RABBIT OWNERS: PLEASE BE AWARE OF RHDV2 - A FATAL VIRUS TO RABBITS THAT IS GETTING CLOSER TO LOUISIANA
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Click Here For Latest Info On RHDV2 And Its Symptoms
Foster Home Based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue is currently not able to accept owner surrenders for rabbits or guinea pigs on our wait list. For the foreseeable future we are only able to add to our wait list: medical case rabbits/guinea pigs, stray rabbits (provided finder can foster till we have a spot open), and returning MHRR bunnies and guinea pigs. We do not have a public shelter, we are a network of foster homes that keep several rabbits and guinea pigs in our homes year-round - but this means that we have a very limited number of spots available.
If you are in urgent need to surrender a healthy rabbit/guinea pig please bring to your local parish run animal shelter. If you are told your parish run shelter will NOT take them in please let us know, as most in our area will accept them. If it is not urgent and your rabbit is spayed/neutered we do have the option to list them as For Adoption By Owner, more information on that can be found below.
Please read on for solutions or for information on adding pets to the wait list if they qualify for it or how to list your pet for Adoption By Owner.
We understand that things sometimes happen - PLEASE reach out to us whichever channel you originally communicated with us (i.e text [preferred], FB messenger, or email) and let us know the year you adopted them, what their name was with us, WHY you are needing to surrender, and a timeline for return if applicable. We ask that you contact us FIRST and not try to rehome on your own, as we are familiar with their history and sometimes their former foster will take them back in.
Please fill out a wait list form ASAP and send us pictures of the issue/s - we have a question that asks if the pet has medical problems - please note it there and/or in the notes question at the end and we will reach out with possible options.
It is illegal in Louisiana and much of the US since they are domestic animals, not wild animals (they have been bred to have different body types and lost some of their natural instincts). Besides legal issues, you can read more reasons why here.
Please do not release your rabbit into the wild. It is not only illegal, exposing them to predators both natural and domestic, but they now have a high chance of catching an extremely contagious and FATAL virus called Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV). There is now access to a vaccine please visit here to see what vets carry the vaccine that we are aware of. For more information on this virus and the symptoms click here: https://rabbit.org/rhdv/
Please let us know the reason for surrender, your name, where you are located, your phone number and send us pictures of the hamster. If you have more than one hamster please let us know and we will see what options we have available.
Right now we unfortunately are only accepting rabbits with health issues, strays, and returning Magic Happens Rescue bunnies on our wait list. We are NOT able to accept owner surrenders at this time, but please click the below tabs for more information/resources. **NOTE*** If you have been caring for a stray longer than 3 months, it is considered an owner surrender.
If your rabbit qualifies for the wait list:
Fill out the form and let us know if the bunny has any issues. If we can help, we will reach out and let you know how to bring the bunny to us. If we cannot assist we usually recommend trying your local parish run animal shelter - Most are open intake and take in rabbits.
Magic Happens does NOT charge surrender fees like some rescues. However, you may consider sponsoring its snip (if it is not yet spayed or neutered) by donating the amount needed for its surgery. Visit our Sponsor-A-Snip page for more information.
When rabbits are surrendered to MHRR, he or she will be kept in an approved foster home with one of our volunteers. After intake, your rabbit would get health checked by our vet just to make sure everything looks good, spayed/neutered (if not already), and microchipped.
We like to make sure we get to know each bunnies personality, likes and dislikes so we can better place them with adopters.
We do screen all of our adopters and adopt to indoor homes that will mostly or completely free roam their rabbit - Our welcome to rabbits section of our website is most of our info that we send to our adopters and the level of care that we expect, and recommend.
We are a no-kill rescue; we will keep a rabbit as long as we have to until it finds a new home, whether it is 5 days or 5 years.
Feel free to read more about MHRR and some of our feedback on the About MHRR page.
If you are surrendering your rabbit due to moving, read this article by the HRS on getting your landlord to say YES to rabbits.
If you are surrendering your rabbit due to allergies, please read our page on Rabbits & Allergies first.
Also browse our community outreach section to see if we can help!
Right now we unfortunately are only accepting rabbits with health issues, strays, and returning Magic Happens Rescue bunnies. We are NOT able to accept owner surrenders at this time, but please click the below tabs for more information/resources. ***NOTE*** If you have been caring for a stray longer than 3 months, it is considered an owner surrender.
You can fill out our Wait List online form.
Filling out the Wait List online form the best and fastest way to get your rabbit added to our wait list. It is checked daily and saves a place in line for your rabbit
Please note: Emails, messages, texts about surrenders we still will direct you to fill the Wait List online form out or if you do NOT qualify for the wait list we will STILL send you to your parish run shelter. If your rabbit qualifies for the wait list we do recommend adding them sooner than later - The day or two you wait to add them to the list, we may have gotten more requests by then, especially in the summer when we have a high number of requests.
Once you have submitted our Wait List online form, we will then contact you to confirm that you've been added on the list, and get photos from you then (or email them when you submit the form to the email address listed in the Wait List Form). Rabbits with photos and detailed bios are more likely to get adopted off our wait list sooner than others.
If your request is urgent, please check it off on the form, let us know why, and if it is time sensitive. Please give us a date/time frame. While we are blessed to have spare cages in storage for emergencies and such, we already have as many as we can fit space-wise inside our foster homes so donating a cage or habitat will not lessen the wait time.
Even though we may not have a spot in a foster home open, we do still try to help find an adopting family. If your rabbit is spayed/neutered and is not time sensitive, we do offer the ability to post a courtesy listing on our adoption portal. Please visit this form for more information: For Adoption By Owner Request Form. We try to post these listings within 3 days, please be sure to send us pictures as well.
If you are in the New Orleans area, you may also check with Jefferson Feed, Louisiana SPCA, or BunnAgain Rabbit Rescue in Paradis. Though most foster-based rescues stay full like us as well. PLEASE do not set a rabbit "free" as it is not only illegal to dump domestic pets but they have a poor chance of survival alone. As a last resort, please surrender them to your local animal control facility, as we work with the majority of them across southern LA and they will usually hold until we have room for intakes.
If you choose to try to re-home your rabbit yourself instead of bringing to your parish run open intake shelter, PLEASE be sure to ask an adoption fee to help ward off those with ill intentions. Places to try: Social media, family&friends, online ads (i.e Craigslist), or places like NextDoor.
When rehoming ask questions about habitat, and send our Welcome To Rabbits information to help new owners. Cage size, ideally even smaller rabbits should not be housed in anything smaller than 2x4 feet.
Always ask an adoption fee (we recommend a minimum of $20 - many snake owners love free food!).
Even if someone has “experience with rabbits” still ask questions about diet, habitat size, where will the rabbit primarily be kept (indoors or out?), and when their rabbits last visited the vet, and which one.
If they “already have a rabbit so they’ll just take yours in too” things to note besides the above diet, habitat, and vet questions, more questions to ask: • Will they be housing your rabbit and their rabbit together? If so, is their rabbit spayed/neutered? Do they plan on fixing your rabbit beforehand? • Rabbits are HIGHLY territorial, and will fight and can potentially fatally injure the other. They often need to go through a process called Bonding (more info on that here: MagicHappensRescue.com/BondingBunnies) • If your rabbit, and their rabbit do NOT get along, what will they do with your rabbit?
Rabbits are most commonly thought as “great pets for kids” but this is not always the case. Please refer anyone interested in your rabbit primarily for their child to this section of our website, Rabbits and Kids. Most rabbits do not like to be held, and often bite/kick/scratch when they’re not held appropriately (and sometimes even when they are!) which may cause a child to drop the rabbit and injure it.
Most people do not realize that rabbits can live for 8-12 years, and that they will need to see an exotic veterinarian, which can be expensive (click here for vet recommendations). It is always a good idea to have a rabbit savvy vet check the bunny to make sure it is healthy since rabbits are very good at hiding illness.
If you have not already spayed or neutered your rabbit, Magic Happens Rescue does offer spay/neuter assistance (clinics we are partnered with are in Baton Rouge and Ponchatoula). We highly recommend spaying/neutering before sending the bunny to their new home, but if you rehome them before they are spayed/neutered let them know that Magic Happens does offer spay neuter assistance. We recommend spaying/neutering for a variety of health reasons and a few behavior ones as well. (We do spay/neuter all of our adoptables to help prevent overpopulation in addition to microchipping.)
If your outdoor rabbit is being rehomed, we especially recommend new owners bring to the vet for a check up. Health issues that we commonly see with strays/rabbits housed outside: fleas, ear mites, intestinal parasites, respiratory infections, abscesses, injuries, and tumors.
Rabbit digestive systems are finicky, and their diet is specialized. Things like carrots should not be fed on a daily basis. Hay should make up majority of their diet.
If the home you’re communicating with is going to house or continue to house your rabbit outdoors, please be aware: • Rabbits do not tolerate the heat well (imagine going outside in a fur coat you can’t take off) they can’t “sweat” to cool down like people can. • There is now a FATAL virus called Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (RHDV) that has spread across the United States. There is now access to a vaccine please visit here to see what vets carry the vaccine that we are aware of. For more information on this virus and the symptoms click here: https://rabbit.org/rhdv/
Our guinea pig wait list is only accepting medical cases. Please keep in mind there is still a bit of a wait as it is dependent on adoption. If you need tips on how to rehome your pigs, you can ask questions about habitat, and send our Guinea Pig care guide: MagicHappensRescue.com/GuineaPigCare or surrender to your local animal control.
We are now equipped to take in Hamsters on a regular basis, and we are getting more adoption inquiries. We have taken in the occasional gerbil and hedgehog as well if we have fosters experienced with that species. Please contact us via text if you need to surrender a Hamster, Gerbil or Hedgehog. You can text (NOT CALL) us here: 225-341-2866. You can also message us via Facebook here (you do NOT need an account to do so): m.me/magichappensrescue
We are NOT equipped to take in: Rats or Ferrets. Gerbils are case-by-case but we usually cannot accept. Please check with For The Love of Rats for Rats/Ferrets/Gerbil surrender.
We can only keep as many as our foster homes can hold, and that number fluctuates depending on home availability as well as if rabbits/guinea pigs are housed together. Even though we have so many up for adoption, the intake requests outnumber the adoptions, just like cat and dog rescues. Since adoptions have not been consistent for the last year and half, we have become completely overwhelmed with intake requests that are triple what they used to be while adoptions have been well below average. When adoptions were consistent, we used to be able to maintain a wait list for owner surrenders, but since 2021 and all of 2022 we have not been able to properly maintain list list with wait times exceeding 8+ months which we understand is an extremely long wait.
We regret telling any pet no - but we must take proper care and provide appropriate housing, food, and vetting for the ones already in our care. We are only able to take in as many rabbits as we physically have room for.