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Hyatt101

Hyatt101

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, Maine, USA
Ok, so we've all had those times where we didn't know much about rabbits, and made some mistakes raising them. Maybe we fed them a poor diet (unknowingly of course!) or anything!
What were some mistakes you made as a beginner? I did not know about them importance of hay and didn't give them much :baghead I really didn't understand their diet too well, didn't know a thing about bonding and assumed rabbits could just 'play together'. Geez, I've learned an awful lot on this forum.:p


What about you? 'Fess up!
 
With lucky we didn't know how smart rabbits were. In her cage she had NO toys or anything for mentle stimulation. We thought that giving her an 3x dog crate, a dog kennel, the garage, and a run outside would keep her occupied (she was mainly an outdoor rabbit). Nope, she always found a way to get her little bunny-self into trouble. Climbing the kennel walls, unlocking doors, stealing tools, finding a way in the 1960 Buick Electra,getting her paws all scratched up by digging to china in cement,etc. If we had given her more stuff to do the 30lb love-bun wouldn't have always gotten into trouble.
We alsodidn't know that you couldn't use cat litter or sand in bunny-litter boxes too. Wish we could have found this site when we got her.
 
When i got Alice she lived in a small cage in my room for a few months, getting fed carrots every day and hardly any hay, just some grass now and again, and muesli food. I would let her have a run around my room everyday but only to stroke her i didn't actually know they needed exercise like dogs and cats. After a few months my stepdad build her a hutch, it was 5ft by 3ft so not too small, and she lived in the shed and then started getting hay every day, and i bought a 5ft run for her and she was in that everyday, but was still fed a muesli food. Then i got another rabbit thinking it was a girl and put them straight together because i didn't know that you had to bond rabbits but they humped and Alice had babies because the bunny was actually a boy!! Then when Alice was pregnant i starting researching about bunnies and found out loads about them, and my stepdad build a whole new hutch and run for Alice just before the babies were born(7ft run attached to a 4ft hutch) and i changed her food to pellets. Then when the babies were about 4 months i joined this group and have found out so much more about bunnies, they never had toys and now they actually have a toy box! lol. My bunnies go to the vets for vaccinations, and they all have a large hutch or shed attached to a huge run, they all have friends and i just know so many new things due to this forum!! :)
 
Well; I actually did pretty well with my first rabbit. I knew ahead of time that I was going to adopt him, so I started reading.

When he finally arrived, I had to make quite a few changes to his routine and diet because the info I learned didn't line up the the care he was receiving. I got him from a friend and I'm in no way bashing her, but I did make some changes.

I changed his food from generic to Oxbow, I ditched his daily vegetables that consisted entirely of carrots and apples in favor of lettuces and less starchy, sweet veggies. I also upped his hay ration of "a small amount, once in a while" to unlimited daily hay. I also solidified his litter box habits, which were pretty good and gave him much more floor time.

My new rabbit came to me in a medium sized dog kennel with half of the floor being a large holed grate (presumably so the feces and urine could fall below). I noticed that his feet get stuck in the grate. I removed it; added a litter box; changed his pellets; added vegetables; and am working on getting his hay up off the ground. I also moved him from outdoors to indoors! Lots of changes for this bun!
 
Tippy never got alfalfa hay...we started her on Timothy. She also started getting veggies from a very young age. Thankfully, the little creature has a stomach of steel...
 
Foo got timothy from the beginning and veggies from a really young age too.
I got a rabbit magazine, that gave a list of safe veggies but never gave an age range. haha.
She was already an adult by the time I found the forum, and she's fine.
Thankfully, I didn't make any huge mistakes. Shes always gotten a lot of hay, so that was good. hahaha.
 
Morgan and Qtip, I had the same problems! i thought veggies were fine to give at an early age, but all the bunnies i did that to turned out fine, thankfully!!
 
I handled and cuddled and loved the heck out of Toby fro day one. I had no idea that I was supposed to give him time to settle in. Poor guy! He loves me now, though.
 
My biggest "uh oh" was not knowing just how important hay was for them. He had hay but not free choice like he does now. I also didn't know he was supposed to have alfalfa as a baby bun. I also didn't know they were not supposed to have veggies as babies.

I found this site a few days after bringing him home and he instantly got free choice hay and no veggies. However didn't know about alfalfa until he was about 5 months old. Thankfully I knew enough about pellets and stuff so I knew what to look for in a pellet and how they should not have the junk food type food.
 
My biggest mistakes are about cages. When I got my first rabbit from my next door neighbor he came to me in a cage that was less than 1 square foot. He lived in that cage until we could get him a bigger cage. The next cage that he was in was a medium sized plastic storage tub (the thick plastic kind that comes in all sorts of colors and has sides that are less than 12" high). For a roof we used old window screen attached to a wood frame. He lived in that cage while we were building him a hutch with chicken wire sides and coated 1/2" floor wire. He never made it to the hutch though. My mom left his plastic cage on the floor of a spare bedroom and forgot to close the door to the room. The next time we went to see him we could not find him anywhere. All we found was this weird ball. Turns out that was his stomach. There must not have been much of a struggle because we never found hair or blood anywhere. RIP Sneakers.

For the next rabbits we got many years later we did research. I started to raise them for FFA. All the rabbits were fed timothy hay and alfalfa pellets no matter their age. The first couple of years I would give them veggies that included lots of carrots and celery. They only got that about 1x per week though and only a small handful per rabbit.
 
I adopted Harvey kind of spur of the moment. I've never had rabbits. But I did find this forum a few days before I got him and did a ton of research. So I had a somewhat good start. I had to change his diet since he was getting free fed pellets from the dollar store and that's it (no hay or veggies). He had cat litter in his litter box and I switched that out right away. He had a somewhat smallish cage so once I was able to I built him a NIC enclosure.

Not that I didn't make any mistakes. :( I gave him some veggies too soon too fast and he got an upset stomach. And I when I first had him he had a lot of confidence to feel at home and he adjusted really well. I thought he was getting along well with the cats, however one of cats freaked out when Harvey was chasing him and scratched Harvey :(. They are both fine now and that cat loves his rabbit buddy. I should have know better than that tho. Since kitty is such a big chicken.
 
Not bragging, but since I spent about a year fighting my urge for a rabbit (long story) I did a lot of pro/con research. This in turn gave me a good basis on raising a rabbit so things have gone very smoothly to the point my vet complimented me on my preparedness and knowledge for a first timer.

However I do have some regrets to confess. I regret playing it safe and not getting two rabbits initially. I mean it was a smart and responsible thing to do but I wish I just went for it. Now I'm having a bit of difficulty convincing my spouse to get another, much less convincing myself to make that plunge. The other thing I regret is making the NIC cage too big. Great for a solitary rabbit's den, hard for fitting in another cage in the room just in case I do get another rabbit.
 
Early on when I had Cleo, my friend was house sitting for her cousin who had 2 rabbits. I had to get Cleo out of the house because I was having a rent inspection (and my landlord didnt know about my bun ;) ) and I thought Cleo could just spend the night with these other rabbits!!

...Hahaha No. :shock:

One of their rabbits was indifferent to Cleo but the other one was aggressive and terrifying! :grumpy: Cleo jumped things I never would have thought she could jump! She ran so fast and I couldn't catch her! I felt so awful! But she was too quick for the other rabbit and she wasn't hurt at all. She wasn't mad at me either, she just had to spend the night in a very small cage.
 
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