Recently acquired pets, need advice

AllyRodrigues

Chillin' In The Garden
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Cute! We have a lop bunny. In fact, my husband built a "run" right inside our garden so he gets all the weeds and scraps. If you work it out right, you could collect the droppings from under the cage as fertilizer and put it right in your garden!
 

ducks4you

Garden Master
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I'm glad you took them in. The last rabbits I had were ones that were also rehomed by my 2 DD's, who quickly lost interest, so I cared for them another 6 years. With MY menagerie I'll never have more of them. Here's what I know about rabbits.
1) They are legamorphs whose teeth continue to grow throughout their lives. They MUST chew to keep them at a usable length and will chew on wires and metal if nothing else to wear them down. If you give them clean, untreated wood they'll use that as a chew toy. If your enclosure is made of wood they'll use that, too.
2) Provide a spool of salt. They make them round one just for rabbits, with a hole in the middle to tie them to the side of the cage.
3) They LOVE alfalfa hay, especially the poorer hay with lots of stems. Pelleted complete feed is fine, too.
4) Handle them often, and usually they will be very friendly.
5) Hate to say it, but chickens are smarter than rabbits, domestic or wild. ROFL--sad, but true
6) If you have a male and a female (look for the double chin) in contact, you WILL have a litter in (I think) about 3 weeks, and another litter 3 weeks later. (Does can store sperm to breed again withOUT the Buck.)
7) Two Does can live together, but two Bucks will probably fight each other
8) According to some, you have the very best manure for gardening from rabbits, and it can be used almost immediately. Farmers used to winter their chickens and rabbits in the same buildings, and keep them in hardware cloth cages off of the ground. In the Spring, they would clear out the cages and clean up all the manure below the cages for their gardens.
9) They do not sweat, so in the summer they need lots of lots of water or you could kill them from overheating. Fans help, too.
10) I never kept my rabbits inside the house, but I have met people who have kept them inside with a litter box. To train them, let them pick their poo corner, then put a cat's litter box with pine shavings (or Equine Fresh) in that spot and check to see if they are using it. Rabbit urine is really strong!!
11.) If you rabbit escapes to the yard, he/she will usually find a bush to hide in, so look there bc they usually won't run off like a dog.
Hope this helps! Enjoy your bunnies!! :D
 

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