Hidden Gems: Meet SD + Michael Chia of Bun Chia Burrow

Today we’d like to introduce you to SD + Michael Chia.

Hi SD + Michael, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
In 2019, we were on a completely different path. Michael was advancing in corporate, I was applying to medical school, and we were planning our wedding after 9+ years together. May 13 changed everything: we found Marshmallow, an abandoned rabbit in Garden Grove, CA. That single moment redirected our entire lives.

What started as a small Instagram page grew into connections with the rabbit rescue community. We learned the difference between healthy and sick rabbits, proper care protocols, and the critical importance of bonding – pairing rabbits as companions for their wellbeing.

As a behaviorist with my UC Irvine education and 10+ years of research experience, I hated the traditional stress-based bonding methods. I believed in rewarding wanted behaviors, not punishing unwanted ones. We applied those principles to our own rabbits: bonding Marshmallow and Macaron in 2020, then adding Chocolatte in 2021.

Other volunteers and clients noticed our success and started asking for help. Then they wanted the rabbits to stay with us while they were on vacation. The question kept coming: would we consider doing this full-time?

That’s when we realized: as rabbit parents ourselves, we didn’t feel comfortable leaving our rabbits anywhere for extended periods. They traveled everywhere with us because no facility met our standards. We couldn’t be the only anxious rabbit parents who felt this way.

So we founded Bun Chia Burrow to fill that gap: providing the level of care we wanted for our own rabbits but couldn’t find anywhere else.

We didn’t intend to start a business. We were just solving a problem we lived with every day.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all; there have been plenty of challenges along the way!

One of the biggest hurdles was navigating city rules and regulations. We were told that we were the first boarding facility specifically for rabbits in Long Beach, so the city didn’t really know how to categorize us or what we needed. There wasn’t a clear blueprint for what permits were required, what zoning applied, or even how to classify our business. We had to work through a lot of uncertainty and educate city officials about what rabbit boarding actually entails.

Another challenge has been clarifying that we’re not a rescue organization. We collaborate closely with rescues – we donate over $10,000 annually, host adoption events, volunteer with LA Animal Services and Long Beach Animal Care Services, and support rescue organizations throughout Southern California. But we have no intention of operating as a rescue ourselves. We’re a professional pet care business that provides boarding, bonding, grooming, and consultation services. The confusion is understandable given how involved we are in the rescue community, but our focus is on providing expert care services, not rehoming rabbits.

The biggest ongoing challenge has been balancing growth with our commitment to quality care. It’s just my husband and me – we currently don’t have other staff. That means when we’re doing a bonding retreat with 24/7 supervision, one of us is actively watching the rabbits at all times. I can only rest or take care of myself when Michael can observe the group for me, and vice versa. We also offer social hour with all the staycation (boarding) guests. When we are at full capacity, that’s 10+ hours of spending time with cuddly bunnies! It’s the dream, but we often find ourselves completing social hours at 2AM in the morning.

We’ve made the conscious choice not to grow too quickly. Last summer alone, we turned away over 50 families for boarding because we simply didn’t have the capacity to serve them at the standard we hold ourselves to. We currently have a 12+ month waitlist for bonding, but we can’t just hire someone to handle the overflow. The level of expertise, behavioral knowledge, and attention to detail our services require isn’t something we can easily train or delegate.

Every bonding case is different, every rabbit has unique needs, and our reputation is built on the personal, science-based care we provide. We’re actively looking at expansion properties, but growth has to be sustainable. We won’t sacrifice the quality of care that makes Bun Chia Burrow different just to serve more clients faster.

We’ve been impressed with Bun Chia Burrow, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Bun Chia Burrow is a professional rabbit and small pet care service specializing in boarding, bonding, grooming, and consultations for Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Orange County.

We approach rabbit care like behavioral scientists – because that’s what we are. Our methods are built on Applied Behavioral Analysis and peer-reviewed research, not trends or anecdotal advice. When clients come to us, they’re receiving care informed by actual science and over a decade of behavioral research experience. We’re known for bonding the “unbondable” – the rabbits other services say can’t be paired – and for our expertise in complex medical boarding that goes beyond basic wellness checks.

We’re also brutally honest about our limitations. We maintain a 12+ month waitlist not because we’re trying to create artificial scarcity, but because it’s just us two. We can’t hire just anyone to do this work; the expertise required for successful bonding or recognizing subtle health changes in rabbits isn’t something we can quickly train. We choose quality over growth, even when it means turning away families.

We’ve maintained our community commitment even as demand has grown: hosting low-cost RHDV-2 vaccine clinics and workshops, updating our free online learning library, and volunteering with LA Animal Services and Long Beach Animal Care Services. We could easily drop these programs to focus only on paying clients, but that’s not why we started this.

What we’re proudest of, though, is that Macaron – one of our rescue rabbits – became a certified Pet Partners therapy rabbit. It validates that our approach to rabbit socialization and welfare actually works. Macaron is currently competing for Pet Partners’ 2026 Pet of the Year, representing therapy rabbits nationwide and proving that rabbits can be just as impactful as therapy dogs when given the right training and opportunities.

But at the end of the day, we want the general public to understand that rabbits deserve better. Better than being treated as “starter pets.” Better than generic small animal care. Better than providers who don’t understand their unique behavioral and medical needs.

Bun Chia Burrow exists to prove what’s possible when rabbit care is treated as a specialized discipline – not an afterthought.

We’re not a rescue, but we share the mission. Rescues save rabbits’ lives. We elevate their ongoing care. We bring certified behavioral expertise (ABA-trained bonding specialists), medical literacy (GI emergency recognition, medication administration, veterinary collaboration), and educational programming (workshops that teach families to provide expert care at home) to Southern California’s rabbit community.

We serve families with complex needs: rabbits labeled “unbondable” by other service providers, medical situations requiring specialized knowledge, large group dynamics (6-8+ rabbits), and anyone who’s tried elsewhere without success and needs true expertise.

We’re intentionally small. We limit capacity and maintain closed waitlists because quality requires focus. Every rabbit receives the same meticulous care we give Marshmallow, Macaron, and Chocolatte: understood, not just watched.

We’re building a community of rabbit guardians who expect more, know more, and refuse to settle for “good enough” when it comes to their companions’ wellbeing. Join us in raising the bar for what rabbit care can be.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Ironically, I was terrified of animals growing up. I was mauled by a dog when I was three, and that fear stayed with me for years. But on the outside, I was bubbly and high-energy – the kind of kid you either loved or found exhausting. In middle school, I was nicknamed “the energizer bunny,” and that stuck all the way through college. (Little did I know I’d end up working with actual bunnies decades later.)

I was a perfectionist then, and probably still am in some ways, though I think I’ve mellowed with age. I had my sights set on medicine from an early age: I joined a medical focus program in high school and volunteered over 600 hours at a pediatrician’s clinic. Outside of that, I was a voracious reader (still am) and deeply involved in musical theatre. Fun fact: I auditioned for Hamilton at their open call in 2016.

Michael was my opposite: shy, timid, but deeply likable. He was a jack of all trades who could pick up any hobby and excel at it. His annual summers in Taiwan gave him a love for billiards, ping pong, and swimming that he still carries today.

Personality-wise, he was – and still is – the ultimate perfectionist, but with a key difference from me: he’s mastered the art of going with the flow within the framework of a plan. He never set rigid goals as a child; instead, he followed his interests wherever they led, a strategy that has never failed him.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bunchiaburrow.com
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bun-chia-burrow-long-beach