Rabbits as Pets (really!)

[Fi]

We had our fete du village yesterday.  There was a Lapinodrome - for those that don't know, a bunny is placed in the middle of a circle of 10 numbered boxes.  You buy a number from 0-9 for 2 euros.  If the bunny hops in your numbered box (completely) you win the bunny.  My 9 year old spent a large lump of our fete budget (12 euros out of 30!) trying to win a bunny and didn't.  Because I am a big soft touch I agreed that we would get a hutch and a pen then get a rabbit or two (both female of course!). 

I am now regretting this because having checked the price of rabbit hutches, this could be a ridiculously expensive business.  Anyone know a cheap source of rabbit hutches/pens?  What could I search under on leboncoin.fr (my usual source of cheap goodies!)?  Where would be a good place to acquire a bunny?

I had rabbits when I was young (about 5 eons ago) so I know what is entailed with bunny-keeping - I even got my Rabbitkeeper badge when I was a Girl Guide!   And I know that from November to March it is more than likely I will be chief bunny wrangler.  And they will be 100% outdoor rabbits.  I think it would kill Bryn (elderly springer) to have to refrain from eating a house rabbit.  That would be spaniel torture of the highest order.

And finally, how do I explain to my very down to earth farming neighbours that we have no intention of eating said bunnies.  We'll carry on buying eating rabbit from the market, and just spoil the pet ones rotten? (they think we are slightly eccentric anyway).

Said daughter also also wants some hens (price of housing issue), a couple of ferrets (know nothing about them) and a cat (then my fantastic bird watching from the kitchen window will be a thing of the past), however I do miss having a mog lurking so there is a possibility there.

Or perhaps I should just get the Littlest Petshop game for the DS instead?

Btw, have just acquired a couple of horsey lodgers as lawnmowers - aren't they great?

[IMG]http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr340/FNSH/lawnmowers.jpg[/IMG]

Fi

[louis]

Problem with rabbits is when you have two, even female, become very hormonal when adult and basically beat the c@#p out of each other. Better off getting a cat they are lovely and live more harmonious in two's or three's.

[Jo]

Very reasonable bunny hutch in Hyper U,  26,95 euro but probably suitable for one bunny? (Going from the catalogue, haven't seen them in the flesh.) BTW I have 2 cats and still enjoy a large variety of birdlife in the garden!

[Quillan]

Why not have it as a house rabbit. My daughter had one which she kept indoors. They can be trained to use a cat litter tray quite easily apparently. If you handle them a lot they become like a 'lapdog' and are quite happy on your lap when watching TV or reading a book. You need to give them toys to play with, balls and things like that, in fact most of the toys you would buy for a cat will do. Not forgetting a nice beanbag for them to nestle in to for a sleep. She had a big plastic tube with the beanbag over the top so the rabbit thought it was a warren. Of course you can't have a cat indoors if you have a house rabbit.

If you get a cat at least they are quite independent. Birds seem to know about cats and I don't think they will be scared away. We have three cats, seven chickens and a dog. They all get along fine and the place is not littered with dead birds although two of the cats are very good mousers.

Chickens are great fun but do have at least two, they are flock birds and get very lonely if there is only one. Ours are in the garden during the day and go to their house at night. Very sociable animals, they sit on our laps in the evenings, outdoors of course.

[Ejc]

Well try explaining to your french neighbours that the meat rabbits they gave you have now become pets... which entailed building  separate hutches and decent runs for them, separatly of course, and spoiling them rotten, not breeding them for the pot......

[Fi]

[quote user="Ejc"]Well try explaining to your french neighbours that the meat rabbits they gave you have now become pets... which entailed building  separate hutches and decent runs for them, separatly of course, and spoiling them rotten, not breeding them for the pot......[/quote]

So they think you are completely bonkers then?  [:D]

Have seen a hutch on leboncoin for 60 euros - with a ladder and everything.  May be going to spend the hottest day of the year (or so I'm told) carting hot, bad-tempered kids around getting bunny supplies.  I just hope they still like groundsel (I have lots of it!)

Fi