Tell Me About Rabbits?

Red.Apricot

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#21
My sister and I each had a male rabbit growing up. They had separate cages in the garage, but played together frequently. They were really fun, cuddly pets. I taught them to go through a cardboard maze for a science project one year in elementary school.

With Elsie, though, I'd never be able to have them now, as much as I'd like to.
 

JessLough

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#22
I would love to have a bunny again (Pepper was a mini rex and was awesome), but they are really not a good match with ferrets :( The rabbits can just smell the ferret and can kill itself stressing out.
 

HayleyMarie

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#23
My brother has a rabbit and since the rabbit lives at home with him I get lots of interaction with her. Bun's is a lion head cross mini rex I believe, and she is the biggest Beotch ever! She grunts at you and thumps her foot at you, especially if she gets out of her pen and runs into your room and goes under your bed.

She gets very, VERY grumpy if you don't feed her on time and she attacks dogs, unless its Casey she loves Casey for whatever reason.

But she can be very sweet. She does get excited when you walk by her cage. She follows you around the house when she gets full access to it.

In the summer she mostly stays outside in a round pen during the day and goes inside during the night. She loves to dig so in the summer she digs these huge tunnels and hides in the during the high heat of the day. Then she covers them back up and starts from scratch again.

We also have a cat tunnel for her that she just loves and spends most of her time in when inside. I should add at my place she gets full access to out front entry/hallway, which is quite large.

I should add that I would never, ever own a rabbit for myself. To me they just don't make good pets.
 

Shai

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#25
Shows the body shape and keeps the rabbit in position while they take the picture. "stacked" with eyes covered to hold
 

Kat09Tails

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#28
Shows the body shape and keeps the rabbit in position while they take the picture. "stacked" with eyes covered to hold
^^ spot on. You can train rabbits to hold that pose but it takes time.

Cage size depends on who you talk to. Most commercial breeders/show breeders use fairly small cages - usually for most non full arch or semi arch breeds 2/3rds to 1 sq foot per lb of rabbit. So a 4lb mini rex/holland lop is usually in a 2x2' cage with a 1/2 x 1 inch wire floor. The house rabbit society would encourage as much space as you can with solid floors.

If you plan to show them ARBA yes they have to be intact - they also would need an ear tattoo. You won't need a pedigree to show ARBA.
 

Xandra

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#30
Just out of curiosity, I want to see what a person's arms look like when they're holding a Flemish Giant and it kicks. (not to imply that owning a Flemish Giant wouldn't be awesome but even the little ones can break the skin with their claws).
 

Kat09Tails

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#31
If the rabbit is kicking, you're holding it wrong. Some years I handled thousands of different rabbits of all size, shapes, coat types, etc. The relative number of scratches and bites were pretty low compared to my guinea pigs who always seemed to scratch my wrists when I was picking them up. . Most of my scratches involved trying to clip nails by myself and the couple bites were from pestering a doe or two I should have just left the hell alone.

I had a flemish as a pseudo show/pet for a few years. Albert was a nice rabbit - except for his taste for cotton t shirts. They can suffer from confo problems. I would pay close attention to the structure of the hind legs and watch for cow hocks or rabbits not tracking straight.
 

Romy

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#32
I had a flemish giant house rabbit. She was awesome. She lived in a giant wire dog kennel, was potty trained, and basically roamed free except at night and when nobody was home.

She was unspayed and pretty... feisty. lol. She'd chase our foster dogs and cuss at them. And cuss at us too when it was time to be put up for the night. She never liked being picked up but never scratched me. She was totally my buddy though. She liked coming over to me if I sat down somewhere to read or whatever and just lay next to me on my chair or the couch while I petted her. And every morning we'd split a banana, and eat it next to each other on the couch. She was way more like having a somewhat crabby cat than having a giant bunny.
 

MicksMom

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#33
There seems to be a large variety in sizes when it comes to rabbit hutches/cages. How much space is needed per rabbit?...
As someone has already stated, the size of the cage depends on the size of the rabbit. Shaker's breeder has some pretty good basic rabbit info on her website. If the link doesn't take you right to the page, click on General Care Information on the left. http://www.angelfire.com/nj/triplecreekrabbits/

Shaker's cage was originally 24x24x18 (I think 18" high). A couple of years after we got him, I bought another cage the same size, cut half of the floor out of the original cage, and stacked them.


More times often then not now, I also have an Xpen attached to the front of the cage, too. Really the pen is except when we're going to use the foosball table, which isn't very often.
 

Xandra

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#34
If the rabbit is kicking, you're holding it wrong.
Yeah.. I've heard that before, and it simply isn't true. Maybe because I've had preowned rabbits, but I've had plenty of rabbits being held with full support of fore and hindquarters and they still kick and struggle. I've had rabbits in soft carriers that are fine and then spontaneously scramble/jump out the top. When they want down, they want down.
 

PWCorgi

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#35
I had a flemish giant house rabbit. She was awesome. She lived in a giant wire dog kennel, was potty trained, and basically roamed free except at night and when nobody was home.
There is a girl who works in my company who breeds Flemish Giants. She recently moved into a room for college, and she brought her favorite male along and that is where he stays. A huge dog crate when she is at work or class. He is SUCH a cool guy. :p
 

Shai

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#36
Yeah.. I've heard that before, and it simply isn't true. Maybe because I've had preowned rabbits, but I've had plenty of rabbits being held with full support of fore and hindquarters and they still kick and struggle. I've had rabbits in soft carriers that are fine and then spontaneously scramble/jump out the top. When they want down, they want down.
Are you tucking head and ears? I mean I've had minimally handled pre-owned rabbits before and rarely had any trouble...and for some of those I was 9 years old with 10+ lb rabbits...
 

Xandra

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#37
Usually with the head sort of between my upper arm and body. I'm not saying that I have constant problems... when I was 10-ish I used to carry about 5 or 6 bunnies stacked (no, not a good idea looking back on it) without any problems. But I've certainly had rabbits that were being held properly scramble.
 

joce

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#38
Mine never lived long. One got cancer and another broke a leg throwing itself into the cage because it was scared when our siding got put on. This was all when I was younger. But my step sister got one that my dad got attached to and it lived over ten years. Started as freckles and my dad renamed it buckshot after it survived a dog attack getting half it's leg chewed off and my dad shooting the dog just assuming the bunny was dead. That rabbit had a ton of personality. Came from a pet shop which I don't suggest but lived much longer than mine! Look into the 4-H kids because they are really into breeding good bunnies.
 

Pops2

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#39
missed free easter bunnies by an hour yesterday. in about a week the wave of giveaways should start.
 

Miakoda

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#40
I had a rabbit once. Mr. Velvetears. Yes, that was a play on Mr. Belvedere. :D My brother and his friend won him at the state fair ( :rolleyes: ), and they were planning on cooking this poor little albino thing. I paid them each $10 to give me the rabbit and leave us alone.

He was with me for about 2 years. And they were some good years. :) He was very personable and very snuggly, although he did have his moments with people other than me. Tragically, he escaped his hutch one night at that was the second to last time we saw him. The last time was when I had to clean up white fur out of the dog house at the back of the property. (Oh, those vicious labradors.)

I was at a farm supply last week, and of course they had all the cutsie "Easter bunnies" in a giant pen. Of course I had to stop and bend over to check them out, but what surprised me was how the all rushed to see me and were trying to get to me! I've never seen rabbits that interested in a human before. I wish I could've saved them all, but now is not the time to add a rabbit to my chaos. lol
 

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