Family thinks rabbitry is a petting zoo

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Tiny Buns

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So I'm curious if anyone else has relatives who assume that they can come over and 'play with' your 'bunnies'?

Considering this is family I need to choose my words carefully. Somehow family (at least mine anyway) seem to think my closed rabbitry policy doesn't apply to them.
 
We have lots of friends with kids, so they all like to come and pet the bunnies (few last more than a few minutes of interest and if they insist on holding, they quickly get over it once they realize a rabbit isn't really cuddly LOL).
I don't mind as none of them are likely to carry disease (no rabbits etc) and with my allergies, they have to limit contact so as not to 'contaminate' my house etc.
 
My problem is with the kids friends and guests, when people come over I feel like I have to do rabbit chores first to make sure things looked cared for, on top of picking up the house, etc.....not a fan of people just popping by anyway, makes it harder with animals.
 
Part of the reason I refuse to keep aggressive rabbits of any kind is so that I can allow extended family and friends to enjoy the company of all of the bunnies at any time.
Since I am the only rabbit keeper in the family, the only disease I worry about is e-coli from unwashed children's hands.

We just make a big deal about kids scrubbing their hands before playing with babies.
No problem.
I love petting zoo time! :D
 
Zass":1bqx6c03 said:
Part of the reason I refuse to keep aggressive rabbits of any kind is so that I can allow extended family and friends to enjoy the company of all of the bunnies at any time.
Since I am the only rabbit keeper in the family, the only disease I worry about is e-coli from unwashed children's hands.

We just make a big deal about kids scrubbing their hands before playing with babies.
No problem.
I love petting zoo time! :D

Good advice. Thank you.

What age of kits do you let family play with?

-- Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:45 pm --

macksmom98":1bqx6c03 said:
My problem is with the kids friends and guests, when people come over I feel like I have to do rabbit chores first to make sure things looked cared for, on top of picking up the house, etc.....not a fan of people just popping by anyway, makes it harder with animals.

I also despise drop in visitors, even family. Just a pet peeve of mine. Plus it always seems someone shows up right before I've taken care of the sweeping up and I feel neglectful lol. <br /><br /> -- Fri Oct 16, 2015 8:48 pm -- <br /><br />
TF3":1bqx6c03 said:
We have lots of friends with kids, so they all like to come and pet the bunnies (few last more than a few minutes of interest and if they insist on holding, they quickly get over it once they realize a rabbit isn't really cuddly LOL).
I don't mind as none of them are likely to carry disease (no rabbits etc) and with my allergies, they have to limit contact so as not to 'contaminate' my house etc.

All mine are cuddly/lovey--especially the Bucks who spray their love on you :shock: I just wondered about the disease control issue considering I try to minimize stranger contact with my rabbits and essentially my extended family qualify as strangers.
 
I allow people, including children (with clean hands) to handle rabbits of any age. Newborn and up.

Most are not too interested in holding them before they get fur, but nestlings are fine... and actually, I think that handing kits before their eyes open is a great way for them to develop positive associations towards being held and carried.
I always make sure to hold mine and get my kids to hold them around day 9 or 10, so that they can learn to accept it before the fear factor of I'm-moving-through-the-air comes into play.
 
I'm with Zass, I also let friends and family that are visiting us visit and handle rabbits.
We handle kits from day one and I've let relatives carefully hold the kits as early as the day they were born. I've never had any issues and people so often tell us how friendly our rabbits are.
I've also found that if when they are around 4 weeks old I take them to an assisted living facility (one that welcomes this of course) for residents to get to take turns holding, that not only is it a huge blessing to the residents but I've found those rabbits seem to greatly benefit temperament wise.
 
I show my rabbits, and don't quarantine them when they come home, so having a "closed barn" is pointless in my opinion.

My neighbors love to bring their friends and relatives (city folk) over to see all of our animals, and when I sell puppies, many of them like to have the grand tour as well.

I enjoy sharing our lifestyle and animal husbandry views with people, and hope they leave with a new outlook on breeding and agriculture.

I do allow small children to handle baby animals but I always first ask them "Can you be very gentle?" I also make them sit down close to the ground so if the popples pop, they don't have far to fall.
 
With family I do not really mind they all know the rules, and are respectful. Heck most of the time the kids ask if they can just look at them which is fine. Now when it comes to my neighbors kids it's a different story. His 2 oldest girls I don't mind as much, BUT his 10 year old daughter..... :angry: Now please I do not want to come off the wrong way, but she is the most ungrateful, and rude little snot I've ever been around. She will try to tell me that I AM giving her a baby when they are born, or she will have her dad MAKE me give her one, (I know he wouldn't.) Then some days she will come over while I am in the garage, and have the door open, and when I am turned around she will open the cage, and take them out. :evil: Then one time I left the door open while I ran inside to fill water bottles, and when I came back out she, and 5 of her friends were shoving some sort of weeds into their cages.
 
I think I'm a teeny bit surprised by the openess considering I found a past thread about rabbitry visits and the answers where very different with a lot of concern over biohazard.

This particular situation involves family I haven't seen in 20+ years that are virtual strangers. I've had more contact via email with customers than with my own family.

Thank you everyone for your input and thoughtful answers.
 
Tiny Buns":2fn4gcy2 said:
I think I'm a teeny bit surprised by the openess considering I found a past thread about rabbitry visits and the answers where very different with a lot of concern over biohazard.
:yes:

Rabbit breeders have the potential to be carrying A LOT more diseases than non-rabbit raising friends or family members.

On top of that, there is always the lingering fear that a stranger might be a scout for an AR group.
I WORRY for the sake of my animals, since I do not really believe that those people would actually give them a better existence than what they already have here with me.

I will probably always believe that being humanely euthanized (and served with bbq sauce) is a kinder fate than what happens to most domestic animals that are "freed" into the wild, or "rescued" and taken to an over crowded no-kill shelter (in PA, usually a smelly garage full of cages that are much smaller than what my buns already have, all too often rampant with disease.)
 
We can have up to 10 small kids on any given weekend. They come by and see the rabbits but they know their livestock and not pets. Because of this they don't handle them. Sometimes I'll get one of the adults out and sit with him or her and allow pets but not very often. I wouldn't allow my neighbors to go into the rabbitry but our closest neighbor is 1/2 a mile down the road. :lol:
 
My mom always has her friends' kids coming over to see my baby bunnies... although I don't mind too much because I am always open to educating people on proper rabbit care.
But it can be a little annoying at times, LOL.
My family (mostly my little sister) always refers to MY rabbits as "our rabbits". Ahem... Who does all the work? who pays for these animals? who do these animals belong to? :angry: :?
 
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