The story of Crazy Doe
Have your ever had someone ask or have you ever wondered about keeping your rabbit in a cage? I know that there is a line of thinking out there that says that rabbits were once a wild animal and that because of us that natural ability to run free in the wild has been taken away, that they can not truly be happy unless they are running free. Well, I would like to tell you a short little story that comes from experience that has to do with this issue.
This is The Story of Crazy Doe.
Crazy Doe did not start out with this name. This was actually the third name which she was given. Her first given name was simply Doe 3. You see we raise rabbits as livestock and in an effort not to get attached to the cute little things we give them a number instead of a name. It doesn’t help much, we still get attached because each one is so unique and they are just so fun to have around. But anyway, Doe 3 was one of our original 4 rabbits which we bought to start our herd. She was the smallest doe that we had and she was the sweetest of all the rabbits. She loved to be pet and handled and would look for you with excitement every time you came to the rabbit pen to see how they were doing.
Seeing how doe 3 was one of our original four rabbits, we were pretty naive about several things, most of which I do my best to warn others about before they get started. I had been looking into getting rabbits for several months, had read everything that I could find and thought I was ready to dive into the world of rabbit raising. In all my excitement I found someone locally that had some New Zealand white rabbits he was willing to sell and told him I wanted to purchase four. At this point I did not have cages set up or even a definite plan as to where these little critters were going to stay. I just knew I wanted to get some rabbits, so that is what I did. I told my husband that afternoon when he came in from work that I had found some rabbits and we were going to get them in just a couple of days.
We made a mad dash down to the home improvement store to buy cage wire that all the books had said was readily available and were going to make cages according to the instructions in the books I had read. Well, these cages that were supposed to be very quick and easy to build with readily available materials turned out very different than expected. First the size wire recommended was not available in our local home improvement store so we improvised and got a different size. No big deal, it still worked!? Then these quick to build cages took about 6 hours to build just 4 cages. But we got it done and were ready for the rabbits by the time I had told the guy that we would pick them up.
Now we had our four rabbits, the beginning of our adventure into rabbits, our small herd was about to get bigger, so we thought. Well, we still did not have a definite place set up for our rabbits so once again we improvised. We had a storage shed out side that had an overhang off the side of it that would offer cover from the rain. We did not have any shelves or anything to put the rabbit cages on but we knew they did not need to be directly on the ground so we found what ever was available to make sure they were at least slightly off the ground. Doe three had the privilege of being placed on top of an old tire that we laid down. I thought this would work very well. She was off the ground a good 4 or 5 inches and the droppings could be contained easily for easy clean up. The others were placed on 2x4s or bricks or whatever else we could find. This went well for a while.
During this time Doe 3 had started this cute little thing of running around her cage. It was kind of funny to watch. She would run from end to end and run around in a circle as fast as she could. We thought she was just excited or trying to exercise or something. We woke one morning to hearing the neighbor kids calling “ Come here bunny. Here bunny, bunny, bunny. I didn’t think anything of it as I went to water and feed the rabbits that morning. I thought they were just playing a game of some sort. When I stepped into the rabbit pen I went about my daily routine of feeding and watering then I came to Doe 3’s cage. Her cage had fallen off the tire and the cage door was open, she was gone. Then it dawned on me what the neighbors were saying as I came out so I went to the back of the pen and there she was. She looked terrified. I slowly came up to her and she ran around to the front of the pen. I didn’t want to spook her more than she already was so I went in the house and gathered up help from the children. As soon as we got back out to the pen she was in the open and allowed me to pick her up and place her back in the cage. I made sure it was very well secured this time and placed other things under it to make sure she could not knock it over again. At this point we began calling her Harriet Houdini the great escape rabbit.
A while went by and everything seemed fine. We bought materials for the shelves and were trying to schedule the time to get them built. Then one Sunday morning it happened again. This time my husband was home and we were able to get her without a problem but her temperament was changing. She was no longer our sweetest rabbit. She was more frightened than normal and would go hide when we came to feed and water. Now, we had been very gentile getting her back in the cage each time. We moved very slowly and always made sure she was good and calm before we put her back into her cage so we thought it might be just because she was getting older. We finally got the shelves built and all the rabbits were up on sturdy shelves with no way for anyone to fall off. The rabbits were finally settled in.
Harriet was getting more and more jumpy. She would growl at you when you reached in to pet her. She wouldn’t bite or try to hurt you but she made it clear she didn’t want you there. But we continued to handle her gently and thought she would get out of it as she got more used to us. All the other rabbits seemed to be settling in very well, they were calm and didn’t mind being handled, and were excited to see us when we came in. A little while after the shelves were up it happened again. Harriet had pulled at the door until she bent the wire and pulled the clip free and was able to get out again. This time my husband had to crawl under the shed to get her. She jumped and scratched at him, she was like a wild animal. He was able to get her as gently as possible and put her back in the cage. From that point she acted like she hated people. I worked with her every day trying to get her used to being handled and trying to help her build trust. It just wasn’t working. She would tolerate us in the rabbit pen but anytime anyone came near the cage she would growl and lunge at them. She was becoming more than we could handle, but I continued to try to calm her.
Every morning I would go out to feed and water. I would take her a treat of a carrot or slice of bread. She would actually eat the treat out of my hand but once the treat was gone my hand better leave the cage soon after. I would talk to her and praise her when she would let me reach in and pet her, which I could do as long as she was eating her treat, but things weren’t getting any better she seemed to have gone crazy. She had become a very mean animal and there was no way we could handle her properly if she were to need medical care or any kind of hands on attention.
After several weeks we decided it was time to put her down. She was not suitable for livestock. We didn’t want this passed down to any future breeders, and she defiantly would not have made a good pet for anyone. Putting her down was the best thing for everyone. She was becoming unsafe to handle and she was constantly in a state of fear and she had no clue how to survive in the wild on her own because she had come domesticated stock.
Because she was able to taste what others call freedom a few times she became just the opposite of what she had been when we first got her. I honestly believe that because she was able to run free those few times she became scared of the world. I believe that due to our inexperience and lack of planning, we lost what could have been one of our best breeders.