My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Mumsnet does not check the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you're worried about the health of your pet, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Small pets

Rabbits that have never been outside, will they be Ok?

4 replies

JaneBirkin · 08/12/2011 17:33

We lost two of our girls the other week, and since then girl 3 has been alone and grieving. She barely eats and is obviously really sad.

So I've been looking for a male rabbit to go with her, (she's neutered and we'd neuter him too) as I read that male-femal neutered is the best match really.

Finally after searching for rescued bunnies we found two up for 'adoption' in the Pets at home by us.
They're not abandoned, they are the last two left who got too old to sell at full price, and didn't get on with the new lot of babies.

PatH makes me sick really the way they propagate animals but as needs must, we bought these two lovely fellows and brought them home.

The woman who sold us them was awful, she picked them up really roughly, tipped them out of the tubes they were trying to hide in, she was a proper witch to them, so I was glad to get them out of there tbh. I know it becomes a vicious circle Sad

Anyway they're 18 weeks, very shy, and have never been outdoors. This may be a problem, as apparently they don't have a winter coat - but it's mild tonight, and only raining and windy, and they have each other.

Not introducing to female tonight obviously! But do they really need to stay in the house all winter?
Or will they grow a thicker coat, I mean, I could bring them in on cold nights couldn't I? And the hutches we have outside are by the house, sheltered and well covered with insulated covers and blankets.

Any advice gratefully listened to! They're in tonight, btw, in a tiny hutch I salvaged from the end of the garden - they seem Ok for the time being.

OP posts:
Report
FreyaoftheNorth · 08/12/2011 17:42

If they aren't used to being outdoors, and even more importantly if they are young and have spent their lives indoors, they need to be introduced to outside life in late spring - summer. That gives them the opportunity to acclimatise and grow their winter coats during the autumn.

Dramatic temperature changes (like moving them between December outdoors and a heated house) aren't good for them and are likely to make them ill. Rabbits are delicate little beasts.

Report
FreyaoftheNorth · 08/12/2011 17:54

And get the sexes of the two new rabbits checked by a vet soon. You want to make sure you don't end up with them breeding! A male of 18 weeks old might start spraying imminently, so neutering soon will be a good idea.

forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/index.php is a good forum about rabbits where you can get lots of advice. Some people there aren't too keen on pet shops, but they will recognise that you already have these two rabbits and are interested in taking good care of them.

Housing recommendations are really big for rabbits these days.
At the very least they'll need some time out of the small hutch to get exercise and stop them getting bored, frustrated and unhealthy. Cheap soloutions for this, if you don't want them to run free in a whole room, include budget puppy pens.
Also see
www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/pets/rabbits
www.houserabbit.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.html

Report
JaneBirkin · 08/12/2011 18:23

Oh thanks ever so much, Freya. That's some great advice and a few things I hadn't thought of too.

Our hutches are Forsham ones and 6ft x 2ft (not the really enormous one they make, but still!) and we have two of those and one four footer which houses the two piggies.

I tried to find homeless rabbits to adopt but the local sanctuary is owned by a very odd woman who isn't very friendly and I'm afraid we don't have a great relationship for a few reasons.

The other place is RSPCA, they only had one left, which we nearly had but they wanted to do two home visits and charge £30, and we didn't want to have a load of inspections as our house is a tip and I felt too embarrassed (major renovations going on, very untidy indeed).

Plus I couldn't afford it. Which is awful I know.

I feel bad at using a pet shop but at the same time glad to have brought these lovely boys home with us rather than leaving them in that place.

We're having them on our laps, me and ds1, and lots of stroking and they are being as good as gold.
I will have them neutered asap - we had all our girls done last year, it was quite intrusive for them, hopefully with boys it's not so bad?

Thankyou again for all your advice. I can bring one of the hutches into the conservatory when I have cleared it tomorrow so they can be in there for the winter maybe. We had them all in a walk in run but sadly the girls dug out and that's why they got taken by a fox. So will use the smaller run in future, it's 8x4 so not too tiny, while they're still babies at least.

OP posts:
Report
JaneBirkin · 08/12/2011 18:23

Oh and I've checked, and they're definitely lads!!! Smile

OP posts:
Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.