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Shelters In Crisis!!
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Shelters across the country are in crisis right now, overloaded with unwanted rabbits
who are in danger of being euthanized. Blame it on Easter "impulse purchases" or
simply the amazing reproductive capabilities of rabbits, but once again this year,
If you can find room in your home, please consider helping your local shelter or rescue by
adopting or fostering a bunny in need - you'll be saving a life. Literally.
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Easter And Bunnies Don't Mix
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Please Don't Give Pets As Gifts!!
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Shelters and rescues are inundated with animals that were given as
gifts to people who didn't really want them and don't know how to take
care of them. They expect this year to be no different, beginning on
the day after Christmas. Please don't give a live animal as a gift -
give a stuffed plush toy instead, or consider making a donation to a
rescue or shelter in someone's name as a gift. Just please don't give
a live animal as a gift - it requires a lifelong commitment to the
pet, and too often they get shortchanged. Thanks!!
Read more
Read more
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Look For The Cruelty Free Logo
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About Us
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3 Bunnies Rabbit Rescue, Inc. is an all volunteer not for profit
organization dependent on donations to help us rescue unwanted
domestic rabbits and educate the public on rabbit care. We are a network of
foster homes located in New England and New York.
3 BUNNIES ADOPTS TO INDOOR HOMES ONLY!!
Adoption donations: (to help with spay/neuter and other expenses)
$70 single
$120 pair
Online adoption application
The primary goals of 3 Bunnies are:
 To rescue abandoned,
unwanted, and abused rabbits without prejudice to age, gender, breed,
type, or other issues; to provide foster care; to spay and neuter; to
provide medical and rehabilitative care; to find permanent quality
indoor homes for them;
 To educate the public and assist humane societies, animal control
officers, and other rescues, in teaching proper rabbit care to the
public;
 To reduce, primarily by public education, the number of rabbits
abandoned at shelters and / or turned loose when no longer wanted.
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3 Bunnies Rabbit Rescue, Inc
P.O. Box 380605
East Hartford, CT 06138-0605
USA
info@3bunnies.org
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| Proper Housing For Bunnies |
Articles
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Bunnies belong indoors, with the rest of the family!!
Bunny Chill Box
NIC setups
Exercise Pens
Critical Care/Disabled Rabbits
General
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- On this page we advocate strictly indoor housing!!
- A rabbit kept in an outdoor hutch is often forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) and becomes a prisoner, not a pet - if you house your bunnies outside, PLEASE bring them in for a few hours each day to enjoy the family, and PLEASE look out for them during weather extremes!!
- Setting your rabbit loose in the wild doesn't make her free, it makes her food!!
- Do NOT use cedar or pine shavings in any way with small mammals!! - it causes respiratory problems and liver failure. It is only safe for larger dogs.
Articles on shavings
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Some basic facts everyone should know about housing for pet rabbits:
- Bunnies need a LOT of exercise!!! They are
prey animals and are built to run!!
They need several hours a day of exercise, and those that are
kept in cages all day long will suffer muscular atrophy and a host
of skeletal and health issues.
- Rabbits belong indoors with you as pets, not in outdoor
hutches where they are often forgotten and live out their lives as
prisoners. It is crucial that people who do keep their rabbits
outside should bring them inside for several hours each day
for exercise and to enjoy the family, and also to protect from
weather extremes, and please look in on them frequently when
they are outside!!
- Keeping a rabbit in an outdoor hutch can substantially shorten
its life due to exposure to the elements, proximity of predators
who get near the hutch and try to get at the rabbit, and also because
families often times forget about their outdoor rabbits, resulting in
the rabbits living their lives without care or love, or suffer fatalities
from exposure to climatic extremes
- Stories abound about rabbits left in outdoor hutches who are
forgotten about and as a result, denied proper food, water, or medical
attention, and who ultimately die a slow, agonizing death as a result -
there are numerous stories of a starving rabbit being removed from a hutch
after spending two weeks with its dead mate, who had succumbed to starvation
already
- Rabbits need toys and playtime stimulation to fend off boredom and
give them intellectual and emotional fulfillment
- You can never know how wonderful a pet a rabbit can be until you
share your home with one
- Rabbits will display many antics inside in front of their family
members that they wouldn't if left alone in an outdoor hutch
- Rabbits are easily
litterbox trained
and usually fastidious about their habits
- The lifespan of an outdoor rabbit is typically on 1 or 2 years (and it is
usually an unhappy and lonely life), the lifespan of an indoor house rabbit
is 8-10 years or more (and it is a happy life)
- Fear can cause a rabbit to have a heart attack
(see prey animals), and rabbits kept
in outdoor hutches suffer from fear of predators that try to get at them
- Rabbits who live strictly in cages on wire floors develop sore
hocks, a very painful condition that can even damage the bones.
- The reality is, any pet is likely to do some damage to something -
dogs, cats, rabbits all chew on something or other - it's easier to
rabbit-proof an area than to cat-proof or dog-proof. Please see these pages
for tips on bunny-proofing your home:
Bunny proofing your home
Rabbit Proofing
- Rabbits need plenty of exercise to move in ways instinct tells
them to - this is both physically and emotionally healthy for the rabbits.
- Rabbits kept outside are subject to the elements and to predators
or bad-intentioned humans; in some cases rabbits have been killed
inside their hutch by predators chewing through part of the cage and
getting to the rabbit - we have seen some rabbits with serious
injuries simply because there was no place for them to hide in their hutch.
- Please consider your rabbit a part of your family and not just a
living burden to be kept alive - the rewards are immense and the
suffering and sadness is avoided
- Setting your unwanted pet rabbit loose in the wild (or worse,
killing it) is legally defined as cruelty to animals and you will be
prosecuted - please be kind to your furry friends, even if you cannot
keep them.
Setting your rabbit loose in the wild doesn't make her free, it makes her food!!
You should avoid overexposure to:
- Direct sunlight
- Heat
- Cold
- Wind or drafts
- Precipitation
- Insects
- Pesticides and other chemicals
- Noise
- Wildlife
It is very strongly recommended that you do not house your rabbit outdoors.
Indoors/Outdoors?
Indoors!!!.
Such animals become prisoners, not pets, and they suffer
from weather extremes, stress, fear from predators trying to get at
them, and death from predators who do get at them. They are also
often forgotten about or ignored, and in some cases this has led to them
starving to death, or at the very least developing health problems
that go undetected because they have almost no contact with their
caregivers. This also leads them to have almost no trust in their
caregivers, since the only contact they do have is when food is
brought, or some cleaning is done. This is no life for a pet. A
companion rabbit's place is in the home with you, as part of your
family, just like the family dog or cat. Otherwise you will never know
what a wonderful companion a rabbit can be, and how well if can get
along with your other pets.
Cage/Housing FAQ
Although a house rabbit should be allowed to run around as much as
possible, housing is still necessary for those times when the bun must
be confined as well as for the bunny to have a place of his/her
own. Proper housing is very important for rabbits to avoid injury
(such as sore hocks from wire floors with no covering), stay healthy
and happy. There must be enough room for the rabbit(s) to move around
comfortably and also for the food and water bowls and litter box to
fit in as well.
Rabbits need plenty of exercise, and if they are kept caged then they
must be lot out every day for as much time as you can allow for them
to exercise. A bunny who is denied exercise will develop all sorts of
health problems as a result. If you have a rabbit that you keep caged,
and you try letting him out and he won't come out - it is most likely
because he doesn't know what to make of his new-found freedom.
Rabbits NEED exercise, and you should not assume that because the
rabbit doesn't come out of his cage that he doesn't want exercise.
You may need to coax him out with a treat or something. Many times we
hears stories like "I tried to give my rabbit exercise time, but he
just stayed in his cage" - this is most likely because he is afraid to
come out. You must help your bunny to be comfortable with this
freedom.
If you are going to keep your rabbit(s) in a penned in area, you
should follow these guidelines for minimum space requirements (L x W x
H, in inches):
- Small rabbit: 24 x 24 x 18
- Medium rabbit: 36 x 24 x 20
- Large rabbit: 42x24x20
Do NOT confine your rabbit outdoors in any situation where it cannot escape the elements,
even if you think it will only be for a
short while. If you forget about the rabbit outside for any length of
time in harsh conditions, you may very well discover it dead. We've
heard plenty of stories where the rabbit was put outside, in his cage,
just for the afternoon while the family cleaned the house, only to find
the rabbit had died of sunstroke; hutch bunnies that froze to death
because they had no way of keeping warm in their hutches; hutch bunnies
who died of illness after getting soaked in a rainstorm it couldn't escape...
NOTE: Please do not use those ultrasonic pest repellents (the kind
that plug into the wall outlet and emit a high-pitched thumping to
drive off insects and rodents). Rabbits' hearing is sensitive enough
to be bothered by this.
This is an example of a NIC setup one of our adopters used for
Oliver -
this photo shows it in its open state, where he can come and go as he pleases:
This is an example of same NIC in a closed state, when Oliver
must be confined: (Note how much room he has to move around in his "confinement")
This is a setup one of our
foster parents using an exercise pen (x-pen) for a bonded pair
of very happy foster bunnies:
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© David L. Fisher
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Copyright ©2008, All Rights Reserved
3 Bunnies Rabbit Rescue, Inc.
Last update: Thursday, July 24, 2008, 4:14 PM -0400
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