Long story short, my sister has a pair of rabbits, she was told when she got them that they were both female…
Turns out they were only half right…
The rabbits did what rabbits do, and she ended up with a small litter of bunnehs, they’ve all been spoken for, and are currently four weeks old, cute, amazingly soft little rodents they are…
Turns out Sis may not have separated mommy and daddy rabbit soon enough, so it looks like litter #2 is on the way, and yes, they are now housed in separate cages, to prevent them breeding like, well, rabbits
I’ve been offered one of the upcoming litter, and may probably take one, because, hey, can’t say no to a free pet, and I like all kinds of pet animals, even though I’m mainly a dog guy (labs, German shepherds, huskies, and the like)
So, I’ve been thinking about what I should call it…
In no particular order, names I have been considering are;
Tribble
Dinner
Hasenpfeffer
Killer (Killer Rabbit, like from MP and the Holy Grail)
Volkswagen
Get two rabbits.
Domesticated rabbits are all European breeds. Unlike the wild American breeds, they are social animals. They need companions. Watching a bonded pair grooming each other never gets old.
Don’t keep them in a cage.
A rabbit will be no more happy spending its life locked in a cage than a dog or cat would. Rabbits who have spent their lives in cages become dull and unhappy. After the bunny-cuteness wears off, you will get bored and wonder what the point is. And you will never experience a rabbit that jumps on the couch with you, sits on your feet while you are at your desk, or comes running to get its morning treat when you wake up.
Rabbits are not rodents.
They are lagomorphs.
Get your rabbits fixed!!!
This is particularly important for a female. Odds are very high it will die of uterine cancer in middle age if you don’t. And you don’t want any more accidents.
After 8 months of age, do not feed anything containing alfalfa.
Most treats you find in pet stores are mostly alfalfa hay. Rabbits love it, but it contains too much calcium. Rabbits and guinea pigs cannot regulate their calcium uptake like most other mammals, leading to extremely painful and possibly deadly urinary stones.
Do not believe anyone who tells you that rabbits develop hairballs.
Up until ten or fifteen years ago, vets thought that rabbits got hairballs like cats did. Vets who are not trained in exotics still jump to that conclusion. Although it is remotely theoretically possible that a rabbit can develop a hairball, a condition known as GastroIntestinal Stasis is too often misdiagnosed as a hairball.
Learn the symptoms of GastroIntestinal Stasis and seek immediate veterinary help.
Get a packet of Oxbow Critical Care and keep the unmixed packet in your freezer for emergencies. Keep a 30 ml feeding syringe on hand. Both can be obtained from your vet.
Rabbits are social animals so another vote for getting two. Or, if possible, letting it mingle with other animals in the household. I had a Giant French Lop once who spent daily time hopping around the house and terrifying the dogs. (Even the Rottweiler was deferential towards Bridgit the big bunny.)
I’m no rabbit expert but I’d research the gender thing.
I thought Bridgit the Giant French Lop would like a bunny buddy, so I got another female rabbit. Which Bridgit killed in very short order.
So…as already mentioned, rabbit care is not a no-brainer so do your research!
That wasn’t gender but a strange rabbit. Rabbits who are not raised together need to be introduced slowly, preferably through the bars of adjacent cages. If they’re from the same litter and taken home at the same time, they should be fine without the need for careful introductions.
Only certain poop, not the round, hard, dry pellets they usually produce. Their cecotropes are about the size of Jelly Belly beans, but super-soft. Unless a rabbit is unwell or startled (and thus runs off) before he’s about to consume them, you’ll probably never see them.
Edit: I highly recommend the book Rabbits for Dummies, and the website for the House Rabbit Society, http://www.rabbit.org/ for more information.
Ah. Thank you.
I owned Bridget in the mid 1980s, before information was at all of our fingertips. I did feel really awful about the poor rabbit getting killed, though.
I had two Castor Rex rabbits as a kid that I leash-trained. I loved taking them for walks around the backyard. Fortunately it was big as we attracted too much dog attention if we went outside of it.
One time the leash got caught between Whiskers’ toes and you’d have thought I was killing him. Good gravy, but they can scream, so be prepared. Scared the crap out of me.
What’s the youngest age a rabbit can be fixed? I’ve also heard they can be litter-box trained, how difficult is it?
Ours pretty much came litter box trained at 10 weeks; we just had to “listen” to which corner they wanted the litter box put in (denoted by peeing), and they were set. Mind you, you’ll still find some poop outside the box, but they should be good about peeing. Use non-clumping, non-dusty litter like pelleted newspaper or Feline Pine, and no wire cage bottoms to avoid them getting sores on their feet - or at least provide an area off the wire for them.
It’s cheaper to fix males than females, for obvious reasons, and should be done anyway for behavioral and health reasons. Mine (both males) were fixed at about 6 months - we had to wait for one’s testicles to both descend properly so he was more like 7-8 months. (Even the vets weren’t totally sure whether he was male until they really did a very “gropey” checkup on him after we got him.)
I’ve been working on clicker training both of them, and so far they’ll sit up and come when called.
I’ll add my congrats to the chorus, and remind you that a well-cared for, standard sized rabbit’s lifespan is 10 years plus. Here’s Pooka, my work bunny, who is 13 years old. He’s a mini rex, and adorable. His best friend is Babs, a 2 year old Flemish Giant, and his newest friend, Cleo, was just added the the warren so Babs doesn’t get too sad when Pooka eventually dies.
Pooka (and Babs) are also both clicker trained, and can stand up on their hind legs, spin 360dg, jump on a box, enter a crate, put paws up, and a number of other behaviours.
Around 4 to 6 months. Different vets have different theories. Females usually on the higher end of the scale.
If you adopt a rabbit from a shelter that has been in a foster home, they are usually pre-trained for you, all you have to do is get them oriented to the right spot.
The way we usually introduce a new bunny is to put it in a cage next to the litter boxes with a litter box inside the cage. The old bunny is free to come and go and investigate the newcomer safely through wires. And it has to visit occasionally to use its litter boxes!
After a couple of days of acclimatization, we start leaving the cage door open under supervision. The new bunny then can come out and explore in just that one room, but then goes back in overnight. When the two bunnies meet on the old bunny’s turf, they will either instantly fall in love, head to neutral corners, or start fighting. If they don’t fall in love, after a couple of days they get supervised visits locked in the bathroom. That upsets them both. They may fight some at first (that’s why a human must be present), but eventually (it may take days) they start turning to each other for comfort in this horrible, horrible place.
Eventually, when it’s safe, leave the cage open 24 hours, and finally pull the cage away and leave the litter box that was inside.
Or, as FH said, let the bunnies pick a spot and just put the litter box there!
To help encourage them, put something they like in the clean end of the litter box. Like people who like to read while they are on the can, rabbits like to have a snack while they do their business. Oxbow botanical hay is a good choice that they really like.
