Three Reasons NOT To Give A Bunny As A Pet
Don't get me wrong folks, I'm a huge fan of bunnies, I have my own delightful (and occasionally psychotic) doe, and I plan to add one or two bunnies to my family this year. Rabbits are delightful, sweet, inquisitive little pets that can be extremely rewarding to keep, however a great deal of time and effort is needed if you want to have a good relationship with a bunny. So if you're not familiar with rabbits and thinking as getting one as a pet for you or someone else, then read on.
ONE: Commitment.
Giving someone a rabbit essentially means giving them a 5 + year commitment. If they look after the rabbit well and it is spayed, possibly a lot longer. This sort of commitment can be problematic for the person receiving the little fuzzy ball of bunny that looked oh so cute in the shop window.
TWO: It's not as easy as it looks.
Many people have next to no idea about how to keep a rabbit. Most people who don't own rabbits, or who even do own rabbits but never bothered to learn about them, think that keeping a bunny in a little hutch and tossing it carrots and lettuce occasionally is all there is to bunny keeping. They're wrong of course, and treating a rabbit in this fashion is pretty cruel, and can even kill them. Rabbits cannot eat lettuce as a general rule, although dark lettuces such as Romaine are okay in small amounts.
THREE: No really, it's not easy.
It takes patience to be a good bunny owner. Many rabbits are sullen, aggressive, and touchy. Time, patience, and good handling can overcome these traits, but your average person, especially one who didn't want a bunny in the first place is not going to have the information or the motivation needed to work with bunnies. I've seen bunny owners rejoicing when their rabbit finally acknowledges them affectionately after a year or more of ownership. Most people are not going to want to wait that long for a pet to start to like them, even antisocial cats will often cuddle up when they are hungry, a bunny may just ignore you and run away even if you're holding food. Rabbits are both intelligent and pretty well socially developed with their own set of rules and modes of communication. How your rabbit positions itself relative to you means a lot, how it approaches you is also significant. Through research and observation you can learn to interact with your bunny in a more rewarding way, but it does take time.
The point of this article hasn't been to put anyone off owning a rabbit. It is designed to make you think about the huge responsibility that owning a rabbit actually is. All too often rabbits are seen as "easy" pets, and suitable for clumsy and forgetful children. This is simply not the case. Rabbits are excellent pets for people with patience and time, and who enjoy watching a little bunny personality blossom. They require careful handling, grooming, attention, and feeding. However, after reading all of this If someone you know really wants a rabbit and is prepared and ready to look after it, then by all means pick them up a bunny.
Here are some useful links on the subject of getting a bunny, and looking after it once you have it:
Should I get a Long Hair Or Short Haired Bunny?
Should I get one bunny or two?
