Rabbit Care Guide

So you have recently purchased a new bunny? This guide is to help you care for your new furry friend and help make you more knowledgeable about their every day needs.

Bringing Your Rabbit Home:

When you bring your new furry friend home there are a few important points you need to remember to make the transition as smooth and stress free as possible.

Leave bunny alone for about one hour in its’ new hutch to acclimatize; this will include marking the new territory by rubbing its’ chin gland on everything. This will give the children time to settle down, and the bunny a chance to get over the shock of the car drive etc.


Teach children to speak quietly. (NO fighting or screaming near the rabbit.) Loud noises will shock and frighten your bunny.


Have children seated when handling bunny. A dropped rabbit will not necessarily land on its feet like a cat. Its’ back can break easily.


During the first week, feed bunny only the food supplied by the breeder, gradually mixing it with the dry mix you intend to buy locally. Introduce other new foods gradually.
Hay is the most important food source for your new bunny.
Sudden change of diet can cause diarrhoea, resulting in death.
Any change of diet should be gradual, over a period of 3 weeks


Stress causes rabbits to be more susceptible to sickness and even death, so keep in mind that rabbits are timid and vulnerable.


Only a Baby. Baby bunnies need to be kept warm at night time and away from hot sun in the day.
Handle tenderly and often, as they may be fretting for their mother and siblings.

Even though when you buy your baby bunny, it will be weaned from its mothers’ milk, it is still a baby, who needs tender love and affection.


It is very stressful for a baby rabbit to be all alone for long.
The only time this would happen in the wild is if it where lost, or its family had been eaten.

It’s much better to have two baby bunnies together.

Housing:

Hutch Considerations.
Rabbits like to have a safe place to retreat and sleep like a box of hay or a pet tent.
 

Space to run around in, and stretch, the full height of the adult rabbit

Ventilation. Simply a box is not suitable.


Sleeping enclosure.
Rabbits need a place to feel warm, and safe, equivalent to a burrow.


Easy access.
A lift up lid is usually easier than a small door. There needs to be easy access to both the run area as well as the nest box.

Mouse, rat, fox, dog, cat, and mosquito proof .
Mosquito wire can be stapled onto a wooden hutch.


Protection from heat and cold.
(A metal roof would need insulation, as it would be too hot in summer and too cold in winter. The hutch is best placed in a sheltered position.


Easy cleaning. An elevated hutch on legs, or wheels, is easy to hose out. Some hutches have slide or lift out floors, which also make cleaning easy.
If the floor is wire, make sure that that the wire isn’t too wide for the rabbit to feel comfortable walking on. A layer of newspaper and hay, a timber board, basket, towel, or Rabbit mat helps to prevent sore hocks in a wire floor hutch.

Lawn hutches are usually too small.
They need to have a timber nest box.
Moisture rises from the ground causing damp unhygienic conditions in lawn hutches.
Not really the most suitable hutch.
Metal lawn hutches are definitely not suitable, as they are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

Indoor hutches are usually too small unless you can work out a way for the rabbit to get in and out itself, and have some freedom to run around.

Keep in mind that a playpen or some other safe run area would be required for daily exercise no matter what hutch you have
 

Safety.
Rabbits nibble indiscriminately e.g. electric wires, telephone cables, and furniture.
Plastic tubing or slit hoses can be placed around wires and cables. Protect treasured furniture.
Many rabbits injure themselves falling off couches or stairs. Rabbit’s break bones easily. Anticipate and prevent the risks.
Lead paint can also cause your bunny illness, so keep an eye out before mishaps happen. Many indoor plants are poisonous.

An indoor playpen can be used to keep bunny out of taboo places.

Smell.
Make sure the toilet tray is in each room the rabbit has access to.
Rabbits would be unable to search the house to find the bathroom.
Rabbits can be bathed occasionally, using a wool wash, no tears baby shampoo or Oleo Vera shampoo. Only wash the bottom and the feet in a small basin with about1-2 inches of warm water. No need for a total body wash.
Rabbits clean themselves as do cats.
Avoid disinfectants, deodorants, fly spray, and perfume.
Parsley in the diet helps urine smell sweet.

Hay.
Hay is messy and many house-rabbits miss out on this essential food due to its inconvenience.
The Hay Hoodle is ideal, pet tent, cane basket or even a cardboard box.

Sunshine:
Daily outdoor sun exposure, weather permitting, in a playpen or safe backyard, needs to be negotiated.


Heat and cold.
Slate, tiles, and polished boards, are an unsuitable surface.
Towels or mats need to be provided.
Grass mats are good and inexpensive.
Avoid exposure to excessive artificial heating, cooling, and drafts.


For Further Information Please Click on the links below:



• Diet
• Illness

• Toilet Training

• Behavioural Issues