What Pet Rabbit forums have taught me

[ladysown]

I know I'm going against the grain here but I Thought this might be helpful.

What pet rabbit forums have taught me.

1. there are a lot of crazy in love with their pet bunny people in the world.
2. how to talk to pet bunny people who are LIKE the pet bunny people on the pet bunny forums
3. information I didn't know and that you don't find on the more homesteanding/livestock oriented forums.
4. ways to help people bond rabbits
5. the risks of surgery
6. how ill-informed some pet rabbit people truly are
7. to grow a thick skin as I continually provide the opposing viewpoint (as in more than one way to feed a rabbit, more than one way to keep a rabbit, neutering is NOT always a must etc).
8. Rabbit sports - agility, bunny hopping, trick training and such like.

I'm sure there's more but EPIC has just started playing in the background and I'm getting distracted.

 

[Homer]

...What pet rabbit forums have taught me.

1. there are a lot of crazy in love with their pet bunny people in the world.

How true but in one way or another that's why we're all here...pets, show, meat...

6. how ill-informed some pet rabbit people truly are

Truer words have never been spoken.
Before I found RT I was a member on a "pet rabbit forum" and it truly amazed me how little some know about rabbits. 90% of it (to me anyway) is common sense. The rest I have the good people here for.

 

[ottersatin]

What Pet Rabbit forums have taught me,
[Where I am right now is not to be included in this statement!]
Is that there are more than too many times that a person,
such as myself. "Should just keep their mouth shut", of keep thy finger from typing!
In most cases the ones that need the information the most, simply
DO NOT want to hear it!
Yes, that is what I have learned! But it is NOT required here.
Her we seem to somehow be able to speak openly about the differences
with Rabbits. For that, I am truly grateful.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[michaels4gardens]

After cruzing the rabbit forums, I was very disapointed until came to this one, -- this is the only one I bothered to comment on, and the only one I "joined"-- I was impressed right away-- as I noticed people could have a diferent opinion and be "nice " about it. I noticed a lot of comments on other forums were not only wrong , but were rude to others who might not agree with them, or asked for help. The others I looked at, seemed to me more like a cult then an open forum.
And People like me, who "eat" rabbits, would not be of much value to most of the others anyway.

 

[Southbound_SF]

What pet rabbit forums have taught me.

3. information I didn't know and that you don't find on the more homesteanding/livestock oriented forums.

ladysown, will you share this knowledge with us? So the rest of us don't have to go sort through the pet sites too? If there's a deficit in some area of information here, I'd love to see it corrected.


SB

 

[MamaSheepdog]

:yeahthat:

opcorn:

 

[ladysown]

what have I learned?

1. how to bond and how NOT to bond rabbits. How prone they can be failure as well as how rabbits can grieve when their mate is gone and how one can help their rabbit cope with that loss.

2. current preferred treatment for malocclusion is to remove the front teeth. (I've seen this in several posts, led me to talk to my rabbit rescue folks who then talked to their vets and found out that YES this is true).

3. How just as in the meat rabbit world there is polarization of THIS IS THE RIGHT way to feed, house, care for etc.

4. the language people use in talking about their bunnies. I am so practical and straightforward.. I don't call rabbits sweetie, or darling, or whatever. I think in terms of dominant, submissive, easy to handle, mouthy, pushy etc. I don't use that language with any of my pets either, so learning it is important when talking with pet focused people as it helps me to interpret better what they are saying/meaning which helps me in turn to educate them better about rabbit behaviour.

5. I've been enlightened to how some folks are very knowledgeable about the make-up of rabbits. Are most people relatively clueless and lacking in common sense? A lot of them are. BUT there are some folks on there that surprise me with their knowledge base.

 

[mystang89]

Before I found this site I tried looking at the other sites and found out there are crazier people out there than me.

 

[ladysown]

i guess my point is.... I don't like relegating people to the "they are crazy" as that means they can be ignored or belittled. It's a different mindset and yes, some folks are "seemingly crazy" as they don't make logical sense to me in how they come up with their thoughts (or lack thereof).

But there is something to be learned from a whole variety of people, it's just a matter of looking (sometimes quite hard) and thinking about what they are saying.

Gives me fodder for my website as well. When I bump into a thought that seems prevalent I can address it on my blog.

 

[akane]

I just get myself in trouble on the pet sites. I did spend many years on the 2 strictest pet and rescue guinea pig sites. I finally matured enough to have my own opinion and we started to clash. I left the forums for awhile except a couple years hanging out on backyard chickens and the smaller forum, chicken crossing which was a lot like RT. Then I started to keep small animals again and went looking for forums. Got myself in trouble on RO repeatedly until someone suggested I go here. Every now and then I go stir up trouble on RO with my opposing views. In order to keep friends I've been really biting my tongue on chins and hedgies. I use an international chin forum for all my breeding questions to avoid the controversy on the american pet forums.

 

[squidpop]

I go to the pet rabbit forums a lot too. But I think this forum keeps me grounded, like if i where to start sinking a $1000 dollars into exploratory surgery on a 10 year old rabbit— if I posted it here people would tell me I'm crazy- but on the pet forums people would just say go for it and encourage me to spend more money. On the pet sites no one will just come out and say- the rabbit is suffering and perhaps putting it to sleep is best for the rabbit. On the pet forums you can, perhaps learn a lot about vet care... because they love going to the vet... where as here you learn more about how to treat injuries and health problems yourself.

I actually just got told off on Rabbits Onlline because I told someone I didn't think their Vet was rabbit savvy and to go to a new vet- and I said it because they reported their rabbit was sneezing for a minute non-stop solid and they saw mucus and their Vet said it probably was just "new home sniffles." The person said I was patronizing and was offended because I said get another vet and there are better treatments than Baytril. Then moderator posted and said there was such a thing as "New Home Sniffles" evidently rabbits sniff around the new house and start sneezing from dust and such but its not Pasteurella or anything serious. Yeah, right.

 

[akane]

Oddly I found the sites that allow breeding discussion to be worse than the ones that completely ban it. They are so strict about who should be breeding and what should be bred. If you can't get the best animals in the country (or even import them), spend $1000s on their health and vet exams throughout the pregnancy and birth, and find perfect homes for every one of the offspring then you shouldn't breed at all. It runs over in to the rest of the sites as well. Health checks generally reserved for breeding animals are expected with pet animals. I'm still in the doghouse on the chin forum from 2 months ago for not checking for hair rings on the penis often enough that I missed my new chin was improperly sexed until right before she popped out babies. I can't post about the babies at all either because they did not come from a pedigreed, planned breeding. At least forums without breeding make exceptions for accidents that aren't even the new owner's fault and not checking something that is generally only a concern in breeding animals.

 

[ladysown]

oh... I SO did not want this thread to become a bashing pet forums thread. I really didn't.

I just wanted to provide a DIFFERENT viewpoint than the ones so often expressed.

All the dissing of pet forums annoys me to no end. There's no need for it.

If you can't handle pet forums,stay away from them. There are some out there I don't touch because they have some .. what I would call odd ducks on them. But some aren't too bad and they are generally clear for whom they are intended. Of course they are going to annoy you if you aren't their intended audience.. RT annoys people for whom it is not intended. Really it does... I've heard comments off and on and actually STOPPED attending one forum as it was a repeated topic (not worthy of sharing with anyone).

BUT on the pet forums I continue to monitor and sometimes comment on I've not seen RT generally being bashed, unlike certain pet forums are regularly bashed here. There's really no need for it.

ALL I wanted to do was express my appreciation for SOME of the things I've learned on the pet forums. They've been helpful to me in my business of raising rabbits and learning how to provide the best customer service and care for the bunnies under my purview.

Expressing thankfulness is a GOOD part of being the people that we are supposed to be.

 

[akane]

And if RT annoyed me I'd complain about RT to whatever forum I agree with. I've complained about breeder forums to pet/rescue forums before because they wouldn't listen to medical findings the rescue crowd has discovered. Like how giving milk to orphaned guinea pigs is not the proper way to do things. They are born ready to eat solid food and gp milk is practically water so orphans even from day 1 should be fed softened pellets or critical care. Not any milk or formula products. That one always drove me nuts that no breeder would listen to even with studies and veterinary sites discussing it.

 

[Ramjet]

2. current preferred treatment for malocclusion is to remove the front teeth. (I've seen this in several posts, led me to talk to my rabbit rescue folks who then talked to their vets and found out that YES this is true).

I think the difference between here and pet forums is .... practicality.

We have cull , they medicate .... (or as someone said in another thread recently "Vet it to death")

When you have one rabbit who is a house pet .... I can see taking it to the vet like you would a dog or cat and treating illness / injury.

When you have ##+ rabbits , one of them gets the sniffles , it puts the rest of your herd in danger. The practical thing to do is cull.

Pet people have a nasty tempered rabbit , they rehome it , we eat it for dinner.


I really get the idea that a lot of the differences come as a result of "one rabbit" & "many rabbits."

My wife & I clash on this , she see's them as pets , I see them as livestock .... to put dinner on the table.

 

[ladysown]

that's so true.

when raising rabbits one needs to learn that lesson quickly or one will either
1. become broke very quickly or
2. be known as that bunny lady/man hoarder person who can't control the number of rabbits they own.

Neither is preferrable.

So one learns that practicality.

Pet folk with up to eight neutered rabbits don't have as big a concern....

 

[DogCatMom]

What Pet Rabbit forums have taught *me* is that, unlike my five years of experience as a moderator on a gardening forum--where the mods were expected to treat each member with restraint, respect, and consideration (if a particular member irritated a mod so much that the mod couldn't respond to that member's posts in the "approved" way, then that mod simply didn't respond to those posts)--the mods on Pet Rabbit forums have no such qualms.

At all.

In fact, it's the mods who seem to thrive on leading the "torches and pitchforks" brigade on unwitting new posters.

I gave it all up as a bad job just before Christmas and made RT my "one and only" bunny forum. Perhaps a month later, I received a note from a forum saying something to the effect of "we see you haven't logged on to [our forum] for a while. Is something wrong?"

(A note for new members: I have one rabbit, a house bunny who is my Gardening Assistant and who lives in an ex-pen. He does not run freely through my house for hours at a time. He has occasional excursions outside the ex-pen, but they're not every day, and certainly not for the HRS-mandated "three or four hours" at a time).

I found it very creepy, actually, to think that my log-on habits were being tracked. :shock: It's been several weeks, and I still haven't figured out what to say in response to that email message.

But my primary take-home from Pet Rabbit forums of the type under discussion here is that they only want to preach to the choir, :noevil: and if you're not already singing the same music, they don't want to teach it to you. :|

 

[Gone]

I found it very creepy, actually, to think that my log-on habits were being tracked. :shock: It's been several weeks, and I still haven't figured out what to say in response to that email message.

Don't sweat it. It's automated, you don't need to respond to it. Many forums have this set up. Some forums I've done for clients do this, as the clients demanded it. I've tried very hard to make as unobtrusive as possible, so I don't allow this kind of automated reminder. I figure we all get more than enough spam emails, why would I want to add to it?

When someone we know on here drops out of sight unexpectedly, sometimes one of us will contact them to see if they're OK, but this is a personal one-on-one contact, not a script to send out bulk emails. The times I've seen this, it has been out of genuine concern, too, not an effort to get people back on to post more. Big difference.

---

To the subject at hand, I don't have much to add. I don't go on the pet forums for any length of time, though I've glanced at enough samples to see some of what people here are talking about. Tolerance seems in short supply on some of them, which is unfortunate.

Many of you have expressed that you feel RT is more inclusive than other forums. I think it's important to remember that if that's true, it is only true because all of you try to make it that way, try to keep it that way. Maggie puts a ton of effort into the site, and so do our wonderful mods (we're really lucky on that front), but when it comes down to it, we couldn't maintain a friendly, inclusive forum if the membership didn't want it. Everyone who uses this board on a regular basis deserves to pat themselves on the back for this. You guys and gals make the site, and we're very aware of, and grateful for that.

 

[Dood]

I think you have to consider the numbers as well. There are hundreds if not thousands of pet rabbit sites but practically no rabbits as livestock sites so its no wonder that there are more radical, "our way or the highway" pet forums.

It has also been my experience that the pet forums are heavily populated by youth who can be very passionate about their bunnys welfare but also quite irrational and not very open to criticism - look at some of the problems that have cropped up here when constructive criticism was given but taken as a personal attack :shrug:

I agree with Ladysown, that pet sites can be very informative on rabbit behaviour and any new medical advances in rabbit care - I might not agree that "new home snuffles" is a valid disease or that removal of teeth to "cure" malocclusion is a good idea but it is good to learn about a different perspective in rabbit keeping and I find it very helpful in broadening my world view by reading about how the "other side" lives with and loves their rabbits

 

[Peach]

I'm not 100% against them, but I enjoy it here,because like others have said, it's practical. I'm glad people here understand that they are dual purpose . Pet sites can be helpful,if you have them strictly as pets, but you might have some nazi rabbit group pick apart the things you do and harass you for doing differently. At least you generally get constructive feedback here and we understand there are many different ways to have rabbits.


I sure you can filter through the pet sites and probably pick up tips and tricks for bonding, litter box training, and treatments to offer pet people, but I prefer it here