Having an animal is a big responsibility. You did not intentionally harm that animal. Your intent was to give it care. You made an innocent mistake in judgement. You were caring for the animal. You had an accident. How you feel proves you did not intend to harm. You are a good person.

but it hurts. so. much. and im not sure what happened exactly? the poor thing just died...

I don't know what happened either. We can make some guesses, .. but won't make any difference. A lot of Easter rabbits come from terrible 'mills'. He may have been sick or injured when you got him. You may have been 'set up'. The point is, your intent. You acted withOUT malice. This is between you and yourself. How you feel is what is important at this point. Do not condemn yourself for trying to be caring. You did no wrong.

i didn't get him from a mill thought. He came from a pet store that buys their animals locally raised by a small family. he wasn't sick..i know its not my fault, but i feel horrible! I've only had him for a week..

See? Wrong guess. Who knows? Might take a veterinarian to tell us, .. but it doesn't matter.
I understand your feelings. It is very sad, but you are innocent of malice. You will not feel good for a little while, . it is called grief and you grieve because you are a caring person and meant no harm. We will not fix the grief tonight. It will take a little time, but don't punish yourself for POSSIBLY making a mistake. He may have died for some reason that has nothing to do with anything you did. OK?

i pulled my gerbils tail off when i was 8. i had this huge cage with plastic pipes they could crawl through. i needed to clean it so i always took him and her out. well he ran through the pipe and i thought if i twitched the tail it would come back. it didnt. we took it to the vet within the hour. they fix him. he died like 3 years later. good pet :D

i had a wild baby rabbit die when i tried to make it a pet. plenty of fishes and lizards have died. =[ from where i am now. dont get the same kind of pet, cause it normally ends with the same result.

try a hamster. :D

I have never killed a pet but I ran over a squirrel once accidently with my car .. I pulled over on the side of the road and sat with it til it died. I cried and I cried and I cried. I finally quit crying and my kids come home from school and I hear my daughters friend say "I can't believe some meany ran over that poor squirrel" Well ... the crying started over again!!!! This squirrel used to walk up to the nursing home next to my aprtment place and the eldery people's would feed it. I guess it would get right up next to the and take food from their hands. Boy did I ever feel guilty!!!

I know how you feel .. accidents happen. We just have to learn from them. Now you know if something is on a bunny to leave it alone .. do not flip it over. You know the bunny could have simply died of fear too. My cousins have a farm and have told me stories about bunnies dying because they were literally scared to death. They had one bunny who got loose and the dog went after it barking at it but didn't touch it and the bunny simply fell on its side and died.

Just think the little bunny is in heaven with all his or her bunny friends ... god had a plan for that bunny .. and he wanted it back.

Just be careful with any new pets!

try not to blame yourself. bunnies are actually very fragile creatures and often die suddenly for seemingly no reason.they frequently have heart attacks and die just from being too scared. i know of several bunnies this has happened to.

Our Bunny Killed herself by kicking at her hutch door, she broke her back and there was nothing we could have done about it. Rabbits do have fragile spines but this was totally out of your control. You did nothing wrong.
When I was about 17 I bought myself a pet rat. He used to sit on my shoulder and come out on walks with me. One day I was making a cup of tea and he jumped off my shoulder on to the floor and ran behind the fridge. We tried to get him out from under it but he wouldnt come. We decided t move the fridge to catch him. The fridge rocked on its frint legs, he ran under it then I dropped the fridge. One dead rat. I had control of that situation but I could not have stopped that from happening.
I know this doesnt make the sadness any easier to bare but know that you would never have dont this with any intent.

I am the type that should not have pets or animals 'cause I can't deal with losing them. It tears me up too too much. Right now I'm sitting here literally crying for you and thinking abt pets I've lost.

Need to get off for a while and re-coup

Life of any kind carries no warranty and can be fragile. Sorry this happened to you; you have my sympathies.

Punkee, it's really important you keep them clean, or they could get ill and die from the complications. I've done battle with lots of bunnies and guinea pigs who needed "that area" cleaning, and none of them were calm or willing!! It sounds to me like your poor little bunny had some kind of underlying problem. I have two close friends who breed them, and sometimes after they've moved to a new owner they just die.
PLEASE don't beat yourself up!! I know how horrible it is to have a pet die on you. I couldn't touch any of mine once they'd gone. But I have never heard of one dying from what you describe, so I honestly believe there was something else going on.

I agree with everyone else here. Bunnies are very fragile and often can pass away for no apparent reason. They have fragile spines and fragile hearts. This is NOT your fault. You were trying your best to be a responsible pet owner and care for your bunny. Don't let this get you down. I am sorry for your loss. It is one of the heartaches we face when we become pet-owners. Hugs

you're not responsible punkee, you tried to help him, and clean him, maybe it was un underlying condition of his and no matter what you did he still would have go... be strong and just by grieving for him you're honoring his memory, i recently lost my dog and it nearly destroyed me, even now, month after it happened it still tears me to think of him, but again be strong!!!
XOXOX

Juice and WV said it all.

But, yeah, you tried to do the right thing in caring for it that way. It would have been worse to just leave it uncleaned and filthy. It may also have suffered from heart failure. You're not certain is was your actions that caused this.

And your feelings right now just show how caring you were and what you thought of that rabbit.