Rabbit old age- preparing myself

So my main bunny, Zoe, is getting up in the years (almost 6) (ok she's still got a few years to go) and as she's my baby girl I want to prepare myself for what might come. Do rabbits deteriorate very much as they get older? Is there anything to watch for or I can avoid?
Some background info: Zoe lives with her two daughters (almost 3), she sleeps indoors and has an outdoor cage for during the day. This has a sand pit in it so she gets lots of digging time, and I have a pen so they can stretch and have grass time regularly. She gets fresh veggies and fruit every night and has access to pellets. Not sure of the ideal weight for a bunny her size, buts she's possibly a little overweight, but as she lives with two other rabbits its hard to limit her intake. She runs a little stiffly, and her toilet has a high edge which she has to jump over (one of the baby's thought the toilet was a great place to dig stop her kick it all out). Any tips? Thanks

A good tip is try not to let your rabbits get overweight. This can cause many problems, one of which is the rabbit has difficulty reaching its backend in order to clean itself and eat its cecals. If the bunny cannot keep itself clean then flystrike is something to be very worried about. You should be able to gauge how much food (pellets) you need to give then, if you measure out an eggcup full per bunny then that should be enough. After eating their pellets they can then go on to eating their hay to fill up. This will keep their teeth worn down and it's good for digestion. Rabbits are designed to manufacture lots of nutrients from little, so try not to overfeed.

Small amounts of veg are ok, not so much fruit as it has a high sugar content which is not always good.

I have about 11 rabbits aged 6/7 they all look healthy and don't have any problems. To keep your rabbits healthy, you need to watch their diet and keep their living areas clean. It is not very good to keep swapping rabbits from indoors to outdoors as it can result in respiratory problems which are very difficult to eradicate once they have them.

If your rabbit is running stiffly she may have some arthritis so it would be a good idea to ask your Vet if he thinks she needs some pain relief.

6 years old for a rabbit is about the equivalent of them being middle aged in human terms. Hopefully Zoe will have many more good years ahead of her. tonibun has already given a great reply, but I will add that many bunnies do actually become less active and sleep more the older they get. If Zoe is sleeping more, the stiffness could be because she is less active or as tonibun has already mentioned, arthritis, either way it sounds like you are a very caring bunny mummy and will do everything possible for the welfare of your furry family.

One of my bunnies who passed away a few years ago lived to be at least 11 years old. Unsure of his age as he was fully grown when he went in to rescue. He had many age related problems, a challenge for me indeed to try and meet his needs, but well worth ever single second spent with him.

what breed is she ? only asking as if she where a nethie or smaller bun they tend to have longer life spns then say the large giants who are considered elderly at 4yrs wheres a nethie could reach say 8-12yrs, heard of others living more :wave:

My bunny Angel (grey one in my avatar) turned 10 this year and she is not showing any signs of slowing down!
She runs about, jumps up on things, has a great appetite and acts like a mad bunny when she feels like it.
She has only started looking a little older in the last few months.

I'm not sure about the keeping her inside and then putting her outside thing. Temperature change can cause a bunny to become ill so if it were me I would keep her inside or outside, at least until the weather gets better.

Fruit isn't very good for them either, too much sugar.
Try fresh herbs and dried herbs and flowers instead.

I've got a nethie who's 7 in a few weeks and she's definitely slowing down but she's still binkying and is full of life! She lives indoors in a dog cage with three levels (one is a mini shelf but the other runs the full length of the dog cage) and the door to the cage is open most of the day but she's not really bothered about exercising much and will only come out for twenty mins or so in the morning, occasionally afternoon and in the evening before she gets shut away. When she's been poorly before I've slept downstairs with her and every time I've checked on her throughout the night she was zonked, fast asleep - she wouldn't have been like that a few years ago. She isn't so bothered about human contact (she's a single bun) now and her priority is spending most of the day sleeping in her littertray! Currently Dee's just come finished a battle with pneumonia and is still snuffly, and because she's older it's proving harder to beat which is frustrating. She's still got a mad appetite, fierce temper and is a 'happy' little bunny, but is definitely slowing down. She's getting so many grey hairs though bless her :lol:

Normally she lives outside and she'll be going back outside soon-ish, she's only in over the winter because it's quite a bit colder and she can get stiff.

For future reference

http://www.celebratingrabbits.com/stories/caring_for_aging_rabbit.html

thanks for some great advice!
They usually get carrot, celery and apple at night time (but apple are out of season atm) but ill make sure that i don't over do it on the fruit! But good to know about fruit not being brilliant for them! The bunny loves herbs, accept that all our herbs are shrivelled from the sun. Zoe's favourite is the curry plant (particularly when she was pregnant)
The reason they sleep indoors is that my last bunnies (mother and three babies) died of calicivirus, and it was horrible to watch each bunny detoriate! So I decided to take all precautions with Zoe! We live near a golf course which has kangaroos and bandicoots so its highly likely there are wild rabbits there. SO they sleep indoors where they are protected from the mosquitos.
Zoe is a dwarf X lop as in her mother was a lop and her father was a dwarf. Zo didn't inherit the lop ears but all her babies did, kinda.
I'll be careful in winter to make sure she's not out when is really cold, thanks for that tip!
She's still pretty active (if you don't Compare her to her daughters who are always doing crazy binky's she's) so hopefully she's still got a few years to go, don't know what id do without her! Thanks for all the tips and advice and replays

Jack's-Jane said:

For future reference

http://www.celebratingrabbits.com/stories/caring_for_aging_rabbit.html

Click to expand...

Nice article, saved that in my bunny file

Hers's another too for the OP.

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/pdfs/Feedingandcaringforseniorrabbits.pdf