Finding Forever Homes for Bunnies - A Rant.

katharinewheel

Basically we currently have 9 rabbits. Two of our rabbits had an accidental litter just before Christmas. In our naivity we thought they would have been too young to breed (4 months old) so we had them in together. Our boy was booked in to be neutered the following week. You can imagine our suprise we went to check on them and discovered the baby bunnies. They had a litter of 7 but only 4 girls survived. Daddy bun has been separated from Mammy bun but hasn't been neutered yet (lack of funds mostly) and our other 2 males are also neutered.

My OH and I will be moving to the uk probably sometime before the end of the year. We already have 3 other rabbits, so the litter makes the total number of rabbits we have 9, which is just amoungst other things too much work and expense for us to be able to cope with. And the logistics of moving abroad with 7 rabbits and finding somewhere to rent might not be workable. And even though we would ideally love to keep them all, we aren't really able to give them all as much the one to one attention they deserve. So I've been trying to rehome them as, aside from not being able to give them as much attention as they deserve, we can't really afford to keep them all.

We're currently looking for homes for the baby rabbits and daddy bun.

As it goes, have two homes lined up, one little girl is going to one of my friends as a companion for her (female) rabbit and another is going to someone else who is experienced with rabbits. I looked up the best ways to rehome them with strangers, which i know isn't ideal but we don't know anyone else who'd be willing to take on one of our rabbits and look after her proper. After hearing too many horror stories of people taking cheap/free rabbits/kittens/puppies and neglecting them, using them to blood fighting dogs or FEEDING THEM TO SNAKES! (That one actually made me sick to my stomach.)

I put up some ads and decided to charge for them and make sure that they weren't the cheapest around. This was not to make money off them but to make sure that someone who was looking at taking one of our girls is going to look after her and not make sure she's going to make a meal for some sick fcuk's pet snake. I put in my ads that they would only be allowed to go to experienced rabbit owner or owners, preference given to someone who already owns a bun (neutered male or female) or a small pet. And although its not a fool proof, i thought it might deter people who weren't seriously capable of looking after one of our girls. We not desperate to get "rid of them" and we intend do what's right and to care for them as long as it takes to find them their forever homes. But i honestly don't know if thats enough.

The first thing i do when i get a response from someone is to enter their email into facebook, ok it mightn't be the "right" thing to do but you can't always gauge how someone is over the phone or from an email, but a facebook profile tends to be who they are. And in anycase, I'd rather do that and make sure my animals are safe than just giving them to anyone who throws some cash down and offers to take her.

Today I was contacted by someone saying that they were looking for a bunny as a pet and were all into looking after it. I entered their email into facebook and got a the profile of someone who is dead into snakes, their profile picture is of them holding their snake around their neck, and posts indicating they enjoy watching the snakes torturing the small animals he throws in there. I felt sick.

Obviously the first thing I did was tell to fcuk off, he's not getting one of my rabbits. Whatever small chance there is that he actually wants to love a nuture a rabbit is not going to be gambled against one of my buns' lives.

I'm starting to doubt I'll ever find forever homes for my girls.

Cherry Blossom

Have you contacted any rescue centres so see if they might have homes? They only get small furries in occasionally and sometimes have people waiting for bunnies to come up in rescues.

katharinewheel

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Have you contacted any rescue centres so see if they might have homes? They only get small furries in occasionally and sometimes have people waiting for bunnies to come up in rescues.

Thanks for the reply,

I haven't contacted any rescues as I didn't want to burden a rescue with them as alot of them seem to be struggling with what they have at the moment. But I'll give look up some and give them a ring. Thanks.

Can you (or anyone) reccomend a rescue to contact?

We got one of our little lads from Collon but there wasn't any procedure for making sure he went to a good home basically we signed a piece of paper and handed over €10 and took him away. We could've been anyone who'd have done anything with him and they wouldn't have cared. I suppose its lucky Lars that we love him to bits, but seriously. I don't mean to slate them but I don't like thinking that anyone who hands over a tenner can just walk off with one of them. I'm just worried a rescue wouldn't take a rabbit as seriously as a cat or a dog, I mean alot of vets don't even care about anything that isn't a dog.

SophieSakura

That's awful But thank God you looked them up on Facebook!

Just out of interest, how much were you charging for them? I just want to know because I breed rabbits and I want to know how much people would pay just to feed them to snakes . . . I don't want any of mine being fed to snakes. I charge €20-€30 though (purebred bunnies) so I don't think people would pay that much for snake food, hopefully . . . It's definitely a good idea to put a small price on any animal you're advertising for rehoming, just in case.

Even though snakes need to eat, I think it is so wrong to feed them live prey The rabbit/mouse/or whatever would have no chance to escape, and the snake can even get injured by the prey or get diseases. They can buy frozen mice for the snakes so why not just do that. I couldn't just watch an animals kill another because I put them in there And it's even worse that they'd buy the rabbits from someone who cares about them and thinks they're going to a good home . . .

Cherry Blossom

katharinewheel wrote: »

Thanks for the reply,

I haven't contacted any rescues as I didn't want to burden a rescue with them as alot of them seem to be struggling with what they have at the moment. But I'll give look up some and give them a ring. Thanks.

You can keep them untill homes are found but a 'good' rescue will make sure the homes are suitable, you can offer them a donation for their trouble.

I wouldn't recommend Collon:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056170879

Where abouts are you? You could try DAR - Drogheda Animal Rescue, or any of the smaller Dublin rescues or post it on their facebook pages and you may find someone yourself via that route.

katharinewheel

Hi SophieSakura,

Its horrible is it? I read on another rabbit forum that young kittens (cat kittens not bunny kittens) get the worst of it because of the abundance of them going for free but that rabbits going free or cheap get it next. And that once a snake gets live prey that they won't eat dead prey anymore.

I put the ad up saying €45 (and although mine are PBs too it wouldn've been the same price if they were crosses) purposely because it was higher than most of the other advertised prices. I thought it was a good middle ground between what a pet shop charges and what other people were charging. To be honest if I could make sure that were going to be taken care of them I'd have no problem giving them for free, but there's just absolutely no way to know and at least this way acts as some sort of filter for

I couldn't even begin to imagine what those poor little creatures face being thrown into what they know is certain death, being tortured by a snake, who themselves aren't all that adverse to "playing with their food". Just the thought of them going through that, makes me feel sick to my stomach. I don't know how someone could do that, seeing those poor darlings suffering and screaming. I used to have a rescue rabbit when I was a child and she used to squeek loud and scream sometimes when something scared or startled her (she was especially scared of the tv). Once you hear a rabbit scream it never really leaves you.

I thought that €45 would've been at least somewhat of a deterrant, but apparently not

I really feel for those poor animals in the "free good homes" sections where its clear the current owners don't care at all where they go just so long as they're rid of them. I especially feel for the kittens and rabbits as they're so much more defenceless.

Kadongy

I gave mine to a rabbit-sitter I had used, who had clearly bonded with him a bit and looked after him well. Maybe keep an eye open for bunny-minding services?

katharinewheel

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

You can keep them untill homes are found but a 'good' rescue will make sure the homes are suitable, you can offer them a donation for their trouble.

I wouldn't recommend Collon:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056170879

Where abouts are you? You could try DAR - Drogheda Animal Rescue, or any of the smaller Dublin rescues or post it on their facebook pages and you may find someone yourself via that route.

I remember reading that thread. I also remember when I was there getting Lars that they were trying to sell a surrendered PB long haired Chihuahua for €200 and weren't really interested in couple trying to adopt a collie x pup. We actually went into adopt a kitten that we wouldn't find a kitten in January because are cats don't breed then. Utter rubbish. (We were looking for a kitten because we didn't want to take a risk that an adult cat wouldn't get along with our rabbits).

We saw a saw a soppy holland lop trying to shove his whole face through the bars of a cage and he just stole our hearts .

I live in Drogheda, but wouldn't be adverse to trying rescues in Dublin. Will definately look at giving a DAR a ring. Yeah, we would definately be keeping the rabbits with us until homes are found, I just wouldn't feel right about leaving them with a shelter, even with a donation.

SophieSakura

katharinewheel wrote: »

I put the ad up saying €45 (and although mine are PBs too it wouldn've been the same price if they were crosses) purposely because it was higher than most of the other advertised prices. I thought it was a good middle ground between what a pet shop charges and what other people were charging. To be honest if I could make sure that were going to be taken care of them I'd have no problem giving them for free, but there's just absolutely no way to know and at least this way acts as some sort of filter for
QUOTE]

That's scary that they'd pay that much just to feed them to a snake

Some people just want to feed them live prey for their own entertainment, it's completely sick

Yeah there are always kittens going for free, I guess people just don't even imagine that someone would use them for something like that.

I saw an ad on Donedeal once saying something like "I want any small pet that's free, anything at all, I don't need cages because I have them already". Which sounded really dodgy, I'd say probably someone with a snake or something . . . I mean, who has all the cages for every small animal that exists? I reported it to Donedeal but they say they can't do anything.

Hopefully people like that are in the minority though, I mean there aren't that many snake owners around, and most probably wouldn't pay that much for one meal for a snake let's hope. So hopefully most people who buy them will give them great homes.

Cherry Blossom

guccalli - terriers and smallies don't go together at all. In the past I have had chinchillas, degus, chipmunks, rabbits, guinea pigs. The only way I would keep a rabbit is to give them the run of the entire house, so as much as I would dearly love to have smallies around again, I made a conscious decision when I got my dog that I wasn't going to have any for the next 15 - 20 years. If you think you can be able to manage them then good luck with it, but never the two should meet which is not easily managed with kids around, terriers are bred specifically for the purpose of ripping smallies to shreads, that's the job that was pre-defined for them when man-kind created them. Just a heads up as well if you do decide to go ahead, myxomatosis is one of things they are vaccinated against so make sure your vaccinations are all in order this time.

Kadongy

The DSPCA animal selter in Rathfarnham will look after them as well as they can until they find a suitable person to adopt them.

hdowney

i would love to take one of the precious babies off you (and i am the kind of person who would happily pay what you ask, and would be more than delighted for you to come if you wished an inspect where the baba would be living), but as an earlier poster mentioned terriers don't go well with bunnies and at the moment i have one of them so it would be unfair to both.

i do hope you find loving homes for them though

TooManyDogs

hdowney wrote: »

but as an earlier poster mentioned terriers don't go well with bunnies and at the moment i have one of them so it would be unfair to both.

Terriers can be trained to live with rabbits though, I have 2 terriers among my 6 dogs and 2 rabbits. I personally would never trust any of my dogs enough to leave them alone with the rabbits so they're separated when I'm not there to supervise. One of my terriers particularily loves to wash the rabbits and they end up with bizarre hair styles When they've had enough they get up and leave!

hdowney

my terrier is quite friendly. LOVES my cats, but she does still act the proper terrier and i dunno i don't think i would want to chance it. she is 8, and i think it would be too hard to train her to adapt to the rabbit, we have had cats all her life though

EGAR

I am looking for a female to keep Bugs Bunny company, but I need to have him neutered first (next week).



BTW, if peeps give out about costs of having a dog neutered try pricing castration of a small bunny, I nearly fell of my chair!!! But needs must..:eek:

SophieSakura

EGAR wrote: »

BTW, if peeps give out about costs of having a dog neutered try pricing castration of a small bunny, I nearly fell of my chair!!! But needs must..:eek:

How much is it out of interest?

I think my friend paid €90 to get her rabbit spayed. I wanna get mine spayed in a year or two

katharinewheel

EGAR wrote: »

I am looking for a female to keep Bugs Bunny company, but I need to have him neutered first (next week).



BTW, if peeps give out about costs of having a dog neutered try pricing castration of a small bunny, I nearly fell of my chair!!! But needs must..:eek:

One of my little girls has exactly the same colouring as Bugs there. PM me if you're interested in taking her on. I might be able to meet you half way or something.

SophieSakura wrote: »

How much is it out of interest?

I think my friend paid €90 to get her rabbit spayed. I wanna get mine spayed in a year or two

Yeah, to have our male rabbits neutered we paid €85 for one and €75 for the other (they were done in different vets).

I was quoted €110 for spaying a female but the vet told me he would reccommend that if you want to have a male and a female rabbit in together that just neutering the male would be prefereable as opposed to just to spaying the female or having both neutered and spayed as the spaying was a much more invasive surgury and there was a greater chance of complications. Especially, he said, as rabbits have a greater risk of complications just from the anesthetics. That said I think female rabbits have a high rate of uterine/reproductive issues and spaying is probably best prevention for this.

EGAR

I got several quotes ranging from 70 yoyos to (wait for it...) 150 yoyos for a male!

I will send PM now.

bugsntinas

i we were nearer we'd take 1 or all.we got a rescue bunny"ollie" just over a month ago.he's an indoor bunny and he has full run of downstairs.best of luck.

Sigma Force

Aldi are doing cheap dog crates if you need to seperate the rabbits off in the mean time, just make sure you have them properly sexed before they go to new homes and have the new owners agree to neuter/spay and if they have other rabbits that they are already neutered/spayed. It's difficult to find genuinely good homes for rabbits and it can actually take up to a year to find a home that really knows what they are doing, has access to experience rabbit vets, will keep on top of vaccinations, will keep their rabbits indoors safe from cold/heat/pradators etc.
No matter how good a dog or cat is I would never trust any around a rabbit. But that doesn't mean a responsible dog or cat owner shouldn't have rabbits.

Have you tried the irish rabbit forum and mabey set up your own website.
If you pm me a contact e-mail with photos of the rabbits looking for homes I can put them all up on my website.
http://guineapigcottage.webs.com/

Sigma Force

bugsntinas wrote: »

i we were nearer we'd take 1 or all.we got a rescue bunny"ollie" just over a month ago.he's an indoor bunny and he has full run of downstairs.best of luck.

Rabbits travel pretty well, think the train still allows rabbits on your knee in a carrier.