Posts Tagged ‘Rabbit’
Choosing a Rabbit as a Pet
February 25th, 2011 | 
Author: When you and your family are ready for a pet, there are many decisions to make as to deciding what type of pet would be best for your family’s situation. There are many factors that you would consider when choosing the right pet including size and eating habits.
For some families, a rabbit might be the right pet because of its size, manor, and eating habits. One thing that you should consider is that having a rabbit can sometimes be slightly difficult to deal with because of its natural actions. Rabbits are the type of pet that doesn’t like to be held or touched. If you continue to try and hold them they might bite, scratch, and kick you in hopes of freeing themselves from your grip. If you have kids that are going to want to pet and play with the rabbit, this might not be the best option for a pet because of its lack of a social nature. Along with being hard to handle, rabbits take quite a long time to adapt to their new environment and to bond with their owner. This process will usually take a lot of time and a lot of patience in order to make it work with your rabbit. Rabbits are not usually a good pet for children because of all the patience and time it will take for the rabbit to feel comfortable in the situation.
The next thing that you should consider is that rabbits can be quite a destructive creature. Understand that they aren’t intentionally like this, but their natural habits are to chew through things that are around them. If you don’t take away all the inappropriate things away from the rabbit, it is likely to chew up all of your cable and electrical cords if it is let loose in your home. Another factor to remember is that these rabbits will chew through anything no matter what the size or shape of the item may be.
The last factor that you should consider is that rabbits require a lot of attention to the many needs that they have. Rabbits are herbivores and will only eat food without meat. Usually rabbits will eat pellets and fresh fruits and vegetables. You need to make sure that everyday their cage is cleaned and they have some sort of fresh food and water. Although they require quite a bit of extra attention, this pet can provide a good companion for many people.
Rabbit Care – Fur and Nails
Grooming your pet rabbit’s fur and nails is good for five reasons:
- It helps it stay clean and healthy,
- It improves its appearance,
- It helps keep the loose fur down to a minimum,
- It keeps the nails down to help prevent infection in cracks, etc,
- It reduces the possibility of it swallowing loose fur which can cause serious problems with its delicate digestive system.
Brushing and Cleaning Fur
Your rabbit will do some grooming itself, but it is worth supplementing and it provides the opportunity for you to check its skin for sores or lesions.
The right frequency for brushing will vary with the breed and normal length of the fur, from weekly being normal down to daily for very long-haired breeds such as Angora rabbits.
Rabbit skin is quite delicate and any sores can get licked by the rabbit causing infection, so some care is needed. A brush specifically for bruishing rabbits, with plastic bristles or the rubber groomer type are best. When the rabbit is shedding its fur a fine comb, but not a metal type, is useful. Long fur can be trimmed carefully if necessary.
Mats in the fur are best not cut out if possible and only then with care. It is advisable to try and comb or brush them out, with the help of an “orange and oil” type of commercial spray and water for mats or anything stuck in the fur. Its also worth drying any moisture off to prevent more debris sticking to it.
Clipping Nails
Rabbits are unlikely to take kindly to nails being clipped, even if they ever get used to it. You may need assistance to hold your rabbit. A good practical idea is to restrain the rabbit by wrapping it in a towel with all the equipment you need close at hand.
It best to use small nail-trimmers, ideally of the scissor kind as clippers don’t work well on relatively small feet or on the rabbit’s nail configuration. You must avoid cutting the quick, which if cut is painful for the rabbit, bleeds profusely and can get infected especially if the rabbit breaks free and steps on it. The quick is the blood vessel and can be avoided best by:
- wetting the nail will tend to contrast the quick to the rest of the nail, especially with dark-coloured nails
- holding the foot and clipping from underneath the nail, which allows you to better see the quick
- only trim very small amounts at a time, firmly and as speedily as possible without rushing
If you do cut the quick by accident, speedily apply some styptic powder (a sulphur compound) which should stop the bleeding almost immediately. This can be repeated if necessary and move on. Restrain the rabbit for a few minutes after the bleeding has stopped.
It may be necessary to do all the nails over more than one session depending on your rabbit, but overall and with practice it won’t take too long.