I’m having a slight dilemma

[DallasDelight]

I live way, way, WAY out in west texas. We’re about 50-60 miles from the border of Mexico, but we are hours and hours away from any big cities. I’m possibly getting another bun sometime this month, as a future pal for Dallas.
I really really want to adopt a bun, the problem I’m running into though is that because we live so far out, it’s really hard for me to actually adopt any buns. A lot of rescues only adopt out to homes within 100-120 miles radius, and we aren’t even close to that. A lot of rescues want to do a home visit, which is totally fine, but they don’t want to drive that far. Another thing is the adoption process itself, I can’t show up at the shelter, choose a bun and walk out with her the same day, but due to our animals at home we can’t stay away from our house for days at a time to wait for the adoption process to go through.
To give you an idea of how far we’d be driving, we’re 5 hours away from El Paso, 3 – 3 1/2 hours away from Midland/Odessa, 5 1/2 – 6 hours away from Lubbock, etc… so you can see my problem!! My biggest problem is probably the fact that my parents are not bun-savvy, so they don’t get why I don’t want to just go to a pet store and get one.
Does anybody have any ideas on how I could make this work?

 

[Beka27]

have you contacted rescues? i think many rescues will put a laundry list of guidelines on their site to discourage impulse adopters, but not all of them abide by every one, every time. a personal email can go a long way. if you contact a few rescues that would be feasible to drive to and explained your situation, you might find someplace that is willing to work with you. you mention your parents… are you an adult? be aware that most rescues will not adopt to minors. another option might be if you have a local shelter. while not rabbit-specialized, they might recieve rabbits from time to time. you could contact them and have them call you if any are surrendered.

[DallasDelight]

Yep, I’m a minor..just 16. Which is also causing problems. If they screened my parents, I would not be going home with a rabbit from them, lol!
Thanks for the tips, I’ll e-mail a few rescues and see what we can do. We have a local humane society, so I’ll talk to them as well!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I agree-talk to them; We have certain guidelines for adopters, but it always depends on the person and the situation. We need to know that all adults in the house are in agreeance with the rabbit, but if it were a sixteen year old adopting-we’d consider what her answers and responsibilities would be and just need to know that her parents were fine with it I bet you’ll have no prob since you have a bunny and know so much about care already

[Beka27]

i don’t remember if you posted about this, but in your profile it says that Dallas is not neutered. has he been done since you registered and you never updated it, or is he still unneutered? if he’s not neutered yet, you would need to do that first. that will show a potential rescue that you’re responsible for your rabbit’s health and well-being and you know the importance of house rabbits being speutered. also, many rescues would not adopt a second rabbit to a home that had an unaltered bunny, even if the second was altered already.

[DallasDelight]

Please excuse my lack of response, I got a bit caught up in christmas and new years! Our trip got postponed to this weekend, which got me excited because that meant I had more time to search for rescues, but STILL no luck I can’t even find a rabbit rescue IN lubbock. It’s insane. I don’t want to support a pet store, so since we are leaving at around 2 or 3am on Saturday(meaning I only have the rest of today and tomorrow to find a rescue to contact), I came up with a Plan B and I have contacted an ARBA registered breeder who’s in Lubbock. I figure the next best thing would be going to a good breeder right? It’s not as bad as going to the pet stores, surely. Herring Hoppers(http://www.freewebs.com/herringhoppers/) is who I’ve contacted.

Oops, I forgot about that thing in my profile. Dallas is neutered now, I just forgot to update that lol. My bad.

[jerseygirl]

Just be sure to check them out thoroughly. Not all breeders are responsible or even rabbit savvy amazingly! My problem would be seeing the babies and wanting one of them! There may be a rabbit at the breeders you can sort of rescue – ie, one that is no use to them anymore. Some breeders may even provide temporary homes to rescued rabbits. It’s worth enquiring.

Have you tried something like Petfinder for your area? There may be a pet somewhere close by that someone is wanting to rehome.

[Thearina]

If you do decide to get a rabbit from a breeder make sure to ask lots of questions about how they actually care for their rabbits. I Whichever rabbit(s) that you are interested in have the breeder handle the rabbit to get an idea of how the rabbit will take to being handled and how much you may have to work with that particular rabbit with being handled later on. If the rabbit has reached sexual maturity see if the rabbit is protective of its cage, but also ask how long that rabbit has been in that particular cage. The reason I say ask this is if the rabbit has been in the cage for a while and has had time to get use to the cage then you would have some idea if that rabbit would be cage protective.

I currently have 4 rabbits (1 male, 3 females). My first 2 male/female are fixed and a bond pair. The last 2 are females that I get from a local breeder at the beginning of december. Both of these rabbits are retired breeder rabbits, one is 10-13 months old and the other is 2-3 years old. The reason I mention this is because you may want to ask any breeders that you go to if they may happen to have any retired breeders for sale. I know that your probably more interested in babies, but I thought that I’d through that idea out there. I’m one of those people that say adopt instead of going to a breeder, but if that not really an option or your looking for a particular breed than I for looking into a breeder. I didn’t really intend to get more than 2 rabbits especially from breeder but sometimes that are good reasons to do so. I personally have a particular reason for why I but thats a story for another day The breeder(s) that you talk to my have some retired breeder rabbits that are less than a year old. And to be completely honest with a rabbit that has already reached sexual maturity you will be able to see what its personality is like, unlike with a baby. I’m not saying to not get a baby just that an older rabbit would maybe be something to consider.

Here are the questions I asked the breeder I got my 2 females from (these are good for even baby rabbits not just adults):
– Was the rabbit rabbit born there or didn’t they buy is after if was weaned? (The breeder I got my 2 females from had some 12 week old babies that she got from another breed who had too many babies to find homes for so she got them to sell)
– If born there have they handled them since very young or even when born?
– How often do they handle their babies, everyday etc? (It helps if the babies are handled at a very young age, because the breeder I went to had 3 rabbit she got from an older man who didn’t want to breeder anymore but could see these 3 rabbits because they where very aggressive and wild acting because he never handled them)
– What brand of food do they feed them and do they send some home with the rabbit?
– Do they feed their rabbits any veggies?

Those some of the questions I asked the breeder when I was there looking at her rabbits. I did ask more questions, but those where about the specific rabbit I was looking at. Good luck in finding a buddy for your rabbit. Also if you haven’t already try checking on petfinder and also petharbor. Some animal controls and rescues sometimes only post their animals on one of those and not both.

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