It’s a territorial thing. Happily, neutering and spaying will drastically reduce this tendency.
Like chickens, worthless as pets.
Do yourself a favor and buy a loaf of bread instead. It will sit there and start to stink after a few days (just like the rabbit, but without the piss and hair) and give you as much joy. Cheaper, and you might get a sandwich out of the deal.
Repeat as needed.
Hi all,
I have been lurking for quite a while but it seems I have finally been goaded into joining up.
My two cents worth:
I would not describe bunnies as “easy” pets. Mine have all been much more work than my cats. One bonus though is that it is easy to cage them for periods of time (all my bunnies have been house bunnies and are only caged when unsupervised). They do tend to have difficult and expensive health problems and problems can arise if your vet is not knowelegable about rabbit health.
My rabbits have all tended to beat up my cats - Not what I expected.
As long as I am not lazy and put in sufficient effort I do not have problems with mess or smell (bunnies do housetrain easily).
As for bunnies being dumb - I have had most of my problems with bunnies that were too smart (opening doors, shutting doors, stealing, project oriented behaviour etc.)
Bunnies have many and varied personalities. some of mine have been affectionate - some haven’t. some have likes to be picked up and cuddled (one used to crawl into be with me). All of my rabbits were trained to the lead and socialised with people and other animals. My first rabbit was on the way to becoming a pets as therapy animal when she died (she regulary visited local nursing homes, daycare, library as well as the homes of anyone who asked) she knew a number of tricks and loved to mug children (they would often have tasty things in their pockets).
Another great site for rabbit info is:
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html
Thats about all I can think of at the moment.
ps… my current bunny Bellamy
MRW
I will say that a Rat (Hooded is best, IMHO) is a better pet, but they give some dudes the willies, so then a rabbit. It’s for when you want something more than a goldfish, but can’t quite devote the time/space a cat needs. This does not mean you can neglect your bunny/rat mind you, it’s just that in a nice large right-temp cage they are fine for a day or so by themselves.
oops, forgot to mention:
They like to play. Sometimes they like to involve you in their games. They like toys that involve food (treat balls) make noise or are easy to nose or chuck about.
My present bunny is not keen on being held but does love to thoroughly wash any bit of me he gan get a ahold of.
Bunnies have a"purr" a teeth grinding noise they make when they are happy and then there is the “binky” bunnies literally jump for joy!
Here is another link:
http://www.rodentia.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html Click on “Did You Say Binky?”
MRW
This bears repeating. My roommate had frequent power, computer and telephone outages whenever her bunny had chewed through another wire again. And the animal had all sorts of bought special fro bunnies chewy stuff available to it.
That meant the bunny could only be let out of the cage if closely supervised, which was far too little for it to be happy.
And I must say, as a girl I could think of nicer sights in a guys apartment, then a stinky neglected cage with a depressed bunny in it.
Get a cat. Give it free access to a bowl of water and a bowl of dried kibble, give it free acess to outside (with a flap door installed in a window and a system of walking planks attached to your wall to the ground) and you’ll have a virtually maintenance free cat.
This is true, but there’s no guarantee that a cat will be particularly friendly, just as, apparently, there isn’t for a rabbit. A dog would be more trouble, but just about every dog worships its owner.
Rabbits do like to play, even with cats. If you have two rabbits, they’ll play with each other, but your chickens won’t be happy about it.
Anyway, even an unfriendly cat will keep mice out of your place. No rabbit or dog will do that.
Pardon the hijack, but this made me literally snort with laughter.
I had a bunny as a kid and we called him “Wimpy” because he was frightened of everything and when let out of his hutch would just hide under furniture, twitching with fear. Not hostile, but not friendly at all.
He was my dad’s “you can’t get a cat because I hate cats!” compromise.
I ended up getting a cat.
My experience. . .they’re
Skittish.
Unaffectionate.
Just a wild animal in your house. Might as well be a squirrel for all it cares about humans.
Are you looking for something to feed and clean up after that returns no affection? Yeah. . .get a rabbit. They simply haven’t been bred for deomsticity as long as cats & dogs to be house pets.
I kept my step-daughter’s rabbit for about four days. She wasn’t able to look after it properly and I was transferring it to a lady where I work who does rabbit rescue.
He didn’t care for being petted or held, and I didn’t want to bother him anyway because I figured a prey animal probably doesn’t have much in the way of cuddle-enjoyment instincts. He tried to bite me once as I reached into his cage to take the bowl out. Fortunately he got my ring for the most part, but based on the nick he gave me, I think it would have been a nasty bite.
We mostly left him on the screened porch during the day so he would have lots of room. He wanted to introduce himself to the cats, but they were terrified of him. When he wasn’t chasing them around…yeah, pretty much sat around like a loaf of bread. At least he confined most of the shit to the same general area. All in all, a cute but very unimpressive, work-intensive pet.
Bunnies, like guinea pigs, make excellent pets so long as you don’t forget to wrap them in duct tape! Otherwise things can get . . . messy.
They are not a nice pet. They will scratch up your arm with their nails. They may squeal at you at the same time. They eat, poop, have bunnies and chew on everything. They basically are a stock animal, that are lousy pets.
For people who say they do nothing or ignore you: how much time do you actually spend with the bunny? You can’t just spend 5-10 minutes a day with a prey animal and expect it to be affectionate towards you.
My boyfriend has a bunny and it took her awhile to warm up and trust him (she had been abandoned in a mall parking lot and he adopted her), but she is the most adorable thing ever. She doesn’t like being held much, but tolerates it. She loves coming up and nosing your nose, being petted, playing with you (nudging your foot so you gently shove her; she jumps away and then nudges back. Lather rinse repeat), climbing all over you and exploring.
She’s litter trained and has the run of the house from 6am - 10pm (with her cage open so she can go and use her litterbox). It gives her plenty of roaming and exploring time and she can run around and exercise. It also lets her interact with my boyfriend who might just be sitting around playing video games.
Yes, she’s an exceptionally outgoing bunny, but a lot of that is because he has spent a lot of time with her. Bunnies can’t be treated as a decorative pet and then be expected to interact and be affectionate.
I think you’re more likely to have a friendly cat. Cats have basically self-selected for millenia to enjoy the company of humans. I’ve had cats for decades and the only problem I’ve ever had is that the cats are too affectionate and constantly want to be right next to me all the time. Even skittish cats will usually bond with one person even if they avoid strangers. Bunnies, on the other hand, haven’t been bred for people compatibility but for things like fur and meat.
Seconded. Besides, if you go to your local animal shelter you can ask about a cats’ background and general character. A cat that was affectionate with its previous owners will be affectionate towards you as well, if you treat it half-decently.
Also, what happened to so many other people visiting a shelter might also happen to you; that you see a particular cat, and that cat sees you, and BAM! instant mutual love. Which is NOT the same as seeing a bunch of pathetic pets and choosing the one that makes you feel guiltiest, if that is what you are afraid of. 
You have to experience this instant attraction it to believe it, but I’ve heard a couple of firsthand stories of it happening. In many instances, it was the cat who made the first move.
We had a Dutch Dwarf bunny. He was soft and snuggly and looooooved broccoli. He’d do anything for it. If he was hiding under the bed, all I had to do was get a broccoli floret, sit by the bed with it, and soon he would be in my lap.
Having said that, he would leave a bunny raisin on every other hop, made my husband’s jeans into swiss cheese (when hubby carelessly left them on the floor), chewed every damn thing it could lay it’s stupid bunny teeth on, treated my foot like a whore it had a put a retainer down on, ruined by leather planner binder and at least 3 pairs of shoes.
Then it had the unmitigated gall to have a stroke (as they are prone to do, I’m told) and traumatize my then 4 year old daughter by hopping around in circles with it’s head tilted to the side and it’s eyes going back and forth, back and forth, like it just got off the tilt-a-whirl at the amusement park. Gah! Off to the $85 vet appointment with the $25 food animal, where it’s confirmed that the damn thing had a stroke and it will probably have another couple until it dies. Lovely.
Anyhoo, I guess I’m saying it wasn’t my cup of tea, but to each his own.
Do NOT get your bunny at a pet store unless it is a WEEE little baby. Bunnies will need to be trained to interact with humans to get rid of the skittishness. I found my rabbit in my apartment complex in Miami when she was about the size of my hand. At first she was skittish, but a few days of sitting on the floor and letting her explore cleared that up. I’ve had her for a year or two now and she rocks. Cuddly, litter trained, great personality. I can hold her because I’m “daddy”. She doesn’t let anyone else pick her up. Oh and chicks dig her.
Before you start thinking of rabbits as all cude and cuddly, take a read of Richard Adams’ Watership Down or (if you can find it) Robert Lockley’s seminal The Private Life of the Rabbit. (While Watership Down is a mythologized tale of a rabbit warren, Adams referred heavily on Lockley’s work and personal advice when cultivating the behavior of the rabbits in the story.) They’re certainly not less maintenance than a cat, and the fact that they’re less common of a pet will make them harder and more expensive to treat.
Stranger
Yes, they have a nasty bite, which is another reason I don’t like them much. My first bunny bit my thumb when I was seven (it was not her fault. She mistook my thumb for the carrot I was offering her). The scar finally faded 20 years later.
anamnesis, rereading your post I noticed you said ferrets only live 5 years. That seems pessimistic, and sites like this one say 6-8 years is more typical. Mine lived 3 years, 8 years and 9 years. The one that died young caught the flu from my sick great-grandmother(did you know that at one point they purposely infected ferrets with the flu to study it?), but the others lived nice long lives. Our vet thought it might have been due to feeding them high protein kitten food their whole lives instead of ferret food. We didn’t intend to, but they wouldn’t eat the stuff designed for them.
That said, anything that lives in a cage and is bigger than your hand is not low-maintenance.