Despite their popularity as pets, rabbits surrendered to animal shelters often stay there a while. And while many shelter staff provide fun toys, yummy hay, and comfortable housing for bunnies waiting for loving families, there simply is no place like home. In this second article of a two-part series, shelters and rabbit groups offer marketing, screening, and placement tips to help your bunnies hop their way into the arms of a permanent adopter. Read part one of the series.

When people think about buying a bunny, many consider going to the pet store, scanning the classifieds, or even checking out the county fair. Most never think of their local shelter.

In some areas, wannabe rabbit adopters don’t even have the choice: Whether because of limited resources or slow turnover in the rabbit area, some shelters have stopped handling rabbits. One shelter may be bursting with bunnies, while another may have kicked the rabbit habit entirely—further confusing an already confused public that equates “pets” and “shelters” with cats and dogs.

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection From litter box training to nail trimming to bunny-proofing a home, first-time rabbit guardians have a lot to learn.

“People don’t wake up in the morning, and say, ‘Honey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about getting a bunny,’ ” says Suzanne D’Alonzo, kennel manager at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria in Virginia. “It’s, ‘Hey, should we get a dog?’ [or] ‘You know, a cat would fit into our lifestyle.’ That’s probably the biggest challenge—when people talk ‘shelter,’ they talk cats; everything else is a side effect.”

The situation creates a bunny backlog of sorts for many facilities. Rabbits stay at the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center for an average of three months before being adopted, says operations manager Misha Goodman, who’s seen the same phenomenon at other facilities. “The rabbits, the gerbils, the guinea pigs, the rats, the mice— all of the small mammals stay forever,” she says. “Their turnover rate is not very quick. … And so it’s really difficult to continue to maintain those animals and give them what they need on a consistent basis.”

Because rabbits are easily available elsewhere, humane organizations may need to expend extra effort to market rabbit adoptions to an unaware community. Through education campaigns—and even through more subtle means—some shelters have managed to mainstream the rabbit’s place in their organization as well as help adopters understand the species’ particular needs. Rather than featuring the usual dog or cat as the “pet of the week,” for example, Goodman’s shelter often features a rabbit instead.

Once visitors arrive at the shelter, the next step is to grab their attention. Some organizations subtly promote bunnies by taking advantage of their building’s layout; housing rabbits in a special area near the lobby or front entrance helps highlight the small animals by guiding shelter visitors directly past them as they move through the facility.

Those potential adopters often don’t know what to expect from their first bunny, and D’Alonzo says it’s a challenge to make some people aware of what rabbits are like as companion animals. Even some shelter staff may be unfamiliar with rabbits and their habits, imagining them as sweet, fuzzy carrot-chompers who would never hurt a soul. While this image often holds true, there are some feisty bunnies out there. “I have a rabbit back there with a caution sign, and everybody thought I was kidding,” says D’Alonzo. “[But] I mean it! … Until I get him on a better attitude, I mean that he will bite.”

Adopters will rely on you to tell them what to do when they bring their new friend home—what to feed him, what veterinary care he’ll need, and how to guard their home against his busy rabbit teeth. They’ll also need clear instructions and advice about housing, especially if your shelter’s limited resources make it impossible for you to house rabbits the way you hope adopters will house them at home. Given that most shelters house primarily cats and dogs, many have less-than-perfect options for rabbit areas. You may need to tell adopters, “Do as we say, not as we do!”

Spreading the Word: Educating Adopters on Proper Rabbit Care

Some shelter visitors may expect rabbits to behave much like Whiskers or Spot at home. But pets with prey instincts and pets with predator instincts won’t be identical; many adopters might not understand rabbits’ defensive behavior, says Renee Stodola, humane officer and field services supervisor at the Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin.

Not only do many people perceive rabbits to be “easy starter pets”; many also associate their diminutive size with small costs. But bunny-specific vets may charge even more than those who treat only dogs and cats, says Mary Cotter, marketing/education director for the House Rabbit Society. Because not all veterinarians treat rabbits, owners may pay a premium to see those who do—and they should be made aware of this possibility before they adopt.

Kimberly Jackson encourages “a lot of one-on-one talk” with adopters. A former employee of the Animal Refuge League in Westbrook, Maine, Jackson was the shelter’s small animal specialist and an educator-in-training for the House Rabbit Society when interviewed for this article. At the League, she emphasized rabbits’ special diet and the amount of time they need out of their cage. Her words often tempered the enthusiasm of those who didn’t understand the commitment rabbits require.

Despite their reputations as tabletop or hutch pets, bunnies need and love exercise time. Several out-of-the-cage hours per day should be the standard recommended to adopters, says Cotter.

The Dane County Humane Society gives adopters information on litter box training, common health problems, cage setup, toys, and bunny-proofing a home, says Stodola. She explains rabbits’ dietary needs and tells adopters what their new friend has been consuming at the shelter—unlimited grass hay, a limited amount of pellets, fresh vegetables, and a small amount of fresh fruit. Stodola emphasizes the importance of feeding fresh veggies.

Iowa City takes in plenty of rabbits with overgrown teeth—sometimes “literally curling into the bottom gums,” Goodman says—and long, curled nails, so staff tell adopters about the bunny beauty salon treatments they’ll need to perform at home. “A lot of these things, the people are truthfully saying, ‘I had no idea that I needed to deal with that.’ … When I talk to people about it, they think it’s kind of gross that their teeth can grow so long.”

Because of care requirements like these, the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria invests a lot of time in educating new adopters. That often means that baby bunnies, a popular purchase at pet stores, don’t get adopted any more quickly than adult rabbits do. “I believe it’s because of me and my big mouth,” says D’Alonzo. “Because I’m usually very frank with people, and I’ll leap right into: ‘Yes, it is cute, it is charming—are you aware that baby bunnies are more destructive?’ … They dig more, they chew more, they get in trouble more—they’re more like puppies. They’ll grow out of it, but they are idiot teenagers for some period of time.”

Education at the Alexandria shelter goes beyond the confines of the facility. After an adoption has been approved and all family members agree to bring a bunny into their home, D’Alonzo makes 1 1/2- to 2- hour home visits to explain proper care and bunny quirks.

The home visit becomes almost a test in itself. “Most folks really have to be devoted to sit around listening to me for two hours on rabbit stuff,” says D’Alonzo.

When adoption applicants listen to D’Alonzo, they get the straight story. “Rabbits shed like there’s no tomorrow,” she says. “They gain weight like it’s the greatest thing to do. They have nails that, really, if they’re not trimmed, become a huge issue. They scratch you, they damage stuff, they rip through stuff quite nicely.”

In short, D’Alonzo’s rabbit lessons cover everything that the often inadequate mainstream rabbit care books don’t, she says. “I walk into a store, and most of the things available for bunnies cover how to breed, what colors rabbits are …” Her home visits, she says, explain “how to keep [rabbits] in homes without losing your mind.”

The rabbits that the Animal Welfare League sends home with adopters are very recently sterilized, D’Alonzo says, and may not be completely litter-box-trained. During their stay in the shelter, bunnies also may have been marking wherever they please, a habit that won’t be welcomed in their new home. D’Alonzo’s techniques help new adopters acclimate their bunnies to home living.

“I walk into people’s homes and I tell them, ‘Hey, wow, honestly you guys look like absolute beautiful home keepers’—i.e., neat freaks,” she says. “ ‘Let’s keep it that way. Let’s find … oh, your rec room. The rest of your house is for show, but your rec room is just that—it’s where kids get into things. Can you rearrange this bookshelf to provide a fake wall and then put a baby gate up from here to the corner?’ ”

When introducing bunnies to their homes, adopters at D’Alonzo’s shelter are urged to start their rabbits off in an easily cleanable space, like a bathroom. D’Alonzo suggests they place a couple of easily washable soft mats in the room for comfort and traction—and keep the rabbit there for a couple of weeks until he is ready to move to a rec room or section of the kitchen, for example.

D’Alonzo also breaks the news to adopters that bunnies’ lives may end unexpectedly. “It’s hard to see illness in bunnies,” she says. “They don’t age like dogs and cats and people; they do just kind of drop over dead. I like to give people a heads-up on that.” Some parents may even think twice about adopting an animal who may keel over on their kids so abruptly.

D’Alonzo recommends that adopters allow their rabbits more time outside of their cages than inside and that people provide large cages rather than typical pet store units. Dog crates, x-pens, or safe, baby-gated areas of the house provide rabbits room to roam.

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection In the right circumstances, rabbits can be placed in homes with mellow cats and other animals.

Those baby gates may come in handy when rabbits have housemates. Rabbits can be companions for cats, “very well-trained” dogs, and small animals like guinea pigs, and educational materials can help adopters who are considering bringing a rabbit into a home that already has a pet of another species, says Margo DeMello, administrative director of the House Rabbit Society.

Shelters without the experience or resources to perform two-hour home visits can get help from plenty of sources. “Any handouts from our website, [shelters can] slap their name on it, and I ask that they give us credit, but they can hand those out,” says DeMello.

Staff can also point adopters to reputable house rabbit listservs like groups.yahoo.com/group/etherbun or to books like The House Rabbit Handbook by Marinell Harriman. Post-adoption, shelters can refer adopters to local House Rabbit Society representatives for help with questions. (A list of chapters is available at http://rabbit.org/chapters/index.html.)

Adoption counselors who have never had their own bunnies may want to consider a stint as a bunny parent to get a taste of what new rabbit adopters face. When D’Alonzo’s coworker at the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria wanted to begin making home visits, she fostered a rabbit for a month. It was tough at first, D’Alonzo says. “She called [me] every day the first week, and she was angry at her rabbit, every day. And magically, poof, at the end of the month, she had a system rolling.”

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection Some shelters adopt only to families who agree to keep the rabbit with them in the home rather than outdoors.

By the Book: Adoption Rules and Requirements

When adopting out bunnies, it may be tempting to follow a looser version of basic adoption requirements for cats and dogs. But DeMello cautions against doing anything less; pre-adoption spay/neuter and an adoption application and interview should be standard, she says. “Absolutely everything that [shelters] do for a dog or a cat, they need to do for a rabbit,” she says. “Rabbits can be destructive, they can destroy the home; there are so many things that need to be thought about.”

At the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, potential adopters spend time with individual bunnies in quiet places like unoccupied cat visiting rooms, where rabbits can hop around and people can decide which rabbit is best for them. After they fill out an application, D’Alonzo checks it for red flags. Many people expect bunnies to be “cute and simple,” she says. For those people, D’Alonzo has something else in mind. “I will often steer those people—without trying to slight guinea pigs—to guinea pigs!” she says. “They require much less attention, they are not as destructive, their lifespan isn’t as long. They still have their pros and cons, and I’ll let people know about those, but a lot of folks come in [looking for] a guinea pig mentality … in a bunny body.”

At the Animal Welfare League, adopters are required to secure landlord permission and bring in family members or roommates to the shelter to make sure everyone’s on board with the adoption. D’Alonzo helps them make educated decisions by exchanging information. She asks about other pets, and once in a while, dogs present a roadblock. “I have occasionally turned people down depending on what the dog in their life is like,” says D’Alonzo. “I was talking to a couple that had an Airedale, a pit mix, and an Akita that had routinely killed cats in their neighborhood, and I said, ‘I don’t think this is a route you guys want to go.’ ”

An unaltered rabbit already in the adopter’s home will also prevent an adoption until that rabbit is sterilized. “I’ve learned the lesson because we have tried it, and I’ve had so many people never bother to get their other one spayed or neutered, they don’t do a good introduction, one of them comes back [or] they both come back,” says D’Alonzo.

D’Alonzo’s shelter also turns down adopters looking for classroom pets. But realizing that a teacher may just go across town to the nearest bunny-hawking pet shop, she still imparts some bunny basics.

Quick Fix: Spay/Neuter for Rabbits A decade ago, the Dane County Humane Society in Wisconsin didn’t spay and neuter every rabbit before adoption. But today, the presence of a staff vet and the inclusion of a sterilization surgery in rabbit adoption fees ensures that bunnies leaving the facility won’t go forth and multiply. Because the Animal Refuge League in Maine doesn’t have an in-house vet, not all bunnies are sterilized prior to adoption. The shelter schedules later spay/neuter appointments for those who aren’t; when adopters bring the rabbits in, the League pays for the surgeries. Spaying and neutering rabbits not only prevents unwanted litters but helps make rabbits more adoptable, as humane officer/field services supervisor Renee Stodola found with her own foster rabbit from the Dane County Humane Society. Previously mouthy and nippy with her and with her other pets, he transformed from Hyde to Jekyll within a week after being neutered. “He started using the litter box—he used to go outside only—and … actually enjoys being a pet now versus just being hormonally driven,” she says. © Louis Milburn Sterilization presents many benefits for rabbits and their adopters—decreased cancer rates, better litter box manners, and improved attitudes, just to name a few. Longer life spans for neutered males and significantly reduced reproductive cancer risk for spayed females are other benefits of surgery. For female bunnies, Margo DeMello recommends spay surgeries be done at six months; males can be neutered as soon as the testicles descend, which may be as early as two months. “Some vets are doing early spaying of girls, and as far as I know, the jury isn’t quite in yet on the long-term health issues associated with that, but some shelters are doing very early spays,” says DeMello, the House Rabbit Society’s administrative director. Vets who have honed their sterilization skills during years of spaying and neutering dogs and cats aren’t necessarily prepared to sterilize small animals like rabbits. If your shelter has an in-house or visiting vet who’s willing to do rabbit sterilizations but needs a protocol, contact the House Rabbit Society’s Mary Cotter at mec@cloud9.net. Cotter will try to put your vet in touch with one who is experienced in rabbit procedures.

If a potential adopter’s care of other pets seems inadequate—if she has a dog who’s in dire need of grooming or a bird with extremely overgrown nails and a dirty cage— D’Alonzo lets her know that it probably isn’t the best time to bring a new rabbit home.

When an application is rejected, D’Alonzo tries to finish the interaction on good terms; sometimes a denial isn’t even necessary. “I talk more people out of [rabbits] than I have to deny them,” she says.

Besides pets, other small occupants of the home—namely kids—can increase scrutiny. “Child lost interest” is a common stated reason for surrender of rabbits and other small animals. As shelters can attest, rabbits are often seen as toys, and not as living, breathing, feeling beings. It’s important that parents communicate responsibility to the child in question, and that the rabbit is adopted not as a pet for the 10-year-old but as a pet for the family.

DeMello worries that many parents believe rabbits are pets for children, unworthy of the time required for dogs and cats. A child’s parents need to commit to take care of and love the rabbit, too, she says. “Parents just need to take the time to educate themselves and … if the parents aren’t excited and Dad and Mom aren’t talking to each other about having the rabbit, they absolutely should not consider it,” says DeMello.

A bunny’s primary caretaker should be an adult because they’re better able to detect health problems, says the House Rabbit Society’s Cotter. “Children will not detect the little subtle postural or behavioral cues that rabbits will offer. … Their posture will change a little bit, or the way they move will change a little bit, or they’ll start favoring one food slightly over another food,” Cotter says.

When rabbits are adopted from the Dane County Humane Society to families with younger children, careful selection of a suitable rabbit is key. “I definitely try to gear [families with kids] toward a rabbit that is more outgoing and not known to be territorial in their cage,” says Stodola. “I always tell people that rabbits are prey animals and they don’t like loud noises and fast movements—and young children tend to make both of those.”

For family situations, Stodola recommends outgoing, larger rabbits, who tend to be more tolerant—and sturdier. “A small rabbit, a child can pick up and easily drop,” she says. “A bigger rabbit, they’re going to have a harder time toting that thing around. So it’s usually just safer for the rabbits, being that they’re so fragile.”

The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria favors age-specific rules: D’Alonzo doesn’t place rabbits with families who have children under four, and she doesn’t recommend rabbits for families with kids under eight. Even adults can have trouble with rabbits, as demonstrated by D’Alonzo’s own battle wounds. “I’ll flash the scar on my face, and I say, ‘This is why these rabbits make lousy pets for little kids.’ And they don’t like being picked up, and everyone expects that they do. … It’s rare that rabbits like to be held. They like to be around you, not on you; they like to be in the mix, but not forced to do something. Most kids want something they can pet.”

While most kids want a cute, cuddly pet, many parents with young kids might not want another small being in the house—one that can be quite childlike in its tendency to make a mess. “Most folks, I tell them, honestly, ‘[You’ll have] too many pieces of bunny poop on the floor, too many pieces of hay,’ ” says D’Alonzo. “ ‘Yes, you’re used to crumbs and things, but … do you want another kid that plays with … toys that don’t go up your vacuum as well as the Cheerios?’ And most people end up going, ‘Ooh, you’re right, that’s hideous.’”

When adopting from the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, adopters must show they know the basics of bunny care, receive approval of their rabbit housing setup, and bring their whole clan in to meet the animal. That includes kids, whose rabbit readiness is weighed by shelter staff on an individual basis.

Where rabbits will be kept is also a consideration for shelter staff processing bunny adoptions. Some shelters, like the Dane County Humane Society and the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, refuse to adopt to homes where a rabbit will be housed outside. D’Alonzo cites the danger of dogs, thieves, hot weather, and mites. Rabbits who live outside are very likely to have less human contact than indoor bunnies, so medical problems may go undetected. And many rabbit owners don’t take their bunnies to the vet as often as they should, D’Alonzo says. “If you’ve got ear mites for two years, golly, that’s just quite a piece of hell for a bunny that’s got such sensitive ears,” she says.

In Dane County, plans to keep a rabbit outside constitute the most common reason for rejection of a bunny adoption application. Staff try to educate applicants on why bunnies should be kept inside and discern the reasons behind some people’s reluctance to do so. “If it’s because of the mess or hair or whatever, a rabbit’s probably not the right choice for them,” says Stodola.

A shed or garage may provide shelter, but it doesn’t integrate the bunny into the home. “We want them to be a house rabbit, part of the family,” she says.

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection When introducing an adopter’s current rabbit to a possible new friend, using a neutral meeting place can help determine if the match will be as harmonious as this one.

Rabbit Relations: Interpreting Bunny Introductions

Helping bunnies become part of the family also involves proper introductions to fellow rabbits already living in the home. You wouldn’t pluck two human strangers from the street, put them into a room, and expect them to be best friends. You can’t expect instant affection from cohabiting rabbits, either. “They’re typically going to fight on first sight,” says DeMello.

That doesn’t mean bunnies can’t be buddies, of course. While introducing rabbits to each other can be tricky, spayed and neutered rabbits can often get along just fine, says DeMello, whose organization produces handouts on the topic that shelters can distribute.

Shelters can even play host to a rabbit blind date. “Helping to introduce a new rabbit as a companion to somebody’s current rabbit is a super great way to increase adoptions,” says DeMello. “It takes work, though; having maybe a little staff of volunteers that are educated to that would be a good thing.”

For safety’s sake, bunny meet-and-greets take place on-site at the Iowa City shelter, says Goodman. If a rabbit is paired with another one who’s not her type, it becomes clear very quickly. “We don’t want anybody injured,” Goodman says.

The Animal Refuge League offers to be a matchmaker, too, says Jackson. “We allow people to bring their bunnies in to meet the resident bunnies and have like a bunny date, to see if it’s going to work or not. … Bunnies can be really hard to match up.”

Madison adopters in search of a compatible friend for their rabbit can turn to Stodola, who offers what she calls a “bunny dating service” at the Dane County Humane Society. Adopters are encouraged to bring in their companion rabbits to meet a new bunny on neutral territory, like an empty small room with “not much that [the rabbits] can get into,” Stodola says.

If one of those rabbits wrote a personals ad before meeting their new pal, it might read something like this: “Bunny in search of buddy. Opposite sex preferable, sterilized a must.” Two females can often get along, says Stodola, but two males are likely to fight. Rabbits should meet on neutral territory—not a cage that already houses one of them, for example. And the bunny has the last word, says Stodola. “I always tell people that it’s up to their rabbit and not up to them as far as who their rabbit picks.”

When an adopter is looking for a second bunny, it’s best to find out exactly what kind of rabbit relationship they have in mind. They may be looking for a close companion for their rabbit, or they might just want to add another bunny to their family and be willing to have them live separately, says Stodola.

During rabbit introductions, a few signs from the bunnies in question can make it clear that it isn’t in the cards—like a tendency to sit in opposite areas of the room and avoid any interaction; behaviors such as biting; or harassment of one rabbit by the other. Other behaviors are normal in a first meeting, like moderate chasing and mounting to determine the pecking order. “They grab on and they may pull a little tuft of fur out … but that’s just their normal mounting behavior,” says Stodola.

The match may be made in heaven if two happy bunnies snuggle together or relax and sprawl out near each other. That usually doesn’t happen at the first meeting, says Stodola, but when it does, it’s a good sign.

In bunny matchmaking, patience is definitely a virtue—one session might not be enough to base decisions on. Stodola sometimes invites owners to bring their bunny back for a second visit. “It definitely takes longer than a dog interaction,” she says. “It really depends on the bunnies because sometimes they’ll ignore each other for half an hour in the room, and that’s frustrating. But within 15, 20 minutes, usually they’ll have started interacting.”