Blessed with an embarrassment of riches. . . er, bunnies

[mkculs]

I’m one of those lucky folks who wanted a couple of house rabbits so I bought two females at a pet store–they were 10 weeks old. That was December. Low and behold, in late March, I come home from work to find 4 new babies!! I immediately removed the bunny who was now obviously *not* a female–and started reading online. I realized it might have already been too late–litter 2 might be on its way. So I settled in with my kids to enjoy what we had now and hope for the best.

On April 23, another 4 arrived–oh my goodness!! The good news is, our Mama is wonderful and we haven’t lost a single baby. The more challenging news is, I have 10 bunnies. I am a responsible pet owner and cannot in good conscience just sell or give them away to get rid of them. We might place one or two with friends who really want one and will agree to return it if they change their minds. 

So, what to do about housing??? I live in Wisconsin, so winters are a real issue, and I totally wanted my rabbits to share our home. Am I crazy to think I can do this with 10 bunnies? We’ve been to the vet; spaying and neutering will proceed as I can afford it, and I have some cages for housing those that can’t be mixed yet with the opposite sex. With 6 boys and 4 girls, I’m planning to spay the girls and hope the boys–all being raised together–will get along. Is that too much risk? Will I get spraying and fighting from them? 

The vet and his crew were not totally sure–no guarantees. They felt that rabbits raised together are likely to get along, but no one had actual experience of raising multiples or working with people who did. Ha, such fun to be an anomaly at the vet’s office, to have something unusual. Not! 

Anyway, I have a friend who has offered to help design and build housing. I am wondering if there is a way to have indoor/outdoor bunnies. Right now I use my deck for outdoor play–up off the ground, safe from predators above and below. But that’s only possible a few hours a day, and won’t be good in winter. I have even thought about adding a “bunny door” so they could come in and out as they please. 

Also, Dad is beautifully litter trained–he uses his litter box for everything. He’s in his own cage but mixes with the boys outside. No one else seems to be so . . . particular as Dad, though. Everyone is using the litter box for urine, but no one else is using it for droppings. Is there a trick to that? Bigger boxes to accommodate more in the cage? Start using my deck to train them by leaving them out there more and more as though it is their summer home, and hope they transfer good habits to their cages (which are small and were never intended as permanent shelter).

Any advice you can share will be much appreciated. They are adorable, sweet babies and will stay small–Dad might be 4.5 lbs but no bigger, and mom is only 3.5. So at least I’m not trying to house 10 giant bunnies!

Thanks! 

[JackRabbit]

Believe it or not, there are others with lots of indoor bunnies. Glad to know you’re getting the girls spayed — both to prevent more babies and to save your girls from the high risk of uterine cancer.

Bunnies are easier to litter train when they are spayed/neutered, but litter habbits generally tend to be less than ideal during the bunny “teenage” period anyway. I don’t have any experience with unneutered males and litterbox training but hopefully someone else will pop on with advice on that as well as handling larger numbers!

[mkculs]

Thanks! This is encouraging. I just hate having the bunnies in cages most of the time, and more freedom is dependent on litter training and civil behavior! 

[mkculs]

I am trying to add pics to my posts so bear with me! Oh, I guess it worked!

[Lee]

Oh god! They are so cute I am absolutely dying. Eeep!

Sorry can’t really offer any advice haha, just wanted to tell you how adorable they are.

[Author]

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