new bunny owner - give me your advice!

[blossom bunny]

hello I have been searching the internet for goodbunny advice and just found you! My son just recently andquite unexpectedly inherited a bunny this week. We have hadthe bunny since tues. night and I feel like we are totally just wingingit here, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!! We haveaquired a holland lop doe who was born on 4-20-04. She wasjust shown at our 4H fair and won a 2nd place ribbon, the owner was notoverly happy with 2nd so was looking for a new home, my son who is 11seems to be an animal rescuer and the rabbit ended up withus!! she is living in the house with us right now, but she isnot able to roam freely because we also have a large dog andcats. She is living in a 36X30x24 cage right now with a wirebottom and a plastic tray underneath we are trying to litter train herand I am AMAZED at how well she is doing we have a small corner panwith carefresh litter in it and for the last 36 hrs that has been theONLY place she has urinated and she also poops in at half of thetime. We are able to let her out of her cage for supervisedrunabouts for about a half hour at a time a few times a day.She seems to be quite calm and only bit us on the first night we hadher. She lets anyone handle her also. We have her on a dietof heinhold 17-17 pellets (that is what she was eating before we gother) and timothy hay, but that is it. I have an appt. withthe vet next sat. for a general check up. I wouldlove any general advice or opinions on raising this sweetthing! I am very experienced with dogs, cats, guniea pigs,and even birds, but not rabbits!! should I be giving herveggies and fruit (she is 31/2 mo. old)? is timothy hay thebest? is carefresh litter ok? Also it sounds likeshe is grinding her teeth when we hold her, but her teeth do not lookovergrown, any ideas why she is grinding them? thankyou somuch!! Tracy

 

[Buck Jones]

Welcome! Good place to start is toaccess the followingpost:http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=1649&forum_id=1.It will give some good basic information.

Teeth grinding, while being held, if not loud and bun, obviously, isnot uncomfortable, is akin to a cat purring. Bun isenjoying the closeness.

Any other questions, please ask. Many good and knowledgeable people frequent here.

Buck

 

[HankHanky]

Hello Tracy,

your son seems to be a very accepting soul to take the rabbit which wasonly SECOND Place! Second place indeed? Why on any given day any rabbitcan win or lose it all depends on circumstances beyond onea control. Intime it is possible that the second place animal upon later developmentcould turn out to be a winner. How soon most youth give upo and toss inthe towel. This due to the "Immediate gratification syndrome". As Buckpost, the grinding does not seem to be a problem. The diet you arefeeding is a good one. You might want to ocassionally feed some RolledOats. These are a very good terat for Rabbits and a Fine first food forweanlings and youngsters. Oats will put on Flesh but not Fatso will not hurt but are a very helpful tool in developing the rabbitsbody. I would stay away from Vegetables & Fruits as these arenot a necessity for any rabbit, though they are fine when used asocassional treats. Rabbits have a sweet tooth so will opt for the candyover the nutritionally balance pelleted feed. Too many treats creates aFAT rabbit which is NOT a healthy rabbit. Rabbits kept on a qualityPelleted rabbit feed diet with the addition of grasshay and Water [Themost important part of their diet] will grow stronger more quickly thanthose fed the other mixed diets espoused by many other rabbit people.Any additives to your rabbits diet should be considered Treats and fedas such. Only ocassionaly with an eye out for any possible changes inthe rabbits actions/digestive tract. Too much of any treats can lead toGIstasis. Shutdown of the gastro intestinal tract. This in turn oftenleads to DEATH in most rabbits, those who survive are never in primehealth. If your rabbits seems healthy and happy, don't messwith it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I think your on the righttrack, nice cage good feeding program etc. I hope that rabbit provesitself. Tell your son to show it when he gets a chance.Many times ayounger rabbit is beaten on the table simply because he wasn't ready tocompete against a slightly older Jr. I never show rabbits that areunder 5 months old. Best of luck with your new bunny.

Dennis,C.V.R. http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/crescentvalley

 

[bluebird]

Many 4hers have never been to anything but a fairshow dont realize that the judge who picked the bunny secondbutnext week under a different judge it may get first.or inthe case of a junior the younger rabbits cannnot compete against theolder juniors in the class.i prefer mine to be almost seniors.thentheres condition, one year my daughter got second place out of about 40rabbits because the judge said ours was in an overly fat condition.hesaid other wise there was no difference.I would not give her any greensat this age.bluebird