Help with rescued bunny...

[maplesky7]

Hi...
My mom's friends daughter had a rescue bunny she acquired and she has teens and they are really busy so they needed to find bunny a forever home.
We picked bunny up today and they don't know the breed or how old? She's not a dwarf and she's not a huge bunny...so I'd say she's medium and her ears stand up. Her coloring is creamy beige and has white under her tail.


some questions I guess I have are:

1) Toe nails...how long should they be and how often do they get clipped? Hers seem long.

2)and is it a she? boys would have testes right? I haven't flipped her around to look, didn't want to scare her...wanted her to get used to us and new home and new animals and smells. (but she is used to living with other dogs and cats for the last several months and being free at times with them)

3)feed requirements and treats? The lady said carrots gave her diarrhea? She had a closet full of bunny treats from the pet store she gave us... yogurt nibbles, seedy treats, wood chews, salt licks....

4)bedding and litter box filler.... she has pine shavings in the litter box and has nothing in the box house because she said she empties it out.

5)exercise... what's normal play time for bunnies?

6) anything else I should know?


--oh, I read the post about the electrical wires and my mom also told me earlier about her friends house bunny and the wires.

Thanks for any info.

me,
g

 

[lurky]

Carrots dont bother our bunny, but lettuce makes her droppings so soft that they stick onto her fur/bottom.
Very messy. I wonder if she gave her bunny carrots with greens attached, because greens seem to soften the droppings.
If you have an apple tree nearby, they like to nibble on apple branches and its good for the teeth. We trim our bunny's nails, but we just use our best judgement, so i cant really tell you anything other than to do the same. I think alot of things you have to learn as you go. My bunny wont eat cheap feed, she likes the expensive bunny food. Sorry i cant help more

 

[maplesky7]

really? apple branches...huh...we just had lightening strike one of our apple trees in half... i'll go snip off some twigs. Thanks.

 

[ksalvagno]

This website will give you a lot of info on caring for a rabbit.

http://www.rabbit.org/

That is great that you took the rabbit in. Good luck with the rabbit!

 

[ibpboo]

Bunny nails have the 'quick thing' like chickens and cats etc do.
Trim 1/8 at a time.

boy bunny testicles are on the under side, they don't hang down really

 

[hen-thusiast]

Quote:
I never noticed that, but your right! I always wondered why sometimes there droppings were all soft.

Ours LOVE apple branches and it keeps them from other destructive activities... and watch out I thought I had "bunny-proofed" the electrical cords. The silly things are like mice, if their head fits through the rest of them will. They go nuts for electrical cords.

 

[chinbunny]

Please do not follow the information on the hrs website. It will only make your rabbit very sick. rabbits are fairly easy to care for. All it needs is fresh water, and good quality pellets. Look for a brand that is high in fiberabout 20%) and low in protien(about 15-17%). Fiber being the most important part of the feed. You can also suppliment with good quality grass hay, like timothy or orchard grass. orchard grass mixed with alfalfa is really good for them too.

Go to www.arba.net. Join the org if you want to. Great organization to get involved with. Unlike HRUS it will not hurt your rabbit. Everything they publish is thorougjly researched by pet owners, vets, and breeders. They have a very good FAQ section on how to care for your rabbit in the upper right right hand corner of the page too. The guidebook to raising better rabbits and cavies is also a must read for any rabbit owner.

Once you have one now, you might be hooked.

Maybe you will want more, and will express interest in breeding and showing them.

 

[chinbunny]

They don't generally need excercise. You can keep her in a wire cage, with pine bedding, and she will be OK. Just make sure its about 24x24 inches. If you keep her caged, make sure you still take her out and pay attention to her every day. You can also get her a little animal playpen to let her run around in if you want.
also watch it on the treats, and give them to her a little at a time. Stay away from brands of pellets that have lots of treats in them.

Most rabbits wear their toenails down naturally. You can clip them back to the quick with a pair of toenail clippers if they get too long. The quick will be the dark part of the nail. You want to clip back to it, but not into it, since it will make it bleed.

Googling the 4h showmanship rabbit guidelines will also help teach you how to properly hold and handle your rabbit. Esp when it comes to flipping it over to trim its nails. Handling is kin dof a pet peeve of mine. you would not believe how pet owners on the net claim their rabbits are social, yet they are unable to pick them up and handle them. When you do handle her, be patient and gentle.

 

[ksalvagno]

If you have an indoor bunny, maybe you WANT to let them run around with you. There is nothing wrong with letting your rabbit out and run around in your home as long as you bunny proof the rooms that they will be in. It is complete joy to have your rabbit running around at your feet and hanging out with you. I have had indoor rabbits for over 10 years now and they have all been very healthy and happy. I thoroughly enjoy having them in the room with me and they love attention.

There is nothing wrong with HRS and they are the ones that keep rabbits in the house full time. Most breeders don't keep their rabbits in their house so I don't know how they would have info on keeping rabbits in the house full time.

 

[chinbunny]

Quote:
I am guessing you have never owned nor read the book? if you did you would know that the ARBA was the first group to explore spaying and neutering rabbits and keeping them inside in the house. They support the entire rabbit industry. Not just breeding. they support both pet owners, and breeders. As I have stated before they have an excellent section in their book for pet owners that want to keep their rabbits outdoors, and as inside pets. Also, MANY rabbit breeders and pet owners use that information to keep their own house rabbits. Not that of the HRS. Most of us are against HRS because they giveout inaccurate, unresearched information on how to keep(and feed rabbits) that can cause some very severe health problems. Unlike the thorughly researched information the ARBA provides. Plus ARBA has been around for over eighty years. And they have over eighty years worth of research and developement to back that up. HRS has been around for about twenty. As a breeder and a pet owner, I would never recommend the HRS website, nor any of their ways of keeping rabbits. Why? Because I don't want to see someone elses pet end up dead, or very sick from it.