Pet Rabbit Care 101

Is A Pet Rabbit Right For You?

2009-10-07T10:46:00.001-07:00

Did you know that rabbits are the fastest growing pets in popularity in United States? Then how come they are in third position of the most euthanised pets? The sole purpose of this blog is to help anybody to make the decision on weather or not to adopt a pet rabbit.Should you and your family agree to make the comittement,please do not buy your bunny at a pet store or from a breeder. There are plenty of rabbits in your local animal shelter that are in need for good homes.

How to Take Care Of Pet Rabbits- 5 Essentials Things they Need From You

2009-10-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Rabbits are absolutely lovely pets. If you just acquired your first one or thinking about getting one, you are probably wondering how to take care of pet rabbits. There a 5 essentials things they need from you to stay healthy and happy. Here they are in brief.
* Rabbits needs a cage: A good cage for let say a dwarf rabbit of about 3 to 4 pounds should be 2 by 3 foots. The rabbit needs enough room to have is litter box in one corner, food in the other and space in the middle to stretch out is body completely. They also love to have a blanket or towel in the bottom. Plastic bottom cages are much better than metal ones and a lot easier to keep clean.
* Rabbits needs a good diet: For a young rabbit you should give them alfalfa pellets and hay at will everyday. Green vegetables and fresh hay from the yard are also good for their digestion. Fruits such as apples and bananas should be given in moderation for their high sugar content. For an older rabbit more than 6 months, switch gradually to timothy hay and pellets, no more alfalfa. A quarter of a cup of pellets a day is enough for your rabbit, otherwise he will gain too much weight. Add on a handful of greens everyday.
* Rabbits needs exercise: A rabbit cage should not be a prison. It is their house because they need a space of their own. Rabbits love to run and explore. Rather that leaving them in their cage all day when you are gone, restricted them to one room that you had previously rabbit proofed so they can run around and enjoy freedom.
* Rabbits must chew a lot: It is a natural thing for rabbits to chew all the time because their teeth just keep on growing. Provide your rabbit with toys he can chew on such as cardboard boxes, straw mats, empty toilet paper rolls, branches from fruit trees or paper bags. That way he will satisfied his chewing needs and wont destroy your baseboards and furniture legs.
* Rabbits need love and attention:I think this is the most important part on how to take care of pet rabbits. Most people do not realize that rabbits are very social animals. If you are gone from home all day every day, a rabbit may not be the right pet for you. Or maybe you should consider getting a pair. Rabbits love to interact with humans as well as other rabbits or even cats. They love to be stroke and they make very lovable pets.

How to Make Your Bunny Happy

2009-10-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

First things first. How do you know when
your bunny is happy? Bunnies love to show
it! If your bunny flops on her side and
just lies there with her eyes closed, you'll
know all is right with her world. She might
scare you the first time she does this, and
it's not uncommon for a new bunny
owner to think something is wrong. Don't
worry. Your bunny is just telling you
she's happy. It's the happy flop.

Then there's the binky. If your bunny
binkies, you know she's on top of the
world. Binkies are crazy happy dances.
Your bunny will hop in the air, twirl her
head and spin around then maybe start
running at top speed. Any bunny owner
will attest to the great joy it brings to
see their bun or buns do the binky dance.

Now, how to keep your bunny content?
First and foremost is attending to her
chewing needs. Bunnies absolutely
love to chew. Phone books are popular
with bunnies who love to shred the pages,
so make sure you keep all of your
old phone books (you might even
ask your friends and family for theirs.)
A bunny can go through a phone book
pretty quickly.

Toilet paper and paper towel rolls are also
safe and popular chew toys for bunnies. To
make it even more fun, you can take a
roll and stuff hay inside for them to dig out.

Boxes and paper bags are also a great
source of entertainment for bunnies. You
can fill the paper bag with hay, or just
put an open paper bag on the floor for
the bunnies to crawl into and dig. You'll
be surprised at how long they can
entertain themselves by playing
with the bag.

Cardboard boxes are also an incredibly
easy source of entertainment. Take a
fairly large box and cut several doorways
and windows into it. (Bunnies always prefer
to have at least two entrances.) Your
bunny will love to go in and dig, chew
(making the doorways or windows bigger)
and hide away. It's also a great place to
put your bunny's hay—which she can
eat as well as dig. You can also securely
tape a bunch of cardboard boxes together,
so the bunnies can run through them and play.

Use your imagination and creativity,
and you'll find there are endless ways
to turn everyday cardboard boxes into
a playground for your bunnies.

by Antony Carle

Making Room In Your House For Your Bunny

2009-10-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

If you currently have pet rabbits, or are considering getting a rabbit, or rabbits, you should give some serious thought to bunny housing. Chances are that the home your bunny lived in before coming to your house was not really big enough. You want to give your rabbits the best, and that includes good housing.

The more space your rabbit has, the better. If you have dwarf rabbits, don’t be fooled by the cages at the pet stores saying they are for “guinea pigs and dwarf rabbits.” Dwarf rabbits are very active and need a lot of room to move and jump and play and run.

Rabbits need a lot of stuff, and that stuff takes room. Your bunny will need a full-size litter box, and if you have two rabbits, you might need two litter boxes. You’ll need a hay box, a food bowl, and a water bowl or (preferably) water bottle. And that’s just for nutrition and personal hygiene! Your rabbit needs “stuff” to play with. You can find all kinds of cool toys for rabbits online or at your local pet store.

You might consider a largish dog crate as a bunny home, and you could build in “stories” so your friend can have some vertical space to move around. In fact, these crates make excellent indoor hutches for bunnies. You can also find large rabbit cages, but they’re often every expensive. A better solution may be building your own cage.

If you’d like to build your own rabbit cage, you can use the wire-grid organizing cubes you find in the housewares departments of stores like Target and Costco. These cubes are usually called “Neat Idea Cubes”, because they’re for keeping stuff neat (not our name, but kind of clever). You can find cage ideas by searching online for “Neat Idea Cube crates” and similar terms. You can build some really cool cages for rabbits and other small animals using these cool cubes and some cable ties.

If you’re going to have rabbits, and they’re not going to have the run of your home (which they’re probably not), then the best thing you can do for them is give them plenty of room to roam when they’re in their “room.” Like any living being, rabbits want freedom to move and play and stretch out. Give them that, and they’ll be healthier and happier, and you’ll have more fun owning rabbits.

By Gail Paterson
How to Raise Rabbits
The Complete Beginners Guide For Rabbit Owners

Avoid The Dark Side Of Breeding Bunnies- Get The FAQS

2009-10-06T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am personnaly against the practice of raising rabbits in the purpose of eating them.But the only thing I can do about it is to encourage people to get as much documentation as possible before jumping into it.

Rabbit breeders can always improve the living conditions in witch they keep their animals in and do it in a ethical manner.So get the books, they are cheap and hopefully they can avoid dramatic situations of rabbit neglect and abuse.

Raising meat rabbit as a small backyard operation could be a positive experience for a family who wants some healthful,drug-free meat.Such project can involve all family members and provide them with an exceptional quality of meat/protein compare with what is found at the grocery store.Lets take a look at the pros and cons of this practice.

Pros

Rabbits are good for rural or urban areas.They are very quiet animals and are not considered as livestock such as chickens, geeses, turkeys or ducks.So they are permitted when those other animals are not.
They do not required a huge up-front money investment to get set up and you can get started with just a couple of rabbits.You can built a large pen to let them roam free out of cages and let them eat pasture.
Rabbits are fairly easy to raise, there is no need for special equipement and they multiply very very fast.Also their meat is low in cholesterol and fat and high in protein.

Cons

It will cost as much money to produce a pound of rabbit meat than buying any meat at the grocery store.It may be desappointing to expect much monetary profits from such operation.
Very few veterinarians have good knowledge about rabbits.So if a health problem arise among your bunnies, it could be difficult to get help.Also keep in mind that a lot of predators are going to be after your rabbits.
A lot of people, specially in the U.S. are considering rabbits as house pets.It could be hard to know with whom to talk to about your activity.Pet are consider as part of the family,people would never eat their dog or cat,or their pet rabbit.
Rabbit are very sensitive to overheating.Hot summer months could be fatal for their lives.Therefor do not set up such operation in a hot climat area.

People who want to get into raising meat rabbits should get a lot of documentation about this practice before starting so. Hear to mouth advice is never enough to aquire all the essential knowledge and it should be looked at with caution.

Since rabbits can multiply very quickly, some people woke up with a lot more animals that they could handle physically and financially.As a result rabbits where neglected and lived in miserable conditions,and animal shelters got overwhelmed.

Thinking About Getting A Pet Rabbit?

2009-09-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Living With Pet Rabbits

I want to tell you our story about how we came to have two pet rabbits in the family.I really love animals but I am allergic to cats and dogs.My 5 year old daughter was talking about getting a pet for quite a while so I taught about a pet rabbit.I knew I had no allergy to this kind of fur for testing it with somebody else rabbit.

I did not do much research on rabbits before adopting the first one,unfortunately.If I had I would have adopted a rabbit from the animal shelter instead.We found a private homebased breeder and we adopted a one month old female netherland dwarf rabbit.

She was very cute and cuddly and my daughter enjoyed her very much as a baby rabbit.She used the litter box right away and was easy to handle.

By the age of three months old she had doubled in size already.Rabbits love to explore and run.We let her roam free in the house most of the time except at night time, I put her in her cage.Rabbits are lovely companions.They follow you in the house,sit on your lap and love to be stroke.

But they also get into stuff and they need to have toys to chew on otherwise they will chey your property.I realised that when she went behind the television and chew on a bunch of wires.So you must protect every wire in the house behind furnitures so the rabbit cannot reach them.

I found a great way to have my daughter put her stuff away.The rabbit loves to chew on barbie dolls, pencils and coloring books.So needless to say I dont have to tell her anymore.

So here is the typical day for our house rabbit: eating in the morning, sleep all day, eat again,going outside on the patio for a run and some binky jumps,and play in the house in the evening, doing more binky dances.

I had to have her fixed at the age of 5 months old because she was in heat and was doing circles around us constentely.She was also marking her territory all over the house. Rabbits do that to let know other rabbits that they are ready to mate.After the visit at the vet, she went back to her litter box very quickly and that behavior stopped.

Your rabbit is in danger outside. I let my rabbit out on a gated patio but cats, dogs and large crows came out of nowhere and have been watching her very closely.I cannot live her outside by herself.

We adopted a second rabbit because she seemed very lonely and bored.I went to a shelter and got a 2 year old male holland lop the same color than her.He is a very sweet rabbit, never chewed anything in the house and uses his litter box.I had him fixed too and they get along very well.They are like a young couple in love, always together and grooming each other.

Rabbits are so much fun to watch at play, are very quiet and social animals.They require as much time than a cat or a dog but are very worth it.My rabbits are living the good life enjoying the same privileges than house cats.Most people do not belive it when I tell them that.I am glad I adopted them I and I hope you do the same.

Rabbits are so misunderstood animals,go ahead and browse throught the books that I found.I am glad I ordered them,I learned a lot of things and now I know that if people leave their rabbit in shelters is because they dont have enough knowledge.

Good luck with yours!

See the pictures to the right...

Nathalie Veilleux
veilleux_nathalie@yahoo.com