Just been given a rabbit! Guidance needed please>

rosie383

As you can see, I am trying and failing to post the bloomin' pictures!!! Will try again but got to go and do some stuff first.

rosie383

Mara69

cte1111 wrote: »

I would definitely put the run on the grass so she can enjoy destroying your lawn and feel the grass under her feet.

ONly do this if you or someone else can be around to keep an eye on the rabbit or it may burrow its way out. My buck could burrow for England so their main run that was attached to their house was on concrete, their play run on grass but we watched them.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

rosie383 wrote: »

As you can see, I am trying and failing to post the bloomin' pictures!!! Will try again but got to go and do some stuff first.

Upload them to photobucket or suchlike, then click on the link for the image there. Repeat what you just did and it'll work.

rosie383

Thanks Jojo. Will get my daughter to do it later when she can tear herself away from the bunny!!!
I'm dividing my time between the garden and the Olympics!!!

Fosterdog

Congratulations on your new addition, we also found ourselves with a sudden and unexpected bunny houseguest, that was almost two years ago, we have since had her spayed, adopted a neutered husbun for her, bought a huge hutch and built her a 10ft x 8ft run. I'd never considered a rabbit as the type of pet I would want but now I can't see myself without them.

A few tips

1: A handful of pellets a day should be plenty, let her bulk up her diet with grass and hay, she should have constant access to hay.

2: For the next week feed her only on pellets, grass and hay then slowly introduce new fresh fruit and veg a bit at a time. They have very sensitive tums and can get very ill very quickly.

3: Wash out the new water bottles well before giving them to her. I've seen a rabbit almost dead from dehydration because it wouldn't drink from a new bottle, I can only assume it has a plasticy taste and once washed out was fine.

4: Give her lots of things to chew, wood, cardboard boxes, sisal rope tend to be favourites.

5: The cheapest I've found hay is at The Range, £3.99 for a big bale, of course a local farm may be cheaper.

6: http://happyhoppers.forumotion.co.uk is a great place for loads of bunny help and tips. I'm jealous of the amazing hutches and runs some of them build and get loads of boredom busting ideas there.

UranusKiller

We let our rabbit out in the garden majority of the day, sometimes from like 10am till 8pm or so, obviously put back in hutch when going out etc. He is often outside in the garden with our male cat who are so loving together although more often than not, the cat runs away from him lol.

Hutch: If your rabbit is an outside Rabbit, then the hutch MUST be placed in a shaded area where it wont get hampered scoiling hot by the Sun, remember Rabbits DO NOT SWEAT like humans, so he can easily become dehydrated and become terribly ill very quickly.

Hutch Bedding: Never use sawdust or wood shavings! .... Use proper bedding straw, a nice amount to be in the hidden area of the hutch where he likely rests. You don't need to cover the other area much but you can with the odd placement of straws, but the rabbit will push the straw up to their liking.

Garden tips: Rabbits should have a very shaded place to lay and rest, our rabbit LOVES hiding underneath our massive Lavender plants. He also eats the lavender strands as they are nice and hard similar to hard hay but more stronger which is great for their teeth. They also love to rub themselves and lay on top and underneath Lavender plants as it's believed they use the fragrance as a way of making them smell nice and to help attract a female. Our male is a lone rabbit yet he most definitely does do this, so it's true. If you use weed killer on your grass and other products alike, majority of this can kill your rabbit as it's poisonous and toxic to them, the same applies to certain plants/flowers, search up on it, check what you have in your garden and check!
Also make sure their isn't any parts of the garden where the rabbit can leave you heartbroken since you didn't bother failsafing your garden so he/she cant escape.

Food: Never feed your rabbit lettuce or celery. If you are going to give him the odd fruit or veg, only give a tiny amount, and i mean a real small amount, it can be fatal if the rabbit eats too much sweet fruit or veg/salad as it can end up having a terrible runny pooh and can be come extremely ill and not attempt to eat hay or drink any water.
In my opinion to what most caring rabbit owners would suggest is only feed your rabbit the off bits of certain veg/fruit after about 5-6 months of age. Only give your rabbit the odd small bits of fruit & veg such as (only a real small amount!):
Apple (any variety)
Cherries (any variety)
Pear
Peach
Plum
Kiwi
Papaya
Mango
Berries (any type)
Berries (uncooked)
Pineapple (remove skin)
Banana (remove peel; Rabbits LOVE this!)
Melons (any - can include peel and seeds)
Star Fruit
Apricot
Currants
Nectarine (tiny bit)

Carrot
Broccoli (leaves and stems)
Edible flowers (roses, nasturtiums, pansies, hibiscus)
Bell peppers (any color)
Chinese pea pods (the flat kind without large peas)
Brussel sprouts
Broccolini

A few herbs like Basil & Sage are fine too if you happen to grow or buy them. Mine only likes Basil when it's crushed.

The rabbit should have constant access to Hay, sometimes your bunny can become a "hay snob", if this is the case he/she will only pick out and eat certain bits of the hay unless he/she has no form of other food on offer for a good while.
For the first 6 months of the life of a rabbit they should be given a a good amount of pellets or whatever kind of food you use (3/4 of a cup or so, which could be pellets, muesli rabbit mix, junior nuggets etc. After 6 months reduce the amount by half.

Water: Clean tap water should be available at all times too, i would suggest you have 2 bottles in your cage, sometimes the ball at the end of the bottle gets stuck and then your rabbit has no water till you notice it. Change the water every 48hours, many people say every 24hours, but that's silly. Your rabbit may well prefer to drink from a more natural source, IE a bowl, if that's the case, try to make sure it's placed well away from straw bedding/hay as the rabbit will throw crap everywhere and then wont drink from it till you change it.
If you can i suggest getting or using a Cat Water Dispenser, just tie it strongly in an area of the hutch and so it cannot be moved/shaken and generally tossed about from the rabbit as they love playing with water, but using a cat dispenser is the best thing to use as it's natural, water stays nice and the rabbit doesn't have to struggle like it does with a bottle!

Cleaning:
Clean your rabbits dirt every day or if you cant manage that, every 2 days at a push! Your rabbit will dirt in the same place in their hutch so it's easy to litter train them! I suggest you do that, you can buy proper rabbit litter pans or just use a cat tray, it's up to you, they do the same job unless your rabbit prefer to pee up the side of the hutch then you'll require a high back wall long john style pan. To litter train he/she just put newspaper folded up and straightened out and place into the tray, put all of his pooh into it at the corner where he does his dirt and the same applies to his urine, soak it up in a bit of newspaper and place it in the tray, you'll soon find that he/she's litter trained himself! Please note, rabbits will always allow pooh to drop randomly in areas of the hutch or garden as a way of marking their territory but majority of the time they will place it in one area only.
Give your hutch a quick disinfecting every week. If the bedding straw is clean still, then re-use that, just replace it every few weeks and add a little extra after cleansing of the hutch. You should rarely need to inteveen and clean your rabbit.

Gnawing/(Wearing teeth down) Remember rabbits teeth can grow upto 2mm every week. This is an important subject to get right, Rabbits gnaw their teeth via a few means, mostly by eating Hay which should be constantly available. The same applies to natural grass (non poisoned/treated). Grass when examined under a microscope looks like a Saw with pure jagged edges which work wonders on the teeth providing your rabbits teeth are aligned correctly.
They should have a gnawing block available to use, you can buy sweat tasting gnawing blocks, they don't use often but they do now and again. Have safe rabbit tagged wooden blocks to he/she can bite them etc. Rabbits enjoy Willow, so get some willow balls or anything willow and they will wear their teeth down biting and actually eating some of it.

Teeth: Check your rabbits teeth every week or so to make sure they are the same length and aligned alright. To do this just put your thumb and the finger next to it on both the rabbits mouth (whisker area) and lightly lift up, if you cant see his bottom teeth, use your other hands finger to push his lip down, they don't like the latter.
If your rabbits teeth are not aligned or are growing and not wearing down and look bad, then he/she will have malocclusion, which is a horrible thing to have and could mean you going to the vets to cut his teeth down to size every month or so. Rabbits can quite easily misalign their teeth by pulling on the wires of hutches often.

Attention & Affection: it's important to give your rabbit good time with yourself or those in the household every day or so, most rabbits dislike being picked up and prefer to stay firmly on the ground. This is obvious considering in the wild they are afraid of heights and are always threatened with the danger of predators. If this is the same for you, then use outside as a way to interact with he/she. Or if he/she goes indoors, lay on the floor and perhaps the rabbit may lay near you or something. Rabbits can feel lonely and neglected if you dont give attention which could mean they start growling at you or stomping their feet.

Binking Do you ever see your Rabbit jumping about twisting his/her body and suddenly running and stopping fast. This is called binking and is a sign that the rabbit feels comfortable in the surroundings and is excited and enjoying life.

Handling: Never pick up your rabbit by it's ears or the scruff of the neck like a cat. This is terrible painful and dangerous. To pick up your rabbit, approach he/she slowly and stroke him slowly/softly (from top of his head, through shoulders downwards to (back hind legs), never over his eyes so he cannot see). Then put your right hand or few fingers behind his front legs/shoulders and your left hand underneath his bottom, this is the safest way to hold a bunny for a few moments, if you intend to try and cuddle him/she make sure to press his safely and supported over your chest otherwise he/she will be scared stiff, being picked up is unpleasant enough as it is.
Rabbit kicking out: If you pick up your rabbit like you do with a cat or dog or something then your rabbit can easily kick out his back legs so fast and hard that they can snap their spine immediately. If this is the case, get him/she put down asap as it's so cruel to have a Rabbit that has to drag itself around and is likely to have a hard time with pooh/urine all over him/she. If your rabbit breaks it's spine, he/she is likely to give out a massively loud scream, you will know about it.

Nails: Check your rabbits nails every month or so, if they get good exercise on grass and pavement, they usually are alright and don't need cutting.

People think a Rabbit is a easy pet to have, boy how wrong your thoughts of that can be.

Here are a couple of shots our Male Lop called Flopsy.

krlyr

If you want a measure for the food, I would say a (level, not heaped) egg cup max. They need a lot less food than the food manufacturers would have you believe - their diet should be mostly grass and hay to encourage wear of the teeth and a healthy gut (rabbits have a similar digestive system to horses, and need to constantly be grazing on roughage to keep the tummy moving - if they stop eating or don't eat enough roughage, they can get something called gut stasis, which is like colic in horses and can be very serious)

Is she spayed? Spaying plays a huge role in temperament of a rabbit, an unspayed female can get very grumpy and territorial of her hutch/run which isn't ideal around children. Also, unspayed females are at high risk of ovarian cancer. A spayed rabbit will obviously be safe to introduce a male rabbit to as well, if you decide to get her company (rabbits are social animals and do well in pairs) though he will need to be neutered to reduce his 'urges', or he may pester her too much even if she is spayed. A rabbit rescue is a good place to go if you want to get her a friend as they will usually assist with the bonding process.

UranusKiller

krlyr wrote: »

If you want a measure for the food, I would say a (level, not heaped) egg cup max. They need a lot less food than the food manufacturers would have you believe - their diet should be mostly grass and hay to encourage wear of the teeth and a healthy gut (rabbits have a similar digestive system to horses, and need to constantly be grazing on roughage to keep the tummy moving - if they stop eating or don't eat enough roughage, they can get something called gut stasis, which is like colic in horses and can be very serious)

Is she spayed? Spaying plays a huge role in temperament of a rabbit, an unspayed female can get very grumpy and territorial of her hutch/run which isn't ideal around children. Also, unspayed females are at high risk of ovarian cancer. A spayed rabbit will obviously be safe to introduce a male rabbit to as well, if you decide to get her company (rabbits are social animals and do well in pairs) though he will need to be neutered to reduce his 'urges', or he may pester her too much even if she is spayed. A rabbit rescue is a good place to go if you want to get her a friend as they will usually assist with the bonding process.

Again, this is important of course, but this was already kind of covered earlier in the thread.

krlyr

Could equally have said the same about a lot of your post to be honest. I thought the point of forums were to have discussions with multiple people, I missed the post previously mentioning spaying (I did flick through the last two pages but am not perfect!) and just wanted to be helpful.