Rabbit Web Discussion Board

One of our neighbors gave my son four rabbits that they had raised because they used to breed them and sell them and they only had these four left .So my son begged me until i said yes to taking them because when i was younger my dad raised rabbits and i thought they were neat and i loved to play with them and stuff .So when we took the rabbits we didnt and still dont have a cage for them they live out in our garage that is probaly at least a 10 x 15.They gave him the rabbits about 5 months ago and told us that they were all female so i took his word on it and didnt do any checking or anything my self i got some hay and pellets and since we have a great big pine tree in our yard i would put pine needles and pine cones in there from time to time to.So needless to say we had one of the rabbits to pass away because it just didnt look very healthy anyway when we got them but i kept it for my son because he begged but anyways the other three rabbits were doing good and everything else and my son was the one that would go out there and clean the shed and feed and water them daily so i didnt pay much attention to them so about 10 weeks ago i went out there just to check on them and see how they were doing and needless to say i seen a pile of hair and pine needles over in the corner behind the trashcan that houses the hay and i looked real close and there were babies in there and they only looked like they were a couple days old at the most.i went out and took a couple pieces of fence and cut it down so that way i could pin up which ever one was the male and i did that then i went back out there the next day and seen the two rabbits trying to get busy so i seperated the other male too so now i have 3 seperated rabbits and 7 baby rabbits that are running around out in the shed and we are gonna keep at least two of the rabbits and the rest have already been spoking fore im just holding on to them until christmas for people.The advise and stuff im looking for is it ok that these rabbits are always on the concrete floor in the shed and how many rabbits can i keep together in one area of the shed because we tried to just put a devider up in the middle of the shed one for the baby rabbits and there mom and the other side for the males well that didnt work out well at all because since the two males have been seperated they kinda became teritorial so we seperated them again im probably gonna make some hanging cages or a hutch for them as soon as it starts getting warmer so any good or bad feed back suggestions or any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanx in advance ohh yeah and the breed of the rabbits are i believe is i think the female is a chinchilla and one of the male\'s is the same but the white male looks like a dwarf

Well...First, I\'d recommend you get a good book on rabbit raising. It sounds as though you put the cart before the horse and jumped into something without much knowledge before hand.

Even \"experts\" make mistakes from time to time when sexing rabbits. NEVER allow rabbits to cohabitate like that unless they have been neutered and you know they are bonded. If you were not sure when that doe had a litter and she was with a buck, guess what??? You can expect another litter within the next month. Rabbits, if allowed, readily breed soon after kindling a litter.

You need to separate these rabbits NOW. Actually, I recommend you find a no-kill shelter who will take all of your rabbits, because it doesn\'t sound like you are ready for this responsibility.

I don\'t mean to sound harsh, but it is the rabbits that are reaping the consequences here.

Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com

I would get some cages ASAP... call some thrift stores to see if they have any... just remember to sanatize the cage before putting a rabbit in there... I would also sex the rabbits.. sometimes you will get two females and one will be dominate over the other one... so you might be thinking that 2 are males when really 1 is a female. I would also get in touch with someone that breeds rabbits in your area so they can help you with any questions that you have... Try your local 4-H office to see if they can\'t recommend someone for you and your child to contact.
HTH

I agree with Charlcie in that you need to really think this over and reorganize your pets. They are the ones who will be suffering the most from this. They should each have their own cage, and with that many you are going to have alot of cages to get. The concrete is going to get very cold also in the winter. Tony Artist

I also have to agree with the panel I think it is your responsibility -not your sons to see that these rabbits are properly housed and cared for. I find it disturbing that you didn\'t check them for 10 weeks?!
You can not divide up the males and females -they will fight. Maybe not today or next week...but one morning your son will go out to feed them and he will have a very unpleasant surprise.
Concrete is not absorbant. Unless you have litter boxes out there for them they will have problems with that as well.
All around their habitat is not ideal for healthy happy rabbits and waiting until it gets warmer (for me) would mean another 5 months. By then you could have many litters -or a dead doe.
I vote for finding them homes or buying 5 new cages immediately.