Hello to all! The purpose of this webpage is not to reiterate the basic rabbit information that one can easily attain from the internet. Rather, this webpage exists to illustrate and highlight some of the more elusive aspects to bunny ownership. By sharing my life with my bunnies, and doing lots of research over the last three years I have picked up a bunch of nifty ideas as well as general info. that I am happy to share with all of you.

I, like many others, aquired my initial rabbits from a pet store, when they were both six weeks old, with no pre-planning and very little understanding of rabbits. I decided to bring two home because, in my foolish zeal to have a rabbit, I thought that they would keep each other company while I was away at work. At the conclusion of our first week together I was dismayed to learn that my two lovely babies would have to be seperated from each other by the age of twelve weeks. I was informed that at twelve weeks the dwarf sized bunnies begin to develop their hormones, and will start to fight with each other if they are the same sex, or mate if they are opposite sex. I could not imagine that these two happy playmates would ever find reason to squabble. But sure enough, at this pivotal age they began to circle quickly around each other (head to tail). It was obvious that their feelings towards each other were changing, and I feared (from witnessing the circling behaviour) that I actually had a buck and a doe, instead of the two bucks which everyone was confident I had. Not wanting fights or kits (baby rabbits), I seperated them to two cages on opposite sides of the livingroom. My next unpracticed idea was to seperate them to two seperate rooms. Frodo was given the kitchen, and Lego the livingroom. I wanted each to have room to move about and play, as I am not partial to cages. Neither bun could see the other, and they grew steadily into adulthood, completely unaware of each other until they were altered on June 19, 2003.

As is the way of life, it seems we make our mistakes first, and then learn from them. And I am certainly no exception. If I had known then, what I now know, there are several things I would have done differently. Firstly, I would have researched the concepts of rabbit ownership and behaviour before bringing home a living breathing life which I knew not how to care for. Having done this research I would have learned of the thousands of abandoned rabbits waiting in shelters for a loving home and a chance at a new life... having been cast out by their previous owners (often at the onset of puberty). It is extremely sad to know that most of them will be euthanized as there are far more needy rabbits than home available. I would have adopted a rabbit, or a pair of rabbits (already bonded) from one of these shelters, as it is easier to see the personality of a fully grown adult rabbit, and for the fact that bonding rabbits can be extremely difficult.

Secondly, if I had brought only one rabbit home, I would have taken him/her to a shelter to pick its own mate. Bonding is never fun... but it becomes more so when the rabbits involved are not allowed to choose their own friend. The personalities of rabbits vary widely, so if your current rabbit is an alpha-type rabbit (one that wants to be top-bun) then he/she will butt heads and fight savagely with another alpha-type rabbit. If your alpha-type rabbit is allowed his/her choice they will choose a mate that is comfortable being in the sub-dominant role, and bonding will go much more smoothly.

Thirdly, I would not have seperated my bunnies to their own rooms, I would have put their cages side by side, and given seperate "out of cage" time. After I started trying to bond my kids, I read that littermates will often get on quite well with each other if they've never been seperated. That knowledge, of course, found its way to me after I had already seperated them from each other for four months.

Hindsite is of course 20/20. As it turns out, what I ended up with were two doe rabbits and not two bucks. Even though I would have gone about my process differently I still very much love my rabbits, and would not change a thing about them. Bonding my two females took many attempts, and a one year time span to accomplish. I believe that I could have avoided a great deal of stress, heartache, and tears if I had done my research first to try and avoid the above problems.