• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Terrifying, and wrong, things bunny owners say...and believe

catxx said:
This! My first rabbit was before the days of the internet. The only guide I had was the thin RSPCA book and whatever pet shops said. They sold us a guinea pig as a companion. We had a 3ft hutch. BUT he was kept indoors in an unfinished extension (literally breeze block housing) and had a homemade ramp down from his hutch to run around. He got vet care, he developed abscesses which eventually meant he had to be put to sleep but he got to see the vet which many rabbits didn't.

My next door neighbour however was a breeder, of Netherland Dwarves and Blue Beverens I believe. We bunny sat for him as kids. The Beverens (they are a giant breed remember) were in 3ft hutches, the Nethies in boxes a max of 2ft wide. Minimal hay (if any, I can't remember), bowls full of muesli, never left their hutches except to go to shows. I remember one of the Beverens had escaped the hutch and was running around the shed one morning, I felt SO guilty catching her and putting her back in her little hutch. Breeders like him have not changed. That is terrifying.
Click to expand...

My girls are blue beverans and the breeder kept all his beverans in 3ft hutches :cry:

On a completely unrelated to this thread, can you remember/did you know how long it took the beverans to reach their adult size & what they weighed? I can't find out very much about the breed at all, all info on the Internet is American and I have a rabbit encyclopaedia with one page on them which says they're a large breed and I think I've worked out they should be 4-6kg as adults. Mine are 9 months old now & when they were last at the vets about 2 months ago, they were weighed & still weighed less than 3kg which surprised me as they definitely feel & look heavier & larger! The vet wasn't worried and they get their veg/herbs in the mornings, hay constantly & one handful of SS pellets at night, but now I'm worried again I'm not feeding them enough :oops:
 
keletkezes said:
Might just be that the 'info' for Beverans is based off those in hutches, so fatter?
Click to expand...

Possibly. I think they're a meat breed as well as a fur breed - although I could be wrong, they're quite rare these days by all accounts so info is very limited. And if they are a meat breed then they'll want them to be big & fat :evil:
 
Worst bit of advice before I found here and before I had him checked by a vet was from p@h staff who said Dillon was scratching his ears as he needed to grow in to them they just felt odd to him as they were to big he had horrific ear mites it turns out
 
Sarah1989 said:
On a completely unrelated to this thread, can you remember/did you know how long it took the beverans to reach their adult size & what they weighed? I can't find out very much about the breed at all, all info on the Internet is American and I have a rabbit encyclopaedia with one page on them which says they're a large breed and I think I've worked out they should be 4-6kg as adults. Mine are 9 months old now & when they were last at the vets about 2 months ago, they were weighed & still weighed less than 3kg which surprised me as they definitely feel & look heavier & larger! The vet wasn't worried and they get their veg/herbs in the mornings, hay constantly & one handful of SS pellets at night, but now I'm worried again I'm not feeding them enough :oops:
Click to expand...

It was over 18 years ago I saw those rabbits, have no idea haha!

BUT! Caroline at Rabbit Residence currently has a litter of baby Beverens which were the result of a chain of accidents. They're growing up fast, maybe email her? The babies at 4 months were already weighing 2kg, big and leggy and dwarfed our 6 month old Mini Lops!

Rabbit Residence also had a doe in maybe beginning of this year now, with a litter of 6 day old babies and pregnant again, and only 6 months old, because the owner thought they couldn't breed before they're a year old......................
 
Just remember another one. ''Vaccinating against VHD is not really necessary as the virus is very hard to transmit'

Told to me by..............................a Vet !!
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Just remember another one. ''Vaccinating against VHD is not really necessary as the virus is very hard to transmit'

Told to me by..............................a Vet !!
Click to expand...

ARGH!

Saw a Gumtree classic, two house buns being sold. Not vaccinated because house bunnies don't need it....*eyeroll*
 
catxx said:
It was over 18 years ago I saw those rabbits, have no idea haha!

BUT! Caroline at Rabbit Residence currently has a litter of baby Beverens which were the result of a chain of accidents. They're growing up fast, maybe email her? The babies at 4 months were already weighing 2kg, big and leggy and dwarfed our 6 month old Mini Lops!

Rabbit Residence also had a doe in maybe beginning of this year now, with a litter of 6 day old babies and pregnant again, and only 6 months old, because the owner thought they couldn't breed before they're a year old......................
Click to expand...

Mine were spayed at 4 months old. I can't remember their weight then, but they were growing nicely already and although it was in June now so I can't remember too well, but I think they were larger than my fully grown mini lops. Slipper's a big rabbit and I think they've now overtaken him in size and he's an alleged dwarf lop, but he's bigger than most dwarf lops I've seen recently so who knows :lol:

I bet those beverans have come from people who bought the breeding "stock" from the other beveran breeder. When I was looking for my girls I only found two in the whole of the UK - Hertfordshire (same county as you, I get confused between Hertfordshire & Herefordshire :oops::lol:) & Lancashire. The Hertfordshire guy was giving up and had older (3+) buns for sale, I'm guessing their new owners had some accidental litters! :roll:

I love beverans, my girls are awesome!
 
keletkezes said:
My old American dwarf rabbit book said something like "rabbits love going outside: many will learn to accept harnesses". Admittedly, it was written in about 1990, and American, and it DID say you pretty much have to follow the rabbit wherever it wants to go as pulling it may hurt/kill it, but yes...
Click to expand...

I think it's good to show both sides of the picture with harnesses like I guess that book did. personally I like harnesses and have never had any trouble with using them, my bunnies don't mind them, but not all bunnies are the same. So long as people are aware of the issues with using them there shouldn't be a problem.
 
when I kept a pair of dutch rabbits in the 1980s, my dad made them a nine-foot hutch. the rabbits we had in the seventies at his house had a brick built house big enough to hide four squashed teenagers, with a 15'x3' run). my neighbour (1980s kept her angora rabbit in a hutch that couldn't be more than two foot six,
 
The attitude of well we've always done it this way isn't just restricted to animals, when I had my daughter my husband and I would get so frustrated with our parents outraged views, mainly on babies sleeping on their backs and in your room. Both of these have been properly proven to significantly reduce the risk of cot death. Whenever we said that we were just met with oh no that's not how we did it and you turned out fine, oh ok because something turned out ok for you we will go against scientific evidence and do what you think should we, I mean it's only the life of our baby to consider and you obviously know best. People really can be moronic xx
 
I read some info on the internet which I think was a netherland dwarf breader who stated netherland dwarfs are a bread of rabbits who don't have a need for bunny companionship like other breeds!
Try telling that to my little pippin with his two lovely ladies for company....
6cc80c8b87545c4af3aa05e23baf8f18_zps84f5719c.jpg

(Sorry any excuse to post a pic! :oops:)
 
Karen's said:
I read some info on the internet which I think was a netherland dwarf breader who stated netherland dwarfs are a bread of rabbits who don't have a need for bunny companionship like other breeds!
Try telling that to my little pippin with his two lovely ladies for company....
6cc80c8b87545c4af3aa05e23baf8f18_zps84f5719c.jpg

(Sorry any excuse to post a pic! :oops:)
Click to expand...

:shock: you've stolen Blueberry! :shock:
 
Karen's said:
Stolen..... No just borrowed :oops:
Anyway it was Pippin, he wanted to prove Nethies need company so he is gathering friends as many as he can :lol:
Click to expand...

:lol: Ok Pippin, as long as Blueberry's home by the time I get home from work, I'll forgive you ;)
 
Another forum I am/was on, mainly for exotics but it has domestics sections as well, a person who kept belgian hares in 4' hutches and never let them out because 'they'll just hurt/damage themselves if they're allowed to run about'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Our Bunny took ill, please read what does this sound like?
Replies
10
Views
1K
d2007ave
D
Toasty123
Zantac antacid syrup?
Replies
4
Views
937
Toasty123
Toasty123
S
Not sure what is wrong with bunny.
2
Replies
22
Views
3K
MightyMax
MightyMax
Back
Top