I agree that rabbits should never be bought as pets. They are a wild animal ffs & classed at my vets as “exotic animals”. Pets at Home should be banned from breeding and selling them. As a wild animal I have never understood why it is considered acceptable to buy one and stick it in a tiny hutch. As far as I’m concerned no hutch is ever big enough.
I’m in the same position as the OP. We actually adopted a rabbit from my cousin. The rabbits were stuck in a tiny cage all day & my cousins children who they had been bought for took no interest in them. It was a mistake. A mistake I live with every day.
My adopted rabbits live in a large shed. They have lots of toys, fresh hay & vegetables and the run of the shed. They have a huge run which we put them in when the weathers nice.
They are such hard work. They kept digging their way out of the run, dug huge holes in my garden, ate all my plants, escaped into my neighbours garden after digging a hole under the fence. They now have to have their run on concrete which means we can no longer use our garden furniture as the rabbits have taken over our patio area.
They require constant mucking out & I’m sick of having to do it in all weathers, I have to replenish their food and water twice a day. It’s no fun doing this at 6 in the morning before work.
I give them as good a life as I can but I wish I hadn’t listened to my dad begging me to take them. Even going on holiday is difficult now, not many people want to come round & look after them cleaning up the constant mess they make.
I’m trying to rehire them. Even though they have a nice life I can’t stand seeing them caged up even if that cage is a shed. They should be ruining free and digging burrows. They are on a waiting list to go to a farm where they would live with other rabbits in barns with safe enclosed access to fields. That is the life they should have.
Sorry for essay!