The Bunny Chat Thread - For Bunny Owners

[FortCluck]

Coop, I meant

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Whew, moved my fryer aged rabbits out of their moms cage and into one of the big 4x4 cages where they will finish growing out, and the 4 rexes we had growing out in there previously are now sausage cubes. Lots of work today!

Meanwhile, my youngest litter started coming out of the nestbox earlier this week.

Very Angery.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Whew, moved my fryer aged rabbits out of their moms cage and into one of the big 4x4 cages where they will finish growing out, and the 4 rexes we had growing out in there previously are now sausage cubes. Lots of work today!

Meanwhile, my youngest litter started coming out of the nestbox earlier this week.

Very Angery.

Haha, I know that Angry Stare so well lol! My lionhead despises being picked up.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

This whole litter is very antisocial. But probably none of them are keepers anyhow. None of them are standing out to me right now but these things take time. I could change my mind. There's 2 rex furred (a castor and a white) and 3 normal.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

This whole litter is very antisocial. But probably none of them are keepers anyhow. None of them are standing out to me right now but these things take time. I could change my mind. There's 2 rex furred (a castor and a white) and 3 normal.

Ah, yeah. Does it take a while for them to warm up to you? I've never raised baby bunnies before. Mine is a pet so I've been 'stuck' with him lol. But in all seriousness, he has been a great bun, even if he's a bit mean at times. He's just like a horse I ride, too: both are small, mean, but can be sweet and fun, ha!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Ah, yeah. Does it take a while for them to warm up to you? I've never raised baby bunnies before. Mine is a pet so I've been 'stuck' with him lol. But in all seriousness, he has been a great bun, even if he's a bit mean at times. He's just like a horse I ride, too: both are small, mean, but can be sweet and fun, ha!

It depends on a lot of factors - genetics, environment, time spent handling them pre-eye-opening, which cage they're raised in, how much milk they get, and a bunch of things including individual attitudes. With the exception of one early loss this has been a very self sufficient litter with a very experienced mom so I didn't pick them up a ton as kits.

There are things you can do to try to ensure friendly babies. But they'll only carry you so far and eventually it comes down to chance. I focus a lot less on attitude in my rabbits and more on health. I will move mountains to keep a rabbit healthy but only put in moderate effort to make them nice. As long as they don't bite me and I can pick them up to groom them and breed them I am happy. It's the last thing on my list of traits I breed for - we don't keep mean rabbits but we don't need a lovey dovey rabbit for it to be a breeder.

Some of my does and most of my bucks come over for scratches, some of them run if they realize I'm opening the cage. Sometimes that passes down, sometimes it doesn't. If I spent enough time with all of them they'd probably all let me pick them up but given that most of them are food it's not worth the effort. They're happy with or without a relationship with me. I do put more time into my keeper/breeder rabbits, though, and on average they come out nicer.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

It depends on a lot of factors - genetics, environment, time spent handling them pre-eye-opening, which cage they're raised in, how much milk they get, and a bunch of things including individual attitudes. With the exception of one early loss this has been a very self sufficient litter with a very experienced mom so I didn't pick them up a ton as kits.

There are things you can do to try to ensure friendly babies. But they'll only carry you so far and eventually it comes down to chance. I focus a lot less on attitude in my rabbits and more on health. I will move mountains to keep a rabbit healthy but only put in moderate effort to make them nice. As long as they don't bite me and I can pick them up to groom them and breed them I am happy. It's the last thing on my list of traits I breed for - we don't keep mean rabbits but we don't need a lovey dovey rabbit for it to be a breeder.

Some of my does and most of my bucks come over for scratches, some of them run if they realize I'm opening the cage. Sometimes that passes down, sometimes it doesn't. If I spent enough time with all of them they'd probably all let me pick them up but given that most of them are food it's not worth the effort. They're happy with or without a relationship with me. I do put more time into my keeper/breeder rabbits, though, and on average they come out nicer.

I never really realized there were so many factors to it! That's very interesting. I can imagine when you aren't keeping a rabbit for a pet, or I guess any animal, you can't or won't expect them to be super friendly with people, so long as they aren't aggressive and have other good attributes. It makes sense.

Thanks for the reply! Ever since I joined BYC, I've started to view animals a lot differently, since I've only ever kept mine for pets. I'm interested in perhaps having animals for reasons like for meat or products, so I love to hear peoples experience and advice from here.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I never really realized there were so many factors to it! That's very interesting. I can imagine when you aren't keeping a rabbit for a pet, or I guess any animal, you can't or won't expect them to be super friendly with people, so long as they aren't aggressive and have other good attributes. It makes sense.

Thanks for the reply! Ever since I joined BYC, I've started to view animals a lot differently, since I've only ever kept mine for pets. I'm interested in perhaps having animals for reasons like for meat or products, so I love to hear peoples experience and advice from here.

Ofc! I think almost ANY rabbit is CAPABLE of becoming human hand-friendly if you spend pet levels of time with them. Some are just more naturally friendly than others. But time is a limited resource, and I'd rather spend it on enrichment than training.

My theory is that since they're not pets, their comfort with me doesn't effect their happiness levels much. I'm much more able to improve their lives by spending my time crafting toys and a healthy environment for them to live without me around. Would they rather have me spend 10 minutes petting them? Or 10 minutes clipping fruit sticks and wrapping them into a wreath to hang in their cage for them to chew for the next 3 days?

As long as they can be picked up without trying to kill me or constantly panicking, I can make changes to their cages without them freaking out, and I can check on their kits without being attacked, I think it's all good.

CW: human injuries! Having said that we do absolutely cull rabbits that are too scared or aggressive to handle. I have a scar on my wrist from a 14lb buck that bit me so bad THROUGH A GLOVE that I could see my artery pumping blood in the open wound. I nearly fainted. He became soup FAST and we didn't keep a single baby from him either. He was beautiful but #noregrets, that rabbit tried to kill me.

I also don't want to keep a rabbit that is so fearful they can't handle me making changes in the cage or picking them up and they won't stop trying to run away. They will hurt themselves running into the walls when I feed them, or may break their back trying to twist out of my arms, break a leg falling to the ground when I transport them if they break away, and generally be so stressed out they will come down with illness and produce less milk and kits. It's not beneficial so very fearful rabbits get culled too, no matter how nice they are otherwise. It's not healthy.

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Ofc! I think almost ANY rabbit is CAPABLE of becoming human hand-friendly if you spend pet levels of time with them. Some are just more naturally friendly than others. But time is a limited resource, and I'd rather spend it on enrichment than training.

My theory is that since they're not pets, their comfort with me doesn't effect their happiness levels much. I'm much more able to improve their lives by spending my time crafting toys and a healthy environment for them to live without me around. Would they rather have me spend 10 minutes petting them? Or 10 minutes clipping fruit sticks and wrapping them into a wreath to hang in their cage for them to chew for the next 3 days?

As long as they can be picked up without trying to kill me or constantly panicking, I can make changes to their cages without them freaking out, and I can check on their kits without being attacked, I think it's all good.

CW: human injuries! Having said that we do absolutely cull rabbits that are too scared or aggressive to handle. I have a scar on my wrist from a 14lb buck that bit me so bad THROUGH A GLOVE that I could see my artery pumping blood in the open wound. I nearly fainted. He became soup FAST and we didn't keep a single baby from him either. He was beautiful but #noregrets, that rabbit tried to kill me.

I also don't want to keep a rabbit that is so fearful they can't handle me making changes in the cage or picking them up and they won't stop trying to run away. They will hurt themselves running into the walls when I feed them, or may break their back trying to twist out of my arms, break a leg falling to the ground when I transport them if they break away, and generally be so stressed out they will come down with illness and produce less milk and kits. It's not beneficial so very fearful rabbits get culled too, no matter how nice they are otherwise. It's not healthy.

Yea, I agree. Spend enough time with a rabbit and I'm sure it'll warm up to humans and become friendlier. We got my one rabbit, Pumpkin, from a shelter, but it still took a while for her to warm up to me. She was more shy than anything. She still doesn't like to eat in front of me that often lol.

And oh yikes! That sounds like a horrible wound, I hope it healed quick as it could. I can imagine he'd go fast. Pet or not there should always be a line of when to keep an animal if it is too aggressive. With fearfulness, too, especially for the animal's sake. My one rabbit wasn't necessarily afraid of me, but once he was racing through his cage to get away from me when I tried to take him out (they have a wire bottom, although they do have a mat and tile in there) and he ripped a nail out. I felt really badly about it. When angry or fearful they can be in just as much danger to themselves as they are to us.

I love reading how you care for your rabbits though--they sound very spoiled and well cared for.

 

[igorsMistress]

Yes it looked great nice and spacious thanks for sharing you have some very lucky rabbits

Thank you. My DIL says they have a mansion but I feel like more space would be better if I could manage to give it.