So my husband and I got our first Rabbit in June 2014. We adopted a beautiful Rex rabbit. He's a very active rabbit and loves to hop around in his hutch or in the run, and then we decided to get him a girlfriend, so we got Aria, she's calmer than Cas, but she still loves to hop around in the run. Aria loves to be cuddled and will sit on my lap for ages, which I love. Cas doesn't like to be cuddled, but likes to be stroked and fed dandilion leaves.
I really like having rabbits. Cas got ill a month after we got him with a parasite and we had to keep him in the house, and that was horrible seeing him like that. But after about a week he was back to his hopping self. Luckily we have no issues with both of the rabbits since. We have had Cas neutered as we want both of the rabbits in the same hutch so they can cuddle up together at night. How sweet.
I think you should buy a pretty big cage, unless you are buying a dwarf rabbit, then you can buy a smaller cage. You have to give them space to hop around. as they are pretty active animals. We have a two story cage, which I think was perfect. You need to cover the floor of the hutch with sawdust, and then you need to give them plenty of hay, for them to sleep in and also to eat. They love to eat hay, my rabbits are greedy guts. You need to make sure they have a lot of water. So I have a massive water bottle for both my rabbits to make sure they have plenty of water. You want to make sure that they are hydrated at all times.
The food I buy for my rabbits are generic pellets and I find that my rabbits love to eat this, when I put this in the hutch they go straight for it and start nibbling away. We buy some treats for them, such as salt licks and dried fruit and veg. The other treats we give them are dandilion leaves, celery, carrots (but both of our rabbits dont like carrots. Weird I know) and other vegetables. I have made a list for what you SHOULDNT feed your rabbits.
These are some food that you have to be caucious when feeding your rabbit:
- Beans (some pod varieties cause gas)
- Carrots (high in sugar & carbs)
- Corn (dried and milled, found in pellets)
- Crucifers: cauliflower, cabbage, cress, bok choy, broccoli, mustard, arugula/rocket, turnip greens, collards, kale, brussels sprouts (can cause gas or diarrhea)
- Grains (found in pellets, but high in sugars and carbs)
- Lettuce (white/light leaves are dangerous)
- Rosemary (some varieties are poisonous)
- Sage (some varieties are poisonous)
And these are foods that you MUST NOT feed your rabbit, these can make your rabbit very ill and may even lead to death:
- Aloe vera
- Avocado (poisonous)
- Bamboo shoots
- Beans (except some pod varieties)
- Castor "beans" (these are really seeds)
- Chives
- Corn
- Eggplant
- Hedge apples
- Mushrooms
- Nuts
- Onions
- Peas
- Potato
- Seeds
- Soy beans
- Sweet potato
- Tea leaves
- Wild carrot
- Wild cucumber
- Wild lettuce (poisonous)
Also make sure you check what plants are growing in your garden, as when the rabbits are in the run, they will eat everything in their path. Here is a list of plants that could be toxic to your rabbit.
- All plants that grow from bulbs
- Amaryllis
- Arum lily (cuckoo point)
- Bindweed
- Bracken
- Bryony
- Buttercup (small quantities dried within hay is ok)
- Convolvulus (bindweed)
- Deadly nightshade (belladonna)
- Delphinium (larkspur)
- Elder
- Fools parsley
- Foxglove
- Hellebores (christmas rose)
- Hemlock
- Henbane
- Lily of the valley
- Lupin
- Laburnum
- Most evergreens
- Oak leaves
- Poppies
- Privet
- Ragwort
- Rhubarb leaves
- Scarlet runnertoadflax
- Woody nightshade
- Yew
So I would suggest be careful about what is growing in your garden. Just to be careful.
You need to clip your rabbits nails, as they grow pretty quick and they get quite sharp, I have so many scratches due to my rabbits moving and accidentaly scratching me. You can either purchase an animal nail clipper or take you rabbit to a groomers to get them clipped. You need to be careful as they have a quick in their nails. If you cut the quick accidentally, it will bleed and cause the rabbit some pain. In some rabbits the quick is easy to locate, but other rabbits have dark claws and you might find it difficult to locate.
In my opinion, rabbits are a great pet, they are lovely to watch and if they let you, lovely to cuddle. They are pretty easy to look after just as long as you keep them happy and healthy and their hutch clean. I think these are a good first pet, if the child is a little older, because they do take a bit of resposibility, but they are easier than other pets.
I have made a list of things of things that you should buy if you are thinking about buying a rabbit, obviously you don't need to buy all of these things, but that is what I reccomend.
- A decent sized hutch
- Wooden or metal run or playpen
- Rabbit Pellets
- Water Bottle & Food Bowl
- Fresh Veggies and Treats
- Hay & Sawdust
- Toys
I hope that you have enjoyed this post and I will see you with another installment of this series.
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