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Really annoyed with my friend.

loobie_lou

Mama Doe
One of my mates from uni phoned me last week asking about my rabbits, so I talked her through saying that we've probably spent around £900 on them since we got them about 2 months ago - saying that the're fully insured, neutered and vaccinated, mentioning the cost of food, how much food they need, the importance of hay, the need for a giant hutch.. as well as indoor facilities.... and I kind of silenced her about it, but then...

I got a text from her yesterday saying she's just bought a baby dwarf lop, saying that she'd originally gone to a local pet shop and the rabbits their were 'ugly' - they were little baby lion heads :shock: , which I think are beautiful anyway. She came round late on last night with another one of my friends, who has a buck dwarf lop, who's around 2 years old... they were both saying how they're going to breed them both when hers is a bit older.

Well, I went mental... she's got no intention of a) insuring it, b) vaccinating it, c) spaying it, or d) giving it the care it really needs.

What can I do?
 
Awww that's really sad :( Sadly there's nothing you can do except watch the train wreck happen in slow motion :?
 
If I think the rabbit is being neglected I will take action myself, I can't believe how stupid she is being.. does she not understand the cruelness of breeding rabbits, I doubt she's even thought what she'd do with the babies.
 
Well, if it was one of my friends I'd give her some of the right food, and a bag of hay for a start. Then keep an eye on what she was doing and how the bun was being looked after. I'd also try to teach her that a well cared for bunny is a happy bunny and therefore a nicer pet.

For example:
- if a bun is fed badly itwill have a runny bum and poorly teeth (which will cost a fortune in vets fees)
- if a bunny is neutered then it is more likely to be litter trained (especially the buck, else he'll be marking his territory constantly!)
- if a bunny gets lots of attention and hugs it'll be less likely to be viscious

.....and so on.

I've done it with people at work who come to me saying things like 'my daughters rabbit cost me a fortune last week at the vets having its teeth done' so I tell them rabbits teeth grow at 1cm a month and the key to healthy teeth is plenty of hay. I gave him a bag of timothy hay the next day and the advice to reduce its other food and that his daughter needs to be strong, and she can email or call me if she wants to.

A guy at my last job moaned that his daughters rabbits were viscious, turns out they were kept down the garden and seen once a day for feeding. I told him about mine being in the house, about litter training and showed him photos of them lazing around my lounge/having fuss. I bumped into him at someone elses leaving do several months later and the buns now live in the conservatory and hop around the kitchen, and no longer attack people!

Just go for little bits at a time, and show them the advantage of looking after their buns properly. Also, question what they're going to do with the resulting babies if they do breed them and mention costs if either bun needs treatment, that might be enough to put them off. Good luck.
 
That terrible, im so sorry, its awful when there is nothing you can do. Just make sure they are in good health, explain what can happen if overbred etc. :censored: :evil:
 
If its any consolation, I have just had a near miss total falling out with my friend of 10 years. She had a lone bunny ( I know!!), who was at least vaccinated (she lost a bunny 18 months ago to myxi). Anyhow, a mutual friend came over one day and said that this person had to have her bunny put to sleep. I asked why, and said I hadn't heard from her. Mutual friend said she hadn't rung me cos she knew I'd "have a freak". It seems that a couple of days earlier she had noticed maggots on the bunny's bum. Being squeamish she waited for her hubby to come home to have a look. :shock: :shock: They brushed out the maggots and left bunny to it. :evil: :evil: 2 days later, surprise surprise, more maggots, bunny sleepy and not eating, hence trip to vets and PTS.

I have only communicated by text, as I know I shan't be able to hold my tongue, she knows she has done wrong or else why didn't she ring me.

I give up with some people :censored: :censored:

(in addition she just found out she is expecting a baby, I reckon that she didnt try especially hard to save bunny for this reason, but I cannot say that out loud:cry: )
 
(in addition she just found out she is expecting a baby, I reckon that she didnt try especially hard to save bunny for this reason, but I cannot say that out loud:cry: )

Lets hope she looks after he baby better than she did her bunny! :evil: If it was me I'd just go shout at her, you won't be able to be her friend again unless you can clear things between you so you may as well just got get it out in the open - plus you might feel very slightly better.

It makes me mad that people have pets and then just can't be bothered to look after them. I've been at the vets for an hour every day last week to visit Charlie, so I've been chatting to my vet a lot - he was telling me some of the awful things he sees, a lady asked him to do a house visit to see her daughters rabbit, she didn't want to bring it to the vet as she didn't like picking it up. The vet got there, and it was dead, and obviously had been dead for several weeks. When he questions the woman she mumbled something about forgetting to feed it!!!!! I think I would probably have punched her.

Sorry, rant over.:oops:
 
If its any consolation, I have just had a near miss total falling out with my friend of 10 years. She had a lone bunny ( I know!!), who was at least vaccinated (she lost a bunny 18 months ago to myxi). Anyhow, a mutual friend came over one day and said that this person had to have her bunny put to sleep. I asked why, and said I hadn't heard from her. Mutual friend said she hadn't rung me cos she knew I'd "have a freak". It seems that a couple of days earlier she had noticed maggots on the bunny's bum. Being squeamish she waited for her hubby to come home to have a look. :shock: :shock: They brushed out the maggots and left bunny to it. :evil: :evil: 2 days later, surprise surprise, more maggots, bunny sleepy and not eating, hence trip to vets and PTS.

I have only communicated by text, as I know I shan't be able to hold my tongue, she knows she has done wrong or else why didn't she ring me.

I give up with some people :censored: :censored:

(in addition she just found out she is expecting a baby, I reckon that she didnt try especially hard to save bunny for this reason, but I cannot say that out loud:cry: )

in this intance im inclined to believe you every right to be angry at this woman not careing for her bun .although we ued fly strike etc we ended up with a bun with maggots whom we took to vet immediatly having picked off what i could and they treater her till she was fine. i truley love my buns but what if there was another side to your freinds tale......

i also think this instance mayb she was also uninformed about maggots,mayb she did think brushing them out would do?i agree never wait for someone else always act immediatly but was he home in 5 mins? i think you should double check with your freind help educate her in bunny care she seems niave and mayb thought you would go mad at her instead of help her (as she already knew you were angry at her for one lone bunny) maybe she tried all she thought she could please dont condemn her until you have the facts from her directly she may now be hearrtbroken by her loss, imagine if you had a bun who got ill... and someone passed on a mesage to your freinds saying it was cuz u neglected her you would be embarrassed and heart broken as i can tell you love your buns very much....of course if u find she did neglect her then you can be annoyed but from what you say she tried learning from mistakes (vacc after losing one to mxyi) i think the world is uneducated and this is a sad fact which we can only try our best to change

but on a seperate note can i just say that a lone bunny is not 100% a bad thing, yes i agree most bunnys are social and want a group if possible this is obviously the ideal however i had a rabbit who every time we tried to bond her went mad and ended up having fits cuz she got hereself in such a state of stress (regardless of how quickly we removed other bun orr how we tried introductions) we eventually kept another bun in a seperate pert of garden with mesh to seperate this she was fine with and was very happy thru her days with me and seemed to believe i was her bunny freind and was very affectionate to me, please note there are a few exceptions to the social bunny rule!!!(yes tho i do vaccinate and spay)please dont make those rare few people feel like failures when some of us hav genuine reasons to keep a lone bun. i have may i note had pairs also. :)
 
One of my mates from uni phoned me last week asking about my rabbits, so I talked her through saying that we've probably spent around £900 on them since we got them about 2 months ago - saying that the're fully insured, neutered and vaccinated, mentioning the cost of food, how much food they need, the importance of hay, the need for a giant hutch.. as well as indoor facilities.... and I kind of silenced her about it, but then...

I got a text from her yesterday saying she's just bought a baby dwarf lop, saying that she'd originally gone to a local pet shop and the rabbits their were 'ugly' - they were little baby lion heads :shock: , which I think are beautiful anyway. She came round late on last night with another one of my friends, who has a buck dwarf lop, who's around 2 years old... they were both saying how they're going to breed them both when hers is a bit older.

Well, I went mental... she's got no intention of a) insuring it, b) vaccinating it, c) spaying it, or d) giving it the care it really needs.

What can I do?

maybe you could suggest that they bond them but after having them neutered and dont breed them i know at one point i looked at letting one of my rabbits have a litter before we had her spayed and decided against it for many reasons, at the time i felt sorry for her and her phantom pregnancies. but realised this was not the best thing to do could your freind be thinking along this route? if so tell her about the reasons not to breed (rabbit numbers,costs,rehoming/separation)etc. i really hope she at least vaccinates them i really do
 
One of my auntie's friends wants to breed hers, my auntie rolled her eyes when she told me and I went mad, there are so many bunnies who need homes already and the male isn't a very nice rabbit at all, he's aggressive and bites even though he's been neutered so the babies will probbaly inherit his trait. Hopefully she won't bother.

How would she breed from him if hes been neutered???
 
How would she breed from him if hes been neutered???

:lol: :lol: I've mixed that up and deleted a section.

She wanted to breed off the male but he got aggressive so she had him neutered, then got a female companion but they wouldn't bond so now I think she wants to use the female to breed.
I'm so stupid sometimes :lol:
 
i suppose you can only try and keep giving hints to your friends about rabbit care.

in the case of Heidi (formerly known as Peter) - it took me months of nagging (and offending) Gail's mate before she persuaded her dad to sign her over to BARC. and i think it was the bill for flystrike (not the actual flystrike itself :( ) which made him do it.

if your friend is one of those people who doesnt like taking advice then you probably wont get very far to begin with im afraid.

on the same note - the idiot acquaintance of gail whom we rescued Giddy pig from (a call while we were in greece saying if we didnt want the guinea pig, then he would neck it :shock: ) has now apparently got 2 rabbits living in a pen in his garden.

when we took gideon, his daughter was upset so he promised her a rabbit. i've no idea what sex they are but im sure that they will not be looked after properly (gideon walks with a limp due to being dropped, and having a broken leg that wasnt treated :( )

ive told M to make sure that if he ever decides to get rid of them, then he knows where to bring them - its inevitable that they will bore of them, and i dont want to see them dead.

i would report this guy to the rspca but he will know who has done it and although im not a pushover, i dont want to end up with a smashed in face. M only told me about the bunnies on saturday as she knew it would upset me. it breaks my heart to think about what kind of life they will be leading but in this case i really cant go through official channels - i can only wait until they dont want them any more.

so no doubt at some point in the future, ill end up with two mistreated (or more if they are a buck & a doe) bunnies :(
 
Sadly there's not much you can do, anyone can buy a rabbit :(

I'd give her a caresheet, a pressie of some hay and a toy or two, and wait to offer the rabbit a home when she gets fed up of it. On the other hand she might see the light and look after the rabbit ok, hope so
 
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