Essential Care Tips For Pet Rabbits
If you currently have a rabbit, the following tips may give you some helpful guidance in how to care for your rabbit so he or she remains healthy and happy. Caring for rabbits takes time, patience and love, and it’s not for everyone. But if it is right for you, you’ll
get a lot of enjoyment from your pets.
If you are considering getting a rabbit, you should know first of all that rabbits do not make good pets for young children. Rabbits are very timid and can even die from fright. While bunnies are cute, rabbits are very fragile and must be handled carefully. Rabbits are not likely to be happy in a home full of small children, and they really aren’t cut out to be pets for little kids. All in all, this is not a good situation for rabbits.
Keep in mind that rabbits love to be out and about, with the people they love. Many people let their rabbits roam the house; they follow their people around like dogs, but with the advantage that rabbits, like cats and unlike dogs, can be litter trained. That said, your rabbit should be either in a large cage or in a rabbit-safe, closed-off room when you’re not around to keep an eye on him. Like cats and dogs, rabbits get into stuff. And rabbits love to chew, so you should be very cautious about anything in the room that your rabbit could chew up and cause harm to himself or your belongings.
As you would expect, your rabbit needs to have constant access to fresh water, and have fresh food available. Rabbits can drink from a water bowl (get one that won’t tip easily) or from a water bottle attached to the side of the cage.
What do rabbits eat? Well, don’t rush out and buy a head of lettuce for your bunny, because that kind of lettuce has very little nutritional value. Rabbit pellets from the pet store are a good staple, along with some fresh hay (not too much), and occasional treats of leafy greens, apples and of course carrots. While a rabbit will eat almost anything, you should feed the foods that provide good nutrition and don’t upset his sensitive digestive tract.
If you can provide a calm environment, room to roam, a good, safe place to sleep and spend spare time, and the right food, your rabbit will have almost everything it needs. The only thing lacking will be your love and attention, which you are no doubt ready to give in huge quantities.
Choosing A Rabbit Cage
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.
Facts About Your Pet Rabbit
If you have a pet bunny, or more than one, you already know that rabbits are cute, soft and love to be petted. You know rabbits are sweet. You know they are great pets for the right family. But there may be a few things you didn’t know about your bunny friends.
Rabbits are crepuscular. That means they’re most active at dawn and dusk. Since rabbits are “officially” lagomorphs (lagomorph is the order, and both hares and rabbits belong to the leporidae family),you can have fun with your friends. Instead of saying you have pet bunnies, try saying your pets are crepuscular lagomorphs. That should get some looks!
You may be surprised that your domestic rabbits don’t hibernate, but in fact, rabbits do not hibernate at all, either in the wild or when domesticated. So don’t worry that your bunny’s not hibernating; she’s not supposed to. There’s a common belief that rabbits hibernate, so this is an interesting fact not everyone will know.
As you may know, rabbits are great jumpers. Bunnies can hop three feet in the air, and sometimes higher, if they’re really strong in the back legs. So if you don’t want your bunny getting into or out of something, make sure you have sufficient protection against a three-foot jump!
Rabbits can do some things humans do. For instance, rabbits snore. Not all rabbits snore, but some rabbits do snore, just like people, cats and dogs. But rabbits cannot vomit. They can gag, but can’t regurgitate food, so be careful to make sure your bunny doesn’t eat anything she shouldn’t. If she does, call your vet or the poison control line to find out what to do.
You probably see wild rabbits around your yard or in your neighborhood occasionally. Wherever you live, unless you happen to live in Antarctica, where rabbits aren’t native, you can find rabbits. They’re not native to Australia, either, but a large population of wild rabbits has developed from ancestors brought from other countries. Wild rabbits live in burrows, and a group of them (or domesticated bunnies, for that matter) is called a herd.
And yes, wild rabbits do breed well like bunnies, but if their babies are abandoned, only about 10% survive, which is why they’ve evolved to have so many offspring.
