Multiple house bunnies

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afaubl

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Hi,
I almost hate posting this because I'm worried people will chastise me. My issue is that I have 9 house bunnies and I love them all dearly, but I am overwhelmed. Sometimes I think about rehoming some, but I'm concerned about finding good homes. My daughter's hamster came from the pet store pregnant. We had to find homes for the baby hamsters. Two went to live with a co-worker of my sisters. Well, the hamsters got loose in her house and she never found them. That kind of.negligence makes me sick. So,when I think about rehoming any of my bunnies I get worried. Plus how would I choose? If any any of your have lots of.bunmies like me, what is your cleaning routine? How much out of cage time do they get and how much one on one time with you? All but one is spayed or neutered. He is still too young. I have three pairs and three singles. I would love to hear from.others with lots of house bunnies and how you juggle it all. Just the garbage created from their litter boxes each week is.more than my garbage can can hold.
 
Jeez, I can't imagine that many housebuns. I only have two, male & female, and both fixed. They have free range of the upstairs, stairs, and downstairs landing area. Interestingly, they spend the night together in one room, then sleep in separate rooms during the day. The female won't go into my bedroom -- I'm guessing a territorial respect for either me or the male who spends the day hours napping under the bed -- despite having the curiosity of a four-year-old child who has to explore and touch everything it can get to.

Rehoming is risky for any animal, and rabbits generally aren't afforded the care of non-exotic pets (i.e., dogs & cats); it's sad, but the nature of the society in which we live. I think the biggest questions would be what's in the best interest of A) the rabbits, and B) you and your life/finances/resources/space/sanity. That's an analysis only you can perform, and you have to be objective in your analysis (which is hard).

I only have two rabbits, but I'll take on the questions :)

Cleaning routine: Spot vacuum as necessary, and thorough cleaning every Sunday. Litter boxes, food, water, and messy stuff are in a designated rabbit room, so I don't have much mess elsewhere save for hay.

Out of cage time and one-on-one time: The male was free range after only a week or two, but the female took a good 6+ months of daily work to get things to the point I could leave her alone. The biggest issue with her was carpet chewing, which I still have to keep an eye out for and send her to her room if I catch her doing it. Nowadays, I probably spend around an hour a day on the floor with them in addition to normal daily care.

So now the question I'm sure you knew someone was going to ask: how and why did you end up with nine house rabbits? :)
 
Thank you Samoth, I have no good explanation for why somany bunnies. Except, I tend to go overboard , I have a hard time saying no, and I love animals. I wish I had a farmette instead of a house in the suburbs. And I have a tendency to complicate my life. Some of my bunnies are rescues and some are from breeders. At one point, I thought I would breed lionheads, so I acquired 3 for that purpose and then though better of it and had them fixed. No offense to breeders, but I was already in over my head, what if I couldn't find good homes, and I decided I didn't want to contribute to overpopulation of unwanted bunnies. I have the finances to care for my bunnies. I have an excellent rabbit vet. My dining room is the bunny room. It is.off the kitchen and I have a baby gate blocking it, although some ofy bunnies climb right over it. Several of my bunnies can be out together. I also let some out in other parts of my house like mmy kitchen and family room and basement. But they can't all be out at the same time. So I have to rotate them. I.wish they could.all be out together. Plus, even though they are fixed and have litter boxes, they pee and.poop everywhere. Probably territorial marking. I was influenced by articles like this
http://rabbit.org/group_living
And this http://rabbit.org/multi-maintenance
And this was helpful http://rabbit.org/a-clean-environment/
 
Can you bond any of them into larger groups? I have 8 rabbits, I used to have 10. Most of them used to be separate before I was able to get them all spayed and neutered, but once I got that done I could bond them into groups. I had a family group of 6 that I bonded together, then I had two pairs that I had hoped to bond into a quad but didn't work out. But even then, once I had them into the three groups, care and clean up was so much easier. Feeding and cleaning several individual rabbits is much more complicated than when they are in groups. It cut down quite a bit on the time I needed to spend taking care of those things. So if at all possible, bonding your rabbits into compatible groups will make things a lot easier.

How you have your rabbits areas set up also makes a difference. You want to use things that simplify the cleaning and feeding process. Such as floor surfaces that can easily be cleaned, or litter boxes that maximize urine absorption and odor control so you aren't having to constantly clean them out. I use extra large litter boxes with about 1.5 inches of wood pellets topped with hay, and this enables me to only have to clean out soiled hay a few times a week and a whole litter box change once a week.

If they are peeing everywhere, you need to set up their area so they can't escape and I wouldn't be letting them out into other rooms until they have proved to have fairly good litter box habits with the peeing(unless you don't mind cleaning up pee accidents). The pooping is another matter, and some rabbits just never get very good about keeping it in the litter box.
 

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