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whitelop

whitelop

Morgan
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
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Location
York, South Carolina, USA
I just read an old old thread about a girl who got a baby bunny from the Fashion District of LA. There is a huge problem there with people selling 2 week old baby bunnies. They leave the cages out in the sun with no shelter and only give them carrots and lettuce. First, buns aren't supposed to be taken from their moms that early and aren't supposed to be fed that stuff yet. Second, its awful. When people buy the buns they don't know much about buns other than they're cute and small, and when they get the bunnies they're on deaths door because they were weaned too early. LA is trying to fight the problem, but I guess they don't have the man power to combat it properly.
It makes me want to go to LA and take all the baby bunnies that are there and save them. Its horrible and it makes me sick.

It made me think about when I first got my rabbit. I didn't know much about rabbits. I got her on a whim and had to do a lot of reading. I'll be honest, for the first few days of her living with me, I didn't do everything right. But I soon corrected everything and she's been with me for 3 years with no serious problems. Other than spring time allergies.
When I got her, we lived in this teeny tiny apartment. We were friends with our neighbors and they were over a lot. The neighbors were a couple and they were nice. He worked at Petco and thought he knew all about small animals. I don't think Petco sells rabbits, just ferrets, hampster/gerbils and rats. So what really sticks in my mind about talking to him about rabbits was he told me not to give her much hay. He said that too much hay was bad for rabbits. I was giving her the alfalfa hay then. Can you believe him? He worked at a pet store/supply store and he told me to not give my rabbit hay!

That was a long time ago, and we've moved away from them. But that still sticks in my mind and it makes me a little ill. It just goes to show that the people who sell the rabbits and other animals at pet stores a lot of times don't know what they're talking about! So they can't give the people who are buying the animals the proper information on how to care for the animals. That really urks me. I didn't get my rabbit at a pet store, I got her at an animal supply store. The guy who sold her to me, is a friend of ours and pretty knowledgeable about rabbits. He's also an advocate for animals, and gets on better with animals than he does people. He told me some key things, but most of it I had to learn for myself.

Has anyone else experienced the stupidity of the people who work in pet stores? Or a place like Petco/Petsmart?
Or has anyone been told misinformation about rabbits by someone they knew?

I've also had people tell me a lot of ridiculous things about my chickens and their eggs.
 
I saw a short time ago that either the SPCA or Humane Society was launching a campain to really crack down and prossecute the LA people for animal crulty. I hope it gets better. It is illegal to sell rabbits that young.

When I got my first rabbit as an adult I thought I knew what I was getting into because I had rabbits as a kid. Oh how times have changed! As a kid they were hutch rabbits and they got pellets and carrots. Now I cringe at the thought. No wonder my mom complained how delicate they were and that they died all the time.

Luckily I found a good bunny friend that turned me on to RO and I found good references. I soaked up the house rabbit society like a man in the desert. Now all my buns are in the house with me and spoiled to the max. :)

I have interrupted a sales person at PetSmart before. They got really mad, but they were saying limited hay as a treat and they could just put any two rabbits together. I pictured a bloody mess and had to say something. They went and got their manager, who agreed with me. I have a feeling the sales person got a lecture or fired after I left because I never saw him again. I didn't mean to make someone lose their job, but come on people....
 
Unfortunately most people who sell rabbits and work in a pet store don't know much about rabbits. They are in it for the money and to make a sale. Just look at some of the treats and other stuff available, most is terrible and totally unsuitable for rabbits but is still sold because people will buy it. Even informational material (books, magazines, care sheets etc) tend to not be great and have some not so good info in them.

Many pet stores that sell rabbits and other small mammals don't feed hay or give very little. They might give a small handful a day, but you rarely see them with lots of hay, just pellets and water.

I don't really get people telling me to do thing too much, but I do see a lot in books and some websites that make be cringe.
 
I do have to add that I love my Natural Pet Store. I didn't realise the difference until I had been going there a while, they do really care. In chatting with one of the people who worked there about their selection of things for rabbits (it was a new section for them at the time) I mentioned that the yogurt drops were very unhealthy and potentially dangerous because of the gut flora issues. I went in for something the next week and everything yogurt aimed at rabbits was gone.

Three cheers for Cutter's Mills! :clapping:
 
Some pet stores are awful. My mom was sold a 3 week old bunny and told to give it lettuce and carrots and pellets. We already had rabbits and I was livid that they gave her such information. I filled her in on the basics and the bunny did okay but it still makes me mad. They sold her guinea pigs that were about the same age. :(

There is all kinds of misinformation out concerning rabbits and it makes me sad. When we rehomed the kits from our litters I spent hours talking with the potential owners explaining everything. I wanted them to know exactly what they were getting themselves in to, even if they changed their mind in the process (since taking care of rabbits isn't always easy). Happy to say we got some great homes for ours and ours weren't rehomed until they were 8-10 weeks old. Sure, they were bigger than the teensy babies at the pet store but they were also fully weaned, socialized and healthy.
 
@MyJuneAngel, that's unbelievable that they sold your mom a bunny that was that young! I got my bun when she was close to 4 months probably, she wasn't super small but still a lot smaller than she is now. I mean everyone loves a kit, but we as humans aren't equipped to really take care of them. If you're in that situation you do the best you can I'm sure, but we aren't bunnies. They need their mothers.

I can't stand to go into pet stores. They make me sick. There is actually a pet store down the road from me and I've been in there twice. The first time, I saw all the puppies grouped by breed in baby pools with wire fencing around them to keep the puppies in. I turned around and walked out. The second time I went in I was with my hub and he wanted to check it out, to see if we needed to call anyone. They still had all the dogs the same way, but the pools they were in were clean. All the animal cages were clean, but it still really bothers me. They always advertise the same breeds of dogs and I actually think they get them from a puppy mill. I've called animal authorities and no one has ever called me back. But every time I ride by I yell "they sell puppy mill puppies!" (they're on a corner, so I'm at the stop sign most of the time.) hahaha.
I know its probably an a-hole thing to do, but I've been in there and its not right the way it looks. They only sell toy breeds of dogs and those are the types of dogs that most often come from the puppy mills. We've also in our area had several really BIG busts in the last year or so. Its a scary and very sad thought.
 
That's horrible. :( I admit all of my rats came from pet stores, just because I never thought about adopting rats. I was very misinformed on that topic. I remembered having rats when I was younger and being able to train them and I wanted them again. I've never had an experience like that myself, but once I went into our petco to see a girl about my age holding a very ill looking rat. It was wheezing very badly and obviously was having a myco flare-up. I told her to take him to the vet and get him Baytril, and it should clear right up, but to do it very quickly. (I had a rat die in two days because of a surprise myco flare-up when I was particularly broke and I feel so, so very sick when I think of it.) We had talked some more, and she told me that he was her only rat. The employees there had told her that it would be okay for her to have only one rat, which is very very incorrect. Rats must live in the company of other rats, because they are so social. She was also feeding him a horrible, fatty "food" that was basically just a treat-mix. (Sunflower seeds, CORN, etc. with a couple pellets thrown in there.) She thanked me profusely as I was leaving, and said she was going to wait behind to talk to one of the managers about selling her a sick rat. (I have had three rats from Petco and two died within months of bringing them home. One does have problems with myco, but I'm fairly certain he is immortal.)
 
I hang out on yahoo answers for a bit each day in the "pets - other" section even though doing so often makes my brain hurt due to the sheer stupidity of some people. I answer bunny questions to the best of my abilities, do research, show people the good websites, tell them to come here if they have more questions, etc. not because stupid people who get bunnies and don't bother to learn about them are worth my time, but because I take pity on all the bunnies out there with clueless owners and want to do what I can to make their lives a little better. granted, there are some who *have* done their research but still need a little more info or maybe didn't find the best sites yet, but others are flat-out morons.

the worst is when I answer questions about hedgehogs, ferrets, guinea pigs, etc. - animals that I've never owned. when I can find - and verify - the answer to a question in < 60 seconds using google, I cry a little inside for the person's pet. it's gotten to the point that I know more about guinea pigs than a lot of people who own them just from doing research to answer other peoples' questions.

this one today is one of the most brain-hurting ones I've seen so far:
"Please hElp my rabbit!!;(?
My rabbit likes to eat marshmallows all the time!!i can't let him to stop eating marshmallows because she don't like to eat any other food than marshmallows..also my rabbit likes to eat rubber..especially my rubber slippers..it is safe to her to eat marshmallows and rubber?????"

then there was this - a question where I could tell someone was a fail owner, but it wasn't even the person who was asking the question:
What do you feed a rabbit!!?
Okay so a friend of mine today asked me if I can watch her rabbit for a couple of hours and I said yes, she brought it over and filled its bowl with carrots and left,but about 6 hours later (11pm) she asked me if I can keep it at my house overnight because it was to late for her to come pick it up. Anyway, I told her her rabbit is running out of food and I don't have anything to feed it (I don't have any veggies or fruits in my house right now since I made my last veggies for lunch and wont go shopping until saturday) Its to late to go to shopping right now and after I told her that she just shrugged it off and I try to contact her but I think she turned her phone off. Now this rabbit has only 4 baby carrot sticks left and I don't want it to starve to death. I don't want to be responsible for this animal dieing. What do I feed this thing?

Additional Details
I don't have hay and all that crap. Taking care of this thing was a last minute thing and it was only suppose to be for a couple of hours.

in my answer, I begged her to make her friend visit http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies to find out what the rabbit *should* be eating instead of buttloads of carrots >< (I also recommended feeding hand-picked grass that she was sure hadn't been sprayed with pesticides since she wasn't able to go to a store to get anything else)
 
Hey Imbrium, I've seen you there on yahoo answers.:D I used to field rabbit questions there quite often, but I just haven't had the time recently. There are only a few there that know how to answer rabbit questions accurately. (Catx is a good one if you've ever seen her answers) (BTW, did you find out about RO on there? I had recommended RO to a couple people - just curious.

Whitelop, the LA fashion district is still an ongoing problem. Bunny World Foundation is one of the groups leading the fight. In fact, Bunny World is where I got my Sapphire. They have all kinds of info on their facebook site. Minilop is correct. In CA, it is illegal to sell a rabbit less than 8 weeks of age. That rule will help Bunny World to prosecute the sellers at the Fashion District.

Minilop, you sound like me. I can't help myself either when I see/hear stuff at the petstores that is no good. One woman was looking at those tiny cages & I started talking to her about NIC cages being less expensive (and bigger, heh, heh). I'm afraid I have a hard time 'minding my own business' when it comes to rabbit mistreatment. I also told a feed store that was selling pet rabbits that they really need to provide hay 24/7.

Whitelop, you are correct about all the misinformation out there. I always say that rabbits are one of the most misunderstood pets by far. :rabbithop:anotherbun
 
yeah, one day I was reading through responses to one of those standard "teach me everything about bunnies 'cause I'm too lazy to do my own research" questions or something like that and someone else who answered before I got to it mentioned RO, so I decided to check it out. I don't remember who it was, someone I haven't seen in a while... I wanna say "little" was part of their name? I dunno. and yeah, catx, hubley and a couple others are good with the bunny questions.

here's another depressing tale, from the hamster forums I've been poking around on since getting my hammy (http://hamsterhideout.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=71383 ):

I didn't realise how popular this thread got! But I hope this isnt off topic but I went to the same petsmart today and Lets just say it could have gone better. So I was there getting guinea pig food and hay and then a little girl(couldn't be older then 9) with her mom looking at the cages (which were right next to us) I didnt bother paying attention cause it was none of my business but then I heard "look sweetie this cage would be perfect for your bunny" and guess what she was pointing to this cage: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4471004 . I nearly died that cage is too small for a hamster let alone a bunny! I decided I would just tell them that the rabbit cages where in the other aisle and they were very nice and said thanks for the help and went to the other aisle.. BUT when I was about to leave I saw them with the same cage and a petsmart employee was helping them take it to there car! That petsmart employee told them that, that cage was good for a bunny until it became a adult... I couldent do anything anymore but man i wish this petsmart waasnt my only option for pet stuff -_-.
Click to expand...
my bunnies' CARRIER is bigger than that cage (it's approx 28''x14''x14'' - 2x1x1 NIC grids) and my hamster lives in a 42 3/4''x22''x18'' bin cage... I can't IMAGINE stuffing a bunny into a 24''x14''x15'' cage, not even a baby!
 
Oh my gosh, they used THAT for a RABBIT? I had a cage about that size because I needed a cheap quarantine cage for a new rat, and that was only 14 days, for a young rat, and I felt bad about such a small cage for that! :( Geez, I hate seeing things like that...
 
oh god, my brain. ow.

another delightful brain aneurysm from yahoo answers:
"Help!!? Is my bunny pregnant ?
Well I just got it last week and I'm not pretty sure if it's a girl or a boy? Anyways I think it's a girl. she's been eating a lot lately and gaining a little pounds quick is she pregnant? I tried looking for eggs by feeling her abdomen not sure...does this mean she is pregnant or gaining pound? I adopted her and other bunnies were with her in the shelter? Please help? Is she pregnant!:0"

looking... for EGGS??? dear god.

I said to call the shelter and find out if they spay/neuter bunnies before adoption because most places don't adopt out pets that aren't fixed, then recommended spaying (or an emergency spay if pregnant and not more than about two weeks along). no one who thinks bunnies lay eggs should be anywhere near newborn bunnies. (or bunnies in general, if you ask me)

oh, and their follow-up info was: "I can't afford a vet or know how to check her agin I just got her she's not every confident in me"

FFS, why do you buy a pet knowing you can't afford to take it to the vet if something happens?? I mean, if you've had it for a while and your financial situation changes unexpectedly, that's one thing... but if you got it a week ago?? heck, I took my bunns to the vet shortly after I got them just for a well-being check and to make sure I had a good vet lined up for them for later.
 
If you type in 'do rabbits...' into the google search bar 'lay eggs' is what comes up after rabbits. Clearly, A LOT of people are seeing if rabbits lay eggs. I think its the whole Easter bunny, Cadburry egg thing. People are confused and stupid I guess.
Its a little unbelievable. I'm a member of a chicken forum and you can ask questions about other animals, someone asked about their rabbit. They keep the bun outside and left the doe in with the buck to date for TWO AND A HALF WEEKS. She moved the doe back into her own hutch, the doe made a nest and then the person found blood in the nest but no kits. So she(I assume its a she) checked the bun and couldn't feel anything but wouldn't take it to the vet for whatever reason. Then she wouldn't check the rabbit again because the rabbit didn't like to be held.
?
WHAT? One, if you don't know what you're doing to when you breed a rabbit then why are you doing it? I know next to nothing about breeding rabbits. I would NEVER try to breed based on the knowledge that I have now.
Two, if you're scared to pick your rabbit up because it doesn't like to be picked up because you don't pick it up; you shouldn't have bred the rabbit. My bun doesn't like to be held, but she gets held. Its just ridiculous and irritating when I read things like this! Ahhh.
Oh and three, if you post something on a public forum aimed at people who know more about animals than you do and you ask what they think you should do about your maybe pregnant/maybe not pregnant doe, and they say you should take it to the vet and you don't...then you're a moron.

Yes, my day has been rant filled and I'll just mark that one as #48 for today. hahaha. Its been that kind of day!
 
I know, that frustrates me, when people say "my pet is sick, what do I do?" And you're like "take it to the vet" and they're like "oh, that's too hard, I'll do anything except get my pet proper medical care." I mean, if your rabbit sneezed, or your dog has a small scratch or something, I understand not taking them to the vet, but good lord...
 
what irks me even more is when it's not the owner/person asking that won't spring for the vet trip, it's their PARENTS. way to set a good example for your kids, dumb*ss. how better to teach them responsibility than to get them a pet and then be freaking irresponsible about it? *facepalm*

we had pets as a kid and they ALWAYS went to the vet if they were sick. I had a bunny get a tiny cut on his shoulder and we were tending to it ourselves by putting neosporin on it/keeping it clean and such... then one day during his outdoor romp, he got flystrike. we didn't know what it was but caught it quickly and knew it was BAD - mom coughed up the cash to take him to an emergency vet, who said she got him there just in time and was able to save his life. heck, we even took a hamster to the vet a time or two, which SO many people won't do because "it's just a hamster" (like they're disposable or something).

don't give in and get your kid a pet if you're not going to set a good example by caring for it properly! it's sad when the kid KNOWS their pet needs to go to a vet but the stupid parents are refusing.

most special "my parents are stupid" question... http://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...EAl6f83ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20120806210240AAHJWzy

kid's parents were actually considering getting his kid brother a tiger to live in the back yard... and I'm pretty certain by the way the post is written that it was serious/not trolling. kid wanted to know how to convince his parents that they were insane to even consider it. FFS, a baby TIGER? yeah, great way to get your kid eaten.
 
I would totally have a tiger! Then again, I'm also insane and I have the land to have large animals. That would never happen though.

Growing up, my mom always took our animals to the vet. We had cats and dogs my whole life and if something, even the smallest thing was wrong, we would take it to the vet. I've been going to the same vet for 20 years, they know me by name and they cut me deals all the time. They spayed to feral cats for me for $120, including shots. Thats pretty awesome.
It is very irresponsible for the parents to act like that. I'm not like that. I take my animals to the vet. My bun isn't spayed, but she's been to the vet. And I just spent 3 hours the other day on the phone with 100 different vets in my area trying to find the right vet to take my bun to get spayed. I think a lot of kids have issues with their parents and animals. The kids beg and beg for the animals but the parents don't want to take care of them.
I can't wait for my son to want to get his 'own' pet. He's only 15 months now, so I'll have to wait until hes like 5 or so to want to pick out the animal he wants as a pet. I know what I'll have to be the one to take primary care of the animal and foot the vet bill. But thats part of being a good parent, you teach them how to take care of the animals and help them do things on their own, but you have to take the responsibility for the animal.
I spend about half my day tending to my small farm. I have dogs, cats, a bun, and chickens. I spend a lot of time feeding, cleaning the buns litter box, raking out chicken coops and free ranging chickens. All that falls to me, my hub doesn't do any of the animal work. But thats something I brought on myself, having a small farm. We're also talking about adding alpacas to our brood. Alpacas are awesome and hopefully we'll be able to find a reasonable price for them.
But, as my son gets older, I'll teach him how to care for and manage the animals that way he can help me and when hes grown and moved out, he'll know how to care for animals the right way. Speaking of chickens, I've got to go check and make sure their coop door is shut.
 
I work very hard to pay for ALL of Teddy's expenses, INCLUDING vet visits, but if there were a reason I couldn't pay for it, I'm sure my mom would. I don't know if she likes Teddy that much, but she knows how devestated I would be if I lost her. But like I said, so far it's been all MY money and MY time.
 
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