How do I care for a bunny?

Question

I live in New Your and I am thinking a getting a bunny but really don't know what they eat, what kinda cage i need?. I am thinking of getting a Mini Lop, or an Angora Bunny, but i don't know anything about them! please tell me a list of what they need of a good cage, I'm thinking of getting it by a breeder but I don't know any please tell me some!!! :-o

Answer 1

Angoras take a lot of work. They have a lot of fur that needs to be brushed everyday to prevent tangles. They also get a lot bigger, therefore needing a bigger cage. Mini Lops are cute and make great pets. Also, if you are not set on one of those two, the mini rex and netherland drawf are great pets. The mini rex has fur like velvet and the netherland drawf is one of the smallest rabbits- they weigh around 2 pounds. Where you live plays a big role in which kind you should get. If you live in an apartment, I would go with a mini or drawf rabbit. If you live in an apartment, you would need a cage. If you have a yard, you could buy or build a hutch. If you have a yard, then you could get a bigger rabbit.
Make sure to feed your rabbit a steady pellet diet. But, you also need to feed it vegetables to keep it healthy. Some rabbits like the salt blocks that you can get at a pet store.
My suggestion on where to get the rabbit is from an ad in either a vet's office, pet store, or in the paper. Breeders often charge a lot for their rabbits and they are often show material. I am guessing you just want a pet? Pet shops are good too, as long as they are clean. Ask a lot of questions to be sure that they are knowledgeable of their animals.
As for a cage: you can either get a cage or a hutch. If you get a cage you need to clean out the litter pan everyday and the cage about twice a week. If you get a hutch, it doesn't need much cleaning. Only once or twice a month. A good cage has lots of room for your rabbit to move around. You can put toys in it such as bells, balls, and toliet paper tubes. Put a corner litter pan in the cage and fill it with aspen shavings. The rabbit will litter train itself!
Rabbits are really smart animals and you can train them, and teach them to walk on a rabbit halter. I would definately recommend getting one! I have four and love them to death!! If you need anymore help, just email me. I love to teach people about rabbits.

Answer 2

First of all, the best diet is the regular pellets as the base diet plus 2 cups minimum per bunny of veggies, no cabbage, nothing watery, only parsley, some carrots (high in sugar), dark leaf lettuce, kale, spinach, theses are the best thing. an unlimited supply of timothy hay for them to eat to digest their food is very important. Do not use pine or cedar shavings, these are dusty, you will be cleaing the cage twice a week. It is easy to littertrain a rabbit, you just buy a litterbox big enough for the rabbit to sit in without a lid on it, put some shavings (aspen, no catlitter) and put timothy hay in the litter box, this way they go on the litter box, eat the hay and go to the bathroom right away. In the rest of the cage you can put a blanket down, then you only have to buy shavings for the litter box, much easier. Make sure they have some wood chews or toys to chew to keep their teeth trim. They need their nail trimmed at least once a month. The cage should not be in any drafty areas or not directly in sunlight.

Answer 3

I've had a bunny for years and they eat carrots but mine loves lettuce, any kind will do. But that's not enough. At pet shops, supermarkets and places dedicated to sell products for agriculture you can buy food for rabbits, same as you will do for a dog or cat. This pellets have the right nutrients for them.

You will need a cage, a metal one because they like to chew everything. Be certain to ask how much he's going to grow so that you can buy a cage that has enough space for him. Also you will need a water bottle. I use the ones that work with pressure. You put it upside down through the cage. Change the water every day. And buy something to put the food on. For the bottom of the cage I use old newspapers. It's cheaper and works perfectly. Cage and bottles you can find at pet shops.

Finally buy a hair brush if you don't want him to get dread locks as mine did one time. You can also bathe him, they sell special shampoos at the pet shops, but be very careful because they need to be warm. If it's to cold he will suffer a lot during the process.

Answer 4

I recommend getting your rabbit off of a rabbit breeder that shows rabbits. If you are going to keep the rabbit in a building, then you can get a wire cage with a wire floor. A 24" deep by 24"-32" wide by 18" tall wire cage should make do for both of those breeds. If you are raising only one or two you might want one with a pan that slides in and out underneath the cage for easy cleaning. If you are going to keep the rabbit outside in a hutch, I recommend you looking up some hutch designs.

As far as feeding, you only need rabbit pellets and water. Avoid feeding vegetables, fruit, and green grass. They can give your rabbit diahrrea.

If you can, feed the same brand of rabbit pellets as the person you get the rabbit off of. If you can, get a small bag of pellets off the owner if you can't find that brand of pellets around you. Changing feeds can cause a rabbit stress and so can moving one. By keeping the feed the same for the first few days it can help prevent the rabbit from going off of it's feed.

If you are going to feed anything besides the pellets and water, I'd recommend timothy hay or orchard grass hay.

Try learning as much from the breeder as you can about how they feed and take care of their rabbits. And stick to breeders that show them. They tend to know more about rabbits. You want to keep the way you feed and take care of the rabbit pretty much the same as the previous owner did.

For the first 1-2 days, you might cut the food ration back to about half of what the rabbit normally gets fed. That will help prevent the rabbit from going off of its feed and stopping eating. Many rabbit breeders will do that when they take their rabbits to a show because it helps to prevent the rabbit from getting sick and going off of their food. It does tend to work. It keeps them a little on the hungry side, then when they get back home they are hungry and want to eat. Whereas if you don't, they will eat fairly well at a show then when you get them home they often stand a good chance of not eating at all for 2-3 days.

Don't give your rabbit a bath. They lick themselves clean like a cat does. Giving them a bath takes the natural oils out of their fur and damages the fur.

Don't get a cage that is too big or let them run loose unattended. A rabbit that has too big of a cage or that is allowed to run loose without being attended too can turn mean. If a rabbit can get back in a corner where it thinks you can't reach it, some will fight and growl and scratch. I mention that because I've seen tons of people on here talk about letting their rabbits run loose or give them a big cage then wonder why soon afterwards the rabbit is all mean. I've made that mistake myself and given rabbits too big of a cage and seen that make them turn mean.

One last thing, it's a good idea to turn on a radio and leave it on 24 hours a day to get your rabbit used to noise. Sudden noises and movements can scare your rabbit and cause it to run around the cage in circles then run into the cage wall, possibly causing it to break its spinal chord. Many people see the results of something like this and think the rabbit has had an epileptic attack when that is not the case at all. Keeping a radio on gets them used to noise so where they aren't so jumpy. Sometimes even a lack of noise can get them excited. I've seen that happen at the state fair where they turned the large fans off at night and it got really quiet then rabbits started running like crazy around their cages. They had to turn the fans back on to calm them down.


I've been raising and showing rabbits for 25 years and since the age of 5. When you have grown up around them and have raised thousands of them it becomes like second nature. You can learn a lot about rabbits just by watching their body language and how they act in certain situations.

PS - As the one person said, Angoras do take a bunch of work. So be prepared to brushed them out a couple times a week and to take extra time cleaning the wool out of their cage if you get one.

Answer 5

bunnies need a big cage because they lke to run around. you can also buy a hutch and keep your bunny outside.

bunnies eat pellets that you can find at any pet store. they eat timothy hay and they also like vegetables and a little bit of fruit.
these are some things that you can feed your bunny.......

parsley, green peppers, plenty of carrots, broccoli leaves, watercress, kale, spinach, and celery.

you might also want to try looking at an animal shelter for your bunny like the aspca or something. there are a lot of animals out there that need good homes and you could adopt one.

Answer 6

just go to TSC and go to the part of the store they have rabbit supplies in and they will have everything you need.

here is the website to give you some ideas
http://www.mytscstore.com/detail.asp?pcID=7&paID=221

Answer 7

Carrot,grass,vegetable and bunny meat ?

Answer 8

give it food bathe play

Answer 9

u just do!!!!!!!!!