We are thinking about getting a rabbit or two and wonder if anyone can give advice about house rabbits. Do they smell? Eat your wires? Dig up carpets?Have had all sorts of rodents before but never rabbits. Also any useful advice about lionhead rabbits please. Thanks

Rabbits make lovely house pets and can become very tame, any animal smells if you don't clean it out enough so that part is up to you, they can also be quite easily house trained .
As for the rest in my experience rabbits can be a bit destructive, yes they may chew wires maybe pull wallpaper, so they do need a little bit of watching to make sure they are safe, lots of rabbits have really funny personalities and are great fun to watch and may even learn easy games.
I have 2 lionheads and they are lovely gentle creatures.
Hope this answers your questions, i would be only to happy to help with any others :D

at last my specialist subject i used to have four little house bunnies... the ex-wife now has them (hope they are still okay... although i must say it is rather gratifiying to be able to call her the ex-wife now... hmn... i digress).

anyway back to the topic... they make fantasic house pets you can litter train them... and even take them for walks.

check out http://www.rabbit.org/

and http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html

for stacks of info about bunnies...

good luck... if you ever need some advice on the subject feel free to pm me or email me on my msn address.

:)

Thanks both of you, the links are great and I'm eaven more excited now at the prospect. I have the choice of 1, 2 or 3 rabbits as my friend who owns them is moving to USA. They are not yet old enough to leave the parents but will be in 2 weeks time. Would you suggest 1 or is 2 a better idea. Think they are all boys tho' can't yet be sure and I will have them done anyway.

I think 2 of any social creatures is best, they are company for each other, but i would sugest a neutered male and female myself, I'm not sure if 2 males would get along:confused:

I used to have house bunnies - could toilet train them for wee but not pooh - lots of little currants of bunny pooh everwhere but this is easy to hoover up.

However - I would warn you there is a risk of them chomping through wires and cables.

yep i have two french lops and yes they do eat anything they love wires! they do smell 2 if they wee!

bunnies are best kept outside in a big hutch but socialised daily in the house.

That could well be the answer then, a big hutch outside and daily gallivanting inside. Will find out what sex they are then get 1 or 2 depending on what they turn out to be. thanks for all the help.

i suggest you buy some piping to cover any wire they may be able to reach .i bought my piping from the pet shop, fish department after i bought my rabbit. quite a mistake,should have bought the piping before the rabbit.

its always best to get them neuted !!!!!
wire covers are essencial and the rest people have already said but i don't think 2 boys will get on forever!!!! even if neuted:)

I have a house rabbit, agree with everything above, they chew wires, wallpaper, magazines, dogbeds! and pretty much anything he can get his hands on. He was already house trained when we got him and is good with that, I did look after a friends 2 house rabbits while they were on holiday, both male. They got on fine, a little too well sometimes if you know what I mean :suspect: They really smelled and sprayed all the time. eugh! my male rabbit has only very occasionally sprayed so havent got him neuted, but definetly would if it was regular occurance. You have to be careful as well, you say you are buying babies, if you have them as house rabbits and change your mind. They get used to being inside from babies and can't handle the cold outside, so not a good idea to change your mind in a couple of months and turf them out in the cold.

However saying all that rabbits have a great character and are really soft and lovely, mine quite often jumps on my knee and sits and watches TV.

I agree with Tess that you cant turf a rabbit outside once its been inside for a while. I take Bobby out twice a day on the garden then he comes back inside. He does all his business in the same place, so we just shoved a litter tray there and that was that. He tries to chew a lot of things so we've made the rooms safe for him. He comes up to us when we're eating and begs for it like a dog. Lol

I think with rabbits they should be kept either inside or outside, because if you take into account that its going to be VERY cold in the winter, taking a rabbit inside for the day time and outside for the nighttime when its really cold, the rabbits may get really ill.

bunnies are best kept outside in a big hutch but socialised daily in the house.

Not sure if I agree with this. As someone else has said, it could be more disruptive than anything else with the change in temperature.

I have a wonderful houserabbit.

Does she smell?

Not sure I understand this question... What would she smell of? :confused: Her litter tray would smell if I didn't clean it out regularly, but that's about it.

Does she eat wire?

Yep, the minute my back is turned! Most rabbits will chew through wires - it's instinct because wild rabbits chew through tree roots as they dig their burrows. The best way to prevent it is to keep wires well out of reach, or enclose them in strong piping. Double sided sticky tape is also a good repellant against chewing, cause they don't like to get their whiskers stuck!

Does she dig carpets?

Only if she's bored. The best way to stop a bunny from being destructive is to give them ad lib hay to munch on and plenty of things to play with. You don't have to splash out on expensive toys. Cardboard boxes, empty loo roll tubes, old telephone directories, ect. will give hours of fun!

Don't know if this is helpful, but I'll briefly describe how I keep my bunny... I live in a shared house with friends, so my bunny lives in my bedroom. She has a cage with a litter tray, feed bowl, blanket (much less messy than sawdust or shavings for house bunnies - you can use towels too and then they're easy to wash) and hay rack. But she is only shut in her cage at night. I give her some supper and put her away last thing at night before I go to bed, and let her out as soon as I get up. She knows her routine and sleeps quietly during the night! I find all animals work best with a routine.

The rest of the time she has the free run of my room, including during the day while I'm out at work. The room is fully bunny-proofed (no wires and chewable things within reach) - it certainly helps me to stay tidy! She also has a littler tray in the corner of the room. When I'm in the house then she roams around with me, and sometimes goes out into the garden if the weather is okay.

She was very easy to litter train. If you allow your rabbit to pick a corner to go to the toilet in, then put a litter tray in the corner and a few poos in the tray to get them started, they should get the hang of it. My bunny often comes to work or to my parents house with me, and will always look for a litter tray to relieve herself in, even if she's somewhere strange! Choose wood-based cat litter as it is less harmful if bunny swallows it!

Any bunny questions feel free to PM me. Good luck x