I am so angry!

[NZminilops]

My lovely litter of baby lop rabbits has been advertised for sale to kind and carin homes for a few weeks now. 5 have gone to excellent homes and I couldn't be happier about that, and I have two left who I don't really mind if they go or not.

Yesterday I get this email:
hi i urgently want one of these. can u plz give me a contact fone number to call u tomoro? these are the ones that dont grow big rite?

I reply:
Hi, how come you need one so urgently? These rabbits shouldn't grow to be any bigger than 1.8kg so yeah pretty small.

2------ ask for Michelle.

I was a bit concerned and was going to wait till I had spoken with the person until I made any judgement on them. So today I get a text saying:
Hi there. I c on -------- u r selling some rabbits? Are these the ones that aree small and stay small? wat color r they and how much 4 2?
I reply:
Hi I emailed you about this today. They are the colours shown on the classified and will grow no bigger than 1.8 kilos

We then text back and forth a bit and they again ask what colours and price...twice...I tell them that they can't live togther as one is a boy and one is a girl. They ask me why not...I say as they will mate and have babies of course. The tell me that they don't mind if they mate and they can just live together anyway. I say "surely you jest? I would never sell a rabbit to you - you sound very irresponsible. Bye!" and they are still texting me asking for a rabbit. They say they were joking. I am really angry, what a silly sounding person they are. I hope they don't buy bunnies and just shove them together and hope for the best. Grrrr!

 

[sheridan]

They just sound like complete idiots. I would agree with you and refuse to sell them any.:gun:

 

[Pipp]

Sounds like someone looking for 'feeder' rabbits. Probably sent emails out all over the place, lost track of where. It could be a phony cheque scam, but sounds more like a reptile thing. Poor bunnies. :cry2

sas

 

[bunnydude]

It makes me angry to hear about people like that. Glad you didn't let them go to that "home".

 

[NZminilops]

I never thought they might want them for feeding to reptiles - thats not good! They might have had the idea to mate the rabbits and feed the babies to a snake or something, how horrible. I have told them to stop harrassing me otherwise I will contact the police. I alerted the other sellers on the site to be ware of this person also. I screen the people wanting to buy the bunnies very thoroughly. They must have owned rabbits before and be prepared to take care of the rabbit for it's entire lifetime or return it to me if they can't handle it any more.

I was going to become a registered breeder and set everything up right, but now I think it's a bad idea (not just because of the above person). More unwanted animals is not what the world needs, best to try and take care of the ones already here .

 

[Pipp]

They also 'use' them to train falcons and other raptors, and a lot go for training greyhounds and other hunting dogs. It really is awful. :cry1:

And the bigger rabbits are in danger of becoming dinner for humans. At least their demise is usually quick and painless.

This is a great artcle on how to screen prospective adopters/owners:

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=14544&forum_id=7

You really need a 'contract' with at least permission for home visits, and a vet certification required if they try to say the bunny 'died'.

I don't think it's asbad in NZ and the UK, but in North America, it's a horrible problem. I'd never let a rabbit go anywhere without this kind of screening.

sas

 

[NZminilops]

Thanks for that Pipp, I do try and screen them as best as I can. They must come to visit the bunnies at least twice before deciding to take one and I quiz them like crazy. One of the ladies who took a bunny was a vet nurse and she knew a lot about rabbits so I felt really safe selling one to her. One family has older teens and they had owned NZ whites before. The last family has guinea pigs and had done a lot of reading and had built a really neat hutch (I got to see it - it was HUGE!)

Anyway I have thought about it and I am going to keep the last two from the litter. I mean, why not? 5 Rabbits isn't too many, is it? :bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance:

Now to think of names...hmmmm. One's a girl and ones a boy, so they will have to be seperated soon. Lucky I have a spare hutch.

 

[ec]

My immediate reaction on reading your 1st post was "snakes."

Wish I could take one of your babies, but I'm in the US.

 

[NZminilops]

I don't think there would be much of a snake population in New Zealand - in fact I have only ever seen a snake once in my life when visiting Australia. Never seen a snake in a pet store. We don't have them in our country (unless in Zoos I am guessing).

I am very happy that I am able to keep them, I wish I could have kept all 7. I am kicking myself that my rabbit found a way to have babies to begin with - I blame myself - and it wont happen again.

 

[maherwoman]

Wonderful conclusion to come to, minilops...just keeping the darlings. I don't think I'd have the heart to give any away if my babies had a litter. Lol...I grow so attached!!

I don't see why five would be too many!! Lol!!

 

[NZminilops]

Here are the babies - they are 8 weeks old. The solid coloured one is very naughty, and the broken is timid but more friendly.

 

[maherwoman]

Aww...they're so cute!! What genders are they?

 

[NZminilops]

The sooty fawn (I think that would be a tort over there ) is a girl, and the broken sooty fawn is a boy. They still live togther but will have to be seperated soon so they don't get too frisky and start to fight.

I am calling the girl Cookie and the boy Milo. Not very exciting names but I am terrible with naming pets.

How are Flower and Maisie? Did you know that Maisie was the first bunny I saw on rabbits only?

 

[Elf Mommy]

Oh I just LOVE her dark lil nose! Totally kissable! I'm glad you're keeping them

 

[maherwoman]

Aww...cute names! I love them!

Well, Maisie is certainly honored to have been your first bunny sighting... She's such a lady...

Both the bunnies are doing wonderfully, thank you for asking! Maisie has gotten quite subdued (yet at times, has hormonal outbursts of shreddiness toward newspaper...hehe), but she's wonderful. Flower is getting bigger every day and is now approx 3lbs heavier than Maisie (and about half her age!)...I think she'll be quite the big baby! They're both such wonderful little sweeties...not shy at all, and so very loving!

How are your buns doing?

 

[NZminilops]

I'm glad too, this post should be "I'm so happy" now, tee hee! I wonder what my partner will say when he comes home from work :?.

 

[maherwoman]

Hopefully he'll be as giddy with glee as we are!!

Ultimately, men are such softies with bunnies, thought they don't like to admit it! My very-masculine best friend turns to mush with both my bunnies...he practically goes into their cages with them, and kisses them and cuddles with them...it's adorable! My husband just melts with their cuteness, too, and loves them so much! He warmed to both of them in about a quarter of the time he warmed up to the cats...lol...nothing against the kitties, mind you!!

 

[NZminilops]

Aww, you're so lucky, mine takes no notice of the rabbits :X. He says he likes ' the big one' and the 'kitchen one is funny' but that's about as far as it goes. He did pick up the kitchen one (BunBun - lol!) last night and look at him and put him on the ground so that's a start I guess. But he wont ever get any closer to them than that. His brain is filled with cars and food and that's about all it has room for :brat:.

I think I will make a new blog with pics of all the buns.

I thought Maisie was so cute when I first saw your old avatar, the one where she has her paws up on that grid thing, she's gorgeous. I can't believe Flower is getting so big...I always think of her as being this itty bitty baby.

 

[maherwoman]

Hehe...that's so funny! Yeah, men really do have their limitations on memory.

Aww...thank you! Yes, my Maisie is a beauty. She's getting a lovely dewlap now, and it just adds to her beauty! She's maxed out as far as growth at just under 5lbs, and it's so cute that she has this little bunny body! She's such a lovely girl, and I think her size just adds to her lovliness. I love that even though she has all those girly hormones in her system, she still finds lots of time for love and petting, and to occassionaly give Mama kisses. What a sweetie.

I know what you mean about Flower...I find it hard to believe she's gotten so big, too, but she eats like CRAZY!! She eats a two large handfuls of hay a day, a whole alfalfa cube everyday, and also eats almost a full dish of food everyday (which is about a cup)!! She also drinks about 20oz of water in a day! She's quite the little vacuum! I gave her some red leaf lettuce last night (2 lg leaves, and one a bit smaller) and she'd done away with all of it within a couple minutes! (Maisie eats about half of all that. Lol.) I also love that as she's growing newer, healthier fur, it seems to have a pearly quality to it, instead of the flat white, or yellowish white it was when I brought her home. She's still got a lot of mats in it (which we're going to take her in to see the vet about in about a week to help her along, if not just handle it completely), but most of them are gone, and she just gets more beautiful every day. She's such a gentle little sweetie, too...so incredibly grateful to me for her rescue..it really shows!

Bunnies are such cuties, aren't they?

 

[NZminilops]

My Dodge has the mother of all dewlaps, she's so bootafull with it too.

I was looking for my thread and someone moved it to the rabbitry, not sure why...

Anyway, this is what BunBun feels about me keeping more bunnies: