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Your Very First Rabbit(s)

Jack's-Jane

Wise Old Thumper
My first Rabbits were bought on a whim from Petsmart (now P@H) in January 1998. I had never owned a Rabbit before and I didn't have a clue about how to care for them. I had actually gone into the shop to buy some food for my very elderly dog.

So, these three introduced me to the world of Rabbits. From left to right- Eleanor, Beatrice and Megan



Please share photos of your first Rabbit(s) :D
 
Maizie and Daisy are my very first rabbits.

Always wanted house rabbits, my mam would never let me because of the dogs, now I live alone it's the perfect time :)
 
My first bun was called Nibbles :love:

My best friend had recently got a bun and I really wanted one, best friends bun was 'returned' to the breeder within a month as she didn't clean him out enough and her mum had threatened to return him if she didn't look after him... She did!

I nagged my mum for ages, saved up money to buy one. Then one Saturday my parents had stopped in p@h (which was still petsmart I think!) for g. Pig food for Timmy and spotted this gorgeous little white bunny with grey ears flopped out and with a guinea pig sat on his back :lol:

They came home told me to get my money and rushed me back to the pet shop. They didn't say anything but I chose the little boy they had seen :lol:

He taught me so much about rabbits, he came home with a p@h started kit, within a year he was neutered a free range house bun and we rescued him a wifey :love:

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mine are thumper rescued/adopted when found abandoned she found here way into nans garden only seconds between being attacked by a dog that had chased her in, she was a French lop, it was 6th june 1997 ive that many photos on photobucket I cant find her pic as not that many of her sadly
 
I don't have any photos of my first rabbits :cry: (mid/late 1970s as a child :shock:) they were an English spot rabbit (doe) I don't know how to spell her name but it was pronounced newsea- I was told it was supposed to be Hungarian for rabbit but I just checked and it doesn't seem like it is, unless it's the name for a rabbit dish in Hungarian :shock: . (Mum had Hungarian friends) anyhow she was mums rabbit and was accidentally mated by a neighbours rabbit whilst said neighbour was looking after our rabbit :shock: the result of which was several babies homed by other neighbours on the street. We kept one, he was an agouti and I named him Thumper. he looked a little like my Dandy, and he is the reason why agoutis will always be my favourite colour :love:
 
My first rabbits were two black sisters called Mona and Karma. They came from the SSPCA and had been living with an unneutered buck :shock: Naturally and unbeknownst to us they were both pregnant. We later went back for the buck, Elidore in order to keep the whole family together. Mona had two stillborn kits :( Karma had 5 healthy kits but a few months later she and her eldest kit died of suspected VHD. Because they were pregnant, they were unvaccinated. I feel so awful about that. But in time all of them were vaccinated and neutered so no more babies. Elidore bonded with Mona after neutering. And the kittens lived as a trio, the runt was bullied and had to be found a new mate. Karma's 4 surviving kits lived to various ages, Merri who lived the longest had to be pts this year. Mona survived until she was 11 and had to be pts last year. Elidore is still with us and has recently found a new wife.

They all lived in a large run with initially chicken wire and got to free range in a large grassy garden which was reinforced over time to keep predators out. The run was rebuilt with a new rainproof roof and stronger wire. Whilst we could not give them best in the beginning I do believe they have all had a good life and benefited from the improvements over the years.

Mona and Karma (Karma had the white nose).





Elidore



Mona and Elidore
 
My nan had always kept rabbits and she was (and still is) very knowledgeable about them.
She had a rabbit and she had to move house, so we had him but he died of a heart attack on fireworks night a week after we got him with me sitting next to his cage making sure he wasn't scared:(
Nan bought a new house in 2005 (I think?) And wanted to get a new rabbit - we went to p@h and she bought two hutches but one rabbit :? A male 'small rabbit' named trigger - turned out trigger was a lionhead crossed with a giant breed and he ended up living in a shed my grandad converted (fun fact - thats now Bellas shed!)
We went to a different pet shop where their animals are treated right and there was this one bun alone in the corner, I was being bullied at the time and I felt like her alone in a corner.
She came home with me and she was called Marleen (only fools and horses) she lived in a p@h cage and she ate mesuli but she was happy and healthy, she loved snuggling me and she used to fall asleep on my shoulder snuggled into my hair
She died on the 23/1/10, I went to feed her and give her morning kisses and she was gone, I cried for days - she was my first real pet and the reason im so animal obsessed today
She made me the person I am today and she inspires me to give Binky and Bella the best care possible
I remeber her white belly, the way she smelt, the coulor of her neck that was always so soft, what her ears felt like.
I got Binky and Bella from the same place (shoot me - I had updated my rabbit care but I was yet to join ru so I bought) and Binky and Bella are the same breed (netherland dwarf x mini lop) and im sure I see some of her reflected into Bella, they were sent to me by her im sure!
Marleen had the lop ears and Binky and Bella have lop sized ears but the nethie ears in the way they stand up
I still miss her to this day, she may not have had the best care in the world but I didn't know better at the time and she was loved and she loved me and thats all that matters now I can't change it - trigger died two years ago and now B has his shed but I remeber him too! Marleen was 5 or 6 when she passed, I cant remeber if we got her in 2004/5? And Trigger was 7 or 8 but we learned more about rabbit care and adjusted his care which could be why!
I miss this wee character!
4ygu4a8a.jpg
 
My nan had always kept rabbits and she was (and still is) very knowledgeable about them.
She had a rabbit and she had to move house, so we had him but he died of a heart attack on fireworks night a week after we got him with me sitting next to his cage making sure he wasn't scared:(
Nan bought a new house in 2005 (I think?) And wanted to get a new rabbit - we went to p@h and she bought two hutches but one rabbit :? A male 'small rabbit' named trigger - turned out trigger was a lionhead crossed with a giant breed and he ended up living in a shed my grandad converted (fun fact - thats now Bellas shed!)
We went to a different pet shop where their animals are treated right and there was this one bun alone in the corner, I was being bullied at the time and I felt like her alone in a corner.
She came home with me and she was called Marleen (only fools and horses) she lived in a p@h cage and she ate mesuli but she was happy and healthy, she loved snuggling me and she used to fall asleep on my shoulder snuggled into my hair
She died on the 23/1/10, I went to feed her and give her morning kisses and she was gone, I cried for days - she was my first real pet and the reason im so animal obsessed today
She made me the person I am today and she inspires me to give Binky and Bella the best care possible
I remeber her white belly, the way she smelt, the coulor of her neck that was always so soft, what her ears felt like.
I got Binky and Bella from the same place (shoot me - I had updated my rabbit care but I was yet to join ru so I bought) and Binky and Bella are the same breed (netherland dwarf x mini lop) and im sure I see some of her reflected into Bella, they were sent to me by her im sure!
Marleen had the lop ears and Binky and Bella have lop sized ears but the nethie ears in the way they stand up
I still miss her to this day, she may not have had the best care in the world but I didn't know better at the time and she was loved and she loved me and thats all that matters now I can't change it - trigger died two years ago and now B has his shed but I remeber him too! Marleen was 5 or 6 when she passed, I cant remeber if we got her in 2004/5? And Trigger was 7 or 8 but we learned more about rabbit care and adjusted his care which could be why!
I miss this wee character!
4ygu4a8a.jpg

She reminds me of a Rabbit I had. I adopted him from Bobtails Rescue, he was aged about 10. I called him Grandpa Gregory

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I got my very first rabbit when I was 9, 26 years ago :D my friend's cousin bred rabbits in a barn behind their house, and I fell in love with a little grey nethie; he wasn't for sale but they said I could have him, and I begged and begged my parents to let me! My dad still has the begging letter I wrote, saying how I would care for him all by myself, and feed and clean him out every day :love: He was called Brigadier, but I changed it to Bubbles. I loved that little bunny so much :love: I do have pics but I would have to scan them in; after I've moved house I will do! :wave: He had quite a big hutch for those days, but he was only shut in it at night. He had a run with a mesh lid around his hutch,(yes all those years ago!) for when we were not home, and when we were home he had the run of the back garden. He loved jumping on top of his hutch and surveying his kingdom :love: I remember we used to love watching him through the window, binkying round the garden :love:
I was devastated when he died, I was 15 and he developed testicular cancer :( neutering wasn't routine in those days. I will have to dig out my pics...
 
I got my first rabbit around 2001/2002 I think. Miffy came from a friend from uni who had bought him from a pet shop as a house bun, but couldn't cope with the destruction. He went to live with her parents for a while, but they weren't keen and she knew I had an empty hutch (I'd wanted a bun for ages) so he came here.

He liked to eat TV guides...



When he was neutered I got him a wife from the RSPCA, Binky...



(Those cables probably did get eaten! :lol:)
 


This is me as a child with our baby rabbits that occurred through getting two bunnies that we were told were both girls! We had an absolute disaster! The white rabbit was a girl and the brown rabbit we had (who isn't here in this picture) was a boy! We ended up with lots of babies and sadly due to the parents being related some were born with problems such as some only had one ear! Poor bunnies....We had to have a couple put to sleep because of this. :( We ended up with only one white rabbit in the end. One of these babies who was a girl called Sherry. (New zealand white)

When Sherry died we didn't have any more bunnies for a long time. But once I moved into my own home I got the two troublemakers you see all the time! I'm so glad I did my research and joined here and learned how to take care of them properly! We would never have thought about neutering, vaccinations, proper food, housing etc etc back then...This picture is sort of a nice memory but with the sting of knowing none of them were cared for properly...

I'm glad I know better now..
 
Kermit....a Christmas present from PAH. I never knew better!! He got EC and I found RU.

Christmas eve....


Baby K pre Head-Tilt....He was such a character, miss my lad
 
Sadly I don't have a photo of my first bunny. I got her in 1989 when I was 2, along with a guinea pig. The bunny was white with brown patches and called Flopsey, and the guinea was grey and white and called Bertie.

The second bunny was Poppy in 1999, he was actually a boy, but stayed Poppy for the rest of his life! He was from a small Acorn pet shop in Inverness.
Poppy by Niseag, on Flickr
 
I kind of had my first rabbit when I was about 13 I got him off my neighbour who had bred theres and ended up with a boy they didn't want. I took him home and my dad said i couldn't keep him and it's cruel to keep rabbits in hutches so he made me find somewhere to go which was ryber castle (it was like a sort of zoo) which was then closed down for animal cruelty many years later! I think this started my 'rabbit problem'. When I got my own house with a yard I got my first official rabbit from PAH in about 2003 Mr Rabbity (named by my then 2 year old!) he was running around in circles in the store and acting generally crazy which I thought was cute so took him home but he kept on having siezures. He was actually an E.C bunny so I was referred by companian care to Ashleigh vets where he was tested and treated for E.C. After a few years he needed a dental and got through the surgery but had a stroke a day later and passed away in the night...was all very heartbreaking for me so I waited a while before I got my next bunny.
 
My very first rabbit was a large un-neutered Himalayan buck named Brighteyes. I was brought him when I was two and a half by my aunt as a present when my brother was born. My dad made him a huge hutch and run and I thought he was awesome, he lived until I was about ten. He did used to dig out of the run quite a lot as it was on grass and I'm ashamed to say we fed him lettuce and not an awful lot of hay.

Soon after Brighteyes passed away my parents got me a little grey Dutch marked Netherland dwarf buck who I named Smokey. He lived in large hutch with my brothers guinea pig named Bandit. They used to get lots of free range time in part of our garden that my dad fenced for them. He was fed on muesli rabbit mix, sadly Smokey was put to sleep after a reoccurring abscess when he was about 4 years old. He was such a happy friendly little guy.
 
My first Rabbits were bought on a whim from Petsmart (now P@H) in January 1998. I had never owned a Rabbit before and I didn't have a clue about how to care for them. I had actually gone into the shop to buy some food for my very elderly dog.

So, these three introduced me to the world of Rabbits. From left to right- Eleanor, Beatrice and Megan



Please share photos of your first Rabbit(s) :D

3 on a whim! :shock: That was a big whim!

ETA: They're very striking :love:
 
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