My parents won’t listen to me about how to care for my rabbit.

[aj tucker]

This may seem silly to some people, but everybody has their hang ups. I am a hardcore animal lover, I’m vegan, I volunteer at animal shelters and with all different types of animals all the time. I do these things because I believe animals should be just as happy as humans should, because a life is a life. So the fact that there is an animal living in my own home who is not being properly taken care of is actually driving me crazy. I’ve been extremely stressed out about this situation, a few hours ago I was laying on the kitchen floor crying while covered in timothy hay and bunny fur . You can think this is “Stupid” or I’m “overreacting” all you want, but this is a legitimate problem that is causing me a ton of stress.

My rabbit’s name is Loki, he’s one year old, and he’s a mini Holland Lop. He’s not neutered, and that contributes to him wanting to poop all over the house. My family basically focuses on how much he poops and that’s all they really care about. Not because they care about him, but because they don’t like seeing his poop all over their stuff. Yeah that’s understandable, I’m annoyed by it too, but there’s much more important things than that.

He isn’t being fed right. Being the teenager in the house, I don’t buy the groceries. I don’t have any money, I volunteer at a lot of places but none of them pay. I’ve applied for a couple jobs and I’m currently waiting for them to get back to me. But anyways, Loki isn’t fed correctly. My mom basically just buys him a head of lettuce and when he runs out, she buys another head of lettuce. That’s all he ever eats. He has pellets but we used to have the ones with the colorful treats in them, once I learned those were bad I got my mom to buy normal pellets, but he doesn’t like them very much. They timothy hay is pretty much the only thing we’ve got right.

He has no companion. I know this isn’t totally necessary for a rabbit, but none of my family pays attention to him, and I’m doing school every day and I’ve got things going on all the time. Even if I don’t have anything planned I can’t just spend all day every day playing with him. He loves our golden retriever, but sadly she doesn’t really love him back. She’s not aggressive with him at all, she just gets annoyed and walks away from him every time he comes near her. We have a cat that I think he may like, but she does the same thing as the dog, walks away. So until I get home, he’s really just sitting in a dark room all by himself staring at a wall for hours straight. Even when I am home though I’ve still got homework, I can’t pay attention to him all the time. But out of my whole family, I’m the only one who gives him any attention, so I’m the only one who notices how sucky his life is. He has no toys because my parents don’t want to buy them, and I try and make DIY toys from things laying around the house but he never likes them.

His cage. Oh my goodness. Don’t even get me started on his cage. Loki was a birthday present to me back in April, so I didn’t get to pick out the cage. My mom picked out a completely wired cage. I think each side is like 2 ft. long? He can’t hop around in it, the wire most likely hurts his feet, and every time I see him in there I can’t help but feel a huge pang of guilt. With his food and litter box in there, there’s hardly any room to lay down and stretch out. Moral of the story; his cage sucks and I think I ‘ve said enough to prove that.

The problem isn’t that I don’t know what to do to make sure he’s happy and healthy, I know exactly what to do. The problem is that my parents will not let me do any of it. I would like to buy a huge hutch and place it outside with a playpen connected to it. I’d let him have more freedom with a harness and leash in the yard, and then of course he’s have another bunny he’d bond with. (There’s no way I’m keeping him outside all by himself.) I’d provide him with plenty of toys, food and entertainment, and I would do whatever it takes to make sure he’s happy. I’ve offered to pay for all of this, I actually don’t want my parents to pay for it at all because I think me paying will show them how serious I am about having Loki as a pet.

Anyways what I need help with is how do I convince my parents to let me do at least some of these things? They will not listen to me no matter what I say. Considering I’ve read every single website there is about bunnies out there and a full book about how to care for your bunny, I think I know a but more then they do. All they care about is the poop all over the house. I probably sound like a spoiled brat, but whatever, I honestly think I could make Loki happier, and if he was kept outside then that means no poop in the house! Yet they still say no. HELP ME.

[LBJ10]

Okay, first of all, you’re not stupid or overreacting. You obviously care for this bunny and you want what’s best for him. Nothing wrong with that. But you are a young person living under your parents’ roof, which means you ultimately have to obey their wishes. Just so you know, what you are describing is not terrible. Is his living situation what we would consider ideal? No. Is it better than what some bunnies have? Absolutely. So let’s look at what we have to work with and see what can be done.

What kind of lettuce is this? Romaine? A head of Romaine lettuce is fine. Some bunnies don’t get any greens at all. If you want to mix things up a bit, you can ask your mom to buy something from the approved veggie list instead of the lettuce. Getting something different every now and then would be an improvement. Just make sure to introduce anything new slowly to make sure your bunny can handle it. The hay is very good, so keep that up!

Now for the cage. Is he indoors? The best place for a bunny is indoors. Life outside really isn’t a good life for a bunny. So a small cage inside is better than a large cage outside, in my opinion. If the cage floor is wire, you can cover it with cardboard to give him something smooth to sit on. He can also chew on it and it would be safe. If you want to give him a larger area to play in, you could get an exercise pen (meant for dogs). Or you can make a condo very inexpensively with some NIC grids.

Leaving him intact is not the end of the world. Yes, some boys exhibit territorial behaviors (including marking with poop). But neutering is not required for health reasons like it is for females (unspayed females are at high risk of developing reproductive cancers). Having his boy bits though means he cannot have a friend. Two intact boys would fight and, well, a boy and a girl would makes lots and lots of babies. So if he were to have a friend, all parties would need to be spayed/neutered.

Being a single bun is not that bad though. There are plenty of single bunnies who are perfectly happy. Do you let him out to run around and play when you’re doing homework? I wouldn’t worry too much about during the day because a lot of bunnies sleep during that time anyway (they are crepuscular, after all).

Hopefully this will give you some simple ideas for making your bun’s life better and help put your mind at ease.

[Mimsy]

You were given some great advice!

I was just thinking of some other idea’s for toys and things you can do to make him more comfortable in the cage he has. You may of already thought of some of these things, but I thought I’d share some idea’s I had. You said it was 2 x 2? How tall is it? Is it tall enough to add a small shelf to? Just another place lay around, and maybe under it can be made into a hide? the shelf or hide space doesn’t have to be fancy, it can be made of cardboard. Which makes it a useful hide/shelf and chew toy. If you have old tshirts that are going to be thrown out, use them on the floor of the cage, if your bunny won’t ingest them. Old rugs, placemats, blankets ect can be used as well.

For toys, you probably only have a little room in the cage for them, so maybe 1 thing at a time that he can toss around, like a toilet paper ring with some hay in it. But you can add some interesting things to the sides of the cage. Do you have any safe trees/bushes in your yard that are not treated with pesticides? Like roses or berry vines? Pear or apple trees? When they get pruned you can weave thin ones through the bars of the cage. Or you can tie larger ones to the side with sisal or hemp rope. That won’t take up precious floor space but gives your bun something to do. I’ve also weaved cardboard through the bars of my buns pen for something to chew and scratch at. If you cut up a toilet roll into little rings and then cut them each you can put the rings through it as well.

For diet, do you have safe weeds that are pesticide free growing in your yard? Like dandalions?

[Rhian]

I would start off slowly. If you want to start offering more changes to his vegetable offerings, ask your mom if it would be okay one day if you took, say, a baby carrot to give to him as a treat, see if you can grab the odd leaf of kale or spinach (or whatever) from the family salad at dinner. Vegetables can be fairly cheap if you’re just buying the odd thing, so maybe on the way home from volunteering or going to school you can go and pick up something small with some minor pocket change. Herbs especially can be fairly cheap (cilantro where I live is normally around 80 cents for a fairly big bunch).

As for the cage, slow steps again. See if you can convince your parents that a slightly larger cage would be beneficial. If he has a 24 inch cage, maybe see if they’ll accept a 36 inch cage instead that you can save up for by doing a few extra chores here or there or get paid (or partially paid) for through a holiday gift (Christmas is coming!). An x-pen is relatively inexpensive and can be used even temporarily during the day to increase his space and can be folded up neatly when not in use.

As for companionship, I’m not sure what you can do here besides make sure you’re in the room with him while doing your homework and see if other members of your household will take him our while you’re gone to spend time with him.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

The difference in price between a head of lettuce and a variety of veggies isn’t too much. How about starting there-try to work out a deal with your parents that for x number of chores (that will help them out and be valuable to them) you get x amount for veggies for your bunny. You can do all kinds of things, from laundry to washing their car, dusting, cleaning the bathroom etc. You sound like a hard worker, so what do you think about that to start with?

Then you’re looking for a job, so with a bit of extra money you can save to build the C&C condo of your dreams (and Loki’s)

Don’t worry about a companion-two bunnies is a lot to take on-the bonding the vet bills etc etc. How about a stuffed animal? Mine love their stuffies and they are a great replacement and require no vet trips or veggies

[LBJ10]

Good idea Mimsy! There are several common weeds that are bunny-safe. As long as they are pesticide-free, they are fine to offer.

[aj tucker]

Hi! So sorry I never got back to you all, but you gave me great advice, thank you so much! I got a call from one of the jobs I applied to the day after I posted this and I’m getting my first paycheck this Friday. I’ve already planned out what I’m going to spend it on and it’s all going to Loki and making sure he is the happiest bunny alive

[LBJ10]

That’s great! I’m sure you will be able to make your bunny very happy and I’m sure your parents will be proud of how responsible you are with him.

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