I think the important thing now is that you did learn how to better care for rabbits. And it sounds like you are more than making up for it with your little Holly.

well when I was young in elementary / junior high I had buns for 4H and I kept Mister in the house when I came home from school and did my homework. my parents ended up divorcing. I wanted to keep Mister as a house bun. i trained him not to pee all over. but no go. my Mom does not like house pets. I was devastated. now I am grown up I am making up for it too. I even raised a litter in the house  when I was    young  then too their mom died. I had baby bottles and some bunny  milk I dont’ remember where it came from maybe from feed store. I dont’ remember. but they grew up. they were in a box by my bed and would scratch around at 4 a.m. I would get up prepare their bottles and feed them. one would hop out and run to the kitchen and visit with my dad he was a morning person was so funny.  the bun did that after it was older tho like 4-6  weeks I just loved them. I was heartbroken when we couldn’t keep them all I was very very upset. and soemtimes I would have dreams I forgot to feed them nightmares really. I would still have that dream occassionally. they have stopped now that I have my house bun thank God for that. ohhh I would wake up very upset from that nightmate. agth.

omg I just saw cotton cleaning his hind leg I thought he was hurt. wow he had his hind leg flat out on the side  oh the floor and was cleaning it geee never saw that b4. talk about a pretzel maybe is has learned to do Yoga heheee

my mom has fond memories of me and those rabbits I used to take them out and let them run around. in the yard my dog would protect them from other animals at nite. their housing was safe and protected from dogs but sometimes they came anyway. and cinnamon would bark and bark and I would get out of bed at nite and go see and we chased off the dogs. that was b4 leash laws. but they couldn’t get to my buns anyway even so I chased them off  and 2 got out i had to chase the 1 down the alley crawled thru a hole in chicken wire fence into the neighbors garden heheee. til I caught him. my dog tried to help then too. heheee.

Holly, I know how you feel. My first rabbit was one I found wandering the street. I went on line and learned alot, but I still feel I did not do all I could do for her. She had a good life, but it made me even more determined to do better by Shadow…especially with vet visits and check ups. And it has made me more determined to rescue buns or at the very least share what I have learned with others.

don’t feel bad.  i made so many mistakes with my first rabbit (glass aquarium, occasional hay, no veggies, corn cob bedding, not altered).  i learned a lot while i had Stephen and i was able to correct some of the things i did wrong, but he still passed away at a very young age.  i feel bad to this day that he might have had a better life, but there’s nothing i (or anyone) can do to change mistakes made in the past. 

the most important thing is you give Holly the very best life you can now that you know.  you can’t be blamed for not doing something if you don’t know. 

it’s the people who are told and recommended the right things to do, but do not make an effort, who should feel guilty.

It’s O.K. to be sad, but also be proud that you were open enough to learning new and better ways to have and co-exist with rabbits. Life is a learning process and what we take with us makes us better or stronger or both.

its ok, if you didnt know any better then how could you have done anything more? i didnt know about house rabbits either untill i stumbled across it on the internet as i was trying to find some info on why the rabbits in a pet store by me where allowed to be kept in awful conditions as they are and if i hadnt looked that up i would stil think that rabbits where dumb animals who sat in the corner and did nothing much, if i had a rabbit it would have lived the same as yours because i just didnt know any better and so nothing more could have been expected, now i know better i try to give hopscotch as good a life as humanly possible as i do with all my animals and learning alot about rabbits taught me to do my research! be glad that you are giving one bunny a good home and just remember than even if they did live outdoors they probably had a better life than lots of other rabbits who spend there days stuck in a pen full of wee and poo in a pet store! you did your best and they know it so dont be sad