Why does my rabbit hate me? :(

[Melly19MummyToBe]

So I have a rabbit, I rescued her off my aunties friend August last year, she was living in a downstairs loo! The friend had loads of animals and just didn't have the time for the rabbit. Everything was fine for a couple of weeks until I went to the hutch to find a massive pool of blood on the ground underneath her toilet corner. I took her to the vets who said it was a urinary tract infection and gave me some antibiotics. I had to use a syringe to give her the meds twice a day, and it cleared up and she was fine. A bit wary of me after that but still friendly enough. These past few months though she has been absolutely petrified of me, and I don't know why! I get her out every day to put her in the run and everytime I go to get her out she huddles in the corner trembling with her ears half hiding her face and her eyes are all big and scared looking. She also makes this funny squeaking noise sometimes when I stroke her. It also takes me a while to catch her to put her back in the hutch as she just runs to the opposite end of the run to where I am. I'm really worried as I'm due to give birth in about 5 weeks time, and I want her to be a sociable and friendly rabbit when the baby is big enough to pet her. She only 18 months old so plenty of life ahead of her yet. I just don't understand what's wrong with her or me :(

Right, I've just copied this from their facebook page, what does it say to you regarding fees?
"All our potential new owners must pass a home visit and must have a fully secure garden with minimum 5ft fenceing. We alos ask a donation for all our dogs and for a standard x-breed it is £150. We do ask more for pedigrees and this varies by rariety of the breed. All our dogs come fully vaccinated, neutered, chipped and wormed up to date."
I don't get it, does it mean you don't have to pay anything to get a cat or rabbit? that seems highly unlikely to me to be honest.

Still no reply from them. Going to ring them soon.

They seem rather half-arsed to me if I'm honest.

Often the charge for a rabbit is £20 or so. It may be more if it is vaccinated, which a repsonsible rescue centre would have done by now.

I have to admit I am a bit about their lack of response. You have allowed for it being busy at the weekend and possibly shut on a Monday and still no response.

I would certainly phone them tomorrow so you know where you stand and can look elsewhere if they are not interested in helping you.

What area are you in? Maybe someone on Mumsnet can recommend another rescue centre close to hand.

I'm officially in Lincolnshire but right next to North Lincs, Nottinghamshire and fairly close to South Yorkshire. So wide range of areas really. I've been chatting to my friend who used to work there and she says there's usually 3 people in the office!! Not sure if that's all at once though. Definately going to phone tomorrow. And I know their computer system isn't down because someone has been updating their facebook page!

That is really strange. Let us know how you get on once you have phoned them. Good luck!

Any progress with the rescue centre?

Tried ringing them yesterday and got answering machine, tried again today about 5 minutes ago, answering machine. Will try again in a bit. I'm hoping they've been just a bit busy when I've rung.

I am a bit at how difficult they are to get in touch with. How can they hope to rehome any animals if they never answer the phone?

Does their website tell you what animals are available for rehoming?

What do they do if you just turn up? Or is it a big journey away?

Well, yes and no. There are pictures of animals up for rehoming, but they're not upto date at all. I was looking through the dogs, and then I looked at their facebook page at rehomed dogs and a few of the ones that were up for rehoming were already rehomed! I would write to them on facebook but you can't private message them, only write on the wall. I'm really peed off aswell because it was a mega long email that I sent them! Gah

It is very, very odd. Can you write on their wall on fb saying you have sent an email but not heard anything? That might get them moving!

Good thinking. I've just done it, I put
"Hi I emailed you regarding rehoming a rabbit, a week ago, and also yesterday. I was just wondering if anyone was actually going to reply any time soon?"
Hopefully that gets their attention.

Well it seems facebook is the way forward as far as communication is concerned! Maybe when I go into labour I'll do better to write on the wall for the labour ward at the hospital to let them know I'm coming in instead of ringing them
Had a reply back within half an hour. I've been told to ring around 1pm monday when Penny (the rabbit woman) is around. I have another slight problem now, Oreo desperately needs her nails clipping. I've been advised not to handle her too much and I think taking her to get them clipped is going to traumatise her for life. WTF do I do now!?!

Can you put her run on a patio/paved area? That helps wear them down when ours need their nails clipped. Ours go on a paved area at night and in very wet weather and on the grass when the weather is good. Their nails seem to be fine.

Our guinea pigs had very long nails after the winter, when they were in indoor hutches all the time, but they are wearing down now they are on the grass.

Good luck on the phone on Monday - let us know what happens.

Yes I will have to do that. I'll ask DP to help me move it tomorrow morning. I'd love to be able to just let her roam around the whole garden as she pleases but there's a gap in the fence where she could get into next door, but there's also a lot of cats in our area, and I don't think DP would be very impressed if she went and ate all the young carrots out of his veg patch either :o

Right, I spoke to the rabbit woman earlier, £25 donation fee, neutered, vacced and wormed. And they come and homecheck just to make sure you have the right facilities to home another rabbit. I need to get another hutch, found one on ebay, in my town, no bidders and it's at 99p :o Just need to persuade DP that it's a fantastic idea!

Finally!!! That all sounds perfect. Did they say anything about helping to bond them?

No she just said it was a 'risky business' trying to bond a female as they can be very territorial and sometimes won't ever bond with another rabbit. She was well snotty when I first said I wanted to rehome a rabbit, she just said "Yes well I'm sorry but we have no room" although she went a bit nicer when I explained I actually wanted to get a rabbit and not get rid of one.

Oh dear! In her defense I think people who work in rescue centres do have to deal with some of the "lows" in society sometimes. Some people rehome because they are desperate and are heartbroken but some rehome because they don't care. Worse still, some don't rehome and just treat their animals really, really badly.

Oh I know it's terrible when people don't bother to rehome. The dogs trust and RSPCA adverts always make me cry when they show the animals that have been abandoned and it's raining or cold.

I think I'm going to have to wait a few weeks to get a rabbit now, I think I've left it too late, the baby is due in just over 2 weeks and everyone is convinced she's gonna come early. So as soon as we've recovered from the shock of having a baby to deal with we're gonna go find a bunny!

I would agree. You don't really want to be mucking about with angry rabbits when you have a new baby to enjoy.