Get rid of my rabbit…?

Question by ✰O’Malley✰: Get rid of my rabbit…?
So, I have a 6 month rabbit that I love a lot but I am running into a big issue….
Ever since I was little, I always had wanted an animal (Dog or rabbit) but my mother is completely against having an animal in our house.
FINALLY, after years and years, I had saved up enough, created a powerpoint, and BAKED A CAKE, I was able to convince my mother to allow me to get a rabbit. This was definitely a huge accomplishment for me.
I got her off of Craigslist when she was 3 weeks old (yes I am aware that this was not safe). I did this because it was an unexpected rescue. She was kept in horrible conditions in wire cages and if I had not adopted her then, she would have been sold to a snake owner the next day.
I had invested over $ 250 in everything for her (cage, food, hay, toys, treats, carrier, mat, potty pads, litter, litter box, etc.) So this has made a large dent in my bank account.
In addition, we are planning on getting her spayed ($ 200) in January…
Unfortunately, as of today, she still isn’t potty trained….for some reason it has been very difficult and she refuses to cooperate.

GETTING TO THE QUESTION:
After adopting my rabbit, I unfortunately found out I was ALLERGIC to her hay. The reaction was very small and subtle and over time, it has become absolutely horrific. I sneeze nonstop, my throat and mouth is itchy like crazy, I’m congested, nose running, having breathing issues, etc. IT’S AWFUL.
Luckily, my parents have been able to give her hay to prevent me from doing it. However, the dust inside the bag gets in the air and when I am in the room, I have an allergic reaction almost instantly. Keep in mind, my rabbit isn’t able to move anywhere else in our house and I now have to stay out of my room for over 2 hours until all of the dust from the hay leaves my room. AND, in the middle on the night when she goes to eat her hay, she bangs it on the cage and it flies more dust in the air.
This has become very difficult for me and my parents are huge advocates of getting rid of the rabbit as they never wanted it in the first place.
However, I love my rabbit a lot and in addition to accomplishment of being able to get a pet after all of these years, it has become a huge budget and it would seem like $ 250 down the drain….
Not only that, I feel very stubborn getting rid of my rabbit because of my persistence on getting a pet for all of these years and now getting rid of her…

Is there anything I can do? Do they sell “automatic hay feeders” like they do for pellets?
Is there a substitute for hay?
I am running out of options and it isn’t very good that I am required to avoid all contact in my room at all cost.

Do any of you have suggestions? I would hate having to get rid of my rabbit 🙁

Have a great day!

Best answer:

Answer by Aleceia
Well.

I first recommend to talk to your doctor, you can take allergy medication.
Hay dust is an allergy your body CAN get over, you just need to figure out how. Your body changes all the time, but taking something for allergies is not a horrible idea and it usually does work.
If the hay causes a rash, consider wearing gloves when handling it.

Second.
Stop buying pet shop hay.
The hay you buy from a pet shop has more dust in it than hay from a farm does, Buy from local farms and store it out of rain/getting wet. Timothy is a really dusty hay from my experience, unless you get ‘second cut’ hay. I usually buy Oat hay or Clover hay from local farms.
Some people feed them straw if they eat commercial rabbit pellets, straw is considerably less dusty. Just don’t buy anything with the word ‘mulch’ in it.

Third. If you spay the rabbit, there’s a HUGE chance your rabbit will not learn to use the litter box if she doesn’t already. Spaying is not a fix all solution, it’s a waste of money if you have no other rabbits and it’s really not a big deal to have an unaltered, female house rabbit.

Third, you could consider putting her outside for her hay.
Rabbits need their hay, grass might be an alternative but you might end up with a destroyed lawn within a week and there could be plants the rabbit shouldn’t eat out there.
But outside rabbits can be good pets too, just leaving them outside when it’s below 10 degrees and above 75 degrees might be pushing it. You have to supply a really well made hutch with good amount of space and a nice built-in ‘nest box’ for her.

The other alternative is soaking the hay for your rabbit to eat, my mother’s horse is allergic to the dust of hay so she has to soak the hay in water for a few minutes before giving it to the horse. Maybe the rabbit won’t like wet hay, but as long as you wet it that day and it doesn’t sit around, you won’t get moldy hay. You might just wanna try it? It could work out I suppose.

But try the allergy meds and different hay from a local farm.
Good luck, allergies suck. I hope you get better and things turn out okay.

What do you think? Answer below!

Comments are closed.