So great when you can change other people’s views on bunnies. I don’t feel I have had the same luck. When I tell other people with hutch bunnies, that they can bring them inside, they all say it is too expensive to have them neutered…and end of discussion.

Right now I’m trying to influence my sister in law who has two hutch bunnies to have them neutered, so they can live together at least. Not sure if I have any luck. She loves my bunnies and think that they are so much more fun, but still she does not ask me about house bunnies. I have to bring it up myself and be sneaky about it. It’s a shame ’cause she really loves her bunnies.

I try to educate people through my website instead. I don’t participate in other online debates about house bunnies as I find breeders very stubborn and very rude on forums.

Heck, even my parents who love rabbits find it very strange and very sad that I have house rabbits. My mum often emails me and asks if poor Karl still lives inside (I don’t know why she is only interested in Karl??). When I say yes, she goes on about rabbits needing to be out in their natural environment, and it is so sad that poor Karl has to live like that

Poor Karl, having to live in a safe enviroment with no preditors to hurt and kill him, or weather and tempertures that could also kill him … to have to live a life indoors with company (family) and to always have clean food and water available or medical care when needed… what a sad sad life :p it must be soooo hard on him…. :p oh and then my 7 spoiled little princes and princesses as well :p
Funny she doesn’t mention you other bunnies, just the one. Does she have any pets?

When people give me the raised eye brow and ask “they live INSIDE?” I answer, yes in pens and they are litter trained like cats. That usually makes sence if they are compaired to a cat, if they keep asking questions i explain the benifits of spaying/neutering and how hormonal they can get if not done.
When my guys are outside playing I catch my neighbours watching them, they even toss parsley from their garden to my buns LOL

poor, poor Karl…..

you should see the looks I get when I tell people my buns have their own bedroom.

 People in my area think I am batty because I have rabbits indoors. 

And rarely believe me that they can be litter box trained or have personalities. Until they meet them then they are shocked. But then again most people around here think Pacey is a really fuzzy kitten 

I try to educate people as much as possible and have actually started to get request from parents for printed out caresheets to hand  to their kid who wants a bunny so both of them can decide if a rabbit is right for them. 

Breeders on the other hand around here hate me lol. Especially when I walk up to their doors and ask them why they are selling 4 week old rabbits or why there is no water in their bowls / bottles or shaded areas anywhere and it above 100F outside. 

Some people listen and setup indoor enclosure for their rabbits. Others throw colorful remarks at me and stomp off. 

My mom has mentioned to me a few times to set up an outdoor enclosure for them. I told her no, because of the disease the mosquitoes are carrying around here and then asked her if she wanted to buy the revolution or advantage to treat them when they are infested with fleas and ticks?

“Why don’t you let them act like a real bunny for a few hours and eat grass and dig”

People think I am crazy too, but once you compare them to cats then they seem to get it. People still really have this idea that you keep them outside in a hutch with wire flooring and that’s how they should live. Of course, when I traveled those 2 hours to get Bun that’s what her owners had her in. A hutch with wire flooring. Little Bun came home with me to fleece flooring lol.

Posted By Lintini on 07/26/2010 01:18 PM

“Why don’t you let them act like a real bunny for a few hours and eat grass and dig”

Ask her to run around like a real human, naked and hunt her own food I’m sure the spoiled buns enjoy the easy life as much as we do…

Oh gosh…we wouldn’t want to see that…lol

you’ll have to show her my all time favorite youtube video of the bunny digging to China and ask her if she’ like her yard looking like that.

Oh yea she knows, she had rabbits when she was little. I guess one of her does dug a huge hole and thought she was gonna have her babies in there. Our backyard already looks like that from the Rat Terrier tho…so we already watch out for pot holes!

Love that video tho, saw it a bit ago…never gets old!

If mine would dig like that I’d put them to work in the spring to building a parsley garden.

I’ll send over the rat terrier too so she can help you. Leia and digging go in the same sentence often. Although I think Petzy already has her rented out for her weasels!

Posted By kralspace on 07/26/2010 01:54 PM

you’ll have to show her my all time favorite youtube video of the bunny digging to China and ask her if she’ like her yard looking like that.

What a great video, Kralspace! I love it. That’s is why I take my bunnies outside as well, and once we move to our house, I will fence a big part of the garden just for them to enjoy. 

As for my mum thinking Karl is living a sad life. To a certain extend, I do agree with her. I do think he should get out more, but I do not agree that he should live outdoors permanently. Also, I have told her repeatedly that he does not feel safe in our current yard, so  I am really doing him a favour by not letting him out, while we live in this temporary place. Parents We had yard bunnies when I was a kid – free roaming bunnies in the garden. I think, she feels I look down on the way we had bunnies back then and that is why she keeps obsessing about how I have bunnies today. But I don’t look down on it, we just didn’t know better back then, and at least they lived a happier life than hutch bunnies.

that video was really cool.its amazing what bunnies can do.Brittany i actually thought it was Chacha.LOL

@ Karla, you could send your Mum a series of pictures of Karl living it up at home. No message, just the images. “A picture tells a 1000 words” etc.  

 I think hutch bunnies can be happy bunnies provided their owners visit, let them out and interact with them alot. There not necessarily safe housed outdoors (IMO) but if there is no alternative, hutch bunny owners can still make their lives better.

Thanks for posting that video! I really enjoyed it!!!!  Sometimes Olivia and Stormy will dig blankets and then do like a smoothing motion and now I know why.

From what I gather, around here there seems to be a fair mix of house and hutch bunnies. I love educating people about rabbits but it’s hard not to be preachy. Often, when I’m at the pet store buying giant bags of hay, people will ask me what type of pet I have and it’s a good opportunity to tell people what great housepets they are.

My family all thinks my rabbits are ridiculously pampered. As if…

Posted By Spidey on 07/26/2010 01:31 PM

Posted By Lintini on 07/26/2010 01:18 PM

“Why don’t you let them act like a real bunny for a few hours and eat grass and dig”

Ask her to run around like a real human, naked and hunt her own food I’m sure the spoiled buns enjoy the easy life as much as we do…

hahaha… will have to remember that one!  i held back from visibly cringing recently at the humane society where one of the well-meaning volunteers and her daughter told me about their outdoor rabbits.  i had some sympathy for them when they said they started looking after them after their neighbor ‘set them free’.  instead of lecturing i managed to keep it limited to comparing rabbits to cats as pets. 

i convinced my friend’s step-dad out of getting bunnies in a hutch in their back yard.  he’s old-school and had hutch bunnies back in the 70’s and figured it’d be a fun experience for my friend’s kids (his grand kids).  i heard about his plans from the kids and said “oh no you can’t keep rabbits in a hutch outside any more!  they need to be protected from all kinds of things and need lots of love and attention just like your hamster.” i’m pretty certain that he decided against it purely because he heard my statement to the kids and knew i’d be after him on a regular basis about their care.  haha.  job done!

When people see my room they are shocked but think it is amusing too. I actually influenced one of my friends with a bunny to build her bunny a NIC condo. He loves it. He isn’t neutered but I think it is a bit late for that because he is already 6 and i heard neutering is more risky for older bunnies. But I was very happy that he now lives in a much bigger cage, before he was living in a tiny commercial cage.