Domestic decorative rabbits
Decorative rabbits have become very popular lately. These cute little animals are bought as a gift for children or just as their pet companions. Care and maintenance of animals is simple. Food for them is cheaper than meat for cats and dogs. After all, rabbits are herbivores, you can prepare hay for them yourself, and vegetables and grain cost a penny.
Decorative rabbits
Preparing to buy a rabbit
Before deciding to buy a pet, read everything about decorative rabbits. It is important to learn how to care for them, how to feed them, what diseases they have. Then it is worth deciding whether you want to start a large or dwarf animal. After all, the size of the cage and the space that you should allocate for your pet depend on this.
You can keep a rabbit in a cage or aviary. The requirements for the cells in which they will live are as follows:
- It is advisable to choose the size 4 times larger than the size of the rabbit, the normal area is not less than 60 × 80 cm
- The pallet in the cage should only be plastic so that the baby does not damage his paws and claws, it should be washed before settling the rabbit
- The litter is made from sawdust or shavings, the rabbit will simply eat the straw
- It is necessary to prepare a special tray for the toilet, but it should be placed in the cage after the tenant has mastered it.
- Special manger for hay, feeders for grain and wet mash, drinker or bowl for water are placed in the cage.
- It is also necessary to equip a small house where the animal can hide.
- If desired, you can put a wheel or other toy in the cage
- The rabbit can grind its claws on its own if it has the ability to dig holes in the deep litter.
You can make your own rabbit aviary. It is necessary to build a fence of plywood or mesh, lay a wicker rug on the floor, covering it with sawdust on top. As in the cage, you need to put a manger for hay, bowls for feed and a drinker in the aviary. Be sure to come up with a small house for the rabbit, prepare a toilet tray for him.
The cage or aviary should be placed in a shaded place, away from drafts or heating appliances. It is advisable that the rabbit lives in a bedroom, where people rarely go during the day. If this is not possible, settle the animal in the quietest corner of the house. During the day, he loves silence, the noise scares him greatly, the animal gets stressed. From excitement, the life expectancy of decorative rabbits is reduced.
Buying a rabbit
So, everything is ready to receive a new tenant in the house. Now you can start choosing and buying. It is best to purchase the animal at a trusted pet store or contact a nursery for decorative rabbits. This will give you a better chance of acquiring a healthy animal of the desired breed.
How to choose the right decorative rabbit? First you need to know that these animals come in regular and dwarf sizes. Mini animals will not take up much space in the apartment, they do not need a huge cage.The weight of babies is about 1 kg, and the weight of large decorative species is 3-4 kg. Plus, dwarf breeds look very cute. Large rabbits are also decorative, but they need a lot of space, food, an aviary or a cage will take up almost half of the room.
Now it's worth deciding on the length of the coat. According to this principle, rabbits are divided into:
- Shorthaired
- Normohaired
- Long-haired.
Grooming for short to medium coats is very simple and does not need to be brushed. But long-haired ones require regular procedures, otherwise their fur will get tangled and look ugly. Rabbits also differ in the shape of their ears. Lop-eared rams are very popular now, they look cute, but they also require special care. Animals can have very different colors - white, black, white with black, red, gray, spotted, blue animals are very beautiful.
Breed selection and prices
The oldest decorative breed is considered to be the white Polish decorative rabbit Garmelin, who bred it is unknown. The most popular and beautiful varieties:
- Hermelines
- Dutch color minor
- Lop-eared dwarf ram
- Angora
- Vienna blue dwarfs
- Lionheads
- Foxes
- Japanese
- Dwarf Rex
How much does a decorative rabbit cost? This question often worries novice owners. The cost of decorative rabbits depends on the breed, its purity and the place of purchase of the animals. The price for dwarf pets starts at 1000 rubles per individual. You can find it cheaper, but the quality and health of such animals is questionable. In nurseries and shops, the average cost is 1500-2500 rubles. Elite breeds cost 3500-4000 rubles. If the bunny is from show parents, they ask 5000-7000 rubles for it.
Before buying, be sure to read how to distinguish breeds, see how the rabbits look when they grow up, carefully study the description and characteristics, colors, etc. It is best to buy an adult rabbit, the ideal age is six months. Maintenance, feeding and caring for it are simpler.
Features of care and maintenance
How to care for decorative rabbits? What conditions does he need? To make your pet feel normal, you should adhere to a few rules:
- Decorative rabbits tolerate cold well, but do not like heat. The optimum temperature for them is 18-20 degrees. If it is very hot in summer, place a damp towel on top of the cage or place an ice bottle inside it. You can wipe the rabbit's ears with cool water, since heat exchange occurs through the veins of these organs.
- Rabbits are nocturnal animals, during the day they sleep and become active in the evening, closer to 18 o'clock. Therefore, you should not bother them in the morning and at lunchtime, it is advisable to remove unnecessary sounds and fuss from the house at this time, or put the cage in the far corner.
- Fluffy animals are very clean, they go to the toilet in one place. You need to track where the bunny crap and put a tray there. The cage is washed 2-3 times a week to avoid the appearance of an unpleasant odor.
- In order for the rabbits to feel good about themselves in the apartment, they need to be walked daily. For this, the baby is released from the cage for 1-2 hours, after removing everything that can be eaten from the floor, as well as dangerous objects so that the rabbit does not injure itself. Walking outside is also permissible, but only in dry, warm weather and on a harness.
Direct care for a decorative rabbit also has its own nuances. They depend on how long his coat is, hanging or erect ears. Your rabbit needs to trim his nails regularly to prevent damage to furniture and floors. Bathing is optional, rabbits wash their own fur. Water procedures are necessary only in cases when the animal has diarrhea, has a bad smell, or it gets very dirty on the street. So that bathing does not harm the pet, after the bath it is carefully wrapped up until the coat dries out.
Ornamental rabbits with long hair should be combed regularly, especially when it sheds.Downy breeds also need to be cut, their thin hair grows quickly and gets tangled. If such a rabbit is not trimmed in time, it will turn into a dirty ball. Special care should be taken for rams. The decorative fold rabbit is demanding, it needs to be regularly examined and its ears cleaned.
Eye care is also necessary so that nothing happens to them. Eyes are rubbed with dry cotton 2-3 times a week. As you can see, keeping an exotic breed decorative rabbit is not easy. Therefore, beginners should buy animals with short hair and straight ears. Pay attention to undemanding, disease-resistant breeds.
Feeding rabbits
We told you how to keep a decorative rabbit. But raising a healthy animal is impossible without proper nutrition. Pets should be fed with the following products:
- Hay. The basis of the diet should always be present in the cage, since the rabbit eats it constantly. Hay is harvested independently or bought.
- Fresh grass and tops. These feeds must be present in the summer. Ornamental rabbits can eat clover, timothy, plantain, yarrow. Do not give garlic, onions, buttercups, henbane, tomato and potato tops, spurge.
- Corn. You can use ready-made feed from a pet store or make your own mash of oats, wheat, barley and other cereals, you can give it crushed peas, nuts, seeds.
- Vegetables. The most useful vegetables for rabbits are carrots, fodder or sugar beets, boiled potatoes, cabbage, with pleasure the animal eats zucchini, pumpkin, green salad. It is better not to give tomatoes, raw potatoes.
- Fresh and dry fruits, babies are given small quantities of an apple, pear, watermelon, melon, occasionally you can treat them with berries. It is better not to give exotic fruits (pineapples, bananas, tangerines, oranges, dates) for an adult and a small rabbit.
- Twigs from trees. Decorative rabbits will be happy to eat branches of apple, pear, currant, raspberry, mountain ash, willow, in winter they can be given needles.
- Mineral supplements. There should always be chalk, salt stone in the cage, if necessary, they give special additives.
- Vitamins. It is better to give vitamins as prescribed by a doctor, in the spring, when there are few of them in natural products. In other cases, there is no need.
Ornamental rabbits are fed 2-3 times a day. Obesity should not be allowed, overweight animals often get sick. The animal eats hay all the time. The fact is that they have weak gastrointestinal motility. Food passes through the tract only after a new portion arrives.
All products must be fresh, without signs of mold or rot. Grass and hay should not be harvested near roads, city entrances, there is too much dirt and toxic products. It is best to mow the grass in a meadow outside the city, or in the country. Access to water is made permanent. It is better to take an automatic drinker, in a regular bowl the liquid quickly becomes dirty and deteriorates.
The nature and education of rabbits
The decorative rabbit has a very cute and calm character. This animal is shy, but over time it gets used to its home and owner. When he is completely comfortable, there will be no limit to curiosity. In order to tame and not frighten your pet, in the first days after purchasing it, you need to leave it alone for a while. Then it is lightly stroked while eating. If the rabbit has stopped shuffling at any touch, you can lightly pick it up.
Is it worth getting a small decorative rabbit in the house where the dog or cat lives? It is undesirable to do this, because dogs and cats are predators, they may consider the rabbit as prey. Even if they will not eat your new friend, they will gladly drive around the apartment, frightening to death. The fluffy animal will get stressed, maybe even die. Also, it is not advised to have a bunny for a too small child, he can torture him. It is better to buy this animal for a student.
The intelligence of decorative rabbits is quite high. They can be trained to go to the tray. To do this, put the container in the corner, where most often the animal relieves its needs. You can put a litter labeled with rabbit urine inside. When you think your toddler wants to use the toilet, put him in the litter box. After a few "landings" he will learn to go to the toilet himself. You can put the tray on the opposite wall from the trough, rabbits often travel and empty at the same time.
A domestic eared pet can learn simple tricks. He is taught to jump over a hoop or other obstacle, to respond to a nickname. Take the hoop in your hands, place it in front of the animal, and on the other hand, hold a treat in your hand. When the bunny jumps over the hoop, treat him and pat him on the back. They act similarly with a nickname. They say the name of the rabbit at that time and at the same time offer a treat. You can only train a rabbit with positive encouragement and in no case should you beat it so that it does not become too fearful.
Rabbit breeding
Puberty in decorative domestic rabbits occurs at 6-8 months. The rabbit has a heat often, this species has a very intensive reproduction. At this time, the female behaves restlessly, bites, refuses to eat, loses weight, sometimes the rabbits make strange sounds. If mating with a male is successful, the hunt passes, pregnancy occurs, its period is 30 days. Decorative breeds give birth to about 4-5 rabbits at a time.
In fact, breeding these animals without experience is not worth it. The fact is that small females often do not carry rabbits. Young first-borns are bad mothers, they can leave offspring. Then the cubs will have to be bottle fed, kept in special conditions while they are growing. Even good care only allows a small number of babies to survive.
Keeping a male fertilizer is also a problem. Rabbits are aggressive during the hunt, can use any objects to satisfy their sexual instinct, including shoes, toys, clothes. Not everyone will like this behavior. The male's discharge smells very strong, and it constantly stinks in the house. If the boy and girl do not like each other, they can be seriously injured. In addition, in order to preserve the breed, it is necessary to correctly select and cross a pair, which not everyone can do.
Most breeders recommend that their clients sterilize decorative rabbits rather than breed them. This should be done when the babies are 3-5 months old, even before puberty. At that time, the animals were vaccinated and strong enough for the operation.
Rabbit diseases
Proper care of domestic decorative rabbits helps protect them from many diseases. But no one is safe from the fact that trouble will not happen. The health of ornamental breeds does not differ in strength. What does a sick decorative rabbit look like and what pathologies lie in wait for it. Here is a short list of diseases:
- Trauma
- Tummy distension
- Colds
- Overheating or hypothermia
- Allergy
- Pathological molting
- Eye problems
- Myxomatosis
- Coccidiosis
- Helminthic invasions
- Skin parasites
Why is the decorative rabbit injured, what is the reason? The animals have a very fragile spine. They can only be handled very carefully, in no case should they be allowed to jump from a great height. Back injury is the most common pathology associated with improper care. The walks of a small decorative rabbit can also end tragically if he chews on some nasty thing that was not cleaned up in time by the owners.
Low-quality foods cause bloating. In this situation, the rabbit does not eat well, does not move, its abdomen is enlarged. With a cold, snot flows from the nose, wheezing is heard in the lungs, the rabbit sneezes, loses its appetite. Another common problem is conjunctivitis. It can be both infectious and non-infectious. A common cause of eye problems is dust, hay and dirt.If the animal is overheated, it drinks a lot, then stops moving, falls on its side or throws back its legs. With hypothermia, it curls into a ball, shakes.
If the animal has skin parasites, it itches, becomes restless, its hair falls out. When the animal is disturbed by fleas and other insects, it is necessary to fight with them, bathe the rabbit in a special shampoo with insecticides. The first symptoms of helminthic invasions are very diverse, often helminths come out of the anus. Infections are manifested by fever, lethargy, purulent discharge from the nose, intestines, sometimes with blood, diarrhea. The rabbit does not eat anything; with many infectious diseases, animals die.
What to do if a rabbit gets sick
When the decorative rabbit has dangerous symptoms, it became lethargic, you need to go to the clinic. Diagnosis and treatment of diseases, especially infectious diseases, should be carried out by a veterinarian. You should not give your pet medications at home without consulting him. So you can not only harm your health, but also lose your pet. Proper care of decorative rabbits avoids many problems. But it is not always possible to protect them from infections. Therefore, the animals must be vaccinated.
Keeping a decorative rabbit has its pros and cons. The animal needs good care, fresh food. Not all residents of city apartments have the opportunity to prepare hay on their own, and in the store it is expensive. Therefore, it is worth weighing the pros and cons before buying a fluffy animal. After all, animals are not toys, we are responsible for their lives. Therefore, you cannot keep them for a day or a month, and then throw them away.