PetLvr.com - [The Blog]

Hello! I’m Gemma Argent

As an introduction, I’d like to say that I have been around animals my entire life. Animals, simply put, are a part of my life. I went to college initially as a pre-vet student, but ended up changing that to a major in wildlife biology and environmental resource management. Growing up, I had a sampling of the usual pets; guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, turtles, fish, chameleons and cats. Then when I grew up and moved out of my parents home, I decided to try something a bit more exotic.

My First Iguana

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Many people get a rabbit for a pet, thinking they can just put it in a cage. They take it out on the rare occasions they feel like it. But that isn’t very beneficial for the rabbit and provides the pet owner with more problems in the long run. Rabbits are not mechanical toys. They require care.

One area where owners will often short that care is in seeking the services of an experienced veterinarian, one with a knowledge of rabbits. Many vets are excellent with dogs and cats but have few opportunities to treat rabbits, so their skills are limited. Many owners will throw up their hands and simply let the rabbit die when it’s ill then get another. A regrettable situation.

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Rabbits are cute as heck, everyone agrees. And it’s true. But rabbit owners know that their little friends have natural behaviors, some would say instincts, that can make them destructive.

Rabbits are no respecters of property, so you have to be vigilant. Letting them out of the cage to enjoy running around is important for their health and amusing for their owner. But left unsupervised, they’ll usually get into what the owner would call trouble pretty quickly. The rabbit would call it having fun.

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Many people treat their dog as a tool. They put it outside to watch the property, or generally ignore it until they want it for something. That’s tragic. But luckily that sort of thing happens rarely with owners of rabbits. Rabbit owners will often pay much more attention to keeping their rabbit safe from harm and ensuring its well being.

Not always easy to do.

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Gastrointestinal stasis is a medical condition in which a rabbit’s digestive system stops moving material. ‘Stasis’ is the Latin root of the English word ’static’. The effects are painful and, left untreated, often fatal.

It can have a number of causes, including a dental problem, infection, gas and others. Inadequate fiber content in the rabbit’s diet is sometimes a factor. Be sure to feed your rabbit a diet that has around 20-25% fiber in the form of timothy or oat hay, or other grassy grains.

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Since rabbit urine can have an overpowering smell, litter training is something most pet owners will want to do. Even feces, as unpleasant as they can be, aren’t as big a problem. They often can be cleaned up with no stain if the rabbit has an accident around the house while roaming free. But rabbit urine stain and odor is very hard to get out of carpets. Prevention is worth more than a pound of cure here.

Unfortunately, litter training a rabbit isn’t anywhere near as easy as it is in the case of a dog. But, with the right methods and materials, it can be done.

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‘They breed like rabbits’ is a familiar phrase. And it’s true. Rabbits are prolific. As prey for a wide variety of predators in the wild, the species survived, in part, by producing many offspring. But that ease and number can represent a problem for pet owners.

Breeding is best left to professionals or those who have experience. The breeding itself is simple, since (obviously) the rabbits are the major actors in the process. But the effort that surrounds the project is not small.

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Domestic rabbits spend most of their lives in a cage. That sometimes strike people as sad, but the rabbits don’t seem to mind too much. Unlike dogs or other pets, they don’t rebel at the cage, so much as see it as a safe haven. Rabbits like warrens.

But there is one difference between a real rabbit warren and the typical cage. Rabbit warrens in the wild are a connected series of tunnels and small caves that the animals use to hide in. A cage often doesn’t offer the same space or even the same kind of protective atmosphere.

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Ok, admittedly .. the only way to completely rabbit proof your home … is not to have a rabbit. But there are many ways to tip the odds in your favor without getting rid of pet rabbit.

The first thing is to remember Bacon’s famous dictum: Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Here, that means: Rabbits like to chew. Among other things, their teeth grow throughout their lives and chewing helps keep them under control. You can’t stop them from chewing, but you can redirect that instinct into ways that are beneficial for the rabbit and safer for you.

Keeping electrical cords out of reach is an early challenge. If you let your rabbit run around the house, and most everyone will want to at some time, keeping your rabbit’s teeth away from electricity is vital. Literally. Rabbits will readily chew through a power cord connected to a lamp or computer. Not only does this ruin the cord, but it’s potentially fatal to the rabbit.

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Many people find large, commercial rabbit cages beyond their budget. A rabbit benefits from a cage that is at least six times his body area, apart from the space required for a litter box. For most, that means something at least 2 feet by 3 feet, plus space for the box. But that’s the minimum. To provide your rabbit with room to move around, larger is better.

While commercial rabbit cages are often outstanding - large, innovative in design and solidly made - they can burden the pocketbook. For those who have a little do-it-yourself skill and a willingness to try, making a rabbit cage isn’t too difficult.

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