Rabbit Interactive, Edinburgh

We'd like to share with you some of the things we learned at the RWAF Conference in Edinburgh over the weekend:

Dr Anne McBride's lecture on behaviour started the conference for the owners - she started off by making us all think about how rabbits have evolved in our culture to where they are now and how we have created different breeds that may have welfare concerns. One of the most interesting parts of her talk explained how domestic rabbits will react to the shillouette of a hawk and flee, but not to the shillouette of a goose, which they instinctively know is not a predator. Clever bunnies. We think that this shows that domestic rabbits have the same instincts and the same needs as their wild relatives and need to behave in the same ways. A Hutch Is Not Enough

Yup, even my house bunny Daisy spotted a hawk out of the lounge window and she panicked and ran at full speed and hid in a tunnel and thumped for ages!!! the large trees in my garden are full of birds including larger collared doves and wood pigeons, but it was the hawk that spooked her!

I really enjoyed my first visit to the RWAF conference at Woodgreen, I'll definitely be going again next year!

The next speaker for owners in Edinburgh was vet Jenny Prebble from Burgess Pet Foods, and she was talking about Diet - this is a nugget (get it?! ) from her talk; she explained the various ways that diet can affect the health of the rabbit and it is not just teeth. Water is also crucial to a healthy diet, so make sure your rabbits get enough by giving them a bowl and a bottle - they can drink more from a bowl.

Our conference again...we do like sharing information that will help rabbits..but you really had to be there to get the full effect. We hope you'll join us next year and experience it for yourself.

We had a brilliant lecture from Kevin Eatwell, it seems that despite all the recent advances in rabbit anaesthesia it is still essential that your vet can intubate your rabbit. Even if they do not want a tube in the way while doing a dental, for example, they do need to be able to react and get a tube in if needed during the op. Ask whether your vet can intubate!

Boudicca said:

Yup, even my house bunny Daisy spotted a hawk out of the lounge window and she panicked and ran at full speed and hid in a tunnel and thumped for ages!!! the large trees in my garden are full of birds including larger collared doves and wood pigeons, but it was the hawk that spooked her!

I really enjoyed my first visit to the RWAF conference at Woodgreen, I'll definitely be going again next year!

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So glad you found it helpful.

We look foward to next year's too. Details in the New Year!