Where’s the best place to find a Havana rabbit, and where would the best place be to find a white rabbit?

[Shinitai]

Hopefully I’m not jumping the gun here, but I wanted to know where the best place would be to adopt certain rabbits!

Please note that I’m just asking some preliminary questions so that I know where to go when the time comes. I’m very new to the rabbit world, and it will most likely be a very long time (a matter of years) before I adopt my own.

In addition, please correct me if this is the wrong section to post this in - I PM’d a staff member asking the best place to post this and this place was the response.

With that being said, I wanted to ask what the best place would be to find a Havana rabbit (preferably brown or black), as well as the best place to find any sort of white rabbit (preferably Florida white, American white, New Zealand white or white Mini Rex)? And would it be possible to get them at a young age? I live in New York, though I’m willing to travel far if need be.

In the future, I’d like to own black and white rabbits (nothing special about the colors, I just like the contrast and I have fitting names in mind), and I’d prefer to have them young so I could raise them from adolescence.

Are there any breeders nearby (or even distant) that would suit my preferences?

Thank you!

 

[Blue eyes]

For a first time rabbit owner, I can't stress enough how much more pleasurable and easy the experience will be if you start with an already fixed rabbit. Such rabbits can still be relatively young (5+ months). Beginning with a baby is not ideal in any way for a number of reasons.

I go over some of the reasons on my website so it is simpler for me to link that rather than re-type it all out here. Here's the link:
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/choosing-your-first-bunny.html
People new to rabbits often assume it is better to start with young rabbits. Nothing could be further from the truth. But hopefully the link will make the 'whys' clearer.

 

[Mac189]

I've had rabbits from babies and rabbits adopted as adults, and moving forward I have no interest in getting a rabbit younger than 6 months again. As opposed to dogs, where the owner tends to shape the personality of their pet from a young age, rabbits are more individuals that you get to know and will likely have the same effect on their personality regardless of how old they are when you meet. And it's way easier to get to know an adult rabbit than a young rabbit that is still figuring out who they are.

I've loved getting to learn who an adult rabbit is, it's one of the things I love the most about them as pets. As far as your color preferences, those will be SO easy to find! In shelters, the rabbits that are the most likely to be overlooked are black, red-eye white, and the classic brown wild rabbit color (agouti). They are seen as less "exciting" and tend to be passed over. All the rabbits at the shelter I got Fox (black bunny) from, that weren't pending adoptions, were in these three colors.

Another perk of getting an adult or 5+ month rabbit from a rescue is you will know roughly how big they will get, which may be important for you.

 

[Shinitai]

For a first time rabbit owner, I can't stress enough how much more pleasurable and easy the experience will be if you start with an already fixed rabbit. Such rabbits can still be relatively young (5+ months). Beginning with a baby is not ideal in any way for a number of reasons.

I go over some of the reasons on my website so it is simpler for me to link that rather than re-type it all out here. Here's the link:
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/choosing-your-first-bunny.html
People new to rabbits often assume it is better to start with young rabbits. Nothing could be further from the truth. But hopefully the link will make the 'whys' clearer.

Just finished reading this. As I said, I didn’t want to jump the gun and I’m admittedly still not the most knowledgeable on caring for rabbits, so thank you for telling me this. Another reason I thought of adopting from an early age is so I could give them my own names (a lot of the rabbit shelters I see online already have names for them) and it just wouldn’t feel right giving them new names. That being said, I do see now why adopting a baby is a bad idea and will not be doing so (though I won’t be adopting at all any time soon).

I've had rabbits from babies and rabbits adopted as adults, and moving forward I have no interest in getting a rabbit younger than 6 months again. As opposed to dogs, where the owner tends to shape the personality of their pet from a young age, rabbits are more individuals that you get to know and will likely have the same effect on their personality regardless of how old they are when you meet. And it's way easier to get to know an adult rabbit than a young rabbit that is still figuring out who they are.

I've loved getting to learn who an adult rabbit is, it's one of the things I love the most about them as pets. As far as your color preferences, those will be SO easy to find! In shelters, the rabbits that are the most likely to be overlooked are black, red-eye white, and the classic brown wild rabbit color (agouti). They are seen as less "exciting" and tend to be passed over. All the rabbits at the shelter I got Fox (black bunny) from, that weren't pending adoptions, were in these three colors.

Another perk of getting an adult or 5+ month rabbit from a rescue is you will know roughly how big they will get, which may be important for you.

Thank you! May I ask if you know of any major shelters with lots of rabbits to choose from?

 

[Mac189]

https://www.rabbitrescueandrehab.org/adoptable-rabbits
http://allaboutrabbitsrescue.org/
These shelters look really good... Rabbits don't get attached to their names like dogs... Foxwell's name at the shelter was Chowder and I called Willa, my lady rabbit, Barry for her month with us because I am the worst person at telling the difference between male and female rabbits to ever live. I've had rabbits for 14 years now and I am still terrible at it, embarrassingly so. Both of my rabbits come to the sound of me clicking my tongue, they associate that sound with their names more than anything I call them

 

[Mac189]

*first month

 

[Blue eyes]

^ Agreed! Almost all of my rabbits came from rescues and I renamed each one. They don't get attached to a name.

 

[SirLawrence]

...and even when they learn it they don't listen for a hill of beans!