Rabbits are not the easy pet they are made out to be, they can't just be dumped in a hutch at the bottom of the garden and fed, here are some basic tips for you and your pet.
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ON ARRIVAL
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When you first get your rabbit home I know you will be very excited and want to spend a lot of time with it. However moving home is very stressful for a rabbit, and it will need time to settle in. When you get it home, place it in its new hutch and leave it alone to settle and get its bearings. For the first 2 or 3 days I would just feed the rabbit and stroke it in its hutch at feeding time, I wouldn’t bring it in for cuddles yet, give it a few days to get used to its new surroundings first.
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If you have just bought your rabbit you should have given a bag of food that your rabbit is used to. Feed this for the first 2 days, and then start to mix in the food you have bought. Weaning your rabbit onto new food is a very delicate process as rabbits have very sensitive tummies. Slowly start mixing your food in with the old food, gradually adding more of your food and less of the other food, until you are feeding just your own food. Most mixes are fairly similar so this should be a fairly easy process, if you are trying to wean your rabbit onto a pellet mix it may take a little longer.
FEEDING
German Lops are a fairly big breed of rabbit, weighing 8 1/2lbs when fully grown, so they do require a lot of feeding. I feed my youngsters as much as they will eat until they are 5 months old – this is normally 2 meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, each consisting of about 7oz of food. Once the rabbit turns 5 months old I decrease this to one meal a day of 7oz.
Rabbits should also have access to fresh hay and water at all times. My rabbits are used to small amounts of greens, such as Brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots and spring greens. Please do not feed your rabbit lettuce, contrary to popular belief this is not good for rabbits and gives them an upset tummy. After all, what was it that made Peter Rabbit ill in the tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter?!
HUTCH SIZE
As a pet rabbit I would recommend keeping your German Lop in a hutch that is at least 4ft long, by 2ft deep and 2ft high I would also recommend that the hutch has a separate ‘bedding compartment’ that your rabbit can hide in and have a bit of privacy in – make sure that the doorway to this is wide enough for you rabbit to fit through! You also need to make sure your hutch is at least 8 inches off the ground.
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TOYS
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German Lops are very playful rabbits and love to have things to play with and throw around, you can buy some very nice toys, mine love jingle balls (balls of plastic with bells inside). If you do buy plastic toys for them make sure it is heavy duty plastic as German lops have very strong teeth. My German Lops have also enjoyed playing with parrot bells that you hang on the cage door, or Mini Dumbells to throw around. However; cheap and cheerful toys that your rabbit will enjoy just as much are empty toilet/kitchen roll tubes and plastic flowerpots. You could try filling the toilet roll tubes with hay so you rabbit has to work to get at it.
NEUTERING
Whether you have bought a buck or doe I always recommend having it neutered or spayed. Having a buck neutered will stop him becoming hormonal and territorial, and will stop him spraying you with urine (which is a sign of male dominance!). Having a doe spayed will prevent her becoming hormonal when she gets to breeding age (around 8 months old) and also reduces the risk of her getting uterine cancer. Also having them spayed/neutered removes the possibility of any unwanted babies. It is an expensive operation, but it is worth doing.
BONDING
A lot of people like to keep their rabbits in pairs for company, which can be very enjoyable for both the rabbits and the owners, however not all rabbits want company, and not all rabbits will bond together. If you wish to have to rabbits living together, I recommend you buy 2 sisters – or a brother and a sister. If you are planning on have bonded pairs of rabbits I recommend you have all of them neutered/spayed, regardless of gender. There is never any guarantee that rabbits will live together, they may live together for months quite happily, then get to breeding age and start to fight (this is why I recommend neutering/spaying your rabbit). Before deciding to have a pair of rabbits you need to ask yourself – what will I do if things go wrong? Are you prepared to separate them and have them living separately if they don’t get on? If you are not prepared to do this then please do not buy a pair. Also if you have 2 rabbits living together they will need double the amount of living space, I also recommend you put wooden boxes they can hide in or jump on to in the hutch, that way your rabbit can escape from its friend if it just wants some quiet time on its own.
If you already have a rabbit and wish to buy a friend for it then bonding needs to be a slow and steady process. Introduce them to each other on neutral ground and slowly build up the amount of time they spend together – until they are fully bonded you must never leave them unsupervised incase a fight breaks out. Most rescues do a service that you can take your rabbit in to meet other rabbits and see if they are likely to bond. This is a good way of getting a new friend for your pet and also you are rescuing a rabbit.
A lot of pet books recommend keeping rabbits and guinea pigs together. I don’t. For a start they have completely different dietary requirements, Guinea pigs need a lot of vitamin C, and feeding a lot of vegetables that are high in vitamin C may give your rabbit an upset tummy. Also rabbits are quite dominant animals, and may bully your guinea pig. I would never recommend keeping these 2 animals together.
KEEPING BUNNY COOL
The summer is the worst time of year for a rabbit, as they have to try and cope in the heat. Rabbit’s do not sweat; they radiate heat out via their ears. Rabbits can get heat stroke, which can be fatal. If your rabbit seems very stressed and hot the best way to cool it is place a cool wet cloth over the ears to cool the ears down.
Tips for keeping bunny cool:
· Make sure hutches are in a shady area that doesn’t get direct sunlight
· Reduce the amount of bedding you place in the hutch
· Put a floor tile in the hutch, this gives bunny a cool surface to lay on
· Put a bottle of frozen water in the hutch, bunny will often lay against this to keep cool
· Make sure you rabbit has access to fresh water at all times
· You can try lightly misting your rabbit with cool water
· If your hutch is indoors try positioning a fan in front of the hutch to blow cool air into the hutch
· If your hutch is outdoors try hosing down the hutch and floor underneath it (make sure the water doesn’t get in the hutch though!)