 Bunnies are fluffy cuddly and love to interact with people. This should mean that they will make great pets for anyone, right? You might be surprised to know that bunnies are really only for a specific type of owner. So today we're gonna talk about the five reasons why you might not actually want a pet rabbit. Hey there, my name is Allison. Welcome to the Tiny Herd where we talk about everyday pet care for guinea pigs, rabbits, and other small pets. If you're familiar with my channel you might know that I have two pet bunnies. Their names are Mike and Andy. Andy is an Angora and Mikey is a Californian or Rex mix. Over the past couple years of owning bunnies there are a couple of different things that I've noticed that make them not great pets for everyone. And that's what we're gonna talk about in today's video. If you're thinking about getting a bunny, definitely watch this before you do. Okay, so my first reason that bunnies don't make great pets for everyone is you actually need more than one. Bunnies are herd animals and they're very social. They can form very tight bonds with other bunnies So it is really essential to have at least two. They do best in pairs or more. If you're not able to commit to owning two or more rabbits, then a rabbit might not be the best choice for you. This is something that's really important for their enrichment and their overall health and happiness as a bunny. So considering getting a pair is really a must if you're considering getting rabbits. I've seen this with my own bunnies. They're actually very strongly bonded. I adopted them already bonded. So I'm not sure the bonding process. I don't know if they were raised together or not, but they are very closely bonded. They spend pretty much all of their time together. They sleep together and they do cuddle together. So seeing that makes me pretty sure that bunnies really do better in pairs. The second reason is bunnies can't live full time in a small cage. This is a misconception with a lot of small pets, but you can't just put them in a small cage and leave them there all the time. Rabbits are pretty big animals. They can be pretty big animals and they need a lot of free time and enrichment. My bunnies are actually full time free roam. They're litter box trained and they just free roam our house. This is not an option for everyone, but you definitely want your rabbit to be litter trained and giving them plenty of access to a specific room or a playpen where they can get time out of their cage is essential. Bunnies can get bored really easily. So giving them new places to explore and time to stretch out and stretch their legs outside of their cage is a must. If you don't have the space or the time to be able to let your rabbits have free roam time, then you probably want to consider getting something besides bunnies. Reason number three is you really need to get your rabbits fixed, meaning they need to be spayed or neutered. And there's a couple of different reasons for this. First up, it just completely eliminates the possibility of unwanted pregnancies or unwanted babies. Even if you are positive, you have two male rabbits and they're never going to leave your house. You never know what could happen. You just never know. So getting them fixed completely eliminates that possibility, which is important because in a lot of parts of the united states and probably other countries as well, rabbit over population, especially in the pet trade, is a huge problem. People are dumping rabbits that they no longer want in parks and at shelters. And it's just a major overbreeding and overpopulation issue. So getting them fixed can help cut down on that. Second off, it can prevent a bunch of health issues later on. Specifically with female bunnies, if you get them spayed, they are much less likely to develop cancer later on in life. Female rabbits can have a lot of reproductive issues if they're not spayed. So that is a really good reason to do that. And when it comes to males, and I'll touch on this in reason number four here in a second, but when you get a male rabbit fixed, it'll cut down on a lot of the unwanted behaviors that they do. Bunnies can be pretty destructive and they could be pretty aggressive when they're not fixed, especially in their adolescent years. And that's going to take me into reason number four. Bunnies are pretty destructive. I think a lot of people think bunnies look all cute and innocent and like they'd be a great pet for kids. But bunnies actually are little monsters sometimes. My bunnies have chewed up shoes, carpet, baseboards, phone cords, lamp cords. I have lost count at this point. Bunnies like to chew. They like to get into things and they like to find ways into places they're not supposed to be. They're a lot smarter than a lot of people think they are, which can cause them to cause damage and destruction that a lot of people are not expecting. And this is a big reason why rabbits end up being rehomed. Like I mentioned, if you have male rabbits, getting them fixed will cut down on a lot of these behaviors and it'll cut down on marking. So those two kind of go hand in hand. But a lot of people end up rehoming or dumping their rabbits because they don't realize that they're going to have to get their rabbit fixed because the pet store didn't tell them that. And they didn't realize how destructive their bunny was going to be. And reason number five is bunnies don't like to be picked up. I think a lot of people get bunnies potentially for their children, thinking that, oh, it's like a fluffy Easter bunny and they'll be picked up and cuddled and they'll be great. While this is true for some bunnies, a lot of bunnies do not like to be handled, especially they don't like to be picked up. If you think about it, bunnies are prey animals and even though they're in a domestic situation and they know it's a human that's not going to eat them, those instincts are still ingrained in them. And being picked up still triggers predator in their mind. Some rabbits also don't like being pet or cuddled. For example, my bunny, Mikey, he's very temperamental about who and when you can pet him. He lets me pet him pretty much all the time and he's pretty okay with me touching him anywhere, but he does not like my boyfriend to pet him unless it's on his terms and when he's in the mood. So you have to keep those things in mind. Again, bunnies are very smart and I think a lot of people discount that when they're getting them. They do their own personalities. Some of them don't like being handled. Some of them don't like being cuddled. Most of them don't like being picked up. So that is reason number five why you might not want pet rabbits. Now, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from getting pet rabbits. If you are doing your research and you're sure that bunnies would fit in great with your lifestyle, then by all means bunnies make fabulous pets. I've absolutely loved having them. They are one of my favorite animals that I've ever owned. So they do make great pets, but I think there's a lot of misconceptions around them, which is why I wanted to make this video. So thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed today's video and it helped you learn a little bit more about rabbits and having them as pets. So if you did enjoy this video, please give it a like and subscribe to my channel. If you haven't already, I put up new pet related content every Tuesday and Friday. But again, thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you in my next video. Bye.