The Bunny Guy with his three buns - Ricky, Lucy, and Star
12 Jan. 2012
Lagomorphs are an often misunderstood pet and I know because I have made all the common mistakes that often happens to these lovable fragile critters. When we get our first rabbit, whether it is planned or unplanned; the way he is housed and cared for depends on how we have seen other people do it in our past.
If all you have ever known is people who keep a bunny in a hutch in the back yard, then it seems most logical to go about setting up an abode like this for your own new rabbit. The real problem is that most in the public are ignorant about how to house and feed a pet rabbit. So our chances of being exposed to the proper ways to do these things are pretty slim.
I have found from my own efforts at educating the public that fully four out of five people who currently have a rabbit, do not know the correct way to feed or house their bunny. Of course, this leads to many conflicts and issues, making the bunny an unwelcome house pet. This is one of the main reasons that so many rabbits end up being dropped off at the local shelter or worse.
It is also common for people to have pet rabbits for dozens of years and never learn any more than they knew when they first got one. People have told me that they have owned rabbits for decades and they still keep them in the back yard inside a cage. Often, they will tell me that they have never heard of a rabbit living indoors. I find this amazing.
For me, having rabbits has been a journey and each one has taught me a little more about themselves, until I became compelled to start seeking out the knowledge that at the time was not readily available. Now with the internet, you can learn all kinds of things about bunnies that used to require purchasing a whole pile of books, most of which were geared towards farmers or breeders.
We are currently in the “pioneer days”, when it comes to pet house rabbits. So much is being learned all the time about them by the rabbit vet specialists and their owners. A few years ago the thought of a pet rabbit getting to be fourteen or fifteen years old was unheard of. The current new knowledge about a proper diet and health care has improved the lifespan of bunnies everywhere by many years.
If you love your pet bunny, you will want to go out of your way to learn the latest health tips so that you can extend the life of your rabbit manyfold. A good diet if very important in longterm rabbit health. Many rabbit lovers have a tendency to overfeed or to give too many unhealthy treats to their bunnies. They do not do it out of malevolence, but rather it is done lovingly, which makes this lack of knowledge even more insidious. We end up “loving our bunnies to death” from giving them too many sweet treats, such as fruit or raisins.
One of the hardest things for a bunny lover to resist is when their cute little fur-faced friend comes up and starts begging for that treat they know you have. Most of cannot resist a persistent bun, especially when they pull at our heart-strings by giving us that look that they know works most of the time. haha
I have gone completely away from any sweet fruit treats for my rabbits. The concept that a treat is sweet is a human one and your rabbits would just as much enjoy a sprig of parsley or cilantro. Of course, it does not help that rabbits have a terrible “sweet tooth”, but you will find that they will forget about the sweet treats quickly, if you remove them from his diet.
I have started giving my bunnies “healthy” snacks when it is time for them to get a treat and they love them just as much as the pieces of banana or other fruit that they used to get. In a future feature, I will explain in detail how I learned this the hard way and discovered that the sugar in those treats actually upset my rabbit’s digestive system. I think you will find the story very interesting.
My plan is to get as many bunny lovers reading my stories and anecdotes in hopes that they will learn the lessons I have learned the easy way, instead of the hard way like I had to do. I want to help make a difference for rabbits everywhere. I guess I am just crazy about rabbits, but then how can you not love a bunny?
The Bunny Guy
Hi there! I completely agree! I’m thirteen years old and at the pet store I work at, they have a holland lop (my fav) that someone surrendered last week, and it’s TEETH are horrible! They are growing out so long, that the back teeth are overlapping the front. People should be educated that, if you do not have wood toys or chew toys that your bunny have nibble on, or if they do not use them, you will probably need to end up clipping they’re teeth every once and a while.
Hi Kalina
The Holland Lop that you mentioned is obviously maloccluded. That is actually a genetic defect brought on by bad breeding. This is very common in the very desirable rabbit breeds such as Lop and Dwarf rabbits. Uneducated breeders spread bad genes through their attempts to make a lot of money off of breeding rabbits.
You are correct that this bunny will need care for his teeth during his whole life.
Be aware that you should not “clip” the teeth by simply cutting them off. This causes cracks to develop in the tooth enamel that can spread infections and abscesses into the bunny’s teeth below the gum line. The proper way to take care of a maloccluded bunny’s teeth is to give them anesthesia and grind them down while the bunny is knocked out. It is a tricky and expensive problem because anesthesia is risky for bunnies and it will need to be done every couple of months for the rest of his life.
A better solution is to have the maloccluded teeth extracted. Rabbits do just fine without their front teeth. The cost of extraction in this area is about $700, but it costs more than $150 to grind them down one time, so in one year you will pay more for the grinding procedure than you do for the extraction.
Give that little lop boy lots of love and hugs. He is bound to have a tough life, unless he gets a good loving home where he is appreciated and cared for, despite his genetic problem.
Thanks for writing.
The Bunny Guy