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Some general care questions

KathyM

Warren Scout
As I'm very new to bunnies I could really use your opinions and advice on some things.

1. Is it absolutely imperative for her to have company? She was a surprise addition and it may take some time to win the OH round to the idea, that's all. Is there any way I can keep her happy and entertained without the addition of an extra bunny or until things change? Please forgive me if this is an absolute nono, I really don't know and don't mean to work anyone up.

2. Spaying. I've been reading into this and everywhere seems to say it's absolutely necessary for does. How common is uterine cancer? I'm a bit nervous of having her spayed as we lost a rat to surgery (and so did my sister) and I'm not 100% sure about it because of that. I'm worried about the anaesthetic because I know that rats and rabbits are similar in risk factor, and it's not that rats aren't hardy. Maybe my lack of confidence is actually in the vet that lost both of them, not the op, I don't know.

3. Food. She's on Burgess Supa Rabbit at the moment, as it's part of my rat mix and it's what we had in. I don't want to wean her off it straight away as that was already a change for her. But it'd be handy to know what you all feed. Does anyone find that their rabbit doesn't like Excel? I used to have to sell the stuff, and I can't say it did that well as people said their rabbits didn't like it, but I do know all the pluses to it.

4. Toys and chews - can anyone recommend?

Thanks for all your help. Again if I've suggested anything that is abhorrent to the masses of rabbit owners, please forgive me, as I honestly don't know the answers to these questions :oops:
 
Hey hun, welcome to owning a rabbit!
As for your questions.
Spaying is a lot safer than it used to be vets seem to be more rabit savvy these days and use much safer anesthetics, it's only really a risk if she is an old rabbit.

Company is not imperative, but it dpends on how much company she will get from you. If you are around a lot and you give her tonnes of company, she doesn't really need another friend. If she is alone all day then it would be better for her to have a friend for company.

I use Burgess Excel Supa rabbit, it is what all the vets recommend and my buns love it. I've had no problems with it, so there is really no reason to change her from that.

As for toys, don't bother with expensive ones, they'll ignore them, cardboard boxes and toilet roll tubes are popular, as are plastic plant pots to throw around. Fruit tree branches (apple, cherry, pear etc) are best for chews, they're natural, keep the teeth down and my buns love them, maybe ask if you can have some from a neighbour if you don't have any yourself.
 
Hiya! Well done for asking questions. I've found out so much from here (and I'm still learning!)

Is she an indoor or outdoor bunny? I would neve keep an outdoor bunny on their own, as t's too much time alone. We have an indoor bunny who is a single bun, but we both work from home, so he has company all day. Still, it's not ideal, and we've been thinking of getting hima friend.

I have a female who's not yet spayed, but I will be getting her 'done' soon. I have had two girls spayed before (now, sadly a the bridge) and they were both fine. A little sore for a couple of days, but fine.

I feed mine on Allen and Page pellets. The bunnies love them and I've noticed a definite change for the better in their coats and poos :oops:

I wouldn't go all out for expensive toys. Cardboard boxes are great - filled with hay, holes cut out. Somewhere to dig? An old towel to push around, plant pots filled with hay for them to throw.
The one thing I would recommend to buy is a treat ball to put the pellets in. Squidgy adores his.

Good luck with it all.
 
If you can give her a lot of attention, she may be ok on her own :D It's easier to get them a partner though - my first bun got a friend cos I felt guilty about working long hours.

Now I've got 11 :oops:

All mine are neutered/spayed & I've never had any serious problems, & the bunnies are definitely nicer after spaying - less hormonal. Spice got a bit "nip-py" when she reached maturity, & she also had a really bad phantom pregancy (they pull hair out of their stomachs) - her stomach got sore, but none of my others suffered as badly.

I think most rabbits prefer mix - but it makes them fat! They don't eat all the bits either - just the bits they like. Mine only have a handful of excel pellets a day anyway, mostly they eat hay, grass, broccoli, spinach & the odd carrot/apple (too high in sugar to feed too much)

I spend an absolute fortune on toys. I can guarantee my buns will play more with toilet rolls, cardboard boxes, shredded paper & a yellow pages to tear up :D

My bonded foursome do seem to like the willow sticks to chew though.

Have fun :D
 
Hiya! I agree with what has already been said. On the worry about spaying - yes it is a reasonably major operation, but in the hands of an experienced vet, the risks are very low.

Modern anaesthetics are much safer for bunnies, the risk of losing a healthy bunny isn't a lot different to cats or dogs with an experienced vet. I think the statistics are skewed because rabbits don't show that they are ill, which means that a rabbit having an operation because of sickness or disease is usually a lot more sick than a cat or dog would be by that point, and hence a lot less likely to survive the anaesthetic.

Whereabouts are you based (I seem to recall it's somewhere in Yorkshire?) One of the best rabbit vets in the country is based up there, Harrogate I think, but even if that's too far, I'm sure someone here may be able to recommend you someone. It's not an operation I would entrust to any vet I must admit, but personally I think it's worthwhile, both to calm them down but also because the risk of uterine cancer has been shown to be as high as 80%. Vets who spay a lot of rabbits (e.g. for rescues) do say that they see a lot of rabbits with early uterine cancer when they spay them. Personally I think that the risk of the op when they are healthy is far lower, than if you had to put them through the same thing in a couple of years time because they are sick with uterine cancer. It's not something that everyone has done though, so don't beat yourself up if you decide that you can't go through with it.
 
Thank you all for your advice.

On the point of spaying, I'm very pro neutering with my pets (excluding the rats unless absolutely necessary), it's a lack of confidence in everything I get told since what happened with the rats. Like all of you, I had people tell me anaesthetics have come a long way in small animal veterinary practice and that it was low risk. And then both mine and my sister's rats died being spayed, specifically from the anaesthetic protocol used by many vets and issued by their governing bodies. So it makes me really reluctant to do it, and then I'm torn as I've had a dog die in the past from a reporoductive cancer (mammary cancer which could've been prevented had her old owners spayed her young enough). I want to do what's right for her, but I'm scared witless too if you get me.

So if anyone can recommend a bunny safe vet in my local area (Keighley, West Yorkshire) that would be fab - in the meantime I think I'll have a ring around. I know there's a neutering and vacc'ing clinic near me (Petvax in Shipley) that is excellent - maybe they're worth a ring.

Company wise, I'm in all day, as is my partner. I think she'll be okay for now without company and we'll have a think about things in the near future. For now it's probably best if we focus on her only.

Food wise - she's on Supa Rabbit, not Excel, sorry if my post didn't come across clearly. She's troughed the lot and hasn't been selective about it, but the calorie aspect concerns me, so I'll look into healthier options.

Thank you all for your advice! Now I just need to work out whether it's worth paying out £180 for a 6ft hutch when I can get a shed for less.....
 
A bit of an update - we've named her Lola. That's because she started off as a boy and turned out to be a girl :lol:
 
1) She can live happy if you keep her company

2) If you don't spay, she'll get uterus cancer in 2 yr.

3) buy any "Extruded" rabbit food, i.e., pellet that will not Expand inside her stomach. For e.g., if her stomach is somewhat full, and she drinks water, most brand name pellet will Expand inside when fix w/ water, that's bad news, as her stomach is quite max out.

Extruded rabbit food doesn't expand even if she drink water.

4) Buy natural chew wood w/ rabbit taste favor such as carrot taste.
 
I'd get a shed! So much cheaper and so much more room! Check around for prices, but I'm sure they do 6ft x 4ft ones for less than £100, but I guess it depends on how much room you have.

I can understand your worry about your bun and anesthetic, but I feel it is easier on a rabbit than a rat, but of course ask the vet about their protocols if you're worried.
 
I'm very much in favor of spaying. A good rabbit vet will very, very rarely loose a spay patient. There should be very little risk with healthy rabbits and a good vet. Uterine tumors are very common but not always malignant. Still, I've known enough people who have lost rabbits to them, or whose rabbits had complications from similar uterus problems. This is a good article on rabbits and anesthesia:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=671&S=5&SourceID=43

There's all sorts of great toys for rabbits. Mine like to make noise, so they have plastic cat toys with bells in them, hard plastic baby keys, and chew toys hung up with sisal and with a bell on the bottom. I have trouble finding much good stuff in pet stores for rabbits in the US, but I have found some good toys in the parrot and hamster sections. And untreated wicker and grapevine wreaths and balls are great! One of my local craft stores lists all treatments on the tags, so I can find untreated stuff for much cheaper than the internet bunny toy companies. If they don't have treatments listed, sometimes you can have a salesperson find out for you. Straw mats are a lot of fun, too.

I got a lot of good ideas from these lists:
http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/rabbits_toys.pdf
http://www.adoptarabbit.org/articles/2003/Toys.pdf
 
Thank you all very much for your advice - what a great site this is!

I mentionned her in a family news thread on another site (not rabbit site), and she apparently could be New Zealand if her ears weren't so small and bla bla bla. Who cares what breed she is (and has she seen her ears?). As with all animals, there's always one who thinks a pedigree is worth more (and I don't mean financially) than a cross. :lol: :lol:
 
I'd recommend Science Selective food. My 2 had sticky bums when I first got them (they were unwanted pets), and were eating a terrible diet. Science Selective has sorted it out, plus they absolutely love it!! :)
 
Mine have always been fed Science Selective as I researched it all before I got bunnies and heard that excel could cause a sticky bum - I get SS online but some vets sell it.

Single bunnies? I have 3! I find it very offensive to be told I'm cruel for keeping them single - they look perfectly happy with life to me although that might be because they are near other rabbits. When Tia was a single house bunny, and Maa, and Benny - all were single house bunnies for a while - I noticed they were very inactive and bored looking - they seem a lot happier outside although this too goes contrary to current thinking.

Spaying? Again I go contrary to current thinking as the rescue I adopted my group of 5 girls from was anti-spay. At the time I was very pro-spay, being a newbie and finding it was the done thing. Now I've been on the forums nearly 2 years I've seen so many rabbits come and go - rabbits are fragile and most commonly die of gut problems, not cancer. I know the stats say that most rabbits of 4yrs old will have cancerous changes, but that doesn't mean they are going to die at 4 from cancer. The stats don't show whether spayed females even live longer than unspayed females, since it's a relatively new trend.

I think maybe losing Pepsi after just 4 months from gut problems, although I'd researched endlessly to 'get it right' made me realise that rabbits often die in spite of your best efforts - it's the nature of rabbits to be fragile unfortunatley. I tend to take things a day at a time now, instead of trying to control the future.
 
It's not cruel to keeps buns alone, that's rubbish, it depends completely on the bun. Some jsut don't want company, they want to be the centre of attention! All my buns are seperate (I have 5) after attempted bondings didn't work out as they're all used to seeing each other through the bars of their runs etc, they didn't like that they could then 'get' to each other! They all seem very happy and they get a lot of attention. It's only cruel if bunny is alone and dunped in a hutch at the bottom of the garden and ignored.
 
I agree that it's not 'cruel' to keep a bunny alone but I do think it is generally better to keep them with company if possible - they may be happy but I think often with a companion they are happier. Judging by the number of rabbits that rescues see and bond each year I'd say it's pretty unusual, though not unheard of, for rabbits to prefer being alone.

Studies for the RWA a couple of years ago showed that bonded rabbits spent around 70% of their time together, so they obviously like having company. With the best will in the world you can never give a single rabbit 17 hours out of the day!

So don't think you're being 'cruel' if you are unable to offer your bunny another bunny companion, but I would say that overall it is better to if you can. The easiest way is to find a rescue that will let you take your bunny for her to choose a friend, that way you are not risking choosing a bunny that yours decides she doesn't like!!

Good luck with whatever you do, this bunny is very lucky and much happier already, having got herself a lovely home with you!
 
If you're still looking for a vet Bunny Camp Sanctuary (Heaton, W. Bradford) use a couple of good ones around there, but I can't off hand remember who they are, but you could give them a call and ask them for recommendations.

If you do decide to get your bun a friend they also do a very good dating service, where you can take your bun along and let it pick which it likes, or Sonya will try and bond it with any buns you like. They often have some very nice bunnies in looking for homes...
 
Thank you very much! I might have to talk the OH round in the long run then, but in the meantime they might recommend a local vet. You're all diamonds, ta!
 
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