A sad ending with a happy beginning...

Hi everyone. I was on here a few months ago with my two bunnies! A dutch cross named Tundra and a mixed breed named Illdari. I adored my bunnies, once the weather was warm I decided to let them play outside in a safe cage. Sadly one of my dogs suddenly decided she didnt like my bunnies anymore and tore through the cage killing them both before I could get to them. I was heartbroken and cried for days. I swore I wasnt adopting another bunny for fear my dog may hurt the next one too.

But 6 weeks later I found a nice breeder selling these gorgeous little rex bunnies, my bf convinced me to go look at them. Needless to say we came home with a new bunny and plans to build a much stronger outside enclosure. (My one dog is also not aloud to be in the house around the bunny anymore unless I am sitting within correction distance of her.)

So with that being said Id love to introduce you all to Renley. A papered Standard Rex Buck! His full name is Windy River Renley. Hes a broken blue otter and 3 months old! I do plan on adopting him a compainion once he is fixed (Already booked to be done within 2 weeks) and healed up! Oh and of course litter trained! haha

Thank you all,
Taylor and Renley.

:bigtears: this breaks my heart. That poor bunny.

stevesmum said:

:bigtears: this breaks my heart. That poor bunny.

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I know I was so heartbroken. I spent months getting the dog use to the bunnies! My other dog loved them from the start. They even cuddled together. But my older dog just went nuts one day. 😭😭

He's very cute. Our dogs are never around the bunnies as the small one is 176 pounds. Sweet dogs, but just too big to be around 5 pound bunnies. Our small boy caught a big black bird the other day and was carrying it around in his mouth til I made him drop it and it flew off. Hurts like the devil when they step on your feet.

Nancy McClelland said:

He's very cute. Our dogs are never around the bunnies as the small one is 176 pounds. Sweet dogs, but just too big to be around 5 pound bunnies. Our small boy caught a big black bird the other day and was carrying it around in his mouth til I made him drop it and it flew off. Hurts like the devil when they step on your feet.

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Our dogs are heelers. One adores the bunnies, she would baby them and cuddle with them I know she would never hurt a small animal. But the other is 14 years old and been an outside farm dog most of her live so she thinks anything small and cute is supper sadly. Ive been trying to train her to know the difference when its pets or wild but as soon as you turn your back she will go after it. I wont let her near Renley at all and ive got a steel dog run to use outside now so she has zero chance of touching him.

My dad lived out in the country and had chickens. Took me a week to build the coop as it was triple walled starting with heavy guage going to smaller to fine mesh--no opposums, skunks, foxes or coyotes and we sunk heavy, galvanized tindown 3 feet and had six inches of conrete on both sides and 2 doors. Just for when you need to be sure. We had a doberman 40 years ago, smartest dog in the world! She'd catch birds outside and eat them, but would ignore our Cockatiels and parakeets inside--they'd land on her and go for a ride.

How silly to allow dogs (natural hunters) amongst (even if caged in the same environment) bunnies who are the PREY of hunters. This is just bad education on simplistic facts such as bunnies being small, defenseless PREY animals, and that putting them in an environment with a hunter of prey animals - dogs in this case - left there to be vulnerable with an unpredictable animal. Very, very very BAD idea. Please don't do this again for bunnies are small animals, and when placed in a vulnerable position - which is what you did - then they just don't stand a chance. Lets hope you've learned and don't allow the same mistake for your new buns, they're beautiful. TO ALL BUNNY OWNERS: NEVER ALLOW PREY ANIMALS IN THE COMPANY OF HUNTER ANIMALS, EVEN IF YOU ARE THERE TO SUPERVISE. JUST DO NOT DO IT. ANIMALS ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND NO TINY ANIMAL SHOULD BE TORN APART BY A CRAZED PACK-LIKE-HUNTER-MENTALITY ANIMALS SUCH AS DOGS! PLEASE. KEEP OUR BELOVED BUNNIES SAFE WHILST IN OUR LOVING CARE!

DoogleTheBunnyPuppy said:

TO ALL BUNNY OWNERS: NEVER ALLOW PREY ANIMALS IN THE COMPANY OF HUNTER ANIMALS, EVEN IF YOU ARE THERE TO SUPERVISE. JUST DO NOT DO IT. ANIMALS ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND NO TINY ANIMAL SHOULD BE TORN APART BY A CRAZED PACK-LIKE-HUNTER-MENTALITY ANIMALS SUCH AS DOGS! PLEASE. KEEP OUR BELOVED BUNNIES SAFE WHILST IN OUR LOVING CARE!

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This is too broad of a statement. It is like saying that because pet dogs have killed humans, then no humans should ever have pet dogs.

There are many rabbit owners that have dogs (or cats) and they actually do get along just fine with the rabbits. Of course this doesn't mean that all dogs can get along with rabbits. But many certainly can. Even our local rabbit rescue has pet dogs that are always around the (up to) 100 rabbits she has at any given time.

It is a horrible tragedy when a human is killed or seriously injured by a dog, but this shouldn't stop people from owning a dog -- just should encourage good education and training. Same applies to dogs and rabbits.

I 100% agree with Blue Eyes. Every animal is different. And the owner did say the dog broke into the cage to get the rabbit- so I'm unsure really what else the OP could have done; it's not like the rabbits were just wandering around waiting to get eaten by the dog anyways. Yes dogs are predators; so are cats. My cat is chased by my prey animal rabbits regularly.

Doogle not only was that response a bit rude but it was totally not necessary. And lacking a lot of fact and proper education for other rabbit owners.
Bluemoom understands what happened and understands their dogs. Perhaps fully reading the initial post will provide you with that info.

So...
Here.



Bluemoon thats one cute bunny. Love rexes!

Watermelons that is WAY TOO CUTE. Here's my contribution of all predators eat rabbits:

DoogleTheBunnyPuppy said:

How silly to allow dogs (natural hunters) amongst (even if caged in the same environment) bunnies who are the PREY of hunters. This is just bad education on simplistic facts such as bunnies being small, defenseless PREY animals, and that putting them in an environment with a hunter of prey animals - dogs in this case - left there to be vulnerable with an unpredictable animal. Very, very very BAD idea. Please don't do this again for bunnies are small animals, and when placed in a vulnerable position - which is what you did - then they just don't stand a chance. Lets hope you've learned and don't allow the same mistake for your new buns, they're beautiful. TO ALL BUNNY OWNERS: NEVER ALLOW PREY ANIMALS IN THE COMPANY OF HUNTER ANIMALS, EVEN IF YOU ARE THERE TO SUPERVISE. JUST DO NOT DO IT. ANIMALS ARE UNPREDICTABLE AND NO TINY ANIMAL SHOULD BE TORN APART BY A CRAZED PACK-LIKE-HUNTER-MENTALITY ANIMALS SUCH AS DOGS! PLEASE. KEEP OUR BELOVED BUNNIES SAFE WHILST IN OUR LOVING CARE!

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I am not stupid. I raise multiple animals, my one dog is extremely loving to the bunnies and even still I wouldn't leave her alone with them. I literally turned my back from a moment to grab something from inside and my other dog (the one with a known higher prey drive) literally tore through the secured cage. I ran out but she had already gotten them. Your statement basically states because I've been attacked by dogs I shouldn't own them either... I was careful it was an accident and I will not allow it to happen again. I was heartbroken and felt extremely gulity and I DONT need you making me feel worse with a statement that if you had read my post would've seen that it shouldn't have happened. It was a freak accident one of which I never intend to have happen again.

Also I will state that I am a licenced dog trainer. I know loads about dogs and their habits. Hence why I never leave my high prey drive dog alone with my smaller pets. I'd never want to put any of them into harms way. I love my babies

As a dog trainer, I'm sure you are aware how very different individual dogs can be. Some do have a high prey drive. Some do not. So let's not lump them altogether by saying that no dog should ever be near a rabbit.

We all love our rabbits. We love our dogs and cats too. And, as you can begin to see, all kinds of pets are capable of getting along. :inlove:

I didn't mean to sound rude! I shoul've reworded that, so I apologise. I felt sad for your rabbits what they went through. I know dogs can be docile and loving, but they can also be unpredictable, and it's good you don't leave them alone with dogs. And as for whoever stated my comment was filled with lack of education, lol, I learned it all from rabbit books, online websites, from owning them for 10 years, from forums and vets, so to state that is lack of education, then CLEARLY you're the one lacking in rabbit education 101.

And to not keep rabbits - who are prey - in the company of predatory animals such as dogs is something I've learned from rabbit books and is something I personally would not do. Personally being the word. My choice. I just would never risk it. I want a dog too, but can wait til my bun passes before I do. But again, just my opinion.

And to not keep rabbits - who are prey - in the company of predatory animals such as dogs is something I've learned from rabbit books and is something I personally would not do. Personally being the word. My choice. I just would never risk it. I want a dog too, but can wait til my bun passes before I do. But again, just my opinion. Nice pics though, and that's your choice to do that, whereas my choice is that I will not ever do that. So it's personal choice and preference. I'd just prefer to get my dog after having my buns.

Here's a 60 second video showing my rabbit doing all he can to entice our dogs to notice him.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plTJk6tb4f4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plTJk6tb4f4[/ame]

Can predators and prey animals get along? Absolutely! This thread is perfect example though, that animals are unpredictable. You can think your dog or cat gets along great with their bunny pal and in a split second it can change. So please everyone reading this, always supervise their interactions in a way that you could split them up should you need to. My cats get along beautifully with my rabbits, but I'm always on guard when they interact.

I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think the cage was that secure, since the dog was able to break into it and had time to kill both rabbits in such a short amount of time. Please know I'm not saying this to blame you or try and make you feel worse. It's just my opinion. Dogs are very strong animals. They can break into wooden hutches even. Sadly, it's kind of impossible to have a secure enough cage if a large predator decides to go into attack mode.

Accidents happen. Mistakes happen. The important thing is we learn from them.

Your new bunny is very adorable!