# A persuasive reason to have friendly rabbits...



## DianeS (Apr 5, 2011)

I have a litter of baby rabbits that are all incredibly friendly. They run to the front of the cage when I come near, and won't leave until I've spent time petting each one. 

This morning I went outside and headed to my rabbit enclosure to feed and water everybody - and I was met on the way by one of the baby rabbits! 

It turns out that some of the rabbits had figured out how to push aside one of the panels to their hutch and get out. I didn't even know there was a loose panel, let alone that the resulting gap was big enough for any to get out. Once out of the hutch, it was easy to get out of the enclosure since it's chain link and they're still small. 

I gathered up my rabbits, which came over to my feet and waited for petting, and I played musical rabbits so the babies had a solid enclosure and the one with the hole is inhabited by a larger rabbit that can't get out of it. (I'll fix it right tonight, this was stopgap for today.)

But I had 6 rabbits in that hutch. I can't even imagine the mess of trying to chase them all down and catch them if they hadn't been friendly and wanting to be picked up! They'd gotten out of their hutch, out of the enclosure, and it would have been an easy hop for them to have been out of the yard. 

So if you don't understand the importance of having friendly rabbits that come up to you on their own, maybe this will change your mind!


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## 20kidsonhill (Apr 12, 2011)

When we have an escapee our dog helps us find them. So far 100% recovery rate, even the onse that aren't tame.


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## hoodat (Apr 13, 2011)

It's good to have a dog that understands rabbits are not for snacks.


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## MiniRexGirl (Apr 15, 2011)

> When we have an escapee our dog helps us find them.


HOW did you teach your dog to do this without worrying about him eating them or the rabbits getting scared to death? I have a dog that I wish I could trust around my rabbits but just don't think that is possible. He is a retriever and to him anything that is small enough to fit in his mouth is a toy!


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## terri9630 (Apr 16, 2011)

The other morning my dogs wouldn't come when I called so I went out to find them.  I about had a heart attack when I went around the side of the garage where the rabbits are and saw my dog laying with one of my kids 4-H rabbits between it's front feet.  The other dog was pacing back and forth in front of them.  I thought for sure the rabbit was dead.  I heard something in the tree and looked up to see a owl sitting just out of reach.  The rabbit had managed to get the door of its cage open and get out and the dogs were standing there guarding the rabbit.  When I walked over there the rabbit ran to me and both dogs went up after the owl.  The owl flew off and instead of shooting the dogs for killing rabbits they got extra treats for protecting them.  

     They have protected the chickens before but I was afraid that since they chase the wild rabbits they would go after ours if they ever got out.  Guess they know the difference.


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## nogoatsyet (Apr 17, 2011)

terri9630, that's an awesome story!!  What a happy ending.  If you don't have dogs like those though, having friendly rabbits seems like a good idea.


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## rabbitlady4433 (Apr 17, 2011)

I agree with having friendly rabbits!  Though, the other day a litter of 7 bum rushed me as I opened the door and several jumped out.  Scared me half to death.  Amazingly they were all ok and safely put back in.  I appreciate my friendly rabbits immensely, bc I have one buck that likes to nip at my arms when I'm feeding or cleaning out his cage.  He's still a work in progress lol


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## rabbitgeek (Apr 17, 2011)

I'm glad your dogs worked out. We've had to find homes for three dogs who could not learn to ignore the rabbits. We lost a few rabbits and chickens.

Then we got a pug and that is a good dog with our rabbits.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios


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## dewey (Apr 19, 2011)

My babies are very friendly but I don't know if they would come running right back to me if they got loose outside the barn.  Well, they might if any of the roaming cats got after them, lol.  I never get cuddly-friendly with the ones destined for the freezer, though, or the freezer would remain empty, lol.


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