To get a load of bunnies for the kids?

I must have been incredibly lucky with my rabbits from reading this! I had a dutch rabbit as a child who was lovely, would come up for a stroke, would sit by me in the garden, didn't want a cuddle but loved company.

As an adult I had a dwarf lop, who was my shadow, sat on my lap, grunted around my feet incredibly affectionate. He did have teeth issues when he was about 10 which cost £1k. He was neutered, and we got a rescue neutered female lop as a pair for him, they absolutely adored each other. When my boy died the female pined and we got her an adult rescue neutered male, they bonded and lived very happily together. I don't know what breed he was a moggy of the rabbit world I think! All of my bunnies have come when called, enjoyed company, followed me and my children round the garden and loved a stroke. 2 have jumped on laps for cuddles and jumped onto the bench to sit next to us.

I had them before I had children and they grew up together.

Mine lived in a 6x8 shed, with different levels, a litter tray and bedding area - hay. They were shut in there each evening and in the day and a 10 x20ft fenced area of the garden. This included a plastic dog kennel which I half buried in the soil and filled with top soil. They would spend ages in there digging all the soil out then filling it back in. There goal was digging rather than escaping. They had a ball and a plastic flower pot that they would play with.

Then the whole run of the garden when we were outside. My original boy would try and get in the house at any opportunity to sit on the sofa, he chewed through the telephone wire once.

I had a couple of the large gravity water bottles which worked well.

My youngest is allergic to rabbits, or we would still have them, They have been brilliant pets for our family.

Please don't do this, for all the reasons other posters have explained. Also some poultry diseases, such as coccidiosis, are transmissible to rabbits. I come from a family of rabbit lovers and this set up sounds a lapine nightmare.

You could also considering fostering first, to see if it's for you.

Had pet rabbits for many years and always warn against them as pets for children.
If kept correctly they are a lot of work and expense.
The pet rabbit stock in this country is often inbred and consequently health issues are very common. They must be neutered and vaccinated annually.
The reason we have had them for many years is they live a long time and shouldn't be kept singly so we have had a succession of partners.
The last old boy is 10 and I have told him he must go on alone.
The child who had the original pet is 32 and at 63 I do not really want a pet rabbit but I care for him well

Just to reiterate what others have said - please, please, please do not buy rabbits. Rescues are overwhelmed with rabbits. I know you said you'd contacted a rescue place, but there are many others full of rabbits needing homes. And the beauty of a rescue is that they can give you a bonded pair, and also, will be able to tell you about their personalities. If you are near Bristol, this place can help: thelittlestlivesrescue.org.uk/

I bought a rabbit for my son and it was a terrible decision. It hated being touched, and bit and scratched when we had to move it to clean its cage and runs. Rabbit urine really smells and constant cleaning was needed. In pet value there was zero return but we persevered. Never again!

If you get baby rabbits, they won’t have a true bond, just a baby bond, and you’ll have to rebond later once they’re neutered (and they do need neutering).

The omlet runs aren’t great and not fox proof.

I got rabbits. I don’t recommend them!

There are loads of rabbits in rescue. Check out http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/

As others have said, they do not make good children's pets. They find handling very stressful. I would also not really recommend keeping them with chickens - interspecies communication will be difficult and one or other is likely to get injured.

A mixed sex pair where both are neutered is the best. If getting from rescue this will probably already be done, but otherwise call around your local vets (but don't just go with the cheapest, make sure they are very experienced with rabbits as not all are). They also need annual vaccinations. Check out the rabbit welfare association for loads of information.

This is our set up the run is 3mx3m and we have been letting them out supervised into a bigger area too.

Exactly! I knew how much work and time they needed but I could not leave them in that tiny hutch fighting to what could have been death. So I took them on. One of them had severe urine burn from sitting in filth and needed steroid cream for the wounds. They now have all the room they should have to be normal rabbits and they have turned out to be the most lovely rabbits. When I got them you couldn’t handle them without them bucking continuously and scratching arms to shreds and one will now will quite happily run up and nudge me and jump on my knee. The other is still very weary but he’s the one that got the brunt in all the fighting. Trust is building but will take more time

Rabbit are amazing pets. We've just adopted one from the RSPCA and one from PAH. No, they don't like being picked up, but if you have a large walk-in run, then you can sit in with them. Mine come up for rubs and are so cute and entertaining to watch! My 10 year old loves them! Mine are litter trained, so not much mess. We also have chickens and when we are sitting with them let them out to a fenced off area together, they're still getting used to each other rabbits ignore the chickens but the chickens are a little bit freaked out but will soon settle as they have with our dogs and cats. I'll attach a picture of our set up we have an omlet run with hutch inside.

We have wild rabbits in our garden (neighbours tell us they were escaped pets about 10 years ago) and I love watching them hop about together. They need space and exercise and freedom to run around. The little buggers dig holes in our garden and eat our plants but I do love watching them and I think it would be so sad and a real shame for them to live in a box on somebody’s patio.

Please do not get rabbits. They're more akin to livestock than pets. They need a huge amount of exercise and are prone to biting and kicking. They're prey animals and their instinct is to escape and hide. Some people manage to turn them into pets, but this takes a lot of time, perseverance and effort. They're not suitable for children.

You'd be better off with guinea pigs. I never had any problems with my guinea pigs, but I'd never have rabbits again.

As long as you know you can cope with the long term care of the rabbits go for it.
As loads have said they just aren't the wonderful child pet they are portrayed to be .
I've always enjoyed having them friendliest ones were the Dutch ones .They are all different and watching them run about in a huge space is lovely.

@vix3rd it’s true they nibble a lot!

I think with any plan for a new pet there’s an element of “suck it and see”. I would love to let my bunnies zoom and bounce all over my garden but it wouldn’t be safe - because some of my plants would upset their tummies and there are foxes nearby. I give them a good life, but one that is fenced in! Sometimes it feels cruel but they have plenty of room to run, so I hope they aren’t too frustrated. Like any animal or even human, we don’t get to do exactly as we choose all the time!

I grow plants round the edge of their hutch - they love herbs, roses and strawberry leaves - and rotate the pots so that the plants get chance to recover and the bunnies don’t gorge themselves. This way the bunnies get a varied diet and I retain my garden. I also give the bunnies the branch clippings from my pear and apple trees to gnaw on and nibble the leaves. It’s really been fun planning the garden to be entirely “edible” for them!

Get Guinea pigs instead- four girl herd. They are awesome

I also had a Dutch male as a kid, he was lovely and quite the rascal. He loved to snuggle and in winter, he'd come indoors for much of the time (just a few hours outside in the full daylight) and stretch out along my legs to watch tv. Very neat with his toileting. Otherwise he had a big hutch with secure run, but he had the run of the garden (about 1/4 acre) during the day.

He did get out of the garden (his domain, he'd chase dogs, cats and even strange people out) a fair amount but he'd always come back. He had a girlfriend at a neighbour's house, so he'd go off to visit her early in the morning and I'd find him stretched out in the sun on the back step waiting for breakfast when I went out. He'd lead me back to the garden. We couldn't work out how he was escaping until one day he took pity on us and showed us how he was using an old chair arm to springboard over a 7' high fence. Then he turned to face us like he was waiting for applause. He was amazing. But from what others' experiences are, I guess he was an anomaly. He was very healthy until he got cancer at age 13.

This is why I got my males (adopted from the same litter) neutered at 4 months. A lot of people mistakenly think that two males are okay form a breeding standpoint. They must still get neutered so that they don’t kill each other. So many male pairs 6mo-1yr old on the pet sites are available for rehoming—“All of a sudden, they started fighting and I can’t cope anymore, so I’m rehoming them.”

I know nothing about rabbits but I do know about chickens and I wouldn’t keep anything with them. Chickens can be vicious. Mine ate mice!

Definitely monitored only. Its not just foxes, it's cats, birds of prey etc.

I’ve had dogs, cats, horses all sorts of livestock throughout my life, but rabbits as pets are a step too far for me. They just don’t work as pets without some very serious commitment and to keep on top of their welfare is really hard

I'm going to 'buck' the trend and say that rabbits make wonderful pets.... IF you put the time and effort in. They are sociable, intelligent, trainable, beautiful, entertaining and full of character. You need to interact with them patiently and frequently if you want them to be tame rather than feral!
It sounds like you have plenty of space for them, but unless their area is totally predator-proof and dig-proof you will need to supervise them. They will eat everything so you need to make sure that all plants they can reach are safe.
They need annual vaccinations and neutering (regardless of whether you have a male/female pair). Bonding rabbits can be tricky and take a long time. Even bonded rabbits can fall out and fight.
Where ever you live in the UK there will be a rescue you can get to. Just Google rabbit rescues. I'm in Gloucestershire and there are several nearish to me.
Good luck!

I would get a pair of kittens/cats instead - much easier to look after

our local RSPCA always has rabbits, often bonded pairs.

We had numerous rabbits when the DC were small - we had a huge garden and we ended up taking in rabbits other friends had rejected. I would not recommend them as pets, for every one that is quite sweet and likes to be handled you get one psychopath and two grumpy gits.

Vaccinations, fly strike, overgrown nails, biting...... they need a lot of space - not a good idea to mix them with chickens - we tried, unless you have a scrupulous cleaning regime the chick poo gets into their fur / embedded in their feet. Even worse if your chickens can get above the rabbits!

We had multiple pets, lots of different animals, but I would not recommend rabbits unless you really have a lot of time, space and attention you can give to them.

Oh and as a previous poster has already said vaccinations are an absolute must!