Well, House Rabbit Society considers rabbits over 6 years old seniors. Nowadays house rabbits are living well past 7 years old which I honestly think is the new senior age for indoor house rabbits. I think there is a huge difference between our rabbits and “other” rabbits. Our rabbits are indoors, receive vet care and are loved and well taken care of so their life expectancy is much higher. All my rabbits are over 5 years old – most are over 7 years old and they are still generally healthy.

I am also not sure what a senior rabbit really acts like either…I think alot of the reason that the House Rabbit Society uses the age of 6 years is more for diet than for anything else. I’ve heard of rabbits living to the age of 13 and have had friends who’s rabbits were 9 years old before they passed away. Obviously rabbits do age quite a bit faster than we humans but then so do dogs.

Once bonded, your rabbits would offer each other a lot of comfort. I know buns do better with a mate and this can also carry over to various medical issues, they heal quicker b/c they have that connection to someone. I don’t think you should be worried about bonding Stormy with the others, you would just use the normal precautions that anyone bonding would. It’s hard to really feel “ready” to bond b/c you’re not sure how everyone will react, but I think it would be good to try.

Hmm so would my first bun, Mickey, be considered ancient?  He lived to be 12   He would have been 13 this year.  He still acted pretty lively but towards the end he didn’t want to do to much…still got super excited over his raisins though.  I think that was the only thing keeping him going was him getting so many raisins.  One person would give him a raisin or two, another person would go down and do the same thing without knowing the first person already gave him raisins.  He was a spoiled bun when it came to treats, that’s for sure!

At 12 years old he deserved to be spoiled :~)

LPT – I would recommend a baseline blood work-up at this age if you have never done bloodwork on Stormy.

Posted By Sarita on 10/07/2009 02:19 PM
LPT – I would recommend a baseline blood work-up at this age if you have never done bloodwork on Stormy.

Not my post, but why would you do that?  Mae is 5 so Im curious.

A baseline will be a comparison for your vet for a well versus sick bunny. It is just good to have a comparison for later on in your rabbit’s life. I’ve had bloodwork done on most of my rabbits – not all, but most at this point.

Bunnyliz ask if they can provide you with Mae’s vet records as well to give to your vet…I’m sure they would. You mentioned she had a URI so it would be good for your vet to know what type of medication they gave her and when it was and when she was spayed – any type of info you can get on her would be good.

I did ask for her vet records because VPI will want all that info. She is going to get me her most recent records, she said she could get them all if it was completely needed but it would be a pain for her to go to all the many vets she has been to, and to ones she isnt friendly with now. Example- I dont really need her spay records. I know when she was spayed so I dont need that.

They can certainly live longer. Depends if you spay/neuter and feed correctly, and go to the vet when you need to -all things you do Chick is seven, I consider him senior because neglect does limit lifespan. Noot is nine and totally more active then Rupert and Kahlua.

Here are some records:

Hazel, a16-year-old miniature grey rabbit (owners, Mike and Irene Womack, of Chapel Close, Pulham Market) sets the world record for being the Oldest living rabbit.

The oldest bunny alive on record until last year was George, who was born in March 1994 and was owned by a couple in Massachusetts, USA. He was declared the oldest living rabbit in the world after several vets confirmed his age as 14 years, as of March 13, 2008.

The oldest rabbit ever on record was a wild rabbit named Flopsy, who was caught on August 6, 1964, and died 18 years and 10.75 months later in Tasmania, Australia.

Remember that rabbit was caught as an adult and lived a FURTHER 18 years (almost 19) years longer!

Six is nothing to write home about in my humble opinion.

I remember Spockie at 5 was pretty different from when he was late into 7 and started to develop infirmities for the first time.
He was very spry at 5 and I wouldn’t consider him senior for at least two more years after that.

I just had an idea. What if you put a zero after each year to get an equivalent human age comparison? So at 5, he’s like a 50 year old (call me Senior and I’ll punch you out!!!!). One year is a bit older than ten, but two years is a lot like 20, etc.

Hmm…RP, I don’t think that would quite work – because bunnies have puberty between 3 and 5 months old (humans usually have it between 10 and 15 years) which would make a 1-year-old rabbit a lot older than 10 in human years. Plus, what about the bunnies that live past 12? That would make them over 120 years old in human years.

I personally don’t believe that’s accurate – rabbits not living past 7. I have quite a few friends, in real life and online, who have or have had rabbits over 10 years! Spayed/neutered house bunnies fed a good diet and given proper vet care do have much longer life expectancies than rabbits kept in other conditions.

*sigh* oh well. Maybe it’s just 5 year olds that seem 50.

I was told when I got my first bunny to expect him to live 10-12 years. I was very sad when he passed away at only 8 years old.

I remembered too that another one of my friends had a few rabbits that lived to 11 years old. So there you go. I just think 5 years old is not senior yet. Rereading House Rabbit Society they say OVER six years old (which I am guessing is 7) is what they consider senior but indoor rabbits are living longer and longer and longer with good diets and proper vet care.

I remember at the last Colorado Spring Fling, our vet gave a talk about senior rabbits. Our vet is awesome!
Out of the 80 or so people that were there most everyone had a rabbit that was at least 5 (people raised their hands) about half had a bunny in the 7 to 10 range, several had one in the 10 to 12 and a few (maybe 8 people) had one over 12.

Our vet recommends a baseline blood work-up when you bun hits 5years – I had Kay’s done this year. It cost me about $120 but I feel it was totally worth it!

I’m so sorry the vet tech told you that. I’ve heard of sooo many bunnies that live longer than seven years old (including mine) I have also met some senior senior bunnies, as well as my hubby met someone recently who HAS a 13 year old bunny. I think that as we learn more about bunnies and what they need for a healthy life, as well as having more rabbit savvy vets and great bunny health information on the net, the chances of our bunnies living longer lives is greater than ever before.

Cheers for Seniors!