re-housing my rabbit with a friend??

Hey guys,

I am writing on behalf of my misses she has had a little white rabbit called Snowy to be honest rather cute little rabbit but it was starting to look depressed just down in general not so bouncy so to speak, so we was thinking of getting another rabbit but i have heard that if they are 2 males they will fight and if we get a female they will get down to business and before you know it i will have 30 rabbits :lol: so we got a guinea pig instead and placed it in the hutch the rabbit Snowy looked a lot happier then about 2 weeks later the guinea pig was dead, we simply thought that it was sick so we went and got another one and 2 weeks later the same thing happened again :? now we where confused, then my misses went out and brought another one about a week after we seen the guinea pig in the corner shaking and took it to the vet to see what the problem was, well my face must have dropped the rabbit was only getting down with the guinea pig and breaking there backs :shock: mentally disturbing to be honest after the news we left the guinea pig at the vet for a safer longer life.
Now we have gone and brought a great big rabbit hutch for sale on this site http://www.for-sale.ie/rabbit-hutches for $86 big enough for 3 rabbits so we can try him out with other rabbits but i am very cautious about the well being of the next animal. Is there anyway that i could make sure the other rabbit is safe or should i just keep to the one rabbit and let it be lonely??

All comments welcome it would be good to solve this problem if possible



Thanks

Firstly you'll need to get your rabbit neutered.
Un neutered rabbits are highly territorial and will fight.

You'll also need to get a friend who is neutered - from a rescue is best.

You'll need to allow 6 weeks post neuter to allow hormones to settle. During this time neither of the rabbits should come into contact as they could cause serious injury to each other.

When you're closed to bonding time (in approx 6 weeks) get in contact for tips on bonding etc.

You'll also need to ensure they both have enough room - recommended cage sizes are a 6ft x 2ft hutch with 24/7 access to a 6ft x 8ft run

When your rabbit has been neutered and recovered you can look for a female rabbit to keep him company. It is best if she is neutered as well to prevent her getting uterine cancer and to calm down hormonal behaviour. Male/female pairs work best.

The advice above is gold, especially regarding neutering.

After that, the benefits of getting your rabbit a friend from a rescue is by far the best (and easiest) option as that rabbit will also already be neutered AND a lot of rescues will do the meeting and bonding of the rabbits for you (bunny speed dating basically). Rabbits are known for being difficult to introduce. They don't always bond with just any other rabbit and can be quite fussy about who they want a relationship with! :lol: Soooo many people make the mistake of going to the pet shop and coming home with a cute little baby rabbit, which very often goes downhill once the hormones kick in and then they are stuck with TWO single rabbits who don't get on.

A word on housing too. I really wouldn't recommend that hutch in your picture. I had something VERY similar when I first got my rabbits and I learnt the hard way that it's completely impractical. There isn't enough indoor space, especially when it's wet or cold plus you have to be some kind of yoga master to clean it out properly! :roll:

Have a look at this thread for some housing tips: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?311878-Outdoor-Housing-Tips-amp-Examples

We went from the hutch like in the pic above to a shed with attached run (soon to be attached aviary) and it's so much better for the buns AND for me. Cleaning them out isn't a problem when it's raining and cold now and they have plenty of secure space to run around in.

I was trying to avoid getting its insides messed around with but if it the best thing for the rabbit i gotta do what i gotta do, this all sounds straight forward, + it make sense to get it from a rescue might as well save the animals that are already here...

I will speak to the misses and get back to you shortly if not in 6 months


Thanks for the fast reply's guys

georgerabbit said:

I was trying to avoid getting its insides messed around with but if it the best thing for the rabbit i gotta do what i gotta do, this all sounds straight forward, + it make sense to get it from a rescue might as well save the animals that are already here...

I will speak to the misses and get back to you shortly if not in 6 months

Click to expand...

If you let us know roughly what area of the country you are in, I'm sure someone will be able to recommend a very good rabbit-experienced vet, just to make the neutering a bit less stressful (for you as well as the bun).

I live just outside of Dublin so anywhere around or in Dublin would be great if you can find somewhere... after speaking to the misses it's the right thing to do and Snowy might calm down a bit