Hello from me and Evie! I have a few questions

I've been reading this forum and website over the last few days as research and thought I would join up. Looked through loads of rabbit care websites and they generally contradict each other regarding breeding.

A little about me...I'm 19, live in Essex. Utterly obsessed with U2! Saw them this Summer in Manchester. This year I've lived 3 life goals (yes only at 19!!). I met Roger Taylor and Brian May (heros of mine), saw U2, lived the experience of being at Live 8 (watched the orginal on DVD like a billion times).

I have an adorable rabbit called Evie who is just over a year old. I named her after Evangeline Elliot from House of Elliot (another stupid craze of mine). I bought at a pet shop believe she was a Lion Head. But she doesn't particulary resemble one now she has grown up! Not much of a mane and quite large ears.

We've had the idea of having rabbit babies with a friends rabbit. We sucessfully raised rabbits many years ago. So fingers crossed she will have a romantic afternoon with Peter tomorrow!

Sorry I'm getting a bit wordy...I can get like that! Here are few of my questions....

1. Does anyone from the UK know where I could buy a nesting box? I looked on loads of websites but couldn't see anything...do you know of any?

2. Do I really need one? Mucking around with a cardboard box earlier and made a sizeable attempt from seeing photos.

3. What food would you advice giving Evie up to the days before the birth? I read cereal soaked in milk....any milk? Some say not to increase food at all.

4. Evie has always used her bed as a toilet and slept in the living area. Will maternal instincts sort her out in changing her toilet place to the opposite end of the hutch? Is there a way to use elsewhere? Today cleaning her out I put some of her poo with a pile of straw in her living space.

5. If she still uses the bed as a toilet whats the deal with cleaning it out after the babies have arrived. Some say its ok to handle the babies with Mothers scent on your hands, some say never, some say rabbits don't mind if they know your scent.

6. This week we bought a GIANT run for the garden with a house at one end. Feeling more reasurred with a proper house we decided to leave her out all night. It was chucking down with rain for a few hours, I decided I better check on her. When I looked the poor thing was absolutely soaked! She had been sitting in the rain the whole time!!!! Do rabbits not understand about shelter?! Did make us laugh though!

Thanks for reading!

The giant run....




Baby Evie!

Welcome to the forum.
Please please please do not breed with your rabbit.
This website is inundated with rescues full to capacity with rabbits looking for new homes. 33,000 rabbits a year are handed into rescue centres and not to mention the thousands that end up in "free to good home" ads.
I myself have just taken in an unwanted rabbit that had five babies just because the previous owner thought it would be nice. Who knows where those babies ended up.
Even I thought about breeding my first two when i got them as the babies would be sooo cute but I know I wouldn't have been able to give them away.
Your rabbit is lovely but she doesn't need to have babies.
I hope you don't think I'm being mean to you or put you off using this forum but it brings me to tears when i think of all the thousands of unwanted rabbits

Hi and welcome!
It is very rewarding to rescue a bunny. We got Ruby two weeks ago, she'd been in rescue nearly all her life (she's 3) and I feel very privileged to be able to give her a home. She is beautiful, and watching her experience new things is quite magical.
I can only reiterate what Estelle has said and ask that you just consider rescuing a bunny.

AS ESTELLE AND HS SAY THERE ARE ALREADY TOO MANY BUNNIES IN RSCUES UP AND DOWN THE COUNTRY. WE WOULDNT WANT TO PREACH AND PUT YOU OFF USING THIS SITE BUT BEFORE YOU DO THE DEED TOMORROW PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THE POOR RABBITS ON THE REHOME SITE . THEY ALL STARTED OUT AS CUDDLY BABIES AND NOW THEYVE ENDED UP UNWANTED PETS.

Hiya,

Welcome to the forum, I'm glad your looking for information before you try breeding. I think you need to do some more research though and not rush into breeding tommorow.

You shouldn't breed from a petshop rabbit. Do you know whether her parents had any genetic problems? She could be carrying genes for birth defects, teeth problems etc. and as you know nothing about her history you won't know this until you have a litter of babies that could have potentially very expensive health problems.

Is your friends rabbit a pedigree from a breeder? If not you don't know what genes he is carrying either. If he has genes from big rabbits he could pass those on to the babies and they could grow too big for the mum rabbit to safely give birth to.

These are just a few reasons why, if you want to breed rabbits, you must do it from rabbits you know the full history of - ones from responsible breeders that keep records of several generations.

If you go to a responsible breeder they will give you all the information you need as well as suitable rabbits for breeding from.

I'm not sure this is a good time of year to start either. The babies will be the age to go to new homes just before Christmas which is the worst time of year to try rehoming. Most people are either to busy to take on a rabbit or want them as Christmas presents and they end up dumped a few weeks later.

Tamsin

hello and welcome i think every thing has been said :wave:

welcome and hello - I'm a newie too.
Evie is a beautiful colour !

Hello and Welcome XX

Thank you for answering all my questions. :?

The babies will be divided between us, Father's owner and another friend who also keeps rabbits. I don't know why you automatically thought I would be giving them away.

Hello U2/Dudette! I saw U2 live on the Zurich show of their tour a couple of months ago, they were great!

Sorry you feel a bit :? by what's been said. I think part of the issue is simply that with 33,000 unwanted rabbits currently in UK rescues, and a large number of people here being involved in rescue work and knowing all the hard work that goes into it, that people just don't see that it's necessary to deliberately bring even more bunnies into the world at the moment!

Even if you're not going to give them away, if you, the father's owner and another friend are all prepared to give a good home to more rabbits, then you could also achieve that by getting yourselves more bunnies from a rescue centre, and being part of the solution to the 33,000 unwanted! If you look in the "rabbits in need" section here, you will see just how many rescue centres are drowning in rabbits, and especially litters of rabbits, at the moment.

Given this background, I hope you can understand why people were perhaps not as supportive as you had hoped!

Alison x

Welcome to you and your beautiful Evie

I'm sorry if it wasn't the warmest welcome

I get upset about all the unwanted rabbits and wish they could all be rehomed. You only have to read the bunnies in need section to see the amount of rabbits that don't have lovely homes like your Evie does.

If you decide to go ahead with the babies anyway I'm sure everyone here will help you as much as they can. I don't have any experience of breeding rabbits but there are people here who do.

I think your rabbit is gorgeous but definately doesn't look like a lionhead.

Hiya,

It's good your keeping them. I guess we presumed you wouldn't as most people wouldn't have room to keep potentially 8 or more babies.

Once boys reach 14-16 weeks they can't be kept with other males so potentially you'd need enough hutches to house 5 males seperately or to neuter them (£30-40 each). Girls can usually live together but obviously with two or three in a hutch they need to be big hutches.

Tam

Yes I do see how people can react after so many bunnies are homeless. One day I am definitely going to take one home with me.

I went ahead with the plans of introducing Evie and Peter together after thinking and researching it for a over a month. Evie has a bossy streak in her but everything went smoothly. They both have simular colours and size and hope they inherit Peter's gorgeous little face.

I am going to borrow my Dad's digital SLR camera to record their growing.

well as long as you are keeping them then thats at least something! welcome!

U2//Dudette said:

Yes I do see how people can react after so many bunnies are homeless. One day I am definitely going to take one home with me.

I went ahead with the plans of introducing Evie and Peter together after thinking and researching it for a over a month. Evie has a bossy streak in her but everything went smoothly. They both have simular colours and size and hope they inherit Peter's gorgeous little face.

I am going to borrow my Dad's digital SLR camera to record their growing.

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Hiya U2/Dudette - Glad to hear your keeping the bunnies - thats no mean task with all the vaccinations and potential spays/neuters of possibly 8 or so young bunnies - are you planning to do this for them when they are old enough :?: - might be worth talking to your Vet to see if you can negotiate some special rates.

And Well done you - meeting Brian May and Roger Taylor must have been really brill - did you ever get to see Queen Live :?:

I will be neuturing and vaccinating the rabbits we keep.

I saw them live on stage at the Dominion Theatre. Twas a special night We even got caught by the paps! Mistaken for some Z-Lists.