6 baby bunnies born, not bad saying i supposedly had 2 males

bought 2 beautiful what i thought male rabbits from the amazingly **** pets at home. bare in mind they checked before i paid for them and i took the pets at home vets for 2 lots of injections and microchipping and they were checked again. after about month and half they started mounting to i thought i would check my self and willow definatly had tackle and squiggles didnt and was obviously a female. I them spent £100 for a hutch to keep him in until he was neutered and could be rebonded. On the 4th nov i was sat outside squiggles cage and she started carrying her hay around like mad and ripping her fur out like a demon and all in the space of 30 mins had 6 lovely kits. she did an amazing job of the nest. now i have 8 rabbits and although i am already in love with the babies too i am really mad at pets at home because my bunny girl is only just 6 mths and didnt need all this stress and worry. yesterday i spent building yet another 6ft double hutch and cutting holes in the side panel top and bottom and joined her 5ft cage to the 6ft cage. pets at home have cost me a fourtune not only in hutches but 6 more lots of injections and chipping plus paying for another 6 rabbits spayed and neutered to because i am keeping them all. all i have had off pets at home is the price of willow the day neutered. they should be banned from selling ANY animals
sorry about the rant but still angry 4 days later

Oops! It is not easy to sex rabbits, I have been trying to do it for 17 years and still I'm useless at it, when they are babies that is. 8 rabbits should be fun especially if you can keep them as a group! I had a group of 6 years ago, they love being together and even more so as they are family. I am not sure how it will work out if they are all boys - but there is still a while before you will know that. We are here if you need any advice.

You are not the only one to find yourself in this predicament.

I can understand your anger and frustration. It is lucky that you feel able to afford all the neutering, routine vaccinations and other vets bills etc you will be faced with in keeping all the babies.

I'm afraid they are in the business of selling rabbits and other animals and making a good profit.

Some of their so-called knowledge/advice is absolutely atrocious. I better add 'in my opinion' to that.

I do wish you had joined the forum before buying your rabbits as there are so many beautiful rabbits (approx 65,000) in Rescues just waiting for their forever homes and we may have been able to recommend somewhere for you to look.
However, what's done is done and I wish you good luck!

i would like them all to be bonded as a group my biggest worry in reuniting willow with mum and babies. i know he wont hurt mom he really is in love with her lol.. they are all indoor bunnies and used to take it in turns with my dogs free ranging but since being separated its had to be mom then willow then dogs one hour each in turns until i go to bed then they go in their houses. im hoping on his turn out when the babies are moving about the hutches he gets familiar with their scents and then intros can begin when they are old enough. i will then have a spare hutch for the rabbits thats having the spays and neuters for 8 wks.

i figured out how to post a pic of them xx

here is mum (grey and white) and dad ( blue tort ?)

You might find this link useful.

thankyou very much sky o i found that very informative.

i phoned pets at home again today because i was still upst and told them i want to keep these babies but im not pleased about having to spend all the extra on the 6 other spay/neuters, 7 including mum, and they have said if she has half and half doe/buck litter or something similar they will pay for all the bucks done but they cant commit yet because if they all turn out male they said they will just pay for the mum done. I said i wasnt bothered what they payed for as long as they made it so these rabbits couldnt produce any more babies further on down the line. at least thats something. then its just a case of doing 1 bun a month with the rest which is better for finances.

At least they have offered something, it's a v ery hard thing to get them correctly sexed. In about 2 months time you will need to start checking the babies to try to determine which are boys and which are girls. You must plan ahead so you are prepared for whatever might happen. Boys are usually ok together up until they are around 14 weeks old, girls are ok together for a lot longer, even permanently. Please keep us updated xx

I would be pushing P@H to cough up for everything. Just having one gender neutered isn't enough for you to be able to bond them - they all need to be neutered.

Sorry you've been through this, I avoid P@H at all costs now, the only reason I go in there is because I use the franchised vet in store (different company) - I never buy anything in there anymore, it's a disgraceful company :evil:

I agree - in fact I would go as far as saying that if they do not neuter / spay all rabbits and vaccinate then you would go to the newspapers as this is not what you were sold in the first place. I would also state that their animals welfare conduct is appalling if they think that only doing the mum is ok. The fact that you are keeping all the babies is beside the point...they can still breed! And you were mis-sold a pair that has ended up in a situation that is neither yours nor the rabbits fault.

I had a friend who this happened to recently - I told her to go to a rescue and she did not listen. She bough two pet store rabbits who were also wrongly sexed and the poor doe has had two consecutive births because they never separated her - she is just over a year old two. what makes me even more cross is she has found homes for them as singles and there is of course no neuter/spay involved so thanks to just her she has increased the rabbit population by thirteen and now possibly even more...makes me furious - all those homes she found could have been rescue homes for bunnies who need real homes.

I would not let pets at home tell you otherwise - i think the fact that this keeps happening and nothing is being done by them to stop it - perhaps you should go to the papers...they need some publicity on the fact that they cant sex rabbits this young and therefore should not be selling them until older & neutered/spayed already. Just ridiculous.

I must say you are probably one of a few who would keep the babies...bless your heart for thinking about the bunnies and not he inconvenience.

catherine09 said:

I would be pushing P@H to cough up for everything. Just having one gender neutered isn't enough for you to be able to bond them - they all need to be neutered.

Sorry you've been through this, I avoid P@H at all costs now, the only reason I go in there is because I use the franchised vet in store (different company) - I never buy anything in there anymore, it's a disgraceful company :evil:

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I think that's really sweet and admirable of you to be keeping all the babies -

P@H SUCK!! There's so many stories about them wrongly sexing their bunnies, that's without the awful conditions they keep them in, and also the horrendous acts which go on with the bunnies behind closed doors.

Personally I would threaten legal action, and get in touch again, perhaps get in touch with your local Trading Standards office too, as you've techincally been sold something that isn't as described, so you maybe able to go down that route, even threatening P@H with it may get their butts in to gear, don't let it rest, cause they've done this so many times and the next person may not keep all the babies, so that's more bunnies in rescues, just because p@H can't do their jobs..

I HONESTLY don't understand how a lot of garden centres/pet shops were banned from keeping live animals, yet these guy's can still do so.. The conditions are appalling, especially if the buns don't sell, and then also don't get adopted...

I would push P@H to give you more money towards it. Their offer isn't particularly generous. I'd also make a complaint to the vets which have more of a duty to get things right than a pet shop!

Isn't the doe likely to be pregnant again as they mate immediately after giving birth?

thanks for all the advice everyone. i noticed squiggles was a doe myself and took her back the vet to have in confirmed so they were seperated then, she had the babies when she was on her own thank god. i go to the vets at pets at home next tuesday so im going to speak to them in person and see what more they can do. i really want them all together but like you said they all need to be spayed/neutered before the hormones kick in for that. so thats the point im going to go forward with, see can i get them to do the full litter of 6. pets at home want me to take all the babies in when they are 6 weeks, and the store manager was asking someone while on the phone to me " how confident are you at sexing rabbits" and the other person said she was ok at it lol.. i said to the manager if you dont mind me saying ive not got very much confidence in you because you got it wrong in the first place, so i said i want at least 2 people as well as myself to sex them and state what they think they are. i will keep you updated. xxxx

Thank you for committing to keep all these rabbits. Pets at Home are so useless! Lucky these babies were born with you though, I dread to think what could have happened had they been born elsewhere.

At least they have offered to neuter/spay some but please push them to pay for all of them.

Good luck xx

I was left in this predicament when I bought ours. Thought we had 2 females, but it's hard to sex a male as his plums don't drop until 3-4 months old.