Our first bunny was a rescue bunny. She was living in a rubbermaid container with a wire mesh fastened across the top. She was an Easter present for a kid who got tired of her quickly. We got her in September so you figure she was about 8 months old by then. She could NOT lay down in her 'cage' and stretch out. She couldn't see out, only up (and then she saw everything distorted through the mesh). Her water bottle was fastened to the inside part of the handle of the tub (we're not talking one of the big tubs that you'd put a Christmas tree in or something, we're talking something maybe 10"x18". They threw pine shavings in the bottom and that is where she slept, ate and used the potty. They threw her food right down in the pine shavings with her. They did give her greens but she had never been given hay. A month or so before we adopted her we cared for her while they went on vacation. I was shocked in how she was living. I assumed the little storage tote was just a makeshift cage to bring her to our house in. I was informed that no, she lived there all the time. They said she loved it. It made me cry.
Right now we have our girls in a NIC cage in our play room. They have the nicest room in the house, truth be told, the only one we've finished remodeling completely. They have AC that blows right past their cage in the summer and heat in the winter. They get plenty of free roaming time every day and when they spend a good 40 minutes or so jumping and running and exploring and then they pick a place and lay down. When they are in their cage they don't have a lot of room to roam around (thus the reason we are remodeling the cage when the new box of NIC panels comes TOMORROW).
Our boy isn't in a cage. He is cordoned off in a hallway with a baby gate. The area he has is about 3 foot wide. Depending on where we move the gate to he has 3 to 6 feet in length. He moves around his area but he doesn't play. He doesn't run or anything. Mostly he lays in the back by the back door (that isn't used right now since he is in the hallway) or up by the front of the gate. I'm an extreme night owl and my husband is up really early and we never see him playing in his area. He also gets plenty of time out of his enclosure. He runs, binkies, jumps on the couch, goes down the steps in to the play room and visits the girls through their cages, etc. He will only do this for about 20 minutes though before he goes back to his area and takes a nap. In fact, most of the day his gate is open and he just lays in his area without being confined. He likes it, I guess. I like that he has a good amount of space but I'd like it a lot better if I could use that back door. LOL
Anyway, like someone said, they are all different, quite obviously. In the case of our first rabbit, I really feel like it was neglect. I mean, she had NO air holes on the sides of this tub and she couldn't stretch out at all. She had to lay with her feet under her.
I don't see anyone on here doing their animals such a disservice, fortunately.
Pet stores - Ugh... that is a whole other rant!! I can't believe some of the crap that happens at pet stores. My mom thoroughly ticks me off because she is always bringing home pets from a pet store. I know very little about guinea pigs but they sold her a guinea that they said was 3 weeks old. Isn't that far too young to be weaned? They sold her a 4 week old rabbit. They told her it was a mini and wouldn't get big at all. It is bigger than my rabbits who are a large breed (larger than my 10 pound West Highland dog). They also told her to give the BABY rabbit as much lettuce and cucumbers and such as it would eat. I was so mad to hear all of this.
Our local farm store sells rabbits too and my friend bought one there. She actually worked there at the time and whoever brought the rabbits in told them that they were dwarfs. When the rabbit outgrew its cage they had to get rid of it because they didn't have room. Their kids cried for weeks. It all could have been avoided if people selling the animals had been truthful and people buying them did more research. Ugh.
