The other day we went to a local bunny rescue to see if there are any rabbits that would seem to be a good match for sugarbear, our one year old polish, who will soon be neutered.  This rescue has 400 rabbits in one house.  We held a few and spent around two hours in the rooms with the rabbits.  The shelter had alot of fur and urine smell as you can imagine with that manny rabbits.  When we got home we washed our clothes right away.  But we put our shoes near the door in a place 10 feet from Shug's cage.  The next morning Shug was all skittish, he had not pooped eat or drink and did not like his cage.  He kept looking twards our shoes and acting scared.  We removed our shoes and the rug that they where on.  That helped a little.  Shug still would not eat, drink or poop/ pee.  He would eat treats and veggies, he dumped his porciline bowl a big feat for a 2.5 lbs bunny.  We gave him pellets and kale this morning and I closed him in his cage untill he pooped (he is free roaming and did not like being cooped up).  He finally went a small amount and I let him out. Later I got a call that he finally went a normal amount. He started eating and drinking out of bowls we placed under the kitchen table since he was hanging out there alot.  I am in the process of cleaning everything out near and in his cage to get any remaining scents off of his things.  Is this an indication of issues we will have trying to bond Shuggy with another rabbit?  We want to rescue a friend for him and will wash the new bunny when we bring him home, but if Shuggy gets this worked up over smelling other rabbits we are not sure if we want to put him through that.  I also should mention that Sugarbear has a blink deficiancy and does not have 100% vision which does not help the situation.  He is very sweet and is normally a laid back lap rabbit.  We wanted to get him bonded because we are expecting our first child and felt with his snuggle tendancies he might not get the same amount of attention we now give him. We do not want him to be lonely.   He seems to be doing better now....

 

Gratutitous Sugarbear picture...Leaning on tiles from the freezer to cool down.

I don't know that it necessarily means bad things in his future with another rabbit. I think the true test would be to have him meet a new rabbit, face to face (after his neuter). He may have been thrown off by the strange smells, or it could've been something else, but you will know for sure after he is able to meet potential partners. He just needs to find the right buddy for him.

Also, you mentioned washing a new rabbit - you really shouldn't need to, unless it is covered in urine and feces (which would indicate the rescue is not taking care of their rabbits very well). Rabbits are pretty self-cleaning and will have its own distinct smell (to Shug - it will probably smell like any other rabbit to you).

400 rabbits is a lot - did they seem to be well taken care of? Were the cages relatively clean?

I'd wait til he is neutered to do any more looking for bunnies. The scents are all very scary, and it's best to wait til he doesn't have to fight the urges his hormones are telling him to go for. he probably smelled other bunnies, and was getting all worked up with them being near his cage. Bunnies can be funny that way.

This was just the first place we checked out.  They said they basically have bunnies there that are being saved from the "chopping block", breeders drop them off instead of selling them for pelts/meat.   

They appear to be well intended, but very overworked, underfunded, and lacking in space.  There was lots of fur on the cage sides and some sneezy buns there. 

They looked in decent health overall though.