These are the 9 rabbit care tips that every bunny parent must know. Before deciding on getting a rabbit, it is important to do your homework and see if your lifestyle accommodates the love and care a bunny requires.
1. Rabbits Are Nervous Creatures
It is very important in rabbit care to be aware that rabbits are highly stressed animals. As we all know, rabbits are prey animals and because of this they are extremely anxious by instinct. This is why it is important to handle your rabbit very gently and slowly, no sudden or loud movements.
2. How To Handle Your Rabbit
As we covered above, rabbits are high strung and stressed animals. All the more reason to handle them the proper way to minimize their stress levels. This is an important rabbit care tip because if handled incorrectly, they could get over-stressed or even hurt.
Here are the steps in handling your rabbit correctly and safely.
- Use your right hand to slide under their chest and gently lift them slightly.
- Then place your fingers (index and third finger) under the front legs to secure them.
- Then with your elbow and forearm, scoop up the back end of the rabbit and hold them against your body. You can use your other hand to support underneath them if you wish. Putting them back down you want to continue holding them securely.
When putting them back down, continue to hold them securely.
- Place their back end down first, releasing your forearm.
- Then place their front end down and release them.
You are simply doing this procedure in reverse of picking them up.
It is very important to support their spine and powerful hind legs. When rabbits are stressed, they often kick out which can cause them to fracture or damage their spine.
You can also cover their eyes if necessary, this has a calming affect to minimize their stress levels.
3. Social Bunnies
Another rabbit care tip that many don’t give too much thought about is how social rabbits are. Being such sociable creatures, it is extremely important that you always have more than one rabbit. So if you are planning on becoming a rabbit parent, you need to get at least two. After all, when you think about it, wouldn’t you want a friend!
4. Spaying And Neutering Your Rabbit
Science is always coming up with new discoveries with the amount of research out there. There is much controversy with spaying and neutering our animals. In life there are pros and cons to everything and it’s just a matter of figuring out what works best for you and your bunny. There are benefits to fixing your animals but this can affect their hormonal levels. Having said that, veterinary medicine swears by spaying and neutering. Vets say that female rabbits have a tendency of getting uterine cancer. As for males, it will stop aggressive behaviour, spraying urine and it helps stop males from fighting each other.
5. Healthy Diet Healthy Rabbit
Veterinarians often see rabbits contract diseases related to a poor diet. It is essential to feed your rabbits correctly, one of the most important things you need to do for your rabbit. After all, health comes from proper diet for all of us.
Rabbits in the wild graze on grass. Their teeth and digestive system have adapted with this kind of diet. Unfortunately a lot of rabbit parents don’t feed them correctly. Rabbits often get a musli type of mix based on cereals, which is not healthy at all for rabbits. Rabbit teeth continually grow which means they need to be continually worn down by a very abrasive and high fibre diet like grass.
A healthy rabbit diet regimen is as follows:
- Grass or a good quality hay available to them all day to graze on.
- A small amount of rabbit pellets which are very high in fibre. These will keep their teeth and digestive system healthy. You don’t want to feed them loads and loads of pellets. Approximately 2 tablespoons of rabbit pellets per day is sufficient.
- Add leafy green vegetables to their diet. They provide dental ware and they are good for their gut. When it comes to carrots and apples you only want to offer these once or twice a week. They are not high enough in fibre to wear their teeth down.
6. Finding The Right Veterinarian
I highly recommend all domesticated animals see a holistic veterinarian one way or another. They have a holistic approach of medical care having more options for your animal’s healthcare. Rabbits are not considered exotic animals but when it comes to veterinarian medicine they are considered exotic. They fall under the exotic animal category in veterinarian terms. Not all veterinarians work with rabbits so it’s important to do your research. It is also important to build a healthcare team when it comes to your rabbit care. There are a number of complimentary health modalities available in addition to your veterinarian.
These are the 6 rabbit care tips to help you and your rabbit live a happy, vital and healthy life.