WeLoveRabbits.com

Providing a healthy diet for a rabbit is neither difficult nor expensive, according to a source known to be reliable by the House Rabbit Society: Susan A. Brown, Dr. of Veterinary Medicine, says “the number one cause of disease in the rabbit remains an inappropriate diet, and the number one prevention for these diseases is a diet of grass hay and green foods,” adding that the right diet “…will save you many dollars in veterinary bills.”

Provide the green food in a heavy ceramic-type dish that resists being tipped over. You can put the hay directly in the cage or use a hay rack for less mess. Feed approximately once a day. Remove any fresh food at the end of each day so that it doesn’t go bad. Clean food dishes with hot water at least once a week.

Make sure that a constant water supply is available, as water is very important. Gravity-flow water bottles, which can be found in pet stores, are a good idea. For a healthy rabbit It is not necessary to provide vitamins, nor do they need do a salt or mineral block.

Housing: When considering what type of environment to provide for your rabbit, you will need to keep in mind that your pet will need to be able to jump and run around as well as sleep and rest. A rabbit cannot be strictly confined to a cage or they can develop both physical and behavioral disorders. Exercise is vital to the health of the animal. This can be accomplished with a cage that is open to an exercise area or an enclosed cage to house the rabbit for part of the day and then letting it out into an open area for several hours. A general rule is one rabbit per cage, unless they are kept in an outdoor hutch where they have plenty of room.

Heed any change in eating habits, The most common reason a rabbit stops eating is in response to pain somewhere in the body, and loss of appetite but otherwise acting normal should be investigated within 48 hours.

Critically important is spaying and neutering: to improve litter box habits, lessen chewing behavior, and territorial aggression, and heads off some deadly health problems. This should be done ideally before the animal is 2, between ages 3 1/2 to 6 months, depending on sexual maturity, of course by an experienced rabbit veterinarian.

House Training: Rabbits may have free run of the home once they’re trained and there’s a predictable schedule. However, it’s best for most–and necessary for some–to start with a suitably sized and configured cage, whose base, for example, won’t hurt bunny’s feet (unlike dogs and cats, they have no pads).

Provide a litter box. Rabbits are pretty easy to train to use the litter box by placing it in the area where they have been going to the bathroom. To encourage them to use it put some droppings in it, even a small amount of hay can help them learn as they will go to the bathroom while they are eating it. In a large area provide one more litter box then the number of rabbits you have.

DO NOT USE clay or clumping kitty litters because if they are ingested, they can be fatal.

Never punish or hit your rabbit – Use only positive reinforcement through treats and praise..

Rabbits need a retreat; a resting and hiding place for some privacy. Such things as untreated straw baskets, cardboard boxes turned upside down with a hole cut in the side, a large cardboard tube, or just use your imagination to come up with a safe cuddly hide.

Bunny-proofing: You’d do it for your toddler, wouldn’t you?  It is natural for rabbits to chew on furniture, rugs, drapes, and, most deadly of all, electrical cords. Cords must be concealed, encased in vinyl tubing, or put out of reach.

Toys: Give your rabbit enough attention, safe chewables, and toys, to distract from chewing furniture and rugs. A cardboard box stuffed with hay makes an inexpensive playbox. Young rabbits (under a year) are more inclined to mischief and require more confinement and/or bunny-proofing than mature rabbits. (Again, just keep thinking “toddler” – except one that can leap over 2 feet high!).

The most common health concerns for rabbits include overgrown teeth, foot problems and digestive and respiratory upsets. Serious problems that require immediate veterinary care are diarrhea, labored breathing, loss of appetite or head tilt. All rabbits are susceptible to Pasteurella bacteria, which will usually present as an upper respiratory infection. A veterinarian trained in exotics can prescribe antibiotics to prevent the infection from spreading to vital organs.

Dr. Brown and other experts point out that while “Hairballs” are often blamed for rabbits to stop eating, the problem is not hair (ever-present in a normal rabbit’s stomach due to grooming) but abnormalities in “GI tract motility. “A rabbit on a healthy diet of grass hay and green foods will not have a problem with this “disease”. The only exception is that, rarely, longhaired breeds of rabbits such as Angoras and Jersey Woolys, can accumulate an abnormal amount of hair in their stomachs even if they are on a good diet. Brush these breeds regularly to prevent the ingestion of large amounts of long hair. Remember that these rabbits do not have the normal rabbit haircoat of the ancestral rabbit so we humans have artificially created this problem!

Popularity: 8% [?]