Rabbit advice please

Notsosharp

I would agree with all the OPs. At the end of the day its up to you whether or not you get the rabbit but they are A LOT of hard work. I have one and shes lovely but she is a tempremental hormonal handful and she takes a lot of looking after, definately more than the cats and the tank of fish I have....they are not ideal pets for a young child.

I would say if she has her heart set on a pet then the best way to go would be a pair of guinea pigs, they are very easy to look after and will eat practically any veggie scraps from the kitchen and mine love dandelions and nettles. So on the whole once you have brought a decent hutch for them they are relatively cheap to take care of and can become very friendly and tame (mine aren't but they weren't handled from young).

If you still want a rabbit, bear in mind they don't take kindly to being picked up, mine will be picked up but she struggles and definately prefers it when she has all four feet on the gorund. They need as much exercise as a small dog, mine has free run of the yard and as I have discovered recently after finding mine on the neighbours flat roof rabbits can jump and climb.....and they also make a mess of your garden digging. Try to get a pair, there are rescues that specialise in bonded rabbit pairs and also they will be neutured. Neuturing can cost from £60 to £100.

They are lovely pets if you know how to handle them and can be housetrained too but I would not recommend them for a small child, also bear in mind they can live 8 to ten years and your DD will prolly have lost intrest by then but I could of course be wrong.

lowis

i had a male Dutch rabbit, he was lovely, a great temperament, child friendly and relatively low cost...but not cheap. there is food, hay, bedding straw, treats, hutch, hutch maintenance, toys, insurance and routine vet bills (annual check-up etc).

he had free run of my balcony 24 hours a day (2.5m x 1.5m), in fact i converted my balcony into a home for him: enclosing it with mesh, placing his hutch at one end and covering the floor with straw and obstacles/toys for him to play with. he also came into my flat in the evenings and would play with the cats (supervised! for obvious reasons!). on nice, dry days i would also put him on a lead and take him for a walk in the gardens beneath our flats. he seemed happy enough and i was careful to ensure he had as much interaction as possible..he lived to 10 so I did something right

i would perhaps wait until after you have the baby...your child might lose interest in the rabbit when her new 'toy' (her new sibling) arrives!

lindsaygalaxy

I think i will not mention it and see if she brings it up again! Thank you for the advice, I think its worth giving it a miss at this time.

hotcookie101

Rabbits do not carry toxo, that is cats! so no risk to pregnancy from that. However I often feel rabbits are not the best childrens pets-g pigs can be friendlier, easier to handle and *tend* to be hardier than bunnies(slightly less dental disease etc). Some of my worst scratches have been from rabbits, and I had a kid in last week with a HUGE scratch on her face from the pet rabbit.
They can be great though-but your daughter may be a little young to look after it properly...

ClareEmily

No rabbits are not recommended for children at all, they can also be very expensive.

Have a read of the "is a rabbit for me" leaflet:
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/leaflet_pdfs/iarfm_feb_06.pdf

Also have a read at all these leaflets:

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.html

They may look cute and cuddly but the majority (including mine like to keep their paws firmly on the ground). My bunny needs a lot of attention and has cost me a small fortune in vets bills, hay and toys etc.

To be honest she is only 4 get her a toy bunny.

emweaver

My 3year old DD has a rabbit, had it a year and she loves it. Of course shes to young to clean it etc so we do that. They are not expensive at all, we spend about £8 a fortnight and that includes bedding and food. You can b uy toys for them but this is a one off expesnse so again not expensive

They need injections yearly which cost us £48 a year. Much cheaper than a cat or dogs vet bills.

ClareEmily

emweaver wrote: »

My 3year old DD has a rabbit, had it a year and she loves it. Of course shes to young to clean it etc so we do that. They are not expensive at all, we spend about £8 a fortnight and that includes bedding and food. You can b uy toys for them but this is a one off expesnse so again not expensive

They need injections yearly which cost us £48 a year. Much cheaper than a cat or dogs vet bills.

deleted not relevant

clutterydrawer

If you are willing to spnd the time and money on them (you should keep rabbits in pairs as they are social animals) even after your DD is bored, then it might be worth considering. Definitely do lots of research first though - I had no idea when i got them how challenging they could be to look after. Vaccinations are relatively cheap as emweaver says but other vet bills have cost me hundreds - for example 80 every few months to have my rabbit's overgrown teeth burred down. Here are some useful links:

http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/adoptadvice.asp

Turtle

I'd agree with most of the posts here, food relatively cheap but you never know what vets bills you might encounter. I had a house rabbit until very recently when sadly he had to be put to sleep, he was nearly 7. Bob was definitely boss in our house, we both loved him to bits and were devastated when we had to let him go. We also have friends with two house rabbits, they freely admit that when they had their little boy the rabbits did not receive the love and attention they deserve. Now they have baby no 2 on the way things can only go down hill. Bob was fab, but also was certainly not a cuddly bunny, he always struggled when we picked him up and he had very powerful back legs, which could deliver a nasty kick.

I'd wait until children are older when they can help and know how to treat bunny, then go to a rescue There's lots of bunnies needing homes and if you don't get a baby you'll have some idea of their personality.

TomandBarbara

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

I think i will not mention it and see if she brings it up again! Thank you for the advice, I think its worth giving it a miss at this time.

Well done for asking for advice about it though and not just buying one! I think four is most definitely too young, but if you do decide later on to get on as a family then www.rabbitrehome.org.uk is a fantastic website where you can search a database of bunnies just waiting to go to a new home! Most only rehome in pairs though which is great as two buns are most definitely happier than one lone bun.