The Rabbit House» General Archives – The Rabbit House

The Rabbit Sat on the Mat

Tamsin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:58:15 +0000

Scamp sitting on a grass mat, just outside his warren entrance (cardboard tunnel).

This is Scamp’s Christmas present, he really likes it! How can I tell? Not because three weeks post Christmas it’s still in one piece (usually the opposite is true for rabbits – the more they like it the quicker it is shredded). I know because he has shifted his napping spot 9″ to the left so that he can sit on the mat whilst napping. Rabbit’s really like routine, so I know he really likes his mat because he’s changed his habits to use it. In case you think I’m a bit mean, I haven’t moved the mat 9″ to the right as that would be under the sink, and I don’t think natural fibre mats appreciate having water dripped on them.

It’s a big responsibility being a pet owner, he had no way of saying: “Hey, I really wish I had something just about here to sit on’. We have to try and anticipate our rabbit’s wants and needs. Any else found something their your bunny really likes that maybe isn’t one of the basics (food/water/litter tray etc.)?

Want to see a cute, mat related video….

5 New Year Resolutions for Rabbit Owners

Tamsin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:15:32 +0000

Happy new year – I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

If I wrote new years resolutions, they’d basically be ‘get on with the stuff on your to do list’, but that’s boring and mostly not at all rabbit related, so I thought I’d help everyone else with theirs instead. Here are my five resolutions for rabbit owners. Hopefully you’ll be able to tick off a few of them straight away.

1. Make 2012 the year your rabbit eats hay

There is pretty much nothing as important to a rabbit’s health as eating hay, and yet a worrying number of rabbits don’t get it or don’t like it. It can feel like trying to persuade a child to eat sprouts but don’t give up, give it another try an see if you can get your rabbit eating even if it’s just a little each day.

Here’s some help:

2. Find an emergency vet and write the number down

It’s 1am on a bank holiday, your bunny has stopped eating and is looking miserable, who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Nope, you need an emergency vet. Do you have a number to hand? If not, go find it now and write it somewhere you won’t forget.

In recent years many vets have swapped from having a vet on call to using a dedicated out of hours service which might not be at your normal practice, so not only do you need a number, you need an address too. It’s also a good idea to think about how you would get there, if you usually get a lift from a friend or use public transport – will that option always be available? If not how about adding an envelope with enough cash to cover a taxi to your pinboard next to the number.

One final thing, once you get there, the vet is going to want paying, if you don’t already, think about putting a little away each week to cover unexpected vet bills, or get some insurance quotes.

3. Keep your rabbit busy

We don’t just want healthy rabbits, we want happy rabbits! Be inspired by the RSPCA Happy Bunnies and make sure your rabbit has plenty of fun things to do. See if you can think up a new toy or activity every week – you can rotate toys so you don’t have to come up with limitless ideas. Here are some to get you started:

4. Learn something new

Rabbit’s are complicated little fluff balls and knowledge about how to best care for them in continually being updated, see if you can find something new to learn this year whether it’s watching a webinar, reading a book, chatting with your vet or checking out the latest articles on websites like House Rabbit Society or Rabbit Welfare Association.

If you’d like to read a book, I have one on rabbit behaviour your might find interesting: Understanding Your Rabbit’s Habits (or Amazon US /UK)

5. Spread your knowledge

If you are reading this I guarantee you know at least one or two things about rabbits that someone else doesn’t. So tell them. It doesn’t even have to be someone with rabbits. Mention you just dropped £250 on your rabbits vet bill to a colleague and perhaps when their friend’s nephew demands a bunny, they’ll remember an mention how much they cost. Or you could be a bit more blatant and pop up some posters or strike up conversation with someone next time your in a pet shop about how pellets are so much healthier than mix. It’s an easy way to help contribute to improve welfare for all rabbits.

So there you go, I hope that helped with your new year planning. Before you go, while we’re talking about planning, I was wondering if there is anything you’d like me to write more about? More pics of Scamp getting into trouble, activities to do with your bunny, growing things, or do you like the science stuff – should I put poop under the microscope? What would you like to read about?

RSPCA Happy Bunnies (featuring Scamp)

Tamsin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:59:20 +0000

Remember the RSPCA request for clips of happy bunnies? Here is the finished video:

Can you spot Scamp? And again, and again, and again. What can I say, he’s a very happy bunny!

Don’t forget, if you want a change to win a copy of The Relaxed Rabbit DVD leave a comment by Saturday.

How far can Scamp Hop?

Tamsin — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:40:23 +0000

I’ve been wondering recently about rabbit hops. A lot of welfare information talks about enough room to take three or four or half a dozen hops, but just how far is a rabbit’s hop? The answer, I’m sure, depends on the rabbit in question – particularly how big they are and how long their legs are. Just like humans, not everyone covers exactly the same distance with each step. It made me curious about how far Scamp hopped though, and the best way to answer that is to break out a tape measure and find out!

The yellow and blue ‘markers’ are spaced 30cm (1 foot) apart.

That’s just his normal hopping about the place hop and covers about 18″. I’m sure he travels further when he builds up speed but getting a bunny to hop in a straight line on command is hard work. Just watch these out-takes:

Rabbit Vaccinations

Tamsin — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:20:00 +0000

May is National Vaccination Month, so it seems an appropriate time to talk about getting your bunny vaccinated. To promote vaccination, during May you can get a voucher so that when you pay for your rabbits Myxi jab, you’ll get the booster in six months free. To qualify your bunny needs to be at least 9 months old and not have been vaccinated against Myxi in the last 9 months.

Vaccination is really important for rabbits as it protects against two very nasty diseases that are easily transmitted and generally fatal. A common misconception is that house bunnies, tucked up safe inside, don’t need vaccinating. This isn’t true! Myxomatosis is spread by biting insects like flies and fleas and they will quite happily sneak inside. VHD is easily spread on clothing, your shoes etc. and can last several months without a host – so again being inside is not protection. Scamp is vaccinated every six months against Myxi and every 12 months against VHD. Just a note if your reading this from somewhere other than the UK – vaccination is not always necessary and/or available so check with your vet if your not sure.

Last time Scamp was vaccinated, he had a little skin reaction (scab) at the injection site. There are several other well talked about reactions to vaccination, and, whilst this shouldn’t put you off, it might influence your choice of brand. I’m planning on getting Scamp vaccinated with Anivac this time, the latest VHD vaccination on the market.

Vaccination Reaction Survey

I’m currently holding a survey to learn more about the likelihood and type of reactions to vaccination, and if your bun has been vaccinated in the past (whether they had a reaction or not) I’d appreciate if you could fill in this quick form: http://www.therabbithouse.com/research/vaccination.asp and pass it on to anyone you know with a bunny – thank you!

PDSA Animal Well-Being Report & Rabbit Welfare

Tamsin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:11:32 +0000

The PDSA recently published the PDSA Animal Well-Being Report (PAW) investigating the current welfare of cats, dogs and rabbits in the UK. It’s great to see rabbits included and the report (which will be published annually) will be a great way to get a real measure of improvements year to year.

The report is split into five areas: environment, diet, behaviour, companionship and health. If you are familiar with the Animal Welfare Act, you’ll recognise these as linked to the needs that owners have a duty of care to provide for.

Environment

There are some sad statistics here, with 10% of rabbits living in a hutch they can only take 1-2 hops in and 16% in runs that are no bigger that the recommended size of a hutch. This is definitely an area that is in need of improvement because it has such a massive impact on a rabbit health and happiness. A rabbits home is it’s entire world and it needs to be large and stimulating. On the positive side, 16% of rabbits (240,000) live indoors. Although that doesn’t sound massively high that’s still 1 in 6. Although rabbits don’t have to live inside to have their needs met I think it’s an indication that people are recognising rabbit’s potential as house pets not just as a animal you can keep out of the way in the garden.

Diet

Diet is a more difficult area to measure because ideal diets can vary between rabbits. On the positive, 97% of rabbits eat hay or grass daily. That’s great as hay/grass is really important! The 3% that aren’t may include rabbits that are unable to eat hay (because of dental issues), their owners are unaware of the importance or they refuse hay because the are not used to it. The survey uses ‘a portion equal to their body size’ as the recommended daily amount. Obviously, they need an easy to answer question (most people don’t want to play about weighing hay) but that is a bit subjective. Is that scrunched down, loose, how do you judge how much a rabbit eats if grazing on grass etc.? Which may account for some of the 42% of people that say their rabbit eats less than this. Of course I’m sure over feeding dry foods factors in there too.

In terms of dry foods, 49% of owners report this is one of the main foods their rabbit eats. I think that’s certainly an area for improvement, as rabbits eating this are more likely to selectively feed and miss out on essential nutrients and also they are generally higher in calories and contribute to weight issues.

Behaviour

A long with environment, I think this is an area that gets a bit neglected. Owners often focus on diet and physical health, and mental health can get a bit overlooked unless a rabbit has a antisocial behaviour problem. Only 38% of bunnies played with toys daily and 24% dig daily. That’s quite low but it’s difficult to judge how much is down to the opportunities not being provided and how much is owner misinterpreting the questions. Not all rabbits have an inclination to dig daily. Yes, they should have the facilities to dig if they want, but an unneutered female is much more likely to dig than a neutered male, for example.

Speaking of behaviour problems, 28% of rabbits were not handled daily when young. Socialisation is really important, a lack of it makes rabbits more difficult to handle and more likely to be nervous of human interaction. These in turn make owners less likely to handle their rabbit or let it out for exercise. If a rabbits on it’s own then that has an even bigger impact on their well-being as they are then lacking in any social companionship, rabbit or human.

Companionship

A quite high, 67% of rabbits live alone. I realise I’m being slightly hypocritical because Scamp is an only rabbit, but I do believe that rabbits do best when they have the companionship of other bunnies. It would be interesting to see this broken down into indoor/outdoor rabbits. House rabbits generally spend more time in the company of humans which helps to mitigate the lack of rabbit contact.

Health

I think the statistics for neutering and vaccination are actually quite positive. 46% of rabbits are vaccinated, whilst this is low compared to cats and dogs (72% and 82% respectively) I think is positive when considered in the context of the attitude towards rabbits. Rabbits have a bit of a reputation as cheap & easy children’s pets, so for 46% to be vaccinated, I think shows quite a positive attitude towards care. It’s also common for people not realise that they need vaccinating, so a little more education to make people aware of the option and I think there is quite a bit of scope for a rise in this figure.

Not quite so many rabbits are neutered but 37% (compared to 89% cats,66% dogs) is still a fairly reasonable amount. Again, there is still some way to go with education to make people aware of the benefits. Neutering is often associated with preventing babies so considering the number of single rabbits (where neutering to prevent breeding isn’t necessary) I think again it’s quite positive. Making people aware of the other benefits of neutering e.g. litter training, preventing spraying/aggression might help increase this figure.

Cost of Ownership

81% of owners thought that the total lifetime cost of owning a rabbit would be less than £1k. This includes things like neutering, vaccinations, food, bedding, equipment etc. but not vet fees. The PDSA estimates the actual figure is more like £9k.

That’s a pretty clear demonstration that the myth rabbits are cheap pets is still out there. If your rabbit lives to 7yrs, you’d spend £200 just on vaccinations, add another £60-90 for neutering, several hundred pounds on a hutch, run and equipment and it’s easy to see under £1k is no where near realistic. And, if people underestimate these costs then it is likely they do the same with vet bills which are much harder to predict. This could well be one of the factors that contributes to rabbits ending up in rescue – their owners just can’t afford to care for them when they realise the true cost.

Educating people before they get a pet is definitely important, 30% of people found owning a rabbit ‘harder than they expected’. Again, underestimating the work involved in rabbit ownership is probably a contributing factor to rabbits ending up in rescue as well as those that remain with their owners but don’t get their needs met.

Conclusion

A little bit of positive news but also lots of areas for improvement. It will be exciting to see next years report as that will answer the important question… is welfare improving, getting worse or remaining static. It’s easy to feel that efforts to improve welfare aren’t getting anywhere particularly when you continually see individual animals whose needs aren’t being met. Hopefully an annual report measuring this factors each year will give a broader picture of animal welfare and show that things really are improving, even if sometimes it feels like you’re bashing your head against a brick wall.

Is my Rabbit too Fat? And other things…

Tamsin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:35:56 +0000

Don’t worry, Scamp hasn’t been over indulging; he’s been helping me by modelling for an article on bunny weight. Have you ever seen the photoshoped pictures of models where they airbrush out the lumps and bumps, and drop them two dress sizes? Well it was Scamp’s turn! Here is the original:

And here is the ‘photoshoped’ version with the too fat and too thin versions added:

If you want to read the whole article it’s here: Is my Rabbit too fat or too thin? Monitoring your rabbits Weight

There are a few things I’ve been meaning to mention. First is a competition running on another site I manage for free seeds to grow your rabbit some dandelion, carrot and broccoli – good healthy snacks! Enter the competition here – also handy if your looking for bunny boarding.

Finally, I think this is one that most of you will have heard of, but I just wanted to add a plug for the Make Mine Chocolate Easter campaign. The are organising an amnesty with pet shops to discourage sales of rabbits over the Easter period as well as plugging rabbit welfare in general. They have some very snazzy posters you can put up to help get the message across. Anything that helps rabbit welfare, whilst encouraging the eating of chocolate gets thumbs up from me!

Oops, nearly forgot. I added little bookmarking icons to each post too, just in case you want to email, print or post something to social network.

Things I Like to Sit On – By Scamp

Tamsin — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 04:39:44 +0000

Considering rabbits are supposed to be ground dwelling, Scamp seems to spend a lot of time off the floor. He has quite a list of thing he likes to sit or climb on in an evenings exercise…

I like to sit on the Sofa, I like it even better if the people on the sofa have food. Can't stay long though, too many other things to sit on.

The table is a good place to sit, you never know what you might find there.

This is my mummies, mummies coursework, I'm just checking the spelling, honest!

From there it's only a short hop to the top of the fish tank... great look out point!

It's kind of a long way down though!

Over here are some rather nice books, I don't have time to read but I'm hoping one day they'll be high enough I can scale the wall.

Is Scamp just a funny bunny, or are their others out there that are part monkey?

Christmas Bunny Goodies

Tamsin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:33:32 +0000

I hope everyone is having a good Christmas. Scamp got a little bit spoiled, especially as I have no idea how such a little toe-rag didn’t end up on Santa’s naughty list. Here are his goodies:

There was rather nice wood and carrot hanging chew too but he ate it before I took the picture. He has some long pop up tunnels to use whilst he’s out exercising. I haven’t popped them all up yet but so far he’s enjoying playing, race through the tunnel, poke the nearest pair of ankles and dash back through so no one can tell it was you.

Scamp poking his head out.

He has a new ‘doormat’ as he eaten the old one. This time it’s made out of bunny approved materials (seagrass) which I’m sure he’ll test thoroughly.

I don't know what happened. It was like this when I found it, honest.

Not 100% sure about this.

It feels funny on my toes

I'm not eating it. I'm just touching it with my teeth.

So, did your bunny get any fun presents?

Stamps for Rabbit Rescues

Tamsin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:45:44 +0000

I work up this morning to my first Christmas card of the year and snow! With only four weeks or so until Christmas we’re entering the busiest time of the year for the postal system. What does that have to do with rabbits you are probably wondering… well many charities including lots of rabbit rescues collect stamps as part of their fundraising efforts. So, when you are opening your Christmas post set the stamps aside (just cut them off with a 5mm ish border) and when you’ve got an envelope full drop them off or post them to a rescue that collects them. I’m sending mine off to Bobtails Rabbit Rescue. If you know any rescues that collect them, post it in the comments to let others know.

On to the weather, if you have outdoor bunnies then hopefully your winter proofing is already in effect but if not here are some tips on winter care for rabbits. Wild rabbits live outdoors all year around but their warrens are underground which keeps them insulated. A hutch alone is not enough insulation to protect a pet bunny so lots of bedding and a hutch cover is essential.