RABBITS USA 2013 898 8 SmallAnimalChannel.com

A first-time rabbitowner shares tipsfor improving 10easy-to-bunglerabbit-care basics.ARTICLE BY CLAY JACKSON;

ILLUSTRATIONS BY THOMAS KIMBALL/

BOWTIE INC.

So partly because of my daughters’ pleading and partlybecause their friends were being overrun with tiny fur balls— and against my better judgment — I agreed to take in them i xed-breed trio.

B e s i d e s, how difficult could it be to keep somet h i n gcalled a bunny? It sounds like it should be able to take careof itself.

But had I known that bunnies are also known asl a go m o r p h s, this article might end here. If a bunny can takecare of itself, keeping a lagomorph must surely require acorrespondence course.

I ’ve taken some wrong turns hopping down the bunnytrail, but I’ve also learned a thing or two about what not todo along the way.

Consult The ExpertsL et me be perfectly frank here, justbecause a neighbor family has rabbitsin double figures does not make themexperts in O r yctolagus cuniculus. Infact, when someone, be it a neighborgirl or one of her parents, flags youd own in a panic and asks if they canunload some bunnies because theyh ave 15 due to “no fault of their ow n ”— seek your rabbit-keeping inputfrom another source and quick.

Online rabbit-information sitesl i ke S m a l l A n i m a l C h a n n e l .c o m a n dR a b b i t .o rg, periodicals like R a b b i t sU SA, hobby i st organizations like theAmerican Rabbit BreedersAssociation, a rb a .n e t, vet e r i n a r i a n sand veterinarian schools and rabbit

a d o ption organizations are preferable to askingp e n etrating rabbit questions of people who do fuzzyrabbit math like 1 + 1 = 12.

Check The SexU n l i ke rats or dachshunds, sexing rabbits takes a little morei nve stigation. If you’re not sure if your new bunny is a buckor a doe, you’ll have to either sex your rabbit yourself orh ave someone in-the-know do it for you.

“ Even for the trained eye, rabbit sex det e r m i n a t i o nin 1- to 6-w e e k-old rabbits can be a challenge ,” sa i dG r e gory Rich, DVM, of We st Esplanade Vet e r i n a r yClinic in Metairie, La. “We recommend owners of babyrabbits to wait until they are 6 to10 weeks of age before

I T S E E M S L I K E I T WA S Y E S T E R DAY WHEN S P E C K L E S,Iggy and Jojo hopped into our live s.

But it’s been two years since my then 8- and 13-y e a r- o l df l a xen-haired daughters ran up to me in front of our home,l o o ked up at me with their big doe eyes and inquired in st e r e o :“ D a d d y, can we get some bunnies, please?”

As fate would have it, my daughters’ playmates on the nextst r e et ove r, another pair of sist e r s, went to sleep one night withthree bunnies in their backyard and woke up with at least 12 —b u n ny fecundity is not a myth, with the typical litter size forl a r ger rabbits being six to 10.

The parents of my daughters’ friends were told their mixe d -breed rabbits were all female.

They weren’t .

BUNNY -CARE

RABBITS USA 2013 919 0 SmallAnimalChannel.com

permanently categorizing their sex.”Females reach breeding age at 4 to 6 months, and males

are ready to breed at 5 to 6 months, so you need to knowwhat you’re dealing with at the get - go if you plan onkeeping multiples.

By the way, mounting behavior is done by both sexe sand may not necessarily be a tip-off to the sex;mounting may just be one bunny’s way of show i n ga n other who’s boss.

C a g ey Is OKLook, if you have one enclosure with multiple rabbits in it,y o u’re just asking for trouble, such as unwanted litt e r s,aggression and stress because of ove r c r owding, increasedc l e a n i n g s, added opportunities fordisease and a host of other not - s o -nice pot e n t i a l i t i e s.

C a ge s, pens, hutches orw h a t e ver you keep yourrabbit in should bes p a c i o u s, off the ground (if a hutch),clean and escape-proof. This ensuresthat rabbits st ay put and things thatl i ke to terrorize them,such as rats, cats, dogsand birds of prey,remain out of your hairand out of your hare (sorry).

If you live in a warmer climate like Ido in Southern California and you ke e prabbits outdoors, make sure their hutch, etc., is ina well-shaded area in the summer and under an awning or

some similar structure during the colder months to ke e pwinter rains out.

“Outdoor cages or hutches can work, but they needc o n stant care and observation and a well-thought oute nvironmental design plan,” Rich said. “In the South, fleasand ear mites are always a problem, and maggots cancreate a large variety of issues when cecotropes get st u c kon a pet ’s hair or just on the cage flooring.”

And where you house a rabbit can affect other aspectsof care. “If ke pt outdoors in winter in cold climates[rabbits] need more energy, so more pellets and all thetime free-choice water and hay,” said Bianca Zaffarano,DVM, Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center College ofVeterinary Medicine in Ames, Iowa .

Curb Their EnthusiasmL i ke cats and dogs, there are too many domest i c a t e drabbits hopping around, many of which end up homelessand at rescues and shelters.

If you just want a pet or two or three, adopt them andm a ke sure they are spayed or neutered or at a minimumke pt apart in their own digs. “S p ay/neutering is essentialfor the health of the rabbit as well as the sanity of the rabbitp a r e n t s,” said Mary Ellen Whitehouse, president of BunnyLu Ad o ptions Inc. in Hay m a r ket, Va. She added thatrabbits are not children’s pet s. “They must be wanted bythe whole family and require an adult to daily monitortheir health,” she said.

Clean We e k l y, Not We a k l yRabbits are relatively clean animals and even divide uptheir living space into different areas for differentf u n c t i o n s. But no matter how much they may preen or

h ow tidy they keep their living spaces,c a ge s, pens and hutches can

become quickly fouled. Like ot h e rp et s, rabbits can’t clean up aftert h e m s e l ves — something to dowith a lack of opposable thumbsI ’m told.

If you aren’t into whatamounts to an archeological dige very time you do a cage or hutch

cleaning, I sugge st you thoroughlyclean your rabbit’s enclosure once a week

at a minimum.

Co r ra l s( fe n ced play are a s)Rabbits are built to scamper, bound, burrow and interactwith their long-eared fellows (every few days is ideal) —activities that are impossible or nearly so if they arehemmed in by four walls all the time.

In hobby i st parlance, a rabbit is said to be performing a“b i n k y” when he is visibly enjoying his out-of-cagep l aytime. It is obvious when your rabbit is experiencingthis kind of ecst a sy: he kicks up his heels, simultaneouslyarches his back and twists his hindquarters while jumpingfor joy during his furlough from his enclosure.

A fenced-in play area is as easy as setting up an exe r c i s epen in a room or outside unfurling a roll of galvanized orv i ny l - c overed rabbit fencing. Be sure the bottom of thefencing is st a ked or weighted down, as a rabbit can easilyescape between or under gaps in it.

Because rabbits love to graze and aren’t toodiscriminating in what they eat, any area you fence offoutside must not contain potato or tomato leaves orrhubarb or have been recently sprayed with insecticides orherbicides — all of these are poisonous to rabbits.

Keep vigil outside when your rabbit is enjoying anyp l aytime away from his normal secured living area, so thatp otential predators are wary at your presence and anybreeding or aggression bet w e e nrabbits can be curtailed before eitherbecome problems.

The best part of subdividing aportion of your backyard into arabbit play area is containment.Fencing saves you from anya g g r avation caused by ext e n s i vea tt e m pts to recapture your pet afterp l aytime ends.

C atch As Catch Can Should an escape occur, it’s all handson deck. In the frustrating game ofrabbit roundup, I’ve come up withsome herding techniques that I don’t

n e c e s sarily recommend but whentreats fail, desperate times somet i m e s

demand desperate measures. A flashlight is a necessity for

night missions. In addition, probes likebroom handles to gently roust rabbits out from

the foliage and herd them back to fenced play areas ort oward potential captors are useful.

The best way I found to catch a rabbit escapee is to forma perimeter with several people and keep cutting theb u n ny off and drawing the circle tighter and tighter untilthe rabbit has no place to go. Preventing escapes is best.

Calorie Co u n t i n gRabbits can be a lot like some humans when it comes toeating. Shove the rabbit equivalent of an all-y o u - c a n - e a tb u f f et in front of their cute wet noses and whiskered faces,and they’ll have trouble pushing away.

It is easy to overfeed and under exercise a rabbit andthese husbandry faux pas can lead to obesity and a host ofrelated health problems.

“I think rabbits are pretty good at controlling their ow nweight as long as the vast majority of their diet is hay —grass hay s,” Zaffarano said. “I restrict pellets in all rabbitsfor many reasons: not enough st e m my fiber forg a st r o i n t e stinal health, the way they chew pellets isdifferent than how they chew hay — and hay is far bett e rfor their teeth. Also, a fat rabbit has problems withwalking, urinating and defecating, hock soreness, arthritisand ove r h e a t i n g .”

According to Rich, improper diets are the bigge stm i st a ke rookie-rabbit keepers make. “Mo st of my fi r st -time rabbit-owning clients have not heard of giving

Get advice about your rabbitfrom people in the know, suchas a rabbit-savvy veterinarian.B u n ny- c a re

C o n fe s s i o n s

A rabbit’s cage or penshould be cleaned weekly,or more often if needed.

Hay is a must-have food forrabbits. It helps wear downtheir teeth and grass hayskeep calories in check.

A ve terinarian or someone in the knowshould sex your rabbit after it reaches 6weeks of age and befo re 4 months of age.

h ay every day,” hesaid. Rich also sa i dyearly wellnesschecks are critical.

E xercise and portioncontrol are important inhelping an adult rabbit(more than 1 year old) toremain sve l t e .

Weighing your rabbits every few weeksonce they reach their fi r st birthday should bepart of your husbandry routine. If you notice big swings inweight, up or down, consult a vet e r i n a r i a n .

An unfortunate, longstanding trend among many in thep et community is the idea that whatever foodstuffs theyput before their animals will be greedily slurped up. Butj u st as you and I don’t like everything that’s edible, rabbitsare individuals with individual likes and dislikes in termsof their dietary fare. For example, two of my rabbits loveh ay but one uses it as bedding. They all enjoy alfalfa pellet sand absolutely go bonkers for bananas. Two love cilantrobut one doesn’t particularly care for it. The point is thatyou may need to experiment, tweak and develop slightd i etary variations if you have more than one rabbit.

Companionship (other bunnies)L i ke teenage text e r s, rabbits are social creatures that enjoyhobnobbing with one anot h e r. This is a good reason toh ave more than one rabbit if you have the room, oneenclosure per and time to double up on all of your rabbit-keeping chores and ext r a c u r r i c u l a r s.

If you’ve ever witnessed an only child thrown into themix with other kids for the fi r st time, the results are aspredictable as they are combustible: wailing and gnashingof teeth, pulling of hair, throwing things, fear ofabandonment, curling up in the fetal position, etc.

Rabbits unschooled in the art of social interactiontend to behave like sibling-less toddlers on their fi r st dayof nursery school. They bite, bully and chase. The moretime rabbits interact withother rabbits, the bett e rthey get along with ot h e r

rabbits — the sa m egoes for toddlers.

It is best to place apair together on

neutral ground, such as ap l ay area, and not introduce

one into anot h e r’s home turf.

Cuddle Bunny There are two kinds of pet

rabbit owners: 1) those who make a rabbit as much apart of the family as possible and 2) those who areinitially excited at the prospect but soon sour of it whenthe novelty wears thin, with the rabbit-ow n e rrelationship deteriorating into little more than dailyf e e d i n g s, refilling water bottles and weekly cagecleanings as a result.

Unless you really are prepared to not just keep arabbit fed and watered but to actually establish a hands-on bond with one, you probably should stick to a petgo l d fish or a pet spider.

The more you let a rabbit inve stigate around yourf e et as you read the morning paper and sip a hot cup ofJoe, the more you remove him from his hutch and cradlehim, pet him and scratch him between his ears — theless skittish and surly he will be.

L a st l y, getting a rabbit because your child asks for oneand swears on a stack of somethings that she’ll feed andg i ve him water daily, play with him and clean his cageregularly (half-truths at best) isn’t sufficient just i fi c a t i o nfor bringing one home. You have to want one, too.

After reading and reflecting on these rabbit-ke e p i n gc h a l l e n ge s, if you think you have what it takes to provide ah e a l t hy and loving home for a bunny — hop to it.

Clay Ja c kson is the deputy news editor for Pet Product NewsInternational and Veterinary Practice News. Besides keeping rab-bits, he feeds, wa t e rs and cleans up after his 10- and 15-ye a r- o l ddaughters, wife and Welsh terrier, Jamaya.

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Rabbits need to be kept in aspacious enclosure, and if

you have more than onerabbit and they don’t

get along, be pre-pared to keep

them in separateenclosures.

Develop a hands-on rela-tionship with your rabbit to

truly see his personalityshine and enjoy a happy

life together.

For tips on choosing a rabbit, goto S m a l l A n i m a l C h a n n e l .co m /R a b b i t C h o i ce Ti p s

B u n ny- c a reC o n fe s s i o n s