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Whether you are thinking about getting a pet rabbit, or you already have one and you want to make sure that you're providing the best diet for your pet, you'll want to check out the proper pelleted diets and proper veggies that your rabbit will love and benefit from.

Hay is the most important part of your rabbit's diet. You want to make sure that you offer fresh timothy hay, oats, and other grass hays every day. You want ot cut down the amount of alfalfa hay because it can high in calories and calcium, which can cause bladder problems on a long term basis. Alfalfa hay is ok every now and then, but don't use it as a staple hay.

You also want to provide fresh fruits and vegetables daily. This will help balance out your rabbit's diet. Generally, you want to offer 2 to 4 cups of fresh fruits and vegetables per every 5 pounds. You want to make sure that all vegetables are washed and organic because you never know what pesticides are used. For example, because people do not eat the carrot tops or radish top, typically this portion is sprayed with a pesticide, which can be dangerous, if not fatal.

Make sure that you provide a varied diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, try to include the following produce:

Fruits:

* Apple
* Blackberries
* Blueberry
* Pineapple
* Melon
* Papaya
* Peach
* Plum
* Pears
* Raspberries
* Strawberries

Vegetables:
* Alfalfa, Radish and Clover Sprouts

* Asparagus
* Basil
* Beet Greens 1
* Bok Choy
* Broccoli 1,2
* Brussels Sprouts
* Carrots and Tops 1
* Chard
* Chicory Greens 3
* Cilantro
* Clover
* Collard Greens 3
* Dandelion Greens
* Eggplant

* Endive
* Escarole
* Kale 3,4
* Mint
* Mustard Greens
* Mustard Spinach 3
* Okra Leaves
* Parsley 1
* Pea Pods 1
* Peppermint Leaves
* Peppers (green, red, yellow)
* Pumpkin Leaves
* Radicchio
* Radish Tops
* Raspberry Leaves
* Squash: Zucchini, Yellow, Butternut, Pumpkin
* Turnip Greens 3
* Various Lettuces, Avoid Very Light Hearts: Romaine, Butter, Green Leaf, Boston, Bibb, Arugula... No Iceberg
* Watercress 1
* Wheat Grass

Notes
1 Good source of vitamin A, offer at least one daily
2 Some rabbits find this as grassy, and can cause diarrhea, if so remove it
3 High in calcium, use sparingly- only once or twice a week; avoid offering if you have an older bunny with bladder or kidney problems
4 High in either oxalates or goitrogens, which can cause or exacerbate sludging and other calcium/kidney problems; offer sparingly

But, don't thinks that you can get away with just hay and fresh fruits and vegetables. You also wantt o offer ea high quality pelleted diet. You don't want the commercial diet to include all the additives or seeds and dried vegetables. You want a pure pelleted diet because you are already offering fresh hays and vegetables.

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Posted By: Whitney - Category: Rabbits

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How to Litter Box Train a Pet Rabbit

June 30th 2008 14:30

You can successfully train your rabbit to use a litter box, whether inside his cage or while free-roaming your room. It just takes time and persistence, as rabbits are creatures of habit. It may take a few weeks or even a few months (for those stubborn rabbits) to be 100% trained to use the litter box, but it is possible to do.

You want to remember that baby bunnies and rabbits that have not been fixed will be slightly harder to train.

You want to use a litter that is safe and non-toxic; avoid using pine or cedar shavings or litter that clumps when wet. Good options include using compressed paper litter, such as Yesterday's News, dried pine pellets, or dried aspen pellets. Within the litter box, you also want to include hay, as rabbits eat and poop at the same time. The best way to go about it is putting litter on the floor of the entire box and putting hay on just one side. You may want to add a treat like mint, basil, or rosemary to the top of the litter box, as it will help entice the bunny to get into the box.

Note: As the bunny gets used to using the litter box, you should be able to stop adding the hay to the litter box, as that is a training method, since rabbits tend to eat and poo at the same time.

The first thing you want to do is make sure that you have the litter box set up. You want to start litter box training your bunny inside his cage or within a small area, preventing your bunny from pottying in other places. You'll want to find the corner that your bunny goes to the bathroom the most, and put the litter box there. If the bunny decides to go elsewhere after you add the litter box, you may want to add a few another in that area, and slowly start removing the litter boxes until you have one. Make sure that your bunny is successful with the one litter box in the small area before enlarging the area; it may take an average of 2-3 weeks.

Clean up urine that's not in the litter box as soon as possible, so that your remove the scent. You may want to add a urine socked paper towel and some poo to the litter box, to help entice the rabbit to using the box.

You may want to spend a little time with your bunny when he's most likely to eat, so that you can catch him in the act of lifting his tail to pee or poop. You'll want to tell him "No" and scoot him off to the litter box. Remember that rabbits are creatures of habit, so once they get used to what's supposed to happen, they'll be more likely to using the litter box.

When you notice that your bunny is using his litter box, you'll want to give them a little more freedom by opening up the bunny's regular cage or play area and letting him run around a larger area. You want to make sure that your watch him like a hawk, though, so that you can catch any mistakes as they're happening and scoot the bunny off to his litter box.

A few tips that you'll want to consider when litter box training, include:
* Make sure when you clean the litter box, that you add a little poop and maybe another urine soaked paper towel into the new litter. Rabbits won't use the box if it's too clean.
* On that same note, they won't use the litter box if it's too dirty, so make sure that you clean out the litter box regularly.
* Also, consider using a litter that doesn't have a strong odor.
* While training, you don't want to scare your rabbit into thinking that the litter box is punishment, especially when you catch him peeing or pooping outside the box. You don't want to yell at him or chase him around his cage, play area, or room, just to put him in the box.
* Some people suggest giving your bunny a treat when he gets in the litter box, to getting him more reliant to actually getting into the box. You may find that just saying "good rabbit" will work the same when you find him in the box, and leaving it as that.
* If you have a rabbit that is a territorial marker, you may want to rub a cloth around your rabbit, and then rub the cloth on the area. This will put your rabbit's scent on the area, so he won't feel the need to mark it. Even with this technique, correcting territorial marking is harder if your rabbit isn't spayed or neutered.

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Housing Pet Rabbits

June 21st 2008 20:00

When housing a pet rabbit, I guess you could say there are three methods of housing- 1)outside, 2) inside in a cage, and 3) free-roam inside. I'm going to try to break down the basics to all three housing situations so that you can figure out the best housing option for your and your pet bunny.

Outside
Although, you can house your rabbit outside, whether free-roam in an enclosed area or in an outdoor rabbit hutch, you want to be very careful of whether extremes, predators, toxins, and pesticides. It's really not reccommended that you house a rabbit outside, as there are just so many things that can go wrong when your pet is unsupervised.

More rabbits die of heat stroke than old age, so if you opt for housing your rabbit outside, make sure that you provide a cool, shaded area, especially during the warmer months.

Also, take note that female rabbits can and will dig, so if you think your pinned in area is safe, remember that females can dig out. Males will scratch at the dirt, but females will dig tunnels.

And, although, rabbits tend to stick close to home, if they are successful at digging out, and you are not there to catch this quickly, your rabbit may be dinner to a dog, hawk, owl, or another preditor.

A shaded enclosed area where the rabbit can run around outside safely when the weather is nice, wouldn't hurt the rabbit, as they really do need a decent amount of excercise.

Rabbit cage using puppy pads instead of a litter box.

Inside Cage
Cages are a great way to house your pet rabbit, as they keep your pet safe from harm when you cannot supervise him.

When selecting a cage, you want to take into account the size the rabbit will be. IE lop ear rabbits are larger than dwarf rabbits and require a larger cage. Remember that the bigger the cage, the better, as your rabbit will probably spend a lot of time in his cage. You want to make sure that there's enough room for a house, a littler box, and the hanging feeder mounts and water bottle. Plus, you want to make sure that there's room for your rabbit to move around comfortably. For the most part, rabbits really only need one-story cages, but my best friend's rabbit enjoys his 2-story cage.

As for the size of the cage, the bare minimum should be not smaller than 24"D x 16"-18"T x 30"W.

When considering the height, you want to make sure that you provide enough room to accomodate the height of the rabbits ears, which is why the minimum ranges from 16" to 18". Dwarf rabbits tend to be 16" tall, including ears, while their larger counterpart averages around 18" tall.

You want to purchase a sturdy cage that has a large opening.

You want to make sure that the wires are no more than 1" x 2" so that you bunny cannot get his paws stuck in between the wires.

It's best that you purchase a cage that has tall sides or add a urine guard; rabbits tend to kick their bedding and poo out of the cage, so high sides and/or a guard will help keep it all inside the cage.

Another thing you want to consider is the floor. You really don't want to purchase a cage with a solid floor. If the floor is wire, you want to cover the wire bottom with something solid.

And lastly, you want to purchase a cage that has room where you can hang a feeder and a water bottle. Keeping the food off the ground will keep pee and poo away from the food. You can purchase wall-mounted hay racks as well as pellet dispensers. Remember that the water bottle needs to stand up-right as otherwise, it may not work properly.

Rabbit Litter Box

Free-Roam Inside
This is another housing option, if your rabbit is littler box trained. The main concerns that you want to take into acount include:

1. Other pets- consider free-roam rabbits be confined to one room, versus the entire house.
2. Electrical cords- rabbits chew, so you want to keep live wires away from your bunny.
3. Pot pouri- although it smells nice, rabbits may think it to be a treat, but it's deadly to your rabbit.

If you let your rabbit free-roam throughout your room, make sure that you leave the litter box accessable to him. You may even want to consider a medium sized cage to allow the bunny to potty in the cage.

You may want to consider a large indoor pin instead of complete free-roaming freedom.