Next door- Rabbit treatment

I am so upset the kids next door came over yesterday with a bucket each. The buckets had rabbits in them, little babies that I'm estimating to be bout 5-6 weeks old they were so tiny. They had filled the bottom of the buckets in fresh grass which is bad for babies and a piece of apple which is very bad for babies, not only are they giving them fruit to early but they are giving them the wrong type. They got them from a breeder and were not advised on any care at all. The kids were grabbing them around the ribs and pulling them out of the buckets with just the one hand. I went to their place to see their set up and try to advise on care but everything just made me cringe. They had the rabbits running along the floor with 2 cats who aren't friendly and would of hurt them if I didn't pick them up, the threw them onto the lounge and walked away, the poor things would of fallen if I didn't get them off. They put them in their bedrooms where there were electrical cords which could of been a disaster if I didn't turn them off and unplug them. The worst was them trying to catch them to pick the m up. They were running after them and yelling, the poor things were so scared of course they ran away. But I was so proud of them because I made the kids stop and watch me and I slowly walked over without yelling and picked one rabbit up, it didn't even move let alone run. What made me even prouder of the rabbits was that when I then told the kids to repeat what I did they didn't run away. Now the kids know what to do it benifits the rabbits and it was like they knew that when they decided not to run.

I don't know what to do, they are in a decent sized but metal cage outside. These babies aren't going to make it if something doesn't happen to fix this. The kids think they are objects and carry them around like handbags. I have advised their grandparents on care but I didn't want to say too much because I didn't want them to get annoyed at me. Because its the kids grandparents they only go there on weekends so the rabbits will have a rest through the week but even without the kids, there conditions are awful.

What do I do? I'm going to give them a peice of pipe that my rabbit doesn't use but what are other things i can give to the rabbits that will help them alot? Atleast with the pipe Ican say that my rabbit doesn't use it so I thought they might like it but I can't really do the same with cardboard boxes etc.

aww - well done! You're very brave trying to help, knowing how hostile people get when someone 'interferes'

I was thinking this morning how sad Easter makes me now - thousands of tiny baby rabbits will be presented to rough children, a lot won't have more than a cardboard box to live in - and of course we all know that rabbits eat grass, carrots and apples, so the babies will all die of enteritis the week after Easter - it's so upsetting to think of

Hopefully these 2 will stand a chance with you around! You have already made a difference to their lives, however short they may be, which is good - their diet and sexing them will be the most important things though - you can't do much about that except advise no veg till they are older, and try and sex them using the pics on this forum - or they will have more babies in a few months, which would be awful to have to sit and watch.

They already know that they are boy and girl, well they think they are, so how old are they before they can get pregnant?

oh dear :roll: Like watching a train going off a cliff in slow motion :?

I'm not sure about breeding age as I've never had a baby rabbit - think it's 4 months for a boy to be fertile, and 5 or 6 months for a girl to be old enough for pregnancy, although it's obviously not good for her to be pregnant when she's still growing herself.

There's some info on sexing them correctly on the 'china rabbit rescue' thread in care at the moment - with photos on a link. I guess if they deliberately got boy/girl they are planning to breed for pet or meat

No I think they got them because of the colours. One is get black and one looks exactly likea baby version of loopylops sophie.

Yes it is like watching a train go off a cliff, I couldn't eve yell at the kids for being s ocruel causae thats all I need, some old lady kicking me out because I was abusing her children and then i would never be able to see the rabbits again.

When I said about myxi and how theres no vaccination her she said she knew about the desease becuase her friends rabbit died from it and she was planning on getting flyscreen but couldn't get around to it.

I was holding this back because it is so upsetting but I've decided to post it. The kids are 4 and 6 and they tried to convince me that their dad could desex my rabbit and that he had done it for their rabbits before and for friends. I was like, is your dad a vet? And they said no he just cuts the balls out with a knife when they drop and he knows how because he has cattle!!!!!!!! I had a hard time explaining to them why I would rather pay lots of money for a vet to do it then get their dad to do it for free.

I think you will find you will get through to them if you just keep dropping small subtle hints about how best to look after them, although with a father that thinks its ok to neuter them himself without anaesthetic, it sounds like its the parents you have to worry about. Males are fertile as soon as their testicles drop which is usually somewhere around 12 weeks although it can be earlier in the smaller breeds. Females are fertile around 16 weeks but again it can be earlier. If they are going to keep them together they really need to get the male neutered as soon as the testicles have dropped or they will have a big problem on their hands.
As for feeding grass, veggies, its perfectly alright to do that as long as they have been brought up on them. If the breeder never gave them any then yes its likely to go straight through them :roll:

Grass isn't bad for babies if they've been eating since they could chew. My doe was feed grass whilest feeding her babies along with apple and there was no way to stop the babies chewing on it. It did them no harm and their diet in the wild would be grazing on grass with mum.

Yeah I know that from my boy, he was brought up on pellets and carrot so i continued not adding anything until he was 12 weeks. But they don't know how these bunnies were cared for becasue the breeder dropped them off, thewy didn't even know if they were kept inside or outside when I asked. One of them came around just after I wrote my last post and i told him about the apple being bad for them and that he shouldn't give them any veggies and I think he may stop because it does mean less work so i hope he tells his grandmother because she doesn't need more work feeding animals special food if she doesn't need to. They have 7 dogs and they look after more on temporary arrangments, 2 cats, lots of chickens, lots of ducks, some geese, 3 cows and 1 they are minding, 1 pony, 1 goat, 2 birds, they have lots of fish tanks and god only knows what else. Mind you the other animals are well cared for to the point where they have a relocatable home just for the animals and they are on quite a bit of land.

oh well - on the plus side, at least they take care of their other animals

OK so I went over there to see how the situation was going, so much for mosquito proofing its been a few days and there isn't even mosquito netting thrown over the run. The rabbits were in the inclosed part with a half an apple (that i could see, there might of been more) and then i spent about half an hour trying to untangle there goat who had managed to to weave his way through the wooden fence he was tied to the many times that he couldn't move at all. I sat there with him pulling and pushing him back through the fence, over, under, around a certain pole where he had done most of the tangling until he had a few meters of chain back. I do understand that goats do this but when i told her she said yeah, he does that alot. and didn't even help him, she was near him and just looked at him.