs are only small and are scared of the space in a big hutch.

I read this once :roll:
 
''Rabbits dont drink water during the day so at Shows there is no need to provide them with a water bottle. They all get a drink when they get home from the Show and they have access to water all night''

A gem of 'advice' from a BRC Breeder of Standard Rex :roll:
 
Floki barely touches her hay. she uses it in her litter tray and pulls out the odd piece so I can see where they are coming from. She's a nugget girl with plenty of greens on the side

If she's being given nuggets and greens regularly then she is likely to pick those over the hay, but hay or grass is the most important part of a rabbits' diet. You could try something like readigrass mixed in with the hay to encourage her to eat it? Unfortunately if she is not eating a lot of hay it could lead to problems with her teeth.
 
'rabbits will only wee in a litter tray, nowhere else. So i advise you buy this 5 litre bag of rabbit litter for £8'

This is what i was told when buying my bun, he pees everywhere but the litter tray! 😆
 
My old American dwarf rabbit book said something like "rabbits love going outside: many will learn to accept harnesses". Admittedly, it was written in about 1990, and American, and it DID say you pretty much have to follow the rabbit wherever it wants to go as pulling it may hurt/kill it, but yes...
 
I was flipping through an RSPCA rabbit care book at the vets the other day (they have a stack of animal care books in the waiting room). The housing section ONLY mentions hutches, nothing else. This was probably written in the 1980s-1990s and not been updated much!
 
I posted on my other thread some choice quotes that a breeder said in response to my views about keeping rabbits:

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?434285-Rabbit-breeding-promoted-in-newspaper

A particularly horrid one is that Dutch rabbits are small and so only need a 2 or 3 foot hutch :( Oh and that the RSPCA don't know anything about rabbits so you're best just listening to breeders!

I just cannot understand the mentality of these people. Their attitude is usually 'well I've kept rabbits for years and this is the way I've always done it, so it must be right.' :evil: If someone told me I was caring for my animals incorrectly, I would ask my vet, research it online, ask other owners... and if something needed changing I'd change it!

And it's not enough that their own animals suffer with the owners' poor care - they then put this stuff on fb/Instagram presenting it as fact and tell other owners this is the correct way to do things! :(
 
The breeder that I got Milo and Finn from sold them to me at 6 weeks old. Thats probably saying enough as it is :roll:

I must admit when I first saw the big run she had in the garden I thought ''wow that's really brilliant'' but then I got to the females in the small hutches with the babies. If I'd have known what I know now....seemed the large run was only for the males. :(
 
I posted on my other thread some choice quotes that a breeder said in response to my views about keeping rabbits:

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?434285-Rabbit-breeding-promoted-in-newspaper


I just cannot understand the mentality of these people. Their attitude is usually 'well I've kept rabbits for years and this is the way I've always done it, so it must be right.' :evil: If someone told me I was caring for my animals incorrectly, I would ask my vet, research it online, ask other owners... and if something needed changing I'd change it!

And it's not enough that their own animals suffer with the owners' poor care - they then put this stuff on fb/Instagram presenting it as fact and tell other owners this is the correct way to do things! :(

There is an ex-battery hen rescue group on FB that I am part of. On that group someone was asking for advice on bedding. A lady was commenting saying that her rabbits and chickens were all given sawdust. I politely replied to her comment saying that sawdust is not brilliant for any species as it can cause respiratory problems and was promptly shot down in flames. Apparently she knew best because she had 'kept rabbits and chickens for most of her life' ( I would estimate that she was in her 50s). I just do not understand this argument at all. We as a society do not do things the same as we did 50 years ago. If you applied that attitude to another topic (such as the way women are view or treated) then people would be appalled.

I personally will always have a lot more respect for someone who has owned rabbits for a couple of months, but researched everything properly, than some supposed 'expert' who has kept them in sub-standard conditions for 30-40 years. I don't think how long you have kept an animal for has any real weight- all that matters is how long you have cared for that animal properly, and done what is in its best interests, rather than yours.
 
I think now that the internet exists, there is little excuse for not bothering to find out about the needs of a species. When I first started keeping bunnies, I THOUGHT I'd done the right thing by buying a book written by the RSPCA, reading up about it, speaking to breeders etc. Turns out I was very wrong. But this was 25 years ago and the internet didn't exist for most people.

My best 'gem' is being told by my ex-vet (note 'ex') that my unspayed female bunny, bleeding from the genitals, wouldn't have cancer and it was probably just a urine infection :roll:. She died from uterine cancer :cry:.
 
I think now that the internet exists, there is little excuse for not bothering to find out about the needs of a species. When I first started keeping bunnies, I THOUGHT I'd done the right thing by buying a book written by the RSPCA, reading up about it, speaking to breeders etc. Turns out I was very wrong. But this was 25 years ago and the internet didn't exist for most people.
.

This! My first rabbit was before the days of the internet. The only guide I had was the thin RSPCA book and whatever pet shops said. They sold us a guinea pig as a companion. We had a 3ft hutch. BUT he was kept indoors in an unfinished extension (literally breeze block housing) and had a homemade ramp down from his hutch to run around. He got vet care, he developed abscesses which eventually meant he had to be put to sleep but he got to see the vet which many rabbits didn't.

My next door neighbour however was a breeder, of Netherland Dwarves and Blue Beverens I believe. We bunny sat for him as kids. The Beverens (they are a giant breed remember) were in 3ft hutches, the Nethies in boxes a max of 2ft wide. Minimal hay (if any, I can't remember), bowls full of muesli, never left their hutches except to go to shows. I remember one of the Beverens had escaped the hutch and was running around the shed one morning, I felt SO guilty catching her and putting her back in her little hutch. Breeders like him have not changed. That is terrifying.
 
From this forum & recently: It's impossible to bond rabbits that aren't related.:lol: That was advice from one newby to another :lol:
 
'rabbits will only wee in a litter tray, nowhere else. So i advise you buy this 5 litre bag of rabbit litter for £8'

This is what i was told when buying my bun, he pees everywhere but the litter tray! 

To be fair that is true for some rabbits!
 
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