New To Happy Hoppers!

Hello Everyone  

I find myself here after a recent new addition to our family...   "Sebastian" our 15 week old beautiful Netherlands Dwarf!  

A few years ago, when our youngest daughter was 6 years old, she became fascinated by rabbits, always wanting to visit pets corner! She longed for pet rabbits and asked constantly   .  We explained all the things you need to do for a rabbit and that she was a little too young but maybe when she was older.  For her 7th Birthday, still she longed for rabbits but understood the need to wait. She made do with two very realistic soft plush toy rabbits in a toy wooden hutch!

But this was no short term fad.... fast forward to age 10 the longing for a rabbit continued. Our daughter bought herself two books about rabbits "understand and caring for your pet" etc.   She studied them and became extremely knowledgeable about diet, exercise, handling and even about "checking bottoms"!!  So, after also reading the books, we made a deal..  for every £1 my daughter could save towards accommodating rabbits, we would double it.  My daughter save her pocket money and money given at Christmas and finally in January with our help, had enough.

Soon after arrived a 6ft Liberta Dartmoor Hutch with Permanent Sedgemoor run (almost 8ft) and everything you could possibly need including tunnels and toys!  Everything was ready! On January 10th my daughter and husband returned home with "Sebastian"  Once home...my daughter was in tears.... happy, happy tears...... after waiting so long, I don't think she could quite believe it!  She gets up earlier everyday to spend time with him before school and carry out daily tasks xx

Sebastian has settled well, is very friendly and is getting to know and trust our family.  He charges around the run, dashing through tunnels and cardboard castles and chooses when to return to his hutch. We have plans to extend his exercise area and have purchased a 12ft pipe, 4ft pipe and connectors as we hope to add an additional full height run (12ft x 8ft x 6ftH) soon. Having the full height will mean our daughter can sit comfortably in the run and Sebastian can come and see her! She is finding sitting in the current run a squash and a squeeze!!  Sebastian is having his injections tomorrow     and our vets will carry out castration at 6 months.  After this time, we shall find Sebastian a female bunny friend to bond with.  We all spends lots of time with him, we give him lots to do... but you can see he would love a bunny friend xx

Hello and welcome

Sounds like you have a very responsible little girl on your hands. You must be very proud of her!

Looking forward to getting to know you and little Sebastian, and his future wife

Hi and welcome to happy hoppers. It's good to hear your daughter has taken the responsibility so seriously. It certainly sounds as if she has done her research well. I think that with all that research she will find rabbits to be rewarding pets. However I am aware, from experience, that the books have lots of gaps or lack detail where you really need it. We have loads of experience here on the forum so if you or your daughter have any questions or wish to share your experiences good or bad then we would be delighted to hear them.

I am also going to just add in that you don't need to wait until 6 months to neuter these days. The Rabbit welfare association also have a complete (and up to date) guide to rabbit care which I am sure you and your daughter would like if you haven't already seen it.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=E5-_VNixK5XZasznguAN&url=http://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/pdfs/RWAbrochuremaster.pdf&ved=0CCEQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNHGxi92hIi6vhezmXDWRe1WD_MN2w&sig2=pYhr6fdfQmr2eQGEeK9Kxw

Thank You so much.  Our daughter loves the responsibility and is a very sensible young lady.   She is supervised without really realising it! As a family, we are all prepared to support her and take responsibility when necessary.

I have no doubt we will need to call upon your expertise and experience in the future and ask lots of questions! Its great to find out so much already from lurking on Happy Hoppers.

Thank You also for the additional info... to be honest I did think we could neuter earlier than 6 months and thought Seb could get a friend sooner, but I guess its just our Vets policy?? When he has his injection tomorrow, I will ask more about it.

Welcome to HH

Thank You Velvet

Hello and Welcome to the forum

Hi Tucker... I took a look at your Bunny Boarding link.... wow, how fantastic!

Hello and welcome

I would advise you to try to sort out a rabbit-savvy vet before you need one (which will be at 3.15am on a bank holiday ) - if you let us know what area you are in we might be able to help.

Sebastian sounds like a very lucky bunny indeed

Has anyone asked for more pics yet? More pics!

Hi Sparky....  I did try to add another photo before reading how to do it properly.. and now its says I've created a servimg.com from my board account...  Its taken my email information and they've emailed me to say I got an account...  I am worried about security now.  HELP!!  

before I new this was happening I created a photobucket account as suggested and sorted out another photo..  but the forum says I cannot add a photo link for 7 days as I am new.  more worried about my computer security..

A very warm welcome to our happy family love to you and your lovely little girl. I wish all parents/children were as responsible as you have been before buying a bunny, I am so pleased she has one at last as it sounds much deserved.

Hugs
JO xx

Hi There!

A massive welcome to HH to you all!

Sebastian looks a little bit like my Nethie Daisy (who is a boy) and who (be warned) is rather badly behaved! lol.

You will find bunny ownership is very rewarding and Nethies can be very particular, and cheeky!! Daisy is 6 1/2 now and absolutely rules our house! lol

Your daughter sounds like a fabulous young lady - you must be very proud of her. I wish that all new owners took as much time to research and understand the hard work that bunnies are.

Sparky had a good bit of advice about the vet.... not all of them are bunny savvy.... we struggled to find one... but its worth finding out....also.... get the little monster insured, I have found this invaluable!

Photobucket is the way to go for piccies... its much easier. The 7 day rule is there for everyones protection really - there are some strange people out there!! But if you wanted me to put some up for you, PM me and ill send you my email addy and ill put them up for you :-)

Once again.. a massive welcome from all of us :-)

Feel free to join in the chat and if there is anything at all we can do, please let us know!

Hi Katieb.... so is servimg.com something to do with this site... I never wanted it, but it came from this site when I tried to upload a photo. Its a little unnerving as it got my email and sent me a message. Is servimg from here?? Please confirm.. rather worried and been frantically running scans!!

Hi There!

Dont Panic. Servimg is a programme that formation recommends people use to host their pictures. if you tried to load up a picture that wasn't an IMG from another site (such as photo bucket) it has tried to set up an account for you (I'm hoping that at some point it offered you the option)

here is a little explanation I have copied from the formation site. It really isn't anything to worry about, it just allows you to post pictures here.

Servimg is an image host as there are others on the Net. It can host images of maximum size 2MB formats, bmp, gif, png, jpg and tif.
Unlike some hostings, the registration to Servimg is mandatory. Because this Registration allows you to create an account and hence can be traced all the images you upload.
Through this account, if you wish to submit a link to an image hosted some time ago, you will find your images in the links to the image, they will not be lost.

However, most of us here use photobucket.

does that make sense hun?

http://help.forumotion.com/t10583-servimg-tutorial

Here is the link that explains it all a lot better than i can.... but its just a hosting tool

Phew!! Thank You for the reassurance.  That's ok then.   I've sorted out photobucket so will add some pictures in the near future.  

Thanks everyone for your warm welcome.. and I am loving the photos of all your lovely bunnies. My daughter loves all the photos too!

No problem... anything you need to know... just drop me a line.

I wasn't on for a day or two and eh presto lots of fantastic things happened .
A warm welcome to you and Seb!
Indeed great to see hoomins being responsible:thumb:
Give your daughter a hug from me for being a patient girl and a good humum.
There is a wealth of advice and knowledge here at the forum and I look forward to hear and see more from you.:cheers:

Thank You for your lovely welcome. My little lady certainly did have to be very patient. Seeing her with Seb now is so special..... she has a constant smile

Welcome to the forum!

i will second kaites advice and say make sure the little fella is insured! it so helpful as such small beasts can be so expensive!

He certainly is cute look forward to more pictures!

Thanks Amelia. I shall be looking in to insurance soon.

Hello and welcome to HH

Seb looks like a stunning little guy, I can't wait to see what an inevitably gorgeous pair him and his future wifey bun will make!

Can I also say how refreshing it is to see a family do their research and make 100% sure the child is interested before just going out and buying a bunny. He sounds to have a fabulous home and is one very lucky boy indeed. Your daughter sounds like a very responsible young lady and thanks to you, hopefully the cycle of responsible pet ownership will be continued in your family

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask. There's always someone more than happy to help here, it's a lovely forum

Thank You so much fluffslave. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly. So glad I found this forum... its helped with todays drama's already

Hello and welcome

Sebastian is gorgeous and sounds a very lucky and spoilt little man. I echo what has been said about neutering - it can be carried out as soon as his testicles drop , usually 12 weeks onwards. Give him a few weeks for his hormones to settle down then he will good to go to find a ladybun. You may find getting jobs done around the house becomes more difficult - I can waste a goodly amount of time just watching the bunnies being bunnies together!