Getting rabbits in the summer, which combo is best two females/ two makes, one of each but one done, and where's best to buy a hutch?

[sweetkitty]

So DD3 is bunny mad and the other want a bunny too so were thinking if getting two in the Summer for her birthday.

I had rabbits growing up but last one was when I was 15 a long time ago. I want to get two for company and the last thing I want is s sad wee bunny left in a hutch at the end of the garden ignored. I am aware ill be looking after them as well.

So which combination is best, my friend got two females from a breeder one turned out to be a male and had to be castrated but the female gets frustrated and keeps humping the poor male. I remember my female rabbits having false pregnancies as well.

So two females? Two castrated boys? One of each with the male castrated?

Also hutches, where's best to buy? My dad used to make mine.

Am thinking of Dutch or maybe a small
Lop breed. oh are breeders best?

male/female partnership is best for long term success. Both should be neutered, as unspayed females are almost guaranteed to get uterine cancers. Best place to go to is a rabbit rescue, there are thousands of rabbits in rescue. Rescues already health check (many rabbits have issues with teeth for example) neuter and vaccinate their rabbits and they will come to you healthy and bonded. Many rescues have lots and lots of young rabbits. Best place to look is WWW.RABBITREHOME.CO.UK which will have details of a rescue in your area.
Hutch you will need min 6ftx2ftx2ft hutch with attached run min 6ftx4ftx2ft. Cheapest and best from a local carpenter. A shed or playhouse will work out cheap too and you and the children can spend time with the rabbits in the shed. Or keep them as house rabbits if you have the space and are willing to rabbit proof a little.

We have two half-sisters and they have a love-hate relationship. The dominant one chases the subservient one round the hutch, but then they spend a lot of time licking each other as well. Neither of them are spayed as our vet refuses to do it - we're in Germany and he swears that the obsession with uterine cancer is an Anglo-American thing and simply isn't true. By the time most rabbits are likely to get uterine cancer they're at the end of their natural lifespans anyway. Our two are now nearly 6yo apiece and perfectly healthy - they went for a check-up/innoculation recently. And spaying a dwarf rabbit is not a straightforward operation!

We have a two-storey hutch to give them extra space, and they can run around in the garden in summer and in the living room in winter. They're outrageously quick at nibbling cables - their record for a mobile charger was 30 minutes after it arrived in the house, bitten straight through. We've bought plastic cable protectors for all the cables in that room now.

Thanks will have a look at rabbit rescue. I just don't want to have that sad little bunny at the bottom of the garden stuck on its own in a tiny hutch.

Funny what you say about does and uterine cancers we always had does growing up which we bred 2-3 times during their life, never had one with cancer most died of old age.

Stats are 80-85% unspayed Does develop uterine cancer by 4-5 years of age. Study of house rabbits in the 40's I believe. In the wild they don't live as long due to other causes. Spaying is also beneficial for other reasons, for example spayed rabbits are less hormonal and less likely to fall out with their partner.

Also, a rabbit savvy vet has spayed lots of rabbits, usually a rescue will use the same vet for everything. incidence of risk is low these days, all my dwarf females inc tiny nethies have been spayed at 5 months of age without any issues.

I didn't know that interesting. Maybe a boy and girl both neutered/ spayed might be the most harmonious combination.

I am really interested to read your posts Sweetkitty, as I didn't know about females and uterine cancer.

We had a male and a female and got him neutered, but not her. Our vet advised us that this would be OK and didn't suggest getting her done too.

We recently had her pts because she was full of tumours .

I now wonder if we could have prevented this by getting her spayed. My only consolation is that she was perfectly fine - lively and friendly until the morning she died.

I meant bunnyspoiler, sorry.

I would advise a male/female pair, both neutered. I also recommend getting them from a rescue centre as they'll health check them and bond the two rabbits before you go home.

I had a single neutered female house rabbit from a rescue. She was fab, but really needed more attention than I could give her, so I took her to a rescue, picked out several boys I liked and left the lady to it. She introduced one boy, who my girlie attacked quite badly , but the second introduction was love at first sight. It is great to watch them together, and although they're affectionate towards me too, it reassures me to know that on days I can't spend any time with them beyond and watering, they really don't miss me because they have each other.

Look on Rabbit Rehome as linked to above. It's daft to buy a unneutered baby rabbit from a breeder when you can get a health checked, neutered rabbit from a rescue and have the rescue owner advise on each bunny's temperament and help with binding.

I hope your family enjoy rabbit keeping

I rehomed three girls earlier in the year. Same sort of situation as you - kept rabbits as a teen and now wanted them for my child. I have three mini lops, there are pics on my profile. Two are sisters, the black one is from a different litter. They get on pretty well, occasional chasing or humping but always cuddle up together at night.

Agree male/female is best combo, and def try a rescue pair. There are plenty of young rabbits needing homes and they will already be bonded, vacc and spayed/neutered for you. Please don't go to a breeder. Also avoid Pets at home. They have started selling VIP rabbits that are vacc and neutered but it appears it is done at 4-5 weeks which seems a highly dubious procedure.

Also, rabbits are NOT cheap pets. I pay £40 a month for mine just to cover vets bills. £20 is for Insurance, as bills can go into £100s for status (gut) issues. £20 is for a care plan with the vets that covers vacc, worming, flystrike and regular check ups.

Food and bedding, litter, is on top of that - diet should be 90% hay with a egg cup of pellets per rabbit and an optional small amount of fresh food. Mine have a large hutch with a small attached run, but they free range in the garden, so mostly eat grass. This however is a bit controversial as they are at risk from predators, but I want them to have the freedom.

Temperament-wise, most rabbits do NOT like being picked up, and rarely like cuddles. They are a prey animal so it goes against their instincts. Mine like nose rubs, but generally they do their own thing. They will come up for food then go off again! You would have to teach your dd to enjoy watching rather than touching. My boys were def disappointed that they weren't the cuddly pets they imagined but are now beginning to appreciate them for who they are. They finally realised that they did really have to sit still for 10 minutes or more and let the rabbits come to them. My boys are 7 tho, and you may find it a bit hard to explain this to a 3 year old. My 11 year old has probably had the most success with them, having more time and patience than anyone else, and they will jump on her.

Thanks for all the advice definitely want to go into it eyes open. I had rabbits from 6 to 16 remember bring traumatised when they were pts.

DS is only two so probably best he just stays away from them I think the girls will be fine with them.

Another thing that worries me is foxes, there's quite a few around here and have been sitting having dinner and is one is watching me from my garden. If the rabbits were locked in a hutch surrounded by their run so in effect two barriers that would be ok wouldn't it??? I know what foxes are like.

If you know you have foxes visiting your garden, is keeping rabbits the best idea? Rabbits can die from shock simply at the sight of a predator.

You can't count on the rabbit seeing a fox to run to a hutch, so the idea of two barriers isn't going to work. A rabbit that is panicked tends to either freeze to play dead, or run about blindly. Before mine were free-ranging, I saw one of mine bolt around her big grass run smashing her face into the the sides because something panicked her. I thought she was going to kill herself.

You could consider a house rabbit? House rabbits can be kept singly or in pairs. Rabbits can be litter trained, you just need to make sure that you have a safe space free of wires, etc. Kitchens are quite easy to rabbit proof. A rescue would be able to pair you with a suitable house rabbit, not all rabbits are chewers.

If you do want to get outdoor bunnies, I'd look into getting a playhouse or small shed for them to live in. It would be more secure, you can add in levels to give buns more space, it is easier to clean and the kids can sit in there with them on a wet day. Foxes can open some catches - you would need proper bolts on all doors, either way. You could then attach a fox proof wire run, with a roof and also a wire floor to prevent fox digging them out.

We're going to try and fox proof the garden as much as we can. I think the shed is a good idea we could put an indoor hutch in it for them to hide away in then they can have the floor to run around in. Am definitely locking them in at night.

A hutch inside a shed would be fab. You can't really fox proof a garden though, they can easily scale 6 foot fences or dig under. We're quite lucky in that our garden is backed onto by lots of other gardens so mr fox would have to scale rather a lot of fences and so is more unlikely to put in an appearance. Our biggest worries are birds of prey and cats.

If you look on rabbits united there are some great housing ideas on there if you do go down the shed route.

I have a 14 month old male and a 30 month old female.

The female was given to us free by a breeder as she would not breed (and therefore was of no value).

The male was a rescue bun.

They live very happily together despite being different ages and breeds .

I was abit shocked at how large the scar was when we had her neutered. I don't think I could face doing that to another rabbit so from now on it will have to be males for us. He barely noticed the loss of his but did calm down a lot afterwards.

Until they were neutered they had separate hutches and separate runs and we kept them seprate until we were sure they had bonded. They were then moved to a new double-decker hutch together and took to it straight away. She has her special spot in the hutch and he tucks himself around her.

Each moring I open the hutch so they have the run of the garden but strangely like to run straight into their run for a snoop about. In the evening, as soon as they hear the food going into their hutch It may be that my cat is just a bit cowardly although I've noticed that other cats no longer come into the garden. They are quite big rabbits though.

I love my bunnies.