Rehoming a bunny

[YandereCapybara]

The owner of Micky’s sister is no longer interested in her bunny.
She gave her to us, and two big issues have arisen:
-Her cage is way too small, but she isn’t litter trained and has a lot of behavioural issues due to not being fixed
-My mom refuses to get her neutered because she thinks it’s cruel

She also doesn’t like coming out from her cage as well, which is really concerning.
My parents have been thinking about sending her to a shelter, but the local shelter has a bad reputation for being extremely inexperienced with pocket pets and birds. She’ll most likely get adopted for $20 and end up dying within a year as a birthday present for some six year old.
The other option my parents gave me was to list her for sale on Kijiji.
I want to get her behavioural issues fixed though, and hopefully keep her, since I feel like other families also wouldn’t want her, and send her to a shelter within a week of taking her in.
Any suggestions?

[Sirius&Luna]

It’s really important that female bunnies are neutered, due to the high rates of uterine cancer in unspayed girl buns. I would show your mum some info on the importance of spaying, and perhaps you could come to an agreement to do some extra chores or something to pay her back over time if you really want to keep the bunny. A good starting point is the HRS http://rabbit.org/faq-spaying-and-neutering/
If spaying is something your mum refuses to do, then it might be best to rehome her, as it will be hard to litter train her when she’s not fixed, making the other issues – such as letting her out for runs, also difficult I imagine.

SO, if you were rehoming her I would –
a. do some research and find a no kill shelter that has experience with rabbits, or a specialised rabbit shelter, even if it’s further away
b. If you’re rehoming her through a site like craigslist, you could try selling her for the price of a spay, and hand her over at a vet once they’ve paid for the treatment. Or, you could ask for a donation to an animal charity that is large enough to put off people who are just looking for snake food. You can also ask the new owner questions, and give them a ‘cheat sheet’ with information about proper diet, cage size, signs of illness etc.

[Wick & Fable]

Domesticating animals is not inherently natural, so we need to do “unnatural” things to make it possible, this includes spaying.

A female pet rabbit who is not spayed has an 85% chance of developing uterine cancer. To know that an operation which will 1) lessen frustration from territorial and mating instincts (neither will be satiated by being a pet) and 2) completely eliminate the chance of getting cancer, yet not do it, is more damaging than the operation itself.

You can try re-framing the spay idea to your mother, making her read legitimate sources online.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

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