My DD desperately wantst to get a pet rabbit. Does anyone have one? Are they kept indoors or out? How often do you clean the cage? etc...

By Coopaveryben on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 09:11 am:

I grew up with a rabbit and I want another one when the youngest gets older. I love them! You can keep them inside or outside. YOu can let them roam your house and litter box train them. I kept mine in a rabbit hutch outside but would bring them in the house OFTEN. I had a friend and hers had free roam of the house, I had an inside dog so I couldn't do this. My aunt also has a neighbor who raises them and he lets them roam in the yard. To litter box train them you put them in their hutch and watch which side they go to the bathroom in, put a litter box under that side for a few days and then move the litter box to the top and then you can take them out of their cage and put the litter box down in the floor. I have never had one in a cage, if you do I would think you would need to clean it out once a day. If you get a hutch you need to clean it out often but really clean it once a week (a hutch just allows the waste to fall through the cage into a tray in the bottom)

If you DD is very young I would not recommend one, they are fragile to some extent.

By Pamt on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 11:01 am:

We had one briefly and I would not recommend them. They are definitely cool pets to have and very affectionate, but A LOT of trouble. We got ours from the humane society and he was litterbox trained. We had a cage for him to sleep in at night and he also ate there. They like to have a "nest." Ours was a big 12 pound rabbit. Initially we kept him in the bathroom, but gradually let him explore the whole house. He had a few pee accidents (and rabbit urine smells even worse that male cat spray!!) and many poop accidents the first few days. I think we had 3 litterboxes throughout the house to help. After a week he was potty-trained, except every time he literally crossed the threshold into the family room he would drop a "bunny berry" every time he hopped. He would pee and really poo in the litter box, but we think he was marking his territory with his poop since we spent most of our time in the family room. Literally in 15 minutes there would be 25-30 rabbit poops all over the floor. SInce they are pellets they were easy to clean up, but ewwwww gross! We didn't get this habit stopped in a month's time. (The humane society insisted we "foster" him before we officially adopted--glad we had this option b/c we decided a rabbit wasn't for us)

Other considerations...you have to really rabbit proof your house. They love to eat paper and books. Our rabbit chewed up magazines in the magazine basket, nibbled the covers off of books on the lower bookshelves, and ate Genesis 1-18 out of my Bible...really. They can also jump high onto beds, chairs, and even countertops. You have to cover up all electrical cords too because they will chew through those and electrocute themselves or destroy your electronic equipment.

On the plus side...our bunny would hop over and nudge you with his nose until you reached down and petted him. They make little clicking sounds with their teeth when happy that sounds kind of like purring and they run around and jump with a twist in the air when they are excited. Our bunny would also eat vegetables from our hand and needs to eat fresh vegetables and clover twice a day. They also eat bunny chow and must have hay (messy and stinky) and water available at all times.

They are nice pets but very high maintenance. I think if you keep them in a hutch then after the novelty wears off they never get played with and that is inhumane IMHO. I would suggest a cat instead.

P.S. We kept our rabbit inside with our cat and dog. The cat just ignored the rabbit. Of course, the dog was intrigued, but when he went to sniff the rabbit the rabbit turned around QUICKLY and bunny-thumped our 65 lb dog in the nose with his hind legs. The dog forevermore avoided that rabbit.

By Paulas on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 02:22 pm:

Thanks for the input so far. We do have a cat and my dd is 8 years old. Last summer, we saw a child walking a bunny with a lease. DD thought that was so cute. Anyway, we're still very much in the "thinking" about it stage. Thanks for your help.

By Arnion on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 04:03 pm:

We've had many different kinds of pets, and I would NEVER want another rabbit!! Of all the pets we've had, that is definitely the worst memory. They are cute and darling when they're little, but they get huge and are extremely dirty pets. We kept them indoors in a cage, and the whole house smelled! It was a real task to clean the cage, and cleaing often didn't really solve the problem.

We let the rabbits out of the cage often, and they dirtied the family room. I just don't personally believe that any rabbit can be trained to be a clean pet consistently.

By Tink on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 08:22 pm:

I think you really have to be "rabbit people" in order to enjoy them. We have tried them several times and it hasn't ever "fit". They are pretty high maintanence and need to be around people often if you want them to be comfortable enough to cuddle and play with. We had one that was electrocuted when he got ahold of a lamp cord and one that literally died of fright when a stray dog ran up to it in the front yard. Apparently that isn't an unusual occurance with rabbits. I think there are people that this is a great pet but you need to be aware of what it entails.