Should I leave my rabbit’s feet yellow?
- Thread starter Snowball_101
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John Wick
Well-Known Member
If it's staining from urine, I would just leave it because it will grow out. If it's constantly wet, then that's an issue. It won't irritate the skin unless the urine itself is constantly there. If it's simply stained fur, it won't be very damaging.
It can be difficult to keep white rabbit fur feet completely clean because getting stains is pretty inevitable on the feet. I wouldn't become to attached to pure white, all around, because that will cause you stress, as well as the rabbit if you become a hyper groomer/bather (which is not appropriate for a rabbit). I would become more worried if you find his/her feet are consistently wet with urine, as well as his/her bottom. Then you would want to consider health issues, as well as environmental factors (ex. not changing litter often enough).
It can be difficult to keep white rabbit fur feet completely clean because getting stains is pretty inevitable on the feet. I wouldn't become to attached to pure white, all around, because that will cause you stress, as well as the rabbit if you become a hyper groomer/bather (which is not appropriate for a rabbit). I would become more worried if you find his/her feet are consistently wet with urine, as well as his/her bottom. Then you would want to consider health issues, as well as environmental factors (ex. not changing litter often enough).
Your rabbit looks so tiny. What is his age?
I'm going to combine this with your other question about a hay rack. I would suggest that you top your rabbit's litter totally with hay. Not only will it solve your problem with the hay rack, but it will make it easier for bunny to get to his hay. (You mentioned he was getting aggressive trying to get to the hay.) You want them eating tons of hay. That means he should not have to work hard to get to it. The easier the better. (Don't worry. Rabbits won't eat soiled hay.)
It will also solve another issue (or help anyway) with his feet discoloring. The bedding shown in your photos doesn't stop him from laying in pee-soaked bedding. I can't tell from the photo, but it appears that the bedding might be covering the whole cage floor. It is better to have no bedding on the cage floor and instead have a large litter box filled with the bedding and topped with hay. That will get him started on potty training. They prefer to potty where it is soft.
The hay on top of the litter also serves as a barrier between the soaked bedding and his paws. It will help keep his paws from getting soiled.
This photo shows the bottom of my white rabbit's feet. I never cleaned them. He did that himself. We also had the hay-topped litter box set up with no bedding on the cage floor.
I also have a pic somewhere of him sitting in his litter box but I couldn't find it. The next photo shows the litter box though below the shelf he's laying on. You can see it topped with hay (hay is refreshed twice a day) and you can see how large it is as well.
I'm going to combine this with your other question about a hay rack. I would suggest that you top your rabbit's litter totally with hay. Not only will it solve your problem with the hay rack, but it will make it easier for bunny to get to his hay. (You mentioned he was getting aggressive trying to get to the hay.) You want them eating tons of hay. That means he should not have to work hard to get to it. The easier the better. (Don't worry. Rabbits won't eat soiled hay.)
It will also solve another issue (or help anyway) with his feet discoloring. The bedding shown in your photos doesn't stop him from laying in pee-soaked bedding. I can't tell from the photo, but it appears that the bedding might be covering the whole cage floor. It is better to have no bedding on the cage floor and instead have a large litter box filled with the bedding and topped with hay. That will get him started on potty training. They prefer to potty where it is soft.
The hay on top of the litter also serves as a barrier between the soaked bedding and his paws. It will help keep his paws from getting soiled.
This photo shows the bottom of my white rabbit's feet. I never cleaned them. He did that himself. We also had the hay-topped litter box set up with no bedding on the cage floor.
I also have a pic somewhere of him sitting in his litter box but I couldn't find it. The next photo shows the litter box though below the shelf he's laying on. You can see it topped with hay (hay is refreshed twice a day) and you can see how large it is as well.
Snowball_101
Member
I don’t know his age or gender (I’m guessing it’s a boy because he’s a little rowdy) because we found him under our car randomly one day. We asked around the neighborhood and found out that it was one of our neighbor’s bunnies. They let us keep it. All we know is that it is a young rabbit and I’m guessing it’s a dwarf rabbit because of its small size. We’re currently trying to save up money to take Snowball to a vet for a checkup just in case anything is wrong with him since we don’t know.
And thank you very much for the advice!
I will start working on what you said! I’ll clean out his cage and start the potty training. I really needed advice because this is my first ever small pet. I’ve only had dogs up to this point so I am very confused. I’ve been doing research nonstop ever since we got him, haha.
And thank you very much for the advice!
I will start working on what you said! I’ll clean out his cage and start the potty training. I really needed advice because this is my first ever small pet. I’ve only had dogs up to this point so I am very confused. I’ve been doing research nonstop ever since we got him, haha.
And thank you very much for the advice!
You're welcome! It will be good to have a vet check him out. Perhaps they can guess his age. A proper diet depends on a bunny's age, so that is useful to know.
You can find some potty training tips at my website here. The rest of the site should be helpful to you as well.
Don't worry if he's a little slow on potty training. They typically train most easily once they are neutered or spayed.
John Wick
Well-Known Member
I would also highly highly highly recommend reading all the information at binkybunny.com >> click on the "BUNNY INFO" tab at the top.
Well-intended mistakes with any pet can be dangerous, but rabbits are especially unforgiving when given the wrong diet and care. It's really important to read up because rabbits are very different from dogs and cats. Fundamentally different in the they're prey animals, so their body language and how they react to their environment and health is very different.
Rabbits also cannot go to a normal dog/cat. You'll need to find a rabbit-experienced vet, which fall under the "exotic vet" title. So for example, an avian vet is one that sees birds, and exotic vets see a large range of non-dog/cat animals. This is very important because normal vets will not know what to do with rabbits, and some practices/medicines for dogs/cats are very dangerous for rabbits. A lot of non-rabbit vets do not have bad intentions (they honestly want to try and help), but even so, sometimes they can make very bad judgement calls. You can go to the House Rabbit Society website for a list of exotic vets.
Well-intended mistakes with any pet can be dangerous, but rabbits are especially unforgiving when given the wrong diet and care. It's really important to read up because rabbits are very different from dogs and cats. Fundamentally different in the they're prey animals, so their body language and how they react to their environment and health is very different.
Rabbits also cannot go to a normal dog/cat. You'll need to find a rabbit-experienced vet, which fall under the "exotic vet" title. So for example, an avian vet is one that sees birds, and exotic vets see a large range of non-dog/cat animals. This is very important because normal vets will not know what to do with rabbits, and some practices/medicines for dogs/cats are very dangerous for rabbits. A lot of non-rabbit vets do not have bad intentions (they honestly want to try and help), but even so, sometimes they can make very bad judgement calls. You can go to the House Rabbit Society website for a list of exotic vets.
OMG, so precious! Those are probably the cleanest bunny feet I have ever seen, haha. Really nice set up and advice as well (sorry, not trying to snipe).
Tori4thewin
Member
Hello! I have a white bunny too. When I first got her, her feet were darker yellow. It’s taken a couple months of living on clean bedding (blankets) for her feet to be less yellow. Now it is more of a pale yellow and I am hopeful she will continue cleaning it herself.
Something you can do in the meantime, wipe her feet with a damp cloth. I use newspaper and hay in her litter box. I change it every morning and add a hefty layer of fresh hay, on top in the afternoon and evening.
Try not to worry about it too much because it does take time for the yellow to fade. Keep the litter box and housing clean. Clean the urine daily and be sure he does not have an opportunity to sit in pee.
Something you can do in the meantime, wipe her feet with a damp cloth. I use newspaper and hay in her litter box. I change it every morning and add a hefty layer of fresh hay, on top in the afternoon and evening.
Try not to worry about it too much because it does take time for the yellow to fade. Keep the litter box and housing clean. Clean the urine daily and be sure he does not have an opportunity to sit in pee.
