Might be getting a bunny

Been considering it,not for a couple of months atleast. There are some other things I need to pay for for Buster first and I actually want a source of income first.
Plus it does depend on if I can be bothered putting in the effort to get Buster semi-safe when supervised with it. It took 4-6 months to get him good with Elliot so I'd expect about the same or longer with a rabbit, but I think it can be done and if not I can keep seperated.

I'm looking at taking on 6 months of full time study starting next year (3rd time lucky to finish highschool) so I'll hopefully be home a lot doing it from here.

I've been doing a bit of research but I've got a few questions.

Whats the personality difference between males and females?
How affectionate is the average rabbit?
How much time minimum per day would you say I need for one on one time with my bunny?

Anything else I should know?

I want a house bunny, most likley an adult or elderly rescue thats already toilet trained. I love Dutches but I think I will just wait for the right one to come up.

I have not really noticed to much of a difference in male and female rabbits. you need to spay and nueter them, the reason is that if you dont, their litter box habbits can get pretty horrible, and they can get aggressive. also %80 of unspayed female rabbits die of cancer. I know out of my two rabbits my male is more laid back, lazy, and affectionate.

my female rabbit just likes a little bit of petting and she is done with you! My male is very very sweet and wants to be with you all of the time. He sits on the couch with me for pettings and if I stop he will nudge me to demand me to pet him! So he is very sweet.

Rabbits are highly social, and I recommend that you get two of them. If not you should be with your bunny as much as possible. If you get a pair then I think an hour a day is fine. If you have a lone rabbit it is recommended to hang out with you all day. Since you have buster I dont see you hanging out with a bunny all day. As far as Buster and the rabbit, I cannot help you there. both of my dogs are just naturally gentle and have always been great with the rabbit. Both of my rabbits use a litter box and have free run of the house when we are home. Its a very common sight to see my cat, two dogs, and the two rabbits all laying together on the kitchen floor.

here are some links that will help you get started.

the BEST link ever. read away!
House Rabbit Society Rabbit Care Guide

Discussion groups
Rabbits Online Forum
Fuzzy-Rabbit.com :: Index
Rabbit Chat

Millions of rabbits end up in shelters. So think adoption.

My exboyfriend has a little troop of rabbits.


he stumbled into rabbit ownership a month or so after easier when people started giving the bunnies they had gotten back to petstores. they were talking about euthanizing because they had so many, so he took the oldest ones (pictures above)

We thought we knew what to do, we got a cage and some food. and it was horrible.. they poop every 10 seconds, fought sometimes, didn't want to be picked up. it was awful

but then we did our research lol got an ex-pen, got them spayed/neutered, got litterbox, and now they are a happy healthy lil group. they are much like cats I guess.. they aren't very cuddly but they do like freedom, he lets them out into the backyard every day to play while he does HW and then takes them in when hes not there. they will hop to you for a treat or hop on your lap occasionally but madison, the white girl does NOT TOLERATE any kind of human nonsense, she will take a treat but pick her up and she'll kick your ass lol

the little black and white one, the only boy however is much more laid back and cuddly. he loves cookies and for a cookie.. he will do anything lol including being held and sitting on laps

my BF took the responsibility and dealt with it. these what he thought "cheap pets" ended up costing him around $300 each to be spayed/neutered. plus more for their supplies.

but once he got litter training done, it got much much easier. it was easy to keep them inside and they are quite clean animals, much like having cats except they aren't allowed to just roam the house because they love to chew lol and of course, they are more expensive upkeep then a cat. with food and toys and such

the x-pen has 2 litterboxes, some food dishes for regular rabbit pellets, a plate of fruit veggies everyday, and some chew toys.

the bottom of it is lined with this kind of thing..


works great for us! its colorful, easy to clean, he just takes it out and hoses it down once every week.


hope it works out for you!

Thanks guys.
I'm nervous about taking on more than one just because we used to have 2, both were undesexed females though and they fought madly. I probably don't have the room to seperate into 2 hutches if I needed to. I might try to find an already bonded pair in rescue.

my friend adopted her bunny from best friends

Best Friends Animal Society Home Page

they are located in utah but adopt out all over the US and have a wide selection of bunnies including pictures and personalities. many have bonded pairts

I remember something about rabbit keeping illegal in one state... I dunno if that's still an issue?

Definately go to a rescue and get a couple. Rabbits like other rabbits, but they can be fiesty so its' best if they're already coupled. A male and female pair works nicely (fixed of course).

I have a mini-colony of bunnies and notice that the a females really pair off with a male. I've had a lot of bunnies and they always seem to group together in m/f pairs.

I like both sexes. Females tend can be bitchy and growly and I've never had this problem with male rabbits. But I like the bitchy growly ones I think they're funny

I've had bunnies that tolerated being held. All of mine expect for the new one stay perfectly calm and I can turn them on their backs and hold them in awkward positions and everything and they never kick. They like being rubbed just above the nose, but only if you're very "polite" and gentle and only for a little while, then they get offended. They'll come up for pets for a little attention but they aren't like cats or dogs or cockatoos.

They aren't cheap. Feeding is cheap but God forbid they need vet care, you need to go to an "exotic" vet which usually costs more. Well, you could take your chances with a regular vet but that's probably not the best route.

Cleaning the litterbox, depending on your set up will take 5 minutes a day or so. You're not supposed to use clumping litter incase they eat it, so it's up to you to decide if you want to take that risk. I've always used wood stove pellets (don't know if they'd sell those in Australia!). They don't clump but they absorb really well. The thing with rabbit crap is it's a bunch of tiny little balls, so you can't scoop it like cat crap. You pretty much gotta dump the whole box everytime. On the plus side, only the pee smells, the poop isn't smelly.

Feeding can be dumping out some hay and pellets (<30 seconds) or can be selecting from an array of fresh veggies (I love this part).

You'll need a quick clean up of extra hay (hay in the house SUCKS) that'll take maybe 2-3 minutes.

They should get a few hours a day out of a cage. Will they die if they don't get it, no, will they act like a dog or cat that wants out, most don't, they'll just sit there. But they appreciate getting out. Hopefully you can bunny proof a room so they can be out 24/7 and then you can give them run of the house whenever you feel like it, but it would be "auxillary" so you wouldn't feel guilty if you missed a day.

As far as attention, some rabbits like attention but again, I've never known one that is going to suffer if you ignore it. Especially if you have two, I highly doubt they'll care lol. Give them some cardboard boxes and a stack of newspaper to tear apart, food and water, new things to explore and they're good lol. They do have a somewhat mischevious side (if they get bored), I know a couple of mine would start destroying something and then I would chase them away and they'd do it again, and so forth, and they when I gave a little more chase they'd do a happy dance lol. Rabbits like to destroy your stuff, get used to it.

My personal opinion is if you want an affectionate creature, a real "pet" you get a cat or a dog. Cats are awesome pets. They are so passionate. And so cheap and so low maintainence. Don't know if you've considered a cat but they are super cool animals.

I like my rabbits alot better than my cat. my rabbits do not attack me!

Lol get another cat.

I miss having a cat so badly, I suppose I would consider one still but havn't talked to my dad about that. Plus the effort that it takes Buster to be safe with a new one is huge. It took 4 months of work everyday to get him safe with the very cool-calm Siamese rescue and that was after he lived with anothr cat his entire life. Plus I'll likley be moving out again about the middle of next year and was thinking rabbit might be easier to get a house with but I guess I'm not sure.

I've always loved bunnies but I was browsing the other day and saw this guy and bought it up with my dad. I feel so bad for the poor little guy.

Its Queensland that rabbits are illegal, my mum still lives there and I wasn't going to get one incase I had to move back with her. She's moved house now and basically told me the other day that I can't come back with Buster anyway, the situation would be wayy to difficult and I never liked living in Qld anyway.
I dopn't know if I should wait till I have more room. I know my dad isn't really much of an animal person and I don't want to ask too much of him. He's already letting my dog be here and live in the house, I was surprised he semed so fine wiht the idea of a rabbit, but the hutch would have to be in my room so it couldn't be that big. Maybe I'd be better off waiting till I had my own place and room to set up a bunny room.

yes, it does sound like you might be better off waiting. Rabbits are more work than people think. the idea that Buster wouldnt like a bunny is what worries me. a lone bunny needs to be out and about hanging out with you most of the time. not in a cage

i 2nd this. from experience. people expect rabbits to be more like hamsters.. but really they are harder than cats to care for, in my experience, harder than dogs! lol my friends 3 bunnies above are very lucky because we went through HELL to learn how to care for them right lol expensive stuff, expensive vets, litter training so they could have a better environment.. it was such a mess.

the pros? they are adorable animals. once you get through all the crap.. like litterbox training and spaying/neutering. they are quite special inquisitive animals.

my friend tho has a senile old beagle who doesn't care about the rabbits. plus, there are 3 of them so they do a very good job at entertaining eachother. if he had a dog that didn't like rabbits, having them would be impossible. to a young dog, rabbits are just too hard to ignore. they run around really fast, they are soft, they have no real defense against a dog. and all it takes is a second, even of the dog didn't even wanna harm the bunny

if he got someone to clean the enclosure and give them food/water everyday, they probably wouldn't even notice him missing lol as far as affection/care wise.


The enclosure he has for them is simple really. a bunch of litterboxes, 2 cat carriers, some carboard boxes, toys, food dishes, hay, some fruits and veggis.
and the whole thing is 2 expens connected together.

Hmm...
If you bunny-proofed your room that would work, but depending on the rabbit you'd have to put up anything you really cared about (usually it's just a nibble but I've had the entire covers eaten off novels lol). That poor bunny that you found wouldn't be the best candidate for a carpeted floor though, something to keep in mind.

If you were to get him you could cage him and just be sure to put him out on the lawn in an X-pen (like that have for puppies) for some grazing and playtime. You could also set up an x-pen on one of those plastic mats they have for office chairs. He's old and looks mellow and after getting out for a bit (he'll probably just hop around and graze if he can) you could probably take him inside and keep him on your lap on a towel while you watch TV. I would guess he's the type that would be neurotically trying to jump down or eat the towel, but it's just a guess. Maybe instead of adopting him you could just foster him?

I obviously can't speak for your dog but my dogs have always treated rabbits differently than cats. Rabbits act like they're meant to be eaten by dogs because... they are meant to be eaten by dogs. What I mean is they are prey animals and they start easier, and have those jerkier movements that seem to trigger a dog. Does that make sense? I mean when you watch a cat they're sort of smooth, a rabbit "hippity hops" and their heads kind of twitch around.

Good luck!!!

my whole house is rabbit proofed. it is hard to rabbit proof though. they will eat books, cords, and some even base boards and table legs.

lol my last rabbit pretty much destroyed my bed cover. She loved getting in and digging around in it all so after a while I figured I'd just let her go.
I know what you mean Xandra, there are a lot of feral rabbits around here, we see them everyday when we're out walking and Buster is just so switched onto them. He's only been here 3 days and he already knows the places he's most likley to find them.
I'll wait till I can atlest set aside a room for a couple. Last time I had rabbits it blew me out how much care they needed, I wasn't prepared for it and my rabbit probably didn't have the best life she could have. I don't want to make the same mistake again.

You got that right..lol I can't even remember ALL my stuff my rabbit ate!! He was a little brat..lol PS2 cords, Phone Cords!..CLOTHES!!

He did LOVE my other pets (both dog and cat)

I had about 3 in my whole life and I have to say all 3 were VERY different!!

My ethernet cable was massacred in seconds. It was the rabbit's first time in that room and she'd been there for about 5 minutes. You'd think she'd hop around first, but no, she went right over and ate my ethernet cable.

That same rabbit stripped the bathroom of wallpaper like bark off a tree.

I've found rats worse on clothes than rabbits. Mine used to be in my room and they'd pull any sort of material through their enormous cage and make a nest out of it.

Keeping them outside is a breeze but keeping them inside is much more intensive than cat or dog keeping (generalization).

...and now you've got me looking at cats. lol.