Category: Rabbit Care & Grooming

Rabbit Life Cycle If you have recently owned a rabbit and not sure of how to take good care of the rabbit, the first things that you need to know perhaps are about the various stages of a rabbit’s life. It will help you take care of the rabbit from the beginning as the need of the rabbit life cycle changes as it grows older. As an owner, it is important to know the various stages of a rabbit life cycle and the developments and complications that are associated with each stage. Life Span of Rabbits: Generally, rabbits have a rabbit life cycle span of 6 years but if you can take really good care of the rabbits and if they are nurtured at the right time they can live up to the age of 10 years. Starting from the food habit to the reproductive system – you need to know everything about the rabbit if you want to take proper care of the rabbit so that your pet leads a healthy and long life.

Information about Rabbit Health Bad feeding practice and poor nutrition arc responsible for a great deal of loss, both directly through simple malnutrition, poisoning, deficiency diseases and so on, and indirectly through lowered resistance to specific diseases.   Apart from general unthriftiness and poor production arising from bad feeding, there are several specific conditions produced by rabbit health. Rickets and spontaneous fractures are relatively easy to recognize and are examples of such conditions.     Rickets is a condition in which the bones fail to ossify(`harden’) and become deformed. The condition is due to a lack of calcium and phosphorus in the diet. Vitamin D assists the bones to ossify, and thus sunlight (in the presence of which the animal can form its own vitamin requirement)assists in preventing rickets. The adequate mineral content of the diet is, of course, necessary, and on a good diet the animal swill not suffer from this disease.   Spontaneous fracture of the spine which usually results in paralysis of the hindquarters is due to a deficiency of minerals in the diet.

Rabbit Doe Kindling Start Signs After mating the doe should be returned to the hutch which she will occupy until at least after her litter is weaned. The use of the same hutch for each animal is always desirable. There will be no change in management during the first part of pregnancy, although she should at no time be roughly handled. Her feeding during pregnancy will change, but until the third week, she will be handled as any other adult.   At the end of the third week, that is about ten days before she is due to kindle, the hutch should be thoroughly cleaned out and a good supply of bedding placed therein, together with a nestbox, unless one is left permanently in the hutch, or the system is not used.   Rabbit Signs Facts   It may sometimes happen that the doe will begin to make a nest early, and in this case, the cleaning out should immediately take place.

Although there are several ways of rabbit handling,there is no occasion on which a rabbit should not be handled gently but firmly. To allow a rabbit to feel insecure, and thus to cause it to struggle will often result in damage both to the animal and the handler The cars alone should never be used as the sole means of holding the rabbit.   The most common method is to grasp the ears close to the head with one hand, whilst the other hand takes the full weight of the rabbit. In fact, the hand holding the ears is really used for restraining and balancing the animal, the other hand taking the weight.     To pick up a rabbit by grasping the loose skin over the shoulders is not to be recommended, although often advised. If for some reason it is used, then again it should be used only as a means of balancing the weight of the animal on the other hand placed underneath it.

Information about Rabbit Fertility    The ability of animals to produce living young is obviously of the greatest importance. Although rabbits are often the subject of jokes about great rabit fertility, the rabbit breeder may sometimes be faced with difficulties in getting his stock to produce regularly. On occasions, permanent sterility, from one of a number of causes may occur, but this is generally not of much importance to the rabbit breeder, for the animal-may be eliminated without serious loss.   Even more occasionally a strain may become infertile when of course there is little which can be done except to introduce new blood or recommence with another strain. It is generally temporary sterility with which the breeder must contend. Rabbit Fertility and good bodily condition are closely related. One of the first bodily functions to suffer from poor management, and in particular, poor feeding is the reproductive system. Excessive fatness and very poor condition both lead to sterility,

Rabbit Diseases – Different kind of Rabbit Fungus   Rabbits are calm by nature. They are extremely delicate animals and are prone to many rabbit diseases if proper care is not taken. Rabbit fungus is a very common rabbit disease. They are also prone to many bacterial and other skin infections.   Pet rabbits are prone to a number of health issues caused by fungi. The fungus and parasites cause skin rabbit diseases and disorders which result in crusty patches, hair loss, inflammation, and open sores. Topical or injectable antifungal agents are given to keep rabbits free from all fungal infections.     There are several rather rare conditions caused by attacks of fungi in the rabbit. The most important are ringworm and favus. Ringworm is transmissible to man and therefore great care should be taken in the unlikely eventuality of a case appearing.   Here are some Rabbit Fungus infections: Ringworm Infection Ringworm infection in rabbits is a skin fungal infection that leads to red and crusty skin patches.

Rabbitproof Fence Rabbits are undoubtedly a beautiful pet to have. The beautiful restless creature with the appearance of a white fur ball is a delight to look at. Bunnies also make good friends and playmate with your children. But this apparently innocent animal has a peculiar habit of chewing anything that it finds in its way. Especially it does not spare any plants that it comes across. So it is really difficult to have domestic plants if you have a pet rabbit. And if you have a garden at your house and a bunny as a pet you must have been having a tough time to protect the trees from the rabbit. Even if you do not have a rabbit as a pet the rabbit of your neighbor can always intrude in your favorite garden and destroy it. If you have a bunny at your home you can keep it in the rabbit hutch and keep a watch on it but it is hard to keep a watch on other pet rabbits and the wild rabbits that are a threat to your garden.

Rabbit Hutch The majority of rabbit hutches are manufactured from wood, although more and more attention is now being given to metal hutches, and laboratories have used these for many years. Wood is now relatively expensive, and after wooden rabbit hutch has suffered some wear it often becomes increasingly difficult to clean it easily and well. Exposed edges must be protected for some rabbits will do considerable damage by gnawing.   Unless the wood is carefully treated it has a tendency to absorb urine, and will consequently tend to smell rather more than hutches made of other materials. Nevertheless, the majority of rabbit hutches are made of wood and it will be some years before these are largely replaced by metal hutches. Wood is also of course much easier to use than is metal. The most satisfactory wooden type rabbit hutch is made from a wooden framework with asbestos walls and floor.     Different Types of Rabbit Hutch Asbestos cement sheet had at one time a bad reputation for cracking.