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Anonymous
This is my 4-month-old Jersey Wooly bunny rabbit, Mikuru.

I took her home from work...I work at an animal shelter so I've taken care of them before, fed, cleaned up after, whatever. But I'm not sure what I need to do for her as far as luxuries go. I've always had rats, hamsters, and other various rodentia. Does she need something to hide in, a nest or something? How big does her cage need to be? How often do I need to brush her coat? I already removed some icky mats from her fur (the lady who brought her to our shelter didn't take terribly good care of her), and I check her every so often to make sure she isn't developing new ones.

Any help you can provide, o oracle of the internets, would be appreciated.
>> Anonymous
Rabbits generaly need a hutch for "personal space", and inside that hutch, they still need pretty much a lined box with a hole in it for sleeping.

Rabbits can be toilet trained - generally their "toilet" will be a corner of the hutch space outside of their bed area, though I have heard you can train them with litterboxes. Hutch should not be lined with stuff like pine shavings or treated wood - they'll eat it and die.

Don't feed them lettuce, it'll choke them.

They eat most edible grasses (dandelions, bird seed shoots) and vegetables as well as pellets. Believe it or not, they can eat chcoolate, and small amounts of alcoholic drinks, and can get addicted to them.

Asking for cabbage/cauliflower leaves the greengrocers use to line their produce is a good way of keeping them.

Like most animals, they will die if water gets into their ear.

Coat should be brushed about once a week/once a month, depending on shedding and coat type.

You *can* teach them to respond to their name, and in some of the more intelligent/aggressive individuals, even fetch sticks and balls.
>> Anonymous
Cage: bigger is better. If it's litterbox trained, you could try letting it have free roam over your house/apartment. I bought a pretty good size cage on eBay for about $65. It's an XL dog kennel, just the right size to line the bottom with a large bath towel. My rabbits love it.

Toys: Petsmart has a pretty good selection of rabbit toys. Anything they can chew or throw is great. Mine like cat's jingle toys, slinkies, wooden chew toys, and balls of hay with a jingle ball hidden inside.

Food: I'm sure you know this already, but just in case -
-Timothy hay (not alfalfa) should always be available
-Pellets - high in fiber, shouldn't include any seeds or "kibble" pieces
-Greens - kale or collards are good, they also like Romaine, but iceberg lettuce=diarrhea
-Treats - carrots, bananas, blueberries, plums, limited amount of raisins
>> Anonymous
Litterbox: training is pretty easy, just put the box wherever they like to go, and you're done. Litter should be made of paper products (google carefresh and yesterday's news), never clay or clumping stuff or pine. Rabbits like to lounge and take naps in their litterboxes, so keep it clean.

Grooming/Health: Brush as often as you can. If she's shedding a lot, look into getting some Laxatone. It's a laxative for cats, it helps with hairballs. Digestive problems can pretty quickly kill a rabbit, so pay close attention to her toilet habits. Try to check the teeth and nails about once a month; the easiest way to do this is to trance her (ask if you want to know how), but she might not be comfortable enough to let you do this for a few months.

If it's at all possible, get her spayed. It makes it infinitely easier to litterbox train them, as well as prevents all sorts of reproductive illnesses. Also, it means you can get her a buddy. Rabbits are higly social, and they really need a cagemate. Males and females bond for life, but they need to be "fixed" first (duh).
>> Anonymous
Rabbits die if water gets in their ear? How come?
I didn't know you could put them in a trance.
>> Anonymous
>>136661

Yeah i heard about that too. Don't know how valid it is tho.
>> Anonymous
I've never heard the thing about water in the ears either. Don't know why it would kill them, but it probably would make them likely to get an ear infection or something. Also, they don't choke on lettuce - that's just dumb. Their regular diet includes greens that are very similar in consistency to lettuce, and they don't choke. Lettuce will give them diarrhea, and it has almost no nutritional value, but it won't CHOKE them.

To trance a rabbit, you have to very slowly put it on its back, usually while rubbing its face and head to keep it calm. Once it's on its back, you just feel it go limp. It makes it much easier to check their teeth or trim the nails, but since it's sort of like playing dead, they're likely to wake up and spaz out at any moment.
>> Anonymous
a salt lick is a luxury must!!
>> Anonymous
>>137219

There's been a salt lick hanging in my rabbits' cage for over a year, and I've never seen either of them licking it. It still looks brand new. I don't think rabbits really "do" salt licks, personally, but it won't hurt them.