"Would you take my rabbit?"

Every once in a while, I get random emails or calls with people wanting me to take in their pet rabbits.

To begin with- that's dangerous for my herd. I don't know the history of the rabbit, where it comes from, the conditions it lived in, etc. etc. So, to take in a rabbit, I have to look at housing it either in the house, in the basement, etc for a quarantine period. Then, I have to spend my time looking for a new owner. So it's a large investment for me.

All right, then my favorite part. It usually goes something like this:

Me: "Do you have a cage for it?"
"Um... no."
"You don't have a cage?"
"*insert excuse here*"
"Do you have food for it?"
"It just ran out."
"Do you have any accessories to go with it?"
"No..."
"Have you tried to rehome it?"
"*insert excuse here*

Ahh- so you have no food, so I need to use mine. No cage, so I need to have one. No accessories like a food dish or water bottle, so I need those too...

Contrary to popular belief (apparently) I don't have a basement full of items waiting for "hard luck cases" where the "doting" owner needs to rehome Fluffy and doesn't want to put any work in to it.

A cage, accessories, food, etc. help so much in rehoming an animal. You don't even know. Well, if you've been breeding any period of time, I take that back, I'm sure you do. You've probably gotten these folks too.

My new policy is- if you don't have a cage, etc- you will pay me a minimum $10 per rabbit fee to rehome Fluffy. Because it's a cage I have to use, feed I have to use, time I have to use, etc.

And honestly, if these folks don't want to try to rehome their own pet, I'd think $10 would be a reasonable fee to have their hands washed of poor Fluffy, whom they love so much but can not keep.

Now, with a cage and food, I'm willing to wave that fee, because it doesn't cost me anything to take in the animal and it's easier to rehome them this way.

I suggest everyone adopt a similar policy. Of course, you don't have to and you are more than welcome to handle things the way you see fit. But it's an easy way to keep from being inundated with random pet rabbits.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry