what happens when you have one rabbit left?

following on from the other thread about whether you will have anymore rabbits in the future.

what will you do when you have one left? and what age would the remaining one be for you to consider keeping them single until they pass? :wave:

If I plan on continuing keeping rabbits I will always get a lone rabbit a partner when their previous partner dies

If OH and I ever come to a decision that we want to take a break from owning rabbits I will base the decision on whether to get a new partner on the age and health of the rabbit that is with us, I'd probably try to get a vet opinion of how long they are likely to have left and if it's more than a year I'd get an age/health matched rabbit, if it's likely less than a year and the rabbit is happy enough by itself then I'd keep it alone (as a house rabbit), if they weren't happy as a single rabbit I'd have to get them a partner obviously

It's definitely a difficult one. I felt very uneasy when I was left with one bunny but I really didn't think she had long left (6 months in the end, which was longer than I expected). It's very hard to see a single bunny when you are used to seeing them living with another.

So my view is that you have to look at the individual rabbit and their circumstances, as well as their personality/confidence etc.

I've heard of a couple of rescues doing fostering for this exact scenario, it's a genius idea because you think you're fostering a rabbit but realistically how many people on here would have a rabbit for any length of time and then return it? I know when it came to it I wouldn't and then I would have to adopt the bun and start the cycle again, xx

I always said that if anything happened to one of the bunnies, the other would come indoors to live with us as a house bunny ........I thought otherwise we'd get stuck in a never ending cycle ....... however, since Dizzi passed and Rascal looked so sad and lonely, we decided to get him a new friend (she's should be coming to stay in a couple of weeks) x

I think I'll be faced with this decision soon. I don't know what I'm going to do when Annabella is left alone because I don't want any more rabbits really. I guess I'll just have to play it by ear - I'm planning to bring her inside and see how she does, but she's never been keen on people and she's only 3, so I don't know. I certainly won't be rushing into anything.

We have made this decision with Benji, he will be our last bunny, and we hope he has a long time left yet!! He came indoors to live with us after his partner died, he is 5 years old, I sometimes feel bad that he is a lone bunny, but he is very loving with us and he loves human attention, he's become one the family and theres always someone at home to keep him company!

I was thinking about making this thread a while back! (Great minds think alike!)

For me I think it would depend on both the age and health of the remaining bunny. If said bunny was 8-9 years old then I probably would consider maybe not getting another friend. Or if I really couldn't bare seeing them alone, I would try and adopt one of the same age. It's a tricky one, my rabbits have all been relatively young when they lost their partners (2-4) and they really didn't cope well at all and I hated seeing them alone. The shortest time one was alone after losing a friend was 2 days and the longest was 12 days (there weren't any in rescue at the time!).

Tinkerbell was a houserabbit until we rescued Simba and they both went to live outside as Simba wouldn't move on the laminate flooring indoors!

When he died, Tinkerbell came and lived back indoors, she was very happy and loved being indoors.

I am in that situation of having one lone bunny and I'm doing a good job of tying myself up in knots over it. Remmington is a rescue bun and had a fairly traumatic experience before he came to me. His wifeybun was taken away from him and the owners stated to the rescue that they wanted to have Remmi PTS for no other grounds other than they no longer wanted 2 rabbits. I intro'd him to Krystle when he came here and they were very happy together. But, Krystle was quite old ( around 8 - 9 ) and she had to be PTS 3 months later. Remmi has been alone since then ( 8 months ) and altough he gets lots of attention from me I cannot replace what he has lost. I also have 4 other buns, 2 piggies, 7 rats, an elderly parent and a house that is an ongoing work in progress, so I am always busy. I cannot be with him all day and every day. I was hoping that Remmi would be ok but some of his behaviour is suggesting to me that he is bored and unhappy. I do not really want another bun and I feel very bad for thinking that, but maybe I should. I think he's around 6 and I don't want him to be unhappy for ther remainder of his life. He has a cuddly toy bunny which he has recently taken to sitting next to and washing it whilst pointedly looking up at me. My husband is inI favour of finding another wifeybun. So maybe my own feelings are beside the point here. Difficult decision to make.

This is the first time I have faced this. Sprocket isn't yet five years old. We can't start looking for a new friend for a few weeks until he gets the all clear from the vet. But after that I think we will be looking for one.

If I keep having rabbits I'll never have a single as even when one dies, the others have each other for company.
If I decide to stop keeping rabbits it will depend on the rabbit. Either keep the single rabbit as a house rabbit until the end, rehome it, or adopt a rabbit with a (hopefully) similar amount of time left.

We're in this very dilema at the moment, we lost Jack last November and since then have tried to make Honey as happy as possible but at times she still looks incredibly depressed. Honey's had three partners in the 6 years we've had her and each one has actually been increasingly difficult to bond her with. Roly bonded with her relatively easily, after three days they were safe enough to be left together. JayJay was next and he took a bit longer, they had to live side by side for a week and then even when they were given space together you could see there was still tension for a week or so after this. Her bond with Jack was an absolute nightmare and it was around 3 months before we felt they were properly bonded, this was after spending a month in neutral space indoors, then 2 months of getting bits of their outdoor enclosure back.

Honey's at least 8 now but possibly closer to 9, there are no rabbits within 4 years of her on Fairly Beloved, the SSPCA or Rabbit Rehome sites. Closest we can see is a rabbit that's 5yo but we were hoping not to have any more bunnies after Honey passed but at the moment we're worried she might last another 3 years. She's allowed to come and go from the house into her outdoor enclosure and her shed is heated but occasionally she does look incredibly depressed.

I had a group of six originally but as they bopped off I never replaced them and when I got down to two that was fine. Then Jester died at age 9 which left Fraggle alone. She was edging to 10 years old herself so I didn't think it would be long until she passed too as depressing as a thought that is. We said we would hang fire on getting another as the bonding might be too stressful for her and when she did pass we would then start again with a pair. Well it's been a year and a half and she's only just now slowing down. She is arthritic and thin but has a great appetite and I found her in the mounted hay rack this morning! :lol: She is not totally alone as I have a pair of contis living next door to her, separated by mesh panels. I am not sure I will be getting more after she has gone. Rabbits are so stressful to own, I am enjoying my reduced numbers. I did used to love seeing my group interacting and playing and do sometimes day dream about having that again so we will see.

I had always planned to adopt a similarly aged (hopefully elderly) rabbit when one of mine died. I have 2 pairs at the moment.
But it seems impossible to get insurance for an old bun and it would be irresponsible to adopt an old bun without it (for me, anyway). Tango and Doris were both from the Blue Cross and came home with 4 weeks pet plan insurance.
Does anyone know if this still applies to older buns? Or if there would be any trouble renewing after the 4 weeks?
Then there's the problem of how easy it is to bond an older bun.
Hopefully I don't have to deal with it for a long while, my eldest is 5 [emoji4]

For me it entirely depends on which rabbit is left alone - and how they were before they were bonded with their current partners. Harley and Cheyenne were very definitely depressed as single buns and need a partner so depending on their age, I would adopt buns of a similar age. Sheldon as well is not happy at all when on his own so he would have to have new wife regardless of his age.

The others though - it depends on their age and health. If say Prudhoe was left alone at age 10 but was as bouncy and silly as ever - then for sure, he would have another wife. But if he was an 'old' 10 year old then probably not. But most of all it would depend on how happy they seemed to be alone - and if unhappy then I would get them a new partner (same'ish age).

Very hard. I am dreading one of my pairs losing their partner. ...

I've thought about this and had to make tentative decisions for when it comes.

Slipper & Blackavar are both 4 this year so I'm guessing they'll go first. That leaves Cherry and Blueberry alone so I'd bond those two. Blueberry is two this year so I guess he'd be next to go which leaves me with Cherry, Jacquetta and Lady Katherine. All the same age (Cherry is a month younger). Three girls, one a wildie x. Yeah that's not happening! So I'd probably look for a husbun for Cherry then.

Obviously that's assuming they all die of old age in age order. If there's any change to that, I'd have to reassess. But with three boys and three girls I'm reasonably confident I could reduce my numbers to a more manageable amount without having a single bunny. Blackavar especially doesn't cope with being alone, he needs a bunny companion and if Cherry went before him, he'd need a new wifeybun ASAP! So either adopting one or bonding him with my girls.

For people not like us they end up dumped in PAH adoption centres! I'm not joking I have seen all the oldies that people take in and say they don't want any more because the other one has died....this goes for rabbits, g pigs, rats, dwarf hammies, degus? I don't get why people do it? I had my last g pig on his own for about a year after his brother died as I didn't want another one. I did move him inside though so he didn't get too lonely.

I had Buggsy & Cookie, Cookie went to the Bridge so I adopted Skye, Skye went to the Bridge, I was "given" Lala, so Buggsy always had a partner, then Hogan was "given" to me, he was on his own for a little while, then Buggsy went to the bridge so Lala & Hogan lived together, Hogan went to the bridge and I had Sahdow "given" to me then Shadow & Lala were starting to bond, then Lala went to the bridge & Susan got "given" to me and I bonded Shadow & Susan.

So in answer, I will always make sure I have a pair of buns :lol:

"given" = *insert reasons why rabbit needed to be rehomed*