Rabbit care
The essentials to ensure your rabbit remains in good health. Always seek veterinary advice if you are concerned about your pet.
Rabbits make great pets when treated correctly and provided with everything they need to thrive. Rabbits are very dependent on their owners and need lots of daily care and attention.
They can live for up to 9 to 12 years and are a long term commitment, not just for Easter or as a present! Unfortunately rabbits are now the most neglected animal in the United Kingdom due to the common misconception that they are easy to care for and will be a cheap first pet.
Housing
The first thing you need to consider for your accommodation is whether you would like them to live indoors or outdoors.
If a rabbit is currently living indoors you will need to seek advice as to whether they can live outdoors before deciding.
Outdoors
If you are moving a rabbit from indoors to outdoors it’s important to do this in the warmer summer months and as a gradual process. Being inside would have altered their coats resulting in them not having a warm undercoat to protect them from the cold weather.
Rabbit enclosure standards, as recommend by the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund (RWAF) say you should provide a minimum overall area of 10ft long x 6ft wide with a minimum run height of 3ft. The hutch/sleeping accommodation should be no smaller than 6ft wide x 2ft deep even if it is incorporated into the run.
The more room you can give a rabbit to allow them to display their natural behaviours the better. Options such as converted sheds/Wendy Houses are ideal for providing added floor space and height.
Weather proofing: It is important to make sure your rabbits stay warm in winter and cool in the summer. You can do this by carefully considering the location of your accommodation to ensure it is not exposed to extreme weather conditions, out of direct sunlight and sheltered from high winds. The accommodation should also be insulated throughout.
Another option to keep your rabbits safe are to are offer heat pads during winter, these are great as they give the rabbit a choice to use them for additional warmth if needed. During the summer it is important to ensure that your rabbits are able to keep cool by providing wet towels for them to lie on and frozen bottles for them to lean against shout they wish.
Providing water bowls as well as bottles throughout the year as they encourage a rabbit to drink more in summer and provides an alternative drinking source should their bottle freeze in winter.
Safety: Rabbits should be protected from predators. The accommodation should be sturdy enough to keep predators out and give the rabbits places to hide where they feel secure. Rabbits natural instinct is to dig so accommodation should be dig proof (there are safer ways to allow them to perform this natural behaviour). If you are giving your rabbits the run of the garden, make sure the garden is secure.
Indoors
Although a rabbit’s natural habitat is outside, they can make suitable indoor pets. If your rabbit is not already used to an indoor environment, then it may take time as well as training to transition them to living indoors and will require you to consider some safety aspects.
Rabbits enjoy chewing, which is a natural behaviour for them, things like sofas, wires and carpets are not immune to this and therefore it is always best to supervise your rabbit(s) when loose in the house. When you are not able to do this (e.g. work or sleep) then a secure spacious area should be provided for your rabbit to be safely shut away.
Indoor enclosures should offer as much space as possible. We would not recommend an ‘off the shelf’ indoor hutch for rabbits as the space is not adequate for their needs. A safe indoor pen (i.e. puppy pen) of around 8ft x 8ft with access to free roam around the house when supervised is the ideal choice of accommodation.
Alternatively, utilising a spare room is also another option as accommodation for an indoor rabbit as this will allow them to have a large space and they can easily be secured.
Cleaning
Accommodation hygiene is very important, not just to keep the space clean but also for the health of the rabbits. Daily checks of the accommodation should be carried out, removing any soiled or wet bedding. As well as topping up hay to eat and straw to help keep them warm.
A full clean of the accommodation should be carried out at least once or twice a week depending on how clean the rabbit(s) are.
A safe disinfectant can be used for deep cleaning the accommodation which will also help to minimise illnesses and fly strike.
Diet
Getting a balanced diet for your rabbit is imperative to maintain healthy gut function and healthy teeth.
A rabbit’s daily diet should consist of 80% fresh hay, 15% greens and 5% extruded pellets (not a muesli mix). Be sure to research safe fruit and vegetables prior to giving it to your rabbit as not all fruit and vegetables are suitable, and some can even be toxic causing serious harm.
You can find a list of safe fruit and veg online https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/rabbit-diet/recommended-vegetables-herbs/
Enrichment
There are plenty of different ways to feed and keep your rabbit engaged using various types of suitable enrichment.
Environmental enrichment means you are influencing an animal’s environment to encourage its natural behaviours, therefore satisfying an animals physical and psychological needs.
There are 5 types of enrichment:
- Toys
- Environmental changes
- Behavioural
- Food/feeding
- Sensory
Keeping their environment novel and exciting is key to having happy and healthy rabbits. It will also help encourage natural behaviours that a captive environment doesn’t necessarily offer on its own. There are some good examples of rabbit enrichment online https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/behaviour/enrichment/.
Examples of Enrichment we provide the Shelter are:
- Puzzle feeders
- Scattering treats and herbage
- Frozen bottles/cold towels (to keep the cool in summer)
- Hanging food in pens
- Toilet roll tube feeders
- Destruction boxes and toys
Another way of using enrichment is to train your rabbit and to teach them tricks.
Training and tricks
As rabbits are pray animals, in general they do not like to be picked up and feel safest when they have their feet on firm ground. It is sometimes necessary to pick up a rabbit for health reasons, and training your rabbit is a great way to encourage them to voluntarily move into the correct positions so that you can carry out health checks whilst allowing them to still feel safe and comfortable.
Training is also very beneficial to help build relationships between a rabbit and an owner, increase physical fitness and can be a great enrichment activity. There are many ways you can go about training your rabbit and lots of tricks and things your rabbit can learn with positive training.
If you wish to ‘clicker’ train your rabbit, it is important that they understand the clicker before you attempt the training. You can also use target training or purely treat training to encourage tricks or desired behaviours.
Handling
As previously mentioned, rabbits don’t normally like to be picked up, however if you must pick them up its important that you do this in a safe manner to prevent injury to yourself or your rabbit and to help them feel safe.
When holding your rabbit its important to make sure that do so gently whilst ensuring that you always have a firm grip supporting their back and hindquarters – holding their feet against your body will make them feel more secure. They should never be picked up by their ears.
If your rabbit gets distressed by handling, you can use a towel and a scooping method to pick them up and then transfer them to an easier position once in your arms. Covering their eyes can also decrease stress while carrying out vital checks.
Veterinary care
Rabbits should be vaccinated every 12 months when living in urban areas or every 6 months if living in a rural area. Their yearly injections will consist of 2 vaccinations, 2 weeks apart. One will be a vaccination against Myxomatosis (Myxo) the other will be against Viral haemorrhagic disease strain 1 and 2 (RVHD).
Common rabbit health issues include Fly strike and dental issues. Ensuring rabbits are kept at a healthy weight will allow them to properly groom themselves. Keeping them clean and offering lots of hay and chews to nibble on will help to keep these two problems at bay. It is important to get rabbit’s teeth checked regularly by a vet to make sure there are no dental problems.
It is highly recommended to get rabbits neutered. Not only does this prevent unwanted pregnancies, it can also help when bonding with other rabbits and has many health benefits including: happier, more relaxed rabbits; prevention of testicular cancer in males and uterine cancer in females; it can also help prevent pyometra in females (an infection in the uterus/womb); and reduce the chance of phantom pregnancies.
After neutering, your vet may provide a painkiller for the rabbit which is normally given for around 3-5 days. Your rabbit should be kept in a quiet and clean environment where you can keep a close eye on them to check that they are eating regularly and are passing urine/faeces. You will also need to check the wound daily to make sure there isn’t any abnormalities (swelling and discharge). Your rabbit should then have a post-op check by the vet to make sure everything has healed correctly.
Please be aware, if you are looking to bond your rabbit and it has been recently neutered, you will need to wait 6 weeks before mixing them as females can still get pregnant during this time.