Weekend rabbit?

I have a bit of a dilemma, rabbit-loving friends.

I have a bonded pair, Willow and Charlie, living in the garden; they have a reasonable amount of space and plenty of free range time. They are happy bunnies. So far so good.

I adopted Charlie from a farm that has other rabbits too and their living conditions are far worse, some of them live in a hutch, which is really-really bad. But unfortunately the situation is outside my control, I have no say in what's going on in the farm. One of the rabbits, Sandy, is in a particularly unfortunate situation because she was paired up with an old buck that died, now she is on her own, stuck in a hutch.

I would like to do something for her but the only thing I could do would be to give her a weekend "respite", when I could potentially bring her home and give her a runaround in the garden and keep her in a playshed overnight. But I'm not sure if this is even a good idea. To start with, Sandy is completely unused to being outside; she might panic and the whole thing would stress her out. I expect Willow and Charlie will have a fit seeing an intruder but they are less of a problem, I can keep them in their run while Sandy is out. Obviously I wouldn't want anybody to get injured. What do you reckon, is this a sensible idea or am I just clutching at straws here?

Are the conditions of the rabbits on the farm bad enough that they could be reported to the RSPCA?

I wouldn't advise it. You risk referred aggression between your own rabbits and it would probably be very unsettling for the Sandy to be swapped around. This is, of course, just my opinion, and others may come up with different views. Poor Sandy - and the other rabbits. Is there anything at all you can do?

Could you attach a run to the play shed and keep her and find her a new friend

I agree with Babsie as rabbits are territorial animals she might not benefit from moving backwards and forwards. I also like Catherine's suggestion

Excellent idea of Catherine's.

Aw, that's sad, but I have to agree with the others in that it's probably not a good idea to be taking her back and forth. However, it does sounds like she could do with getting out of that place, have you thought about taking her on?

I've been lucky in that our existing rabbits have accepted any newcomers. They do have a nosy at each other between runs, but I haven't witnessed any aggression (obviously that's not always the case though and can happen).

It's such a shame for the other rabbits there too. Are they running a 'rescue' of some sort as you say you adopted from them? It sounds like they all need removing x

Thanks for all the advice. The conditions on the farm are not at all bad by agricultural industry standards, the animals are looked after properly, they are cleaned out and fed. They are only bad in comparison to the living conditions that you all good people on this forum provide for your rabbits. And in any case for reasons that I can't detail, I have to tread carefully and keep the relations between me and the farm friendly.

The whole idea is very much speculative in the sense that they would not even necessarily let me have Sandy for the weekend but I thought I'd ask your opinion before I even raise the subject. Adopting her might be a possibility but I don't know if Willow and Charlie would accept her; keeping her in a separate run and hutch would probably push the boundaries of what the garden can accommodate - Charlie and Willow have regular free range times and there is not much grass - or any other vegetation - left.

I think I will try to address the issue from a different angle and try to improve the conditions on the farm. I have already made some improvements.

Lagomorphine said:

Thanks for all the advice. The conditions on the farm are not at all bad by agricultural industry standards, the animals are looked after properly, they are cleaned out and fed. They are only bad in comparison to the living conditions that you all good people on this forum provide for your rabbits. And in any case for reasons that I can't detail, I have to tread carefully and keep the relations between me and the farm friendly.

The whole idea is very much speculative in the sense that they would not even necessarily let me have Sandy for the weekend but I thought I'd ask your opinion before I even raise the subject. Adopting her might be a possibility but I don't know if Willow and Charlie would accept her; keeping her in a separate run and hutch would probably push the boundaries of what the garden can accommodate - Charlie and Willow have regular free range times and there is not much grass - or any other vegetation - left.

I think I will try to address the issue from a different angle and try to improve the conditions on the farm. I have already made some improvements.

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Thats great if you can have a positive impact on things and it's lovely that you want to try, it sounds like a sensitive situation. Your definitely right to consider carefully any impact on your existing buns if you did take on Sandy.

Good luck x