GAHHH. now you KNOW I’m going to LOVE this post! have you ever gone to thedailybunny website? (google it. it’s amazing).

Thanks for posting that last bit at the end.

A neighbor in my parents’s neighborhood got their kids bunnies, and shortly after they went through a divorce and I guess the dad let the bunnies go outside (meaning, let them go, released them permanently). And the did what bunnies do and multiplied. It was fun to see so many bunnies in the neighborhood, but may parents found a little white one, let it for a bit and let it go. Next day, it had gotten attacked by something and they found it dead.
A few weeks later, my mom found a baby one on the step of their pool! It was alive, but she couldn’t even tell that it was a bunny at first because it was tiny and wet. So she brought it inside and my gruff and tough dad (on the outside) didn’t want to find it dead like they did the last one, so my mom brought it to me (I was in college and living with them at the time). We googled everything we could and decided to keep him.
I got married almost 2 years later and then a year and a half later we moved from FL to NC and Binky (the bunny) came with us.
I kept him indoors the whole time (I’ve seen what happens when they are kept in hutches outside).

Unfortunately, this past fall I let him go a bit too long without feeding him (like a day, maybe it was longer :(, they need to have food available at all times) because I was hardly ever home with my crazy job. He got a little too excited to eat and aspirated his food.
Bunnies aren’t supposed to have the ability to vomit, but he did something of the sort, I’ll spare you all the details.
2 ish weeks later, we noticed he hadn’t been eating, was going to the bathroom weird, then finally not going.
Hubby brought him to the vet and they said he was having trouble breathing and gave antibiotics.
He died that evening 5 minutes before I got home. :'( I can’t make this stuff up.
It was extremely horrible, and my husband was bawling. He hadn’t really liked the bunny much before that and kind of put up with him because he was my pet that I had before we met.
My bunny only lived to be 4 years old.
He had been completely healthy before I made him choke and he probably got some sort of lung infection. He had lost like 2 pounds too. 🙁

I was 18 when I got him and 22 when he died. I was no little child. He was all mine. I bought his food and cleaned his cage. I took him to the vet to get him fixed. I took care of him. Until right before the end the end.

I tell you all this so that you have an example of an adult not being able to keep up with her responsibilities and having an animal suffer for it.
If you think your kid is old enough to “take care of a bunny on his own” your probably wrong.

Yeah, they might keep up with it for a while, but if you’re kid is young or irresponsible, or busy enough, you know who’s going to be left with the responsibility? You, parent. It’s all on you. Or it will die.
And let me tell you, I didn’t have any kids, just a husband, and I found it hard to keep up with. They’re GREAT animals, but you really shouldn’t go for more than a week without cleaning its cage. They will use litter boxes (with wood shavings type stuff, not “litter”) but that litterlly piles up until you HAVE to clean it.
It’s hard work especially if you have other stuff to do (we all do).

So yes, consider getting small animals carefully. And rescue one from a shelter if you do decide to adopt one.

Btw, I have a much better job now. 🙂

And sorry to depress anyone, just being realistic.