Rabbit bonding businesses in the UK are still rare, but Barnsley’s Musto Rabbits are expanding.
Molly Musto, 23, is the owner of the business, which specialises in ‘unbondables’—helping all rabbits to bond.
She said: “We’re going to start a secondary charity to help rabbit owners with common issues.
“Vets aren’t trained up as much in rabbits as they should be, so sometimes the rabbit owners need to have a wealth of knowledge.
“Obviously, there isn’t an easy place to find this knowledge, so we just want to be a pinpoint where people can talk to us, and we can guide them.”
Rabbits are known as social creatures, so it is inadvisable to keep them separately.
Molly added: “We put them in a small, neutral space. And if at any point they are stressed then they go with separate friends and calm down.
“But the main thing is bonding happens on positive memories.
“So you want foraging, you want treats, you want them to be happy, you want them to be healthy, and then they simply make friends through it.”
Natasha Anderson, 47, travels from her home in Scarborough, North Yorkshire to use Musto Rabbit’s services.
She said: “From our house to Molly’s, it’s a 2-hour drive, but completely worth it.
“It gave us peace of mind knowing Molly’s expertise with rabbits would help Amy and Benedict bond, and more recently Amy, Greta and Otto.
“Molly was able to read their behaviour and tailor the bonding to the needs of the rabbits.
“On one of the bonding visits, our older rabbit, Amy, was a little unwell. The care Molly gave her was amazing – we really felt she was in safe hands.”
Molly started the rabbit bonding business when she was in university, but it became a part of her everyday life.
She said: “It’s great because we get to know people. We make a huge difference in the little snippet of their life.
“It changes people’s lives having the rabbits together than separate. We’ve had some rabbits that have come in and they’ve been really poorly due to stress of not having a friend.
“And then suddenly they’re living a happy life, so those who would have gone back to a rescue could not have found a home if it wasn’t for us.”