How long have you kept rabbits?

Liz47 said:
I was 13, so 8 years ago. I had guinea pigs at the time and had done since I was very young, but my parents helped care for them. I went to the garden centre and saw Beano, as a tiny, very cute baby! I nagged and nagged my parents for her and the condition was I did all caring for and paying for her myself, so she came home with us :love: I didn't know anything about rabbits, which is why she was put in a small spare cage we had in my bedroom (although she was let out very often). She was vaccinated straight away though and fed good hay etc. I soon found this forum within a few months of having her and improved her set up and daily life, and adopted Gordon soon after. :D
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Aww Liz, you spent all your pocket money on Beano :love:

That's true love xx
 
daphnephoebe said:
Since I was 2 I had my first rabbit.
I done the cleaning, feeding everything care wise. My parents just provided the cash and signature for vets, food etc.

I had a break for a while after Neya died and just had the ferrets. Got my current two almost 2 years ago.

Always been interested so always been studying their behaviour etc.

So it's been about 20/21 years. If we minus off the time without bunnies it's around 13 odd years.

I should add though, I don't think I'm bunny mad. I love all animals and honestly my ferrets were my favourite pets. They just brought me so much joy.
I've already decided once Daphne and Phoebe pass I won't be getting any more rabbits.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
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We'll have to handcuff you to the Forum though :lol:;)
 
joey&boo said:
Frances told you that? or me :lol: My friend actually found her for me. She had to subscribe to RWAF (I think) to get a list of decent rabbit vets & FHB was close ish & I think one of two in the country. I think everyone else caught on quick cos in the old days you couldn't move in that waiting room ...bunnies everywhere & many traveled far to get there.

MM - yes it was wonderful, I had to join here once she retired
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I have a specialist vet who seems to move every few years, and myself and her other entourage always follow her wherever she goes. No matter how far that may be!

What we do for the buns :roll:
 
Arfur....as in R for R abbits...

Red eyed white in pet shop, no-one wanted him, except me. He bit, sprayed, 'argued' and at that point I had no understanding about rabbits whatsoever, and then a bunny loving and owning friend told me the facts, I understood, and Arfur stayed with me until his time to leave this world. xxxx


Back in 1995.
 
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When I was about 3 or 4, we had a hutch of rabbits that an uncle gave to us, but I don't remember much about them except feeding them carrots when I came home from school. :oops: My mom didn't like the mess they made on the patio, so they were sent away while I wasn't home to see it happen. :( There was one white, one black and one black and white but I don't think it was a dutch.

Fast forward to about 10 years ago and Mimzy and his two friends (both REWs) were dropped at my ex's business and we tried to catch all of them, thinking we'd take them to the shelter because they would be killed or starve by winter. We were never able to get the two white ones and I think neighbors or wild animals took them. :cry:
I'd had a particularly bad day having come home from a post treatment cancer checkup in a very depressed mood and he suddenly called me and said, "Get somewhere ready for your rabbit to live, he's on the way home." That was in July 2007 and that was Mimzy. Pip came next about a week before Christmas the same year (bought from pet store by daughter) and Fiver followed the next August.

I have loved every minute of my time with them that they haven't been ill. Sickness is too stressful a time to think of as at all enjoyable, but I've fought their corners each time as best I could. Only Mimzy and Fiver left now and no more after this, although I still think of the wildie who was living under our house in Alaska when we left there. I do miss him.

I wouldn't ever have rabbits again even if I could afford to. The sadness of losing them is too much for me. But I have been so blessed to have them in my life. They have taught me so much and given me purpose. Mimzy probably saved my life as I couldn't come to grips with having to live with cancer, it took so much from me. My mental state was depleted by the treatments and surgeries and I also lost a good friend to colon cancer and my survivor's guilt was huge...but I looked forward to seeing him every morning and took comfort in his presence every minute of the day and night. And he brought me to some wonderful friends, both here at RU and at my US rabbit forum. :love:

There is no friendship quite like that which one shares with the house rabbit. Truly changes one's life and outlook on things. :love:
 
*lily* said:
I was about 14 and my 11 year old sisters friends dad (!) bred rabbits so we got 2 sisters, Tammy and Clover.

Our next rabbit was when my Daughter was about 8 or so. Her friend wanted rid of their rabbit, a beautiful Dutch who we named Daisy. She freeranged our garden for around 2 years until one night I went to get her in and she was nowhere to be found. I assume a fox got her :(

Then followed Thumper who we got from an awful rescue centre and she only lived for 6 weeks with us and passed away.

We then had Sooty, who lived until 7, Simba (another rescue from someone who didn't want him) and who we then bonded with a garden centre nethie called Tinkerbell. They both passed away around aged 3.

Then we had Louie who passed away aged 5.

And I've now been bunnyless for 2.5 years :(
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Oh Lily you've had a time with your bunnies. Some of that sounds heart-breaking :(

Will you ever get any more bunnies, do you think?
 
It'll be 20 years ago this September I got my first rabbit - garden centre spur of the moment purchase. Although to be fair it wasn't *that* spur of the moment as I had to go back a couple of weeks later to pick him up as he was too young to leave when I first saw him. Gave me time to sort out a hutch (yip, just a hutch!) etc. He was only just a few weeks off 7 when he died. I knew I wanted to have rabbits again but by then had 2 kids, a job and a husband who was barely any help to me so I knew I didn't have enough time to properly care for rabbits. Fast forward a few years, having had another child and ditched the useless husband we adopted 2 rabbits from a rescue. That was just coming up on 2 years ago so I've only owned rabbits for 9 years out of the last 20! I can see me having them for a while now though :D
 
MightyMax said:
Oh Lily you've had a time with your bunnies. Some of that sounds heart-breaking :(

Will you ever get any more bunnies, do you think?
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Hmmmm I'm very tempted on a lot of occasions but I don't truly think I could go through the worry of looking after these beautiful yet fragile animals again.
 
I've had rabbits almost all of my life. We had a flemish giant, Lily, who died when I was a baby (maybe young toddler?) and then sometime after that we got Bonnie, I'm guessing I was about 2. I haven't went a day without rabbits since we got Bonnie. We always have 2-4 rabbits at any one time.

And then when I was 2 or 3 my parents reserved two bunnies (Sugar and Ginger) from a breeder so they could surprise me and my sisters (my brother wasn't born yet) with them on Easter morning. I can still clearly remember finding them in our Easter basket that morning.

Sugar (who died when I was about 10) was the first rabbit that was technically mine as Bonnie was my eldest sister's and my other sister claimed Ginger. Though of course we all played with/cared for them all - Sugar and Ginger were bonded and Bonnie lived separately next to them, separated just by the mesh, as she fought with them otherwise (sometimes she'd manage to get through the mesh separation and into their space). Years later though when Ginger died, Bonnie again made her way into the other side of the run and Bonnie and Sugar bonded themselves.

I suppose most kids don't really pay much attention to pets when they're really young but I've been animal mad my whole life so I was always really involved with the bunnies and our other pets. We've had 15 bunnies in total and I have a lot of fond memories of them:love:
 
We had 2 rabbits as kids, Dusky Dreamer an agouti, and Ebony Smudge, black and White. My Mum was selling cosmetics at the time and they were named after lipsticks. We had no idea about bunny care and they had a tiny cage. However, we also let them free range in the not bunny proof garden by day, they'd come back at night for dinner, until a neighbour complained that Smudge had eaten all her lettuces. We only had Smudge at that point. So we put a harness on her with a ring that was looped round the washing line and she used to run up and down the garden with the lead sliding along the washing line. She lived for years until one day the hutch was left open and she disappeared.
As an adult, got my first rabbit Willow, (who I lost in 2012) a gorgeous grey mini Rex, in 2010, I let her have babies, didn't know about rescues then, and kept 2 of the babies, Jet and Lavender who I still have. I came across Bramcote rescue centre and fell in love with my bridge bun Comet (lost last November) and got him a wife bun Lucy. I found this site when I was bonding Comet and Lucy.
 
I did have a rabbit from about 7 -13. Peter (parents responsible for that name) who I think was a nethie but for some reason Polish sticks in my head. He was small grey & grumpy - not surprisingly. I don't talk about him much though -in denial on account of his lonely single bun outside life. Poor mite. My dad did build him a big hutch & he got daily attention from me - probably for all of 30 minutes.
 
joey&boo said:
I did have a rabbit from about 7 -13. Peter (parents responsible for that name) who I think was a nethie but for some reason Polish sticks in my head. He was small grey & grumpy - not surprisingly. I don't talk about him much though -in denial on account of his lonely single bun outside life. Poor mite. My dad did build him a big hutch & he got daily attention from me - probably for all of 30 minutes.
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Those were the days, though. Lots of lack of education. We make up for it now, and our rabbits have lives of luxury, interest and great food and forage :D

I've had rabbits for 25+ years. Multiple rabbits. All rescue rabbits bar my very first one. He was a teacher and didn't have a life in a hutch, as he was everywhere with me. But then he was that sort of a rabbit :D

I've worked extensively with four rabbit rescues and fostered and rehomed. So at any one time I've had (in addition to my own) up to thirty rabbits taking over all my garden in hutches and pens, spare rooms indoors etc etc. Not so many now though :lol:

Love 'em all to bits :love:
 
CometLucy195 said:
We had 2 rabbits as kids, Dusky Dreamer an agouti, and Ebony Smudge, black and White. My Mum was selling cosmetics at the time and they were named after lipsticks. We had no idea about bunny care and they had a tiny cage. However, we also let them free range in the not bunny proof garden by day, they'd come back at night for dinner, until a neighbour complained that Smudge had eaten all her lettuces. We only had Smudge at that point. So we put a harness on her with a ring that was looped round the washing line and she used to run up and down the garden with the lead sliding along the washing line. She lived for years until one day the hutch was left open and she disappeared.
As an adult, got my first rabbit Willow, (who I lost in 2012) a gorgeous grey mini Rex, in 2010, I let her have babies, didn't know about rescues then, and kept 2 of the babies, Jet and Lavender who I still have. I came across Bramcote rescue centre and fell in love with my bridge bun Comet (lost last November) and got him a wife bun Lucy. I found this site when I was bonding Comet and Lucy.
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What gorgeous names CL :love: Naming your bunnies after lipsticks sounds like a very good and fun thing to do :D

I am loving reading your stories, everyone. It's great to know how it all began, who they were and what you named them :D
 
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