Neighbours Rabbit Dilemma

[genericbrunette]

We have just moved into a new house. Next door have a lovely large rabbit hutch in their garden, and a few bunnies. I have noticed that their water bottle has been empty for 48 hours now.

I have not seen anyone coming or going from the house.

their garden gate is not locked. AIBU to just fill the bottle up myself?

This is going to sound a bit mad, but my rabbit rarely drank when she was housed ouside. I fed lots of greens and veggies every day and I did provide water, but she rarely drank it.

She came to live inside when she was about 9 and did drink a bit more. But she was getting on for 14 when she died, so lack of water wasn't too much of an issue.

But if are concerned then please don't ignore it.

Why do people keep animals in cages - asking for a friend

@Createausername1970

Your rabbit had the choice to ignore her water though !
I always made sure my guinea pigs had clean fresh water , I bought several to find one that didn't leak and settled on smallish glass ones that I cleverly rigged up holders for so replacing them was just a case of remove , clean, refill , replace without thise fiddly hooks .
The swine ignored them . Unless it was night time and they liked being noisy .

Hopefully these rabbits have been given water and food otherwise it's nearly a week

Rabbits were kept in hutches in Victorian times as they were food . So easier to starve and contain them before slaughter ( you want the intestines empty if you plan to eat it )

My guineas had a shed /playhouse outside and huge rabbit runs ( not those useless little circular fences with no roof) which were like Fort Knox

Indoors for winter , they had C&C / large cage depending on which group was in them.

Mainly for their own safety they are extremely vunerable to everything
If I had a £ for everyone who said Well in Peru they don't have ...... I'd be a millionaire . Mine came from Essex or Kent . Nohere near their rangey Peruvian cousins . .

But I;m sure your friend could've looked that up online ?

So they don't get mauled by foxes

Noooooh - why do people keep any animal in a cage - it ain't fittin

If there was no demand for pets then they wouldn't exist .

But they do and hopefully as people research and become aware of their needs they can give them a better life .
DD and I had eight guinea pigs over a period of eight years . That is a spit in the ocean compared to the number needing homes . But it made the world of difference to those little animals . All were from rescue .

Do you ask "Why do we keep cows/sheep/pigs on farms " ?

GO GIVE THE RABBITS WATER THEY CANT SURVIVE MUCH LONGER WITHOUT IT !!!!!!!!!!! I used to breed rabbits and anyone saying they may have a water bowl is loopy they fill it with hay and sawdust within an hour rendering it completely un drinkable.
Currently have rats and they always chewed the plastic round the spout so water just went all over and leaked out I now use glass bottles with metal round the rim

Update??

You sound really kind. Your neighbours have probably gone away for the weekend. Please give them water and possibly they will need hay or whatever they eat too.

OP noticed on Wednesday that the bottle had been empty for 48 hours so Monday/Sunday ?

If these poor things have had no water and likely no food - they'll have gone through what they had available and eaten their bedding too - then realistically they aren't going to survive .

If the NDN are away they probably had someone lined up to feed/water but for whatever reason this hasn't happened .

We don't know if the OP has let herself in to give them food/water , hopefully she has .

They get gut stasis without a constant trickle feed ( and that leads to organ shutdown)

Rabbits suffer terribly from neglect.
They get fly strike if not cleaned out daily, where flies lay eggs on the faeces and then maggots burrow into the unfortunate rabbit.
They get lonely
They get terrified of foxes and thump all night disturbing neighbours
They hate to be mishandled bu children, and can kick hard and scratch.

Poor Bunnies- They deserve so much better.

An adult often makes a better keeper than a child, and bunnies need space and appropriate companionship ( spayed) neutered.

That's vile.

So vile

Please give them water. Who cares if it pisses the neighbour off.

Which will be full of detritus and excrement - I change my dog’s water bowl at least twice daily to keep it pleasant- a bowl for an animal that kicks will get foul quickly.

Totally this

@genericbrunette is not coming back. She went round with some water and it was all an elaborate ploy by the rabbits. They have put her in the hutch and are now hanging out at OP’s house watching Netflix.

I have a rabbit and he has water in his bottle, in a bowl in his hutch and a bowl in his run. Sometimes the water bottle is empty and I don’t fill it right away because he’s got more. Might just be the case.

I keep bunnies. My neighbours might well think my bun has no water because they don't touch their bottle and prefer to drink from bowls! So mine have bowls dotted around their home/the garden that they drink from. I would fill the water bottle though if I could establish that the neighbours definitely weren't in!

What's happened to the OP? Do you think the rabid rabbits got her??

Excellent post - and thank you for the info on Rabbit Welfare. It breaks my heart to see them neglected.

If the neighbours are away, maybe the rabbits aren't actually there at the moment?

Are you loopy? My 9 and 10 year old house rabbits have had a water bowl since the first one was neutered, and all of the 9 year old’s life and both would look at me totally gone out (and probably dehydrate) if I tried to put their water in a bottle. So it’s perfectly feasible for a rabbit to have a water bowl. Also my rabbits have never even seen sawdust, so that’s hardly a requisite.

But you can tell from the fact they don’t have a bottle on their cage. Given the OP’s neighbour does in fact have a bottle, there will be little harm - and potentially a lot of good - in filling it with water.

Good point - the OP has not been back but states there are a few bunnies ,
The hutch could well be empty and maybe the water bottle emptied so it doesn;t go all green algae ?

Hopefully the rabbits are away in boarding than sitting with no food/water