Chances are, pretty much everything you think you know about rabbits is probably wrong. Companion bunnies are really quite different from their reputations. For one thing, it is NOT okay for pet rabbits to live outdoors. And rabbits kept in outdoor hutches are at the mercy of neighborhood predators like dogs, feral cats, raccoons, even birds of prey and coyotes. A rabbit does not have to be touched to be harmed: it can literally be frightened to death if it even senses a predator.
Pesticides and any number of toxic perils lurk outside.
On the plus side: House rabbits and other indoor animals like cats and dogs CAN get along under most circumstances.
Temperature extremes and sudden changes are very stressful to a rabbit’s health. Rabbits are VERY susceptible to heat. One of the most important reasons for rabbits to live indoors is that hutch and garage rabbits are often neglected or ignored. Out of sight, out of mind.
Rabbits are not, as used to be thought before 1912, part of the “Rodentia” order of classification, but a unique category having two more incisor teeth than rodents, called “Langomorpha.” Rabbits and hares aren’t the same, either: rabbits and hares (Lepus) have 24 pairs of chromosomes, while the domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus) has 22 and the cottontail (Sylvilagus) 21.
And unlike baby hares (“leverings”) that are born ready to run an hour after birth, complete with fur and eyes open, after a gestation period of about 42 days, baby rabbits (“kits”) are born naked and blind after a gestation of only 28 to 31 days, needing time in the the nest before they’re no longer completely helpless.
Names can be misleading as well, because the so-called Belgian Hare is actually a rabbit, and the Jackrabbit is actually a hare!
Rabbits do not just live on carrots, lettuce, and cabbage, and require a balanced diet of vitamins and minerals as well as proteins and fiber.
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