Rabbit care...

Svashtar

Svashtar

Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Messages
4,793
I don't expect the experts here to do my work for me, and am searching online and heading over to the pet store, but figured someone here would let me know if I was on the right track PDQ.

I have been seeing what I thought was a house cat under a car down the street for at least several weeks. When I back into my driveway (harder to tow the RWD car if you back in; this is Salinas after all), my headlights have illuminated this "cat" sitting under an old car two houses down.

Then my daughter and her friend mentioned that they had seen a "bunny" on the lawn down the street a couple of weeks ago, and then the other day under _my_ car. The nights have been getting very cold, and I see this animal there every night.

Anyway, last night I finally put 2 and 3 together and take a closer look, and it's a small rabbit. Knowing the idiots in this town and how many of them treat animals, I figure about 8 months ago he was a cute Easter present for a little kid that has since been abandoned.

I crawled under the car last night with a handful of alfalfa, and enticed him over, which was easy as he was starving, and managed to grab him. I can't stand to see an animal suffer, and sitting on cold oily concrete in close to freezing temps (cold for here, 35 degrees; OK stop laughing Munk!), has got to be suffering.

So now that I've "rescued" this guy I'm responsible for him. The SPCA hotline I called say they are overwhelmed and can't guarantee he won't be put down, so I'm not taking him there, and of course my daughter wants to keep him.

I put him in our storage shed last night with towels and food, and it's pretty snug in there. He is amazingly gentle. I need to buy or build him a hutch, but don't know what daily maintenance is involved. I have alfalfa pellets for the guinea pig and he is going to town on those and some lettuce.

I figured I would just try and get a decent sized enclosure for him and keep him in the 8X14 shed. So, what, (?) I'll need the enclosure, sawdust I guess, alfalfa pellets, water of course and I don't know what else. I heard they need to chew all the time, so that needs to be accounted for.

Thanks as always for any ideas or info.

Norm
 
Norm?

For a tough guy, you are sooooo easy.

Nice.

Not hard to maintain. Keep them out of the house, they stink, no matter what your daughter's teacher tells her when she convinces her to take BROWNIE home for the Spring Break...or whatever the hell it was. (Yes, I'm still bitter.)

They gnaw at the wood, so put some wire inside and frame outside. Cedar shavings will work as litter, water, some greens, and the appropriate food pellets. I think I read they can be litter trained, but I doubt it.

Do not expect scintillating conversation from them. "Dumb Bunny" is appropriate. The reason they are such prolific breeders is that they are every predators' favorite meal.

Neat, tough guy.
 
If that dumb bunny has lasted since Easter, he's well-adapted to the neighborhood. You are going to be spending a lot of money to keep an animal in prison who would be healthier free. Examine your motives at this juncture: is this to "save" the bunny or to appease your daughter?

Heavily predated prolific breeders are the ultimate end-product of the survival of the fit. If you love that wabbit, set him free; if he comes back to you, he really is a dumb bunny.
 
I liter trained two. They don't have any smell. Do a google search on house rabbits.org. As far as being dumb, they are smarter than most of the people who I see on the road driving cars.
 
ed tank said:
they are smarter than most of the people who I see on the road driving cars.
Click to expand...
Then why aren't rabbits driving cars and humans hiding in the bushes? :D
 
The Giant Norm and a small rabbit and no one here is the least surprised.




munk
 
That's good of ya, Norm. What a softy;) I think I heard somewhere that fresh greens weren't the best for rabbits, that could be totally false though. I'm sure a uniform rabbit feed diet will keep his pellets from stinking so bad.

Jake
 
I believe shavings are best for the enclosure - easier to clean and they absorb smells to a certain extent. I'm pretty sure you can train rabbits to use a litterbox, and that'll make things much more pleasant for everyone.

You're probably right about it being a former pet - we have plenty of wild 'urban' rabbits around my house and you can't get anywhere near them even if you're dressed in carrots and lettuce. I don't think it would have accepted food from you if it hadn't been handled by humans before.
 
When the rabbit figures out he has been captured by a guy with about a thousand large, sharp knives, he will chew through the wire (or brick) and escape. :foot: :D


Ad Astra :eek:
 
When I was a kid this family down the road had this rabbit Snowball. He was an albino and big. As he got older he'd just roam the neighborhood but come back home in the evening. I remember looking out the picture window in my front yard and he'd be on his back legs eating our hedge.

He'd let you pick him up and scratch him. He lived severaly years like that I think a dog or something finally got him on one of his walks.

They are about like a guinea pig or something to take care of. Get an all metal cage to prevent chewing. If you have yard we make a little tractor for our chickens. You put them in it and it has no bottom and you can move it around and mow with it. We did that with our guinea pigs as kids too.:thumbup:
 
As far as the smell goes, make sure you wash them on 'delicate'. No bleach.

I have a great recipe, if you want to email me.
 
That was a good thing to do. I know nothing of rabbit care, but I have a neighbor and an uncle with rabbits. They make wonderful pets, I hear.

Good luck, and let us know what you do!

Chris
 
Good for you Norm.
A rabbit hutch is easy enough to build. Sometimes you even see them offered cheap/free in newspapers.
If you decide to not keep him just post a note in the local pet shop. Make sure you sell it not just give it away. I hate to say it but some reptile owners check the bulliten borards too. If someone has to pay for a rabbit they most likely want it for a pet.
Lettuce has very little nutritonal value. Get some rabbit pellets.
If you bring him into the house watch your electrical cords...they love those things.
 
Thanks everyone! I'm sure if he (actually she) has survived for the past few weeks outside, she might continue to do so, but between the cars and the cats and dogs that might be problematic. I'm sure she was owned by someone before as Kazeryu said, or I wouldn't have gotten within 10 feet of her.

If this was a rural area I might let her go, but abandoning an animal outdoors in a city is cruel IMO. For that matter I don't know how long she would last out in cat country in the Fort Ord area.

I don't consider a pet store rabbit raised by humans and abandoned outside quite as a wild animal who can fend for itself easily. I also have to disagree with Esav, as I don't see how an animal that lives under an abandoned wreck of a car that is covered with motor oil drippings and has matted fur with patches missing is "healthier" than an animal living in a warm area with bedding and food and clean water. One is a worse "prison" in it's own way than the other. I don't love the rabbit any more than I would love a kid who was lost and needed help. The animal needed someone to help it out, that's all. There was no choice as far as I was concerned.

Anyway, we already had the pine shavings and timothy hay and chew sticks, etc. so she's pretty well set up out in the shed. I have some scrap lumber and think I can knock together an enclosure fairly easily, and my daughter has promised to keep her exercised. (We'll see how that goes! (-;)

My daughter wanted her in the house, and I thought about it, but decided against it, and from what Kis said I'm glad I did; no room in the house anyway really. The shed is better than an open hutch outside, and there are no wires or other things that shouldn't be chewed. I also knew the dogs would freak out if they caught her scent, although the lab knows something cool is outside. (-:

I went from being somewhat indifferent about animals when I was younger to really caring for them. (Just not pigeons!) My dogs were rescued from the pound and we take good care of them. I have several neighbors that are the kind of macho a$$8oles that buy expensive purebred pit bulls and bull dogs, and then leave them outside laying in the mud 24/7, howling all night because it's freezing. My next door neighbor has an english bulldog he paid $1500 for that went from a crate to a 3X3 wire cage on the dirt, where he spends his entire life. What's the point of having an animal if you never care for it, feed it, walk it, take it to the vet, or give it affection? Oh, right, you need something dumber than yourself to abuse...

Thanks again for the feeding and care tips. If nothing else this will make a good project for my daughter, as well as a good object lesson I hope.

Norm
 
Norm one nice thing about rabbits is that they love dandelions and the weed is actually good for them as the dandelion does have some nutritional value. Alfalfa is good for them but for regular feeding, the made for rabbits, Rabbit Pellets is the best no matter how much they love the greens and other fresh veggies.
Don't feed him/her too much either as they are kinda like dogs and don't know when to quit eating and they will get so fat they can actually die from obesity.
I used to raise rabbits when I was a wee lad when we lived in Montana.

Even the floor of the cage needs to be made of about 3/8" square hardware cloth so as to let the rabbit poop fall through. Rabbit poop makes a helluva good fertilizer too!:thumbup: ;) :D
If you give the rabbit a small wooden box that it can curl up in at the corner of its hutch and some nice warm filler they can survive some really cold temps as long as they are protected from the wind.
Also they need a good supply of clean water every day in a dish they can't get into and tip over.
Rabbits can be a lot of fun but they can also be a royal pain in the arse too.;) :rolleyes: :D
 
Here in Alaska the Department of Fish and Game issued a bulletin pleading with people to PLEASE refrain from letting domestic rabbits loose in the wild. Reason being that the rabbits are breeding with the native wild rabbits, and weakening thier immunity to diseases, and the wild, and thereby actually doing significant harm to the wild rabbits. Also, very few domestic rabbits survive the Alaskan winters, although I'm sure, foxes, coyotes, hawks and eagles remain thankful for them.

I've had two houserabbits when I was a kid. One of them went psycho, and the other was the sweetest housepet we'd ever had. both of them were litter trained within a day. I don't remember any foul smell associated with them. the psychotic one was a Mini-Lop that just got mean as hell as soon as it hit adulthood. Hid under furniture, growled, bit at people, etc. The other one was a full sized Dutch Lop that weighed sixteen pounds. He was hilarious. Loved to jump up in our laps and watch television...especially if a bowl of popcorn was there. Also beat the hell outta my grandmothers spoiled housecat that tried to stalk him. hehehe.....

a decent hutch, water, rabbitfood, and a saltblock should take care of basic needs. That's all we ever needed when we raised them as a kid.

Huh...kinda wierd to think back on that. We'd raise up to a hundred rabbits that we'd skin and eat a couple times a year, but yet there were always one or two kept as pets, indoors or out. As a kid I never sensed the....irony of that.
 
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