My poor pet rabbit

[lisalisa]

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To be honest pets are always unpredictable even if you know them. Some are more cuddly than others - I must admit I have reservations about our cat who is really cuddly one minute and sinking her teeth into you an other. I'm sure rabbits are the same, unfortunately it's down to luck of the draw as to what personality your pet has.
Don't mean to be negative, I just know a lot of people whose animals have mad personalities!!

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I wouldn't necessarily say don't get one from a petshop, actually - it depends on the petshop. We have had some nice gentle pets from ours, in fact the last rabbit we had - a dwarf grey female - was practically catatonic, we thought she was a bit simple actually but she was very sweet - she would have sat in someone's lap all day!

But maybe you could spread the word around locally, rabbits are always having more rabbits as you know, you might find someone with babies from a gentle mother.

hi lisalisa

I will swap yours for ours. After loads of attempts to put our dear little bunny back in his hutch, we now allow him to live in the garden, he is an escape artist. Although....

I have never met a bunny as vicious as ours... I cannot even put the washing out without him running over and attacking my ankles. The cats dart from the back door to the highest place they can find or the rabbit attacks them.

When he lived in his hutch it was a matter of throw the food in and whip your hand out quick.

Must admit since being allowed to live in the garden he will let you fuss him now. He even rolls over when you tickle behind his ears, so we haven't quite given up on him yet. We are thinking of taking him to have his bits chopped to see if that calms him down.

I have heard they are quite territorial animals tho.

I would recommend a guinea pig, they are lovely, bit timid at first but nice to handle once they are used to you but get two together as they like company.

any more bunny stories?????

Rabbits are unpredictable but don't really like cuddles. In my experience they prefer to be unrestrained. Have you tried putting him in a run, sitting in there with him and letting him approach you - or do it in the house, but close doors etc. They take their time to get used to you so keep trying.

Do they definately want a rabbit? I've never thought they were that suitable for young children who just want something to stroke. It is very easy to get scratched even by a gentle one as their back legs are so powerful and tend to kick up if they jump away from you. We had all kinds of rabbits as kids but one in particular was very vicious and would even attack dogs.

I always think guinea pigs have cuter personalities and don't do that painful scrabbling up over your shoulder thing when they get frightened. Also they rarely bite once they are used to being handled.

BUT, if you still want a rabbit, all the dutch ones I have known have been very gentle. My friend has one now and her three young boys can do anything with it.

I am sorry lisalisa. I think I may have written on your previous thead. Unfortunately, this is not unusual, although you think it is at the time. I would probably opt for a guinea pig next time. I wouldn't risk breaking your childrens hearts again if you had another similar.
I love rabbits but in my experience most of them aren't cuddly.

I had my pet rabbit for ever. She was gorgeous, totally teddybear-like, and we would sit for hours together. Snowy (we're all for originality in our house) was my best friend. She lived in her hutch at nighttime and free in the garden during the day until our lawn collapsed because she had dug so many burrows underneath it. My dad was MAD! She often came into the house, and stretched out in front of the tv with us. I thought this was normal rabbit behaviour.

Ours isn't cuddly either. Rabbits are incredibly nervous creatures and tend to panic when picked up and handled often resulting in a nasty scratch as I've found out more than once - those hind legs are very strong. We have had ours 'done' and it has calmed him down to a point - he doesn't kick the hutch door at night until it breaks any more! We've made a big pen for him to give him space to scamper about and he'll sometimes let us pet him if we go in there, but it's very much on his terms and he still hates being picked up.
Guinea pigs are meant to be much better as pets and like being handled and stroked once they're used to it, though we've never had one.
Having just adopted Blossom2's two cats, I can honestly say they make great pets and just love to be petted. Even the shyer one is coming round now and beginning to trust the children enough to come to them for affection!

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Are male rabbits meant to be more aggressive? We had 4 and the last one lived about 10 yers . Sounds the same as northstar's - lived in teh garden, came into the conservatory at night, never her hutch. Used to sit on an old jumper in a seed tray on the windowsill just looking out at teh garden. Also used to come into the living room and stretch in front of the fire. Very cuddly. My dad used to take her for 'walks'. She used to have phantom pregnancies and make little nests - so sad.

Lisalisa - guinea pigs are gorgeous, fat and cuddly not at all mouse-like (more rat like I suppose), very friendly and not at all prone to biting. I had guinea pigs as a child and they were lovely. Having had two rabbits since, one which you could cuddle and hold, and the other that was the rabbit from hell, I would certainly advise you to get guinea pigs instead. They would be OK to use the hutch you've got for the rabbit.

If you spent £90 on a hutch a guinea pig would think you are putting him up in a hotel!!!

oh and by the way - the rabbit from hell got its comeuppance. it wouldn't go in it's hutch one night because it had the run of the garden and there was plenty of food around - however, it wasn't around one morning but I found the remains of its' body in the corner of the garden I never told the boys, just that it had died naturally.

Hey dogwalker - I sadly have a very similar experience. A nighbour saw a fox making off over the wall with him in it's mouth. I was distraught!

our most evil rabbit was female (but funnily enough I loved her the most and was heartbroken when she went)She bit right through my thumbnail once and every year when we went on holiday we had to find a different friend to look after her as no-one would have her twice!

Our present guinea pig is definately not skinny and wriggly but is a gorgeous cuddly bundle of fur. Actually he's easily as big as the dwarf rabbits we once had. He's a rex (which grow fairly big)and is not at all 'piggy' except for his big fat belly! I fell in love with him as soon as I saw his curly whiskers.

I am sorry but I am gobsmacked that you all treat your pets with complete disregard. I think that before you consider taking on any pet you should look into it thoroughly. Rabbits are not the cute, cuddly bunsters that pet shops like us to think they are. They are very intelligent and active creatures. Of course they can be cuddly, but often they would rather be stroked whist on the ground that plonked onto a child's lap to be squeezed. A rabbit can be territorial, especially a female, and will often bite and scratch if you stick your hand in their domain. Also, rabbits get very hormonal and, at around, five months a male will attack ankles or start to spray urine a female will start to get very cranky whilst in season.
If you really want another rabbit, and are prepared to feed it properly, ensure it gets lots of attention and activity (otherwise consider getting two) then I would recommend that you go to a rescue centre that has a neutering policy. This way, if the rabbit has already gone through puberty and has been neutered you can see what their personality is really like and whether this is the rabbit for you.

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Sorry, my message may have been a bit strong but I got the impression from some of the other posters plus yourself that they seemed almost happy that their pet had been carted off by Mr Fox.
I am not saying that this is the situation in your case but I have a friend who runs a rabbit rescue and she regularly gets rabbits handed in by people who have had a baby bun to cuddle (often around Easter) at the as soon as they hit six months when hormones kick in and the novelty of cleaning them out has worn off they then get passed over to a rescue centre.
My comments re. feeding, exercise etc were a general comment.

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Rabbits are not recommended as pets for young children - think the given age is something like 8 upwards. That said, some rabbits are sweeties, especially if you keep them in the house!

agree that guinea pigs are more suitable for small children than rabbits. but if you are set on a rabbit, go to your local pet rescue centre - they have millions of rabbits, and you will be able to choose a mature one (18mths or so) whose personality is already developed, whose sex is already known, and which you can properly judge for yourself if it is happy with the sort of handling you are likely to give it. And I'd always get two, not one (they need company) and at a rescue you can get a (neutered or female/female) pair that have always been together. If not this week, next week. They have many mopre rabbits coming in than they know what to do with.
Also you need a run (not just let them trot around the garden) which ideally is chickenwired all the way underneath the turf as, funnily enough, rabbits are very good at digging and will escape otherwise!!

lisalisa, like you I am afraid I am also offended by the 'jackbooting' tone taken by Jaybee. I have been careful to avoid the nasty stuff that has been flying around this site.
I am however hacked of because this was a nice friendly useful thread. Jaybee completely misunderstood the tone of this thread and obviously, the posters. This kind of preaching just annoys people and goes no way towards encouraging any well-meaning person on rabbit husbandry. Jaybees comments leave me in no doubt that she/he knows all about rabbits. I feel that this could have been out an awful lot more tactfully, especially if anyone was meant to take notice!!!

I would just like to add, our bunny is cared for to a very high standard. Since we have trained him, like I said he comes over now for a fuss.

Are we allowed to make jokes on this site? I think we sometimes need to have a laugh to cheer us mums up.

Our bunny has a very high quality mix from our local. I also took in benji as a rescue rabbit so knew what I was taking on at the time. He just makes us laugh the way he is when most expect rabbits to be cute cuddly bundles of fuss.

Our animals are treated well and if they are not friendly when we take them on, they usually are within a short space of time. Benji has just taken a little longer but with lots of effort and hard work on our part he is starting to trust us. He came from an awful background where he was mistreated so it is expected to have problems along the way.

Hello to all you bunny mummies