[Closed] My wife wants a house rabbit...

don't let them near wires.

get *written* agreement on who's going to be responsible for feeding/cleaning out in advance of purchase.

[edit] don't whack your wanger in the rabbits face.

don't let them near wires.

EDIT: And yes, I am already the sole cleaner/feeder of our two dwarf hamsters....

they are sociable, but that means they should be kept with other rabbits
not that they are great raconteurs and the life'n'soul

wires, sofas, washing machine waste pipes.....

They're great or at least that's what our childminder seemed to think and theirs did seem very nice but it also seemed to eat/chew/nibble just about everything so bear that in mind.

Mmm, carpet raisins.

Rabbits are a gateway animal. Next thing you know you'll have a goat in the kitchen.

Rabbits are for pies. Not houses.

Next thing you know you'll have a goat in the kitchen.

You know my neighbour then?

Marko

[i]You know my neighbour then?[/i]

Victim of some "Give a Nigerian family a goat" do-gooder?

You know my neighbour then?

Giant rabbit is nice. I like!

[img] ?649[/img]

😀

My friend kept a house rabbit.
It still bit the children. Wrecked the carpet and the house did smell a bit (which they didn't notice but I did).

Victim of some "Give a Nigerian family a goat" do-gooder?

Slightly eccentric neighbour with a bit of an animal obsession.I don't think they - yes they have more than one - live in the house. The Goats apparently are allowed in as, and when they want.

Marko

Male or female? Mrs dickyboy has giant house rabbit and it does get rather frisky / jizzes on her lap before you know whats occuring 😳 - no cage, free to roam downstairs apart from when it is bothersome in the kitchen - trys humping ladies ankles whilst cooking so had to install stair gate to keep it out at times, carpet raisins need constant sweeping up but laminate floors all round so not a problem, sometimes doesn't use litter tray & wees on floor too. Great pet though if you can cope with the above & that is coming from a non pet person.

Any animal that shits on your floor is not a great pet.

We have a house rabbit, gets on pretty well with the dog too. Do make great pets, mind your cables, mine has an affinity to telephone wires, patched three times now *sigh*. Does get frisky with balloons (you know that ends well) and balls. But given he (the rabbit) and I are the only males in in the house, we are good!

Slight hijack - how many people can a giant rabbit feed?

don't know haven't trained it to wait on us yet

I had one. He was great but a total nightmare and I think he was bored on his own.

Why the hell has [s]rabbit threesome experimentalist [/s] gofasterstripes not posted here?

How much do you want your house to stink ?

My ex has two 😉 they seem to be the latest thing for ladies who are broody for their first/more kids.

Lives in the kitchen, nice really, but they don't really [b] do [/b]much other than shuffle around nibbling.

Advice I would offer would be that unless you have a good, well grouted tile floor, to make a marine ply 'bathtub' to mount the cage etc. on, as their piss is pretty horrible stuff.

Personally I think ferrets make far, far better pets, much more entertaining (especially when they pounce on your feet unexpectedly first thing in the morning)

Take the dog, let them keep the rabbit.

Rabbits really nice. The furs good for hats too.

My pals rabbits have done over a grands worth of damage to bedding, wires, carpet, clothes, shoes, table
Legs, chair legs, leather, his remotes, and a few other items too. Horrible little shit rats. Best left in the wild.

My sister has one.

They had a cat, it died and their daughter had a lot of severe allergies. She was not allergic to their cat, but had severe reaction to a lot of other cats. They had her tested and was not allergic to rabbits so they got one of those instead.

Rabbit has a cage that it goes in at night or when no one is home. It isn't allowed in the entire house, but is restricted to kitchen and a couple of other rooms with hard floors & chew proofed.

Edit - they're more delicate than a dog or cat, so kids can't be rough with them.

they are sociable, but that means they should be kept with other rabbits

don't let them near wires.

They're quiet (no bark or meow) so good in that way. But I don't think that a vet can do much for them unlike a dog or cat that can get just about any treatment that is available for people these days. Sister's rabbit was sick (ate something bad?) an it was touch an go since rabbits apparently can't vomit. It recovered, and has been fine since AFAIK.

I had a house rabbit. As above, chewed through cables, and dug holes in the carpet in corner of rooms. It was a rented house, but thankfully the carpet fitters left some spare carpet, it's amazing what neat repairs can be made.

He was completely house trained, never a poo or a wee in the wrong place. Rabbit like their toilets to be in one area, once they know where that is you just need to put a tray there.

Large breeds are supposed to make better house rabbits. I probably wouldn't again.

I reckon herbivores make rubbish pets, they just shuffle from corner to corner looking for something to chew or somewhere to defecate. The males can also throw semen around which is the terrible icing on the cake so to speak

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We have one. He is very friendly, very clean and doesn't chew. Others who have them seem to rabbit proof their homes easily and unobtrusively so I'm not sure what the fuss is.

I must confess I wasn't convinced by the idea before we got him but now love the little fella. He is neutered which helps with possible behavioural issues. He only craps in his litter tray and we change them every 2-3 days to stop them smelling. He follows us around the house, comes and lies by my feet when I'm working at home and sits on my lap when watching TV.

If you like animals then you shouldn't have a problem. Think of him as a herbivorous dog that doesn't need walking and you shouldn't go far wrong. If you want any advice feel free to email me.

Former Rabbit owner here + Mrs JMS used to help at vets. Found that they do have different temperaments, even if the same breed. We had quite a placid male Rex but latter when we had a female rex, she took an instant dislike to our new baby girl when she came along and was becoming very aggressive. If all possible, might just be worth just checking how the rabbit in their existing environment responds to you and your family.

A rampant one perhaps?

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We had a house rabbit from him being 7 weeks old till he died at 13 1/2 years old. As above he was neutered (because he used to get frisky with mrscarlos leg) he also didn't chew. When we weren't in he lived in his cage but all the time we were home he had free roam of the ground floor,in one corner of the cage we put a corner toilet unit that was easy to empty/keep clean there were very few currants left on the floor.
In most aspects it was more or less the same as having a cat to the point where he would jump onto your knee and nudge you for a stroke then lay down on you for hours at a time.Our cat was interested in him but he wasn't in the least scared of her and would chase her given chance. He was a lovely pet and I'd be suprised if we ever got another that was the same.

Define "tamed/house trained".....yes you will have to keep the wires away from them doesn't matter how trained they are,they will use a litter tray like a cat,mine live outside in hutches,I have 4 and they are well loved,iff let in the house they will make a bee line for the darkest spot (behind the telly) and can get through the sky cable in milliseconds <no joke,iff they are as house trained as the previous owners say they are then they will be as much work as a cat which means feeding,cleaning litter tray and kept occupied with playing now and again,you will be fine and hry what's the worst that could happen

We have two that lived in the house and now reside in the garage.

No matter how clean they are supposed to be we always found the odd rabbit nugget. The house always smelt a bit and we found we (in other words me) had to clean them out pretty much everyday before they started to whiff.

Chewed or scratched whatever they fancied.

Wish we never got them to be honest. The worst thing is two years after banishing them to the garage we still come across rabbit hair.

Not great with kids, ours hate being picked up and will begrudgingly be stroked.

Bit of a pointless pet to be honest.

Oh and get insured,with pet plan £10 a month for the life of the bunnie

We had a pair, still got one but he has been moved to a big shed as although neutered he had a bit of a spraying problem and was remarkably accurate.

You may get lucky but just assume that you will get occasional wee's in the wrong place, droppings everywhere when they get excited, bike tyres/grips, TV remotes, wires are all fair game to be nibbled.

They were rescues and I suspect the spraying problem was the real reason they were looking for a new home.

[url= https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6105/6231035429_e28abb010f_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6105/6231035429_e28abb010f_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/auBFKk ]IMG_0188[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/34965582@N05/ ]Ollie and Sally[/url], on Flickr[/img]

The one on the right is still with us, loves being picked up and hugged, got him a new mate from the rescue and she hates being picked up, slightly aggresive and seems to kennel guard (goes for you when you put your hand in the hutch!)

We have one (technically our daughter's) and she's great fun. Very affectionate (demands to be stroked with your foot whenever you sit at the kitchen table) and happy to be carried around; indeed you can put her into a trance by stroking her head. In theory she's confined to the kitchen but is very resourceful and is forever escaping. We've also got two cats, but there is no doubt who is the boss (although they will all happily play together).
Oh yes, and she does chew through wires but always seems to just bite the neutral rather than live.....

Having lots of running time and space to do it in seems to result in happy rabbits. Also helps with digestion and plenty of clean drinking water in a bowl helps stop smelly wee. They do like attention, and need looking after, so if you aren't prepared to treat them like a well loved pet, give them affection and forgive the occasional errant bum nugget then don't get one.

Here is our one chilling in his basket under the coffee table.

[IMG] [/IMG]

We tried it encountered most of the usual issues but they are surprisingly affectionate/sociable like a little lap dog at times.
They now live out in the garden where tbh they prefer it they like the fresh, cool outside air.

bearnecessities - Member
Why the hell has [s]rabbit threesome experimentalist [/s]gofasterstripes not posted here?

This post left intentionally blank.

http://www.disapprovingrabbits.com/

ssooooooo cute

want

Ollie and friend above.

Am I the only one who thought 'what a lovely pair of warm slippers they would make?'.

Cuddled up to the dog (he sits on her and licks her nose):

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and annoying the cat by wiggling his bum up to him trying to sneak a cuddle:

[img] [/img]

Chewing wires: yup
Especially phone wire: yup (BT phone wires are unique to BT and really hard to patch)
Pulls DVDs out of the DVD rack: yup, need to move all the OHs DVDs to the bottom row as it's her fault we have him
Nibbles carpet: sometimes, also bits of lose wallpaper. They basically find any slight bit of decoration that is not stuck down right and attack it.
Nibbles sofa: yup, now have bits of aircraft protecting corners
Smelly: a little bit but it's better using sawdust in his litter tray and now neutered he smells a lot less.
Clean up every day: pretty much, he likes to toss his litter tray over when he is angry so he now has a dust buster of his own on charge right next to his pen
Hates being picked up: yup, but then he secretly likes being snuggled
He's a pain in the ass and the dog and cat are much easier to live with and easier to get people to look after

The good:
He is a character. He loves the cat and the dog and you can train them. They do need mental stimulation. Ours was rehomed due to fighting but after he started humping the dog we had his balls cut off. Now a lot cleaner with no humping, marking etc.
He used to live with a cat too who he loved so is quite drawn to our cat. Sometimes he gets in the cats face so the cat smacks him (no claws), other times they take turns chasing each other around the house.
Fully litter trained, he lives in a puppy pen with a box, tray, some toys etc and when he's been naughty he knows the phrase "go home" and has a sulk.
Now it's getting warmer he has a run outside so we can chuck him out there.

Would I have another? Yes but only in my own place and if I could plan somewhere proper for him to live and not destroy stuff. Preferably in a conservatory type room and possibly with a cat flap into an outside run. He loves the dog and cat and occasionally will jump on my lap. He has no sense of personal space though and will sit on the dog and walk across my shoulders. He has OCD about being clean and tidy and just flops asleep on the floor or sofa which shows he's happy.

I've had quite a few mains shocks since we got him so need to get some more flexible cable conduit (ikea sell the split type, DIy stores sell the non-split type).

Oh and worth checking if you have a local bunny hotel (ie a bunny kennel) near you. We are yet to use the one near us but we did check it out and they absolutely love rabbits and do seem to take very good care of them and let the house rabbits take turns running around indoors so we know we can use it as a backup if our housemate or neighbours are not around.

There is much truth in this thread.

Bright eyes.

Ben was our rabbit - he was a nightmare - spent his days either humping my legs, sitting on me, pissing in the corner, or chasing the cats growling at them.

Wouldn't have another, he was too much hard work.

Stinky, full of fleas, shitting machine, the carpet will be ruined within a year due to the ammonia in their piss.
Also you have to put up with Paul Daniels. 😕

You either have no idea what you're talking about or no idea how to look after your rabbits.

I hope it's the former.

Think he's talking about Debbie McGee.

used to have a house rabbit. Would mainly stay in the kitchen but would venture out into the living room. Used a litter tray for the toilet (they have toilet areas in burrows) and they do chew some things but it depends on the rabbit. Ours chewed the skirting board every so often. Got on great with our dog at the time and he would actively protect bob from the cat lol.