8 new bunnies for a new bunny owner!

[AbacoSue]

Hello, My name is Sue. I intended to purchase one rabbit for my 15 year old daughter, and we ended up going home with 9 rabbits! My daughter purchased an 8 week old Flemish Giant, his name is Henry. We also ended up taking home a badly neglected, grossly underweight, severely matted English Angora named Marjorie and her seven 2 1/2 week old babies. The babies are English Angora/Jersey Woolies. They were going to be given to a neighbor to be raised and eaten! I couldn't bear that thought, so they came home with me. Henry came home and went into his own outdoor hutch. Marjorie and her babies came home and went into a separate hutch. I noticed Marjorie and several babies were sneezing long strings of sneezes. I took them all to the vet and left armed with antibiotics for all of them. The next day, the smallest of the babies died
The rest of the babies are now 8 weeks old and seem to be doing well. I can't keep them all (although I would love to). I simply can't keep up with the work and attention they need. We brush them every 2-3 days, let them hop around our fenced back yard (supervised), bring them in the house and hold and love them. I have many questions, but I know I'll have to find the right area to ask them. So please consider helping me with my many questions! I'll need advice on topics of health and wellness, what bunnies should I keep? Just one? better in pairs? Mom and a baby, or 2 babies. Males or females? What kind of housing should I get? I would like to keep them indoors as much as possible. Can I start adopting them out? Is anyone going to want them as they had been sick? Oh my........ Thanks for being here! Sue

 

[Ivythelionhead]

I'm no expert on rabbits but I've had a few so I'll try to help you with some of ure questions first of all thank you for rescuing those baby bunnies so they did not have to be eaten.
When selling rabbits if your going to do it in pairs it's best to have males together and females together that way they won't breed but also some rabbits do better alone so you might want you research it but never sell a female and male together unless they have been spayed and neutered.
Also I know that guinea pigs are okey to be rehomed at 8 weeks old and I'm pretty sure rabbits are alright to be sold then as well as long as mommy is no longer giving milk again I think the best way is a lot of research tho I hope my answers helped sorry I could not be more useful.

 

[Azerane]

Hello there and welcome Good on you for taking on the mum and her babies. I will try to answer your questions as best as possible.

-You can certainly sell/adopt them now, in fact 8 weeks in considered the correct age to start doing so. If they have been treated and are no longer sick, it's no problem

-Keep whichever bunnies you would like to keep however you need to keep in mind that if you intend on keeping two of them together in the same living quarters, both will need to be desexed if they are to get along. While rabbits do enjoy company, they are less inclined to get along than people think. A male and female rabbit kept together will breed and fight (some can breed from 12-14 weeks of age, so if you have them too much longer, you will need to consider starting to separate them).
Two males will fight, and two females will also likely fight. If you separate them before hormones start to kick in (from 12 weeks) you can avoid fighting and if you decide to keep two, you can get them both de-sexed, wait 4-6 weeks for hormones to die down and then reintroduce them slowly to attempt bonding. Keep in mind that even if you do this, not all rabbits will get along anyway. A male and female desexed pair are generally considered the best for getting along, but male-male and female-female pairs also work.
This information is also important to keep in mind when selling them. Make sure you inform people of the risks of buying more than one in terms of fighting or breeding. I think there is member on here that has a bonded pair of intact females, but it is certainly a little more risky than having them spayed.

-Housing is as varied as you could want it to be. People re-purpose furniture, use wooden hutches indoors, large dog crates, store-bought cages and also make custom cages out of NIC cubes and x-pens. Check out this thread for ideas: http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f69/2014-cages-youve-made-78595/

I hope that helps at least somewhat, thought I suppose it's probably raised more questions for you than it's answered

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[AbacoSue]

Thank you for the words of wisdom and links to even more. I'm doing a lot of research. I guess I should move my questions to the appropriate places now that I've introduced myself.

A little more for my introduction - I live in northern Michigan, in Traverse City. I have a small fenced in back yard. We bought two hutches from Tractor Supply. One of them houses my daughters Flemish Giant and the other has Marjorie and her babies. I did take two of the babies inside in a somewhat small guinea pig page until I figure out what to do. Thank again!