Secrets for Keeping Your Pet Rabbit Healthy and Happy

Keeping your pet rabbit healthy is a challenge. Keeping your pet rabbit free of disease is necessary. Pet rabbits need special care. Pet rabbits make good pets. Pet rabbits are not for young children. Pet rabbits need a proper diet. Pet rabbits need proper caging. Pet rabbits need to be kept occupied. Pet rabbits do well with cats and some dogs. Pet rabbits live 8-12 years.

About half of my clients deliberately purchase a rabbit as a pet. The other half has the rabbit presented to them by their child or neighbor or come upon the animal unexpectedly. The lucky ones who intend to purchase a rabbit have the opportunity to select a healthy one. This is dependent on finding a conscientious breeder. Some signs of a conscientious breeder are an orderly clean environment, membership in breeder and show associations, feeding quality name-brand diets, and pride in the operation. Warning signs to look for include too many animals in small environments, soiled bunnies, bargain basement prices, mixed barn yard animals, poor general sanitation, and no older stock on premises. The best way to locate an ethical breeder is by word-of-mouth. This animals flock should be free of fleas, ear mites, parasites ,pasteurellosis and treponema. The breeder should have a cordial relationship with a local veterinarian who recommends him/her unequivocally. If you are successful in locating such a breeder, you are well on your way to obtaining a healthy pet.

1) Source: The next most important consideration is proper diet for your pet. Rabbits are, in essence, an immense, walking brewery – a fermentation chamber that relies on proper intestinal bacteria to produce the nutrients the bunny requires. The majority of problems that bring rabbits to my door involve inappropriate diet. Rabbits thrive on a coarse diet high in indigestible cellulose.

2) Diet: Lack of proper diets is the major cause of lack of gastric and intestinal motility (stasis and ileus), overgrowth of dangerous intestinal bacteria (enterotoxemia) soft stools, obesity liver, and urinary tract disease. Needless to say, a rabbit with any degree of these problems will be an unhappy pet. I very rarely see a bunny that has been given too course a diet. Most of my patients get into trouble from eating rabbit pellets that are too rich in carbohydrates and protein. These diets were originally developed for rapid growth in the meat and fur industry. Here, rabbits were frequently bred and length of life was unimportant. Fifty percent of the rabbits diet needs to be coarse grass hay (timothy, oat grass, meadow grass, or mulch grass). Rabbits are hindgut fermenters. An appendage on the intestine called the cecum is very large in rabbits, guinea pigs and other grass-eating rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits). The cecum’s volume comprises almost half the volume of the bunny’s intestinal tract. In the cecum, coarse hays and pellet fiber are fermented by bacteria into absorbable proteins, essential fatty acids and vitamins – especially the B vitamins and vitamin K. Rabbits love diets of rich rabbit pellets, pizza crust treats, bread and table food. But these type of diets produce gastrointestinal (GI) tract disease that can be fatal to your bunny. Although not required for health, the addition of kale, collard, parsley, dandelion, romaine, endives, chard, pea pods and peppers are great for relieving boredom and keeping your bunny happy. Rabbits have a mouth-centered personality.

3) Habitat: I have never seen a rabbit with too much living space. Often the same cramped cage used when it was a small youngster continues to be used when the rabbit reaches adult size. Rabbits need a minimum of 24 square feet floor space for adequate exercise and activity. I like to keep my rabbits in bottomless pens made of galvanized turkey wire. Keeping rabbits on wire floors quickly leads to sore, abscessed feet, overgrown distorted toenails and eventually to foot arthritis – a common problem in older rabbits. Vary the floor of the pen; one section should be stone or inverted tile, another newspaper or cardboard, and another wood. Remember that whatever the flooring, it must be non-toxic because the rabbit will eventually eat portions of it. If the rabbit is kept loose in the house the house needs to be rabbit-proofed. Electrical wiring, toxic paints, pressure-treated lumber and plastic are all potential problems. Toys are very important to a rabbit’s feelings of well being. You can enrich its environment with cardboard boxes, pine cones, dog and cat toys, multiple water containers and brick-a-black.

4) Disease and Parasite Control: Rabbits are quite susceptible to dog and cat fleas. Generally, any flea control product, which is FDA approved for use on cats and kittens over 9 weeks of age is safe to use on your bunny. Since no flea control product is FDA approved for rabbits, I generally try only a drop or two the first time I use it and observe the rabbit closely that day. Advantage, marketed by the Bayer Corporation, is safe for use on rabbits at one drop per pound applied between the shoulder blades. If the rabbit seems irritated by the application it is due to the ingredient, benzyl alcohol. The effect is only temporary. Many rabbits come with ear mites obtained from their parents. The application of a few drops of baby oil into the ears is usually enough to kill these mites. Pasteurellosis or snuffles is a stubborn problem in rabbits obtained from infected rabbitrys and pet stores. It can be controlled but often not entirely eliminated by the use antibiotics such as enrofloxacin (batryl), good nutrition and low stress. Good diet will reduce the possibility of gastric and intestinal upsets and urological disease. Proper floors reduce the incidence of arthritis. A fecal specimen should be checked by a veterinarian to detect the presence of coccidiosis.

Most of the elderly rabbits I see are males. This is because unspayed female rabbits that are not bred tend to develop cancers of the reproductive tract. This is why I am a firm believer in neutering all pet rabbits. This is not any more dangerous a procedure than spaying a cat or a dog if it is done by a veterinarian who does them frequently and if it is done before the rabbit passes 6 month of age (older bunnies are often obese).

Rabbits are wonderful gentle and inquisitive pets. If you follow these guidelines you and your new pet should enjoy many happy years together.

Article Courtesy:
2nd Chance Sanctuary, a shelter for orphaned and non-releasable wildlife, is supported by the Pet Health Center.