Some Bunny Basics

Adding a rabbit to your family? Congratulations! Rabbits are adorable, clever, interesting pets!

Preparing for your new rabbit means you need a place for your rabbit to live! The hutch is essential even for indoor rabbits, so they have a secure place to sleep. Make sure your hutch has a door that latches so your bunny can't escape his home. Your bunny should ALWAYS have access to food and water in his hutch.

If the hutch is an outside hutch, make sure your rabbit has a covered area to shelter from poor weather. If the rabbit will be allowed to roam free indoors, be sure to protect him from any electrical wires or other things that shouldn't be nibbled.

Rabbits will pick one spot to be the bathroom, and always go there. Because of this trait, they are easy to litterbox train! Put the covered litterbox in the spot where your rabbit goes to the bathroom, and he will begin to use the litterbox. But, you must keep it clean. That's for your own benefit as well as your rabbit's. Bunny piddle is extremely odoriferous.

So, what will your new bunny eat? His diet can be broken down in three parts.

1. Hay. The fiber is very important for his digestive health!
2. Pellets. The major portion of his diet. Specially formulated with all the nutrition your bunny needs.
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3. Fresh fruit, veggies, grasses, and flowers. Ask your vet what is best for bunny.

Planning to have more than one pet rabbit? Keep this in mind:

• Two male rabbits together will often fight, even if they came from the same litter. Only if both are neutered can they live in the same hutch.
• Two female rabbits will get along just fine, fixed or not.
• A male and a female rabbit together can become "many more rabbits" very quickly.

Please remember to spay or neuter your bunny. Rabbits tend to multiply, well, like rabbits! If you are planning to keep more than one rabbit as a pet, please make certain that they are spayed or neutered.

By Catherine Forman