Rabbit Archives » PetLifeBuzz

Do you like the smooth fur, the ragged tail or the constantly gobbling mouth of a rabbit? That's understandable because we're referring to one of the definitions of cuteness. Today, rabbits do not seem to simply appear in the role of nutritious food, they have become a pet, a close friend of many families. Let me tell you this, the distance between loving rabbits and being a good rabbit breeder is not close. Sometimes love alone is not enough to help your bunny grow healthy and maintain its cuteness. Hopefully, from my point of view - a person who also gives special love to these shaggy animals you will have the best orientation after putting them in the pet store and buying a rabbit. What Do You Need to Know about Rabbits? 1. Life span If you're still wondering whether bunnies can stick with us for a long time or not, don't worry, the answer is definitely yes. Considering the common ground of animals that can become pets, rabbits still occupy a fairly high position. Compared to dogs (maximum 13 years), cats (15-17 years), the average life expectancy of a pet rabbit, according to the House Rabbit Association, is about 8 to 12 years old. In an environment with favorable conditions such as adequate food and a good living environment, this age may increase even more. Like dogs, small or dwarf rabbits tend to live longer than large rabbits. Dwarf rabbits, small lops and unusual small rabbits will be up to double digits, while large dog breeds, like French lops and Flemish giants, will not. @Credits: WikiHow The oldest rabbit ever recorded in the world is Hazel, a small gray rabbit, holding the record for the oldest pet rabbit ever lived. Hazel died at the age of 16 and lived in the United Kingdom. Before Hazel, the record was set by another pet rabbit who lived to be 14 years old. 2. Size The size of the rabbit varies greatly depending on the type of rabbit you want to adopt. The current domesticated rabbits in the world are largely derived from the breeding of European and African hares in the middle Ages. After a long domestication process, there are over 80 breeds of rabbits in the world. In the United States, the Rabbit Breeding Association (ARBA) is a valuable source of ornamental pets and commercial breeds. ARBA confirmed that there are 47 different breed rabbits, Trianta and Mini Satin are the two most recently recognized breeds in 2006. Each parachute rabbit of any type has an average weight of about 50 - 70g for small rabbits and 500 - 700g for large rabbits such as Flemish Giant, Checkered Giant, French Lop ... More than that… It is the variety of species that will give farmers a lot of choices that best suit their family's preferences and living space. The size of a rabbit can be very diverse: while most individuals will grow to the size of a large cat, a few can reach the remarkable size of a small child. Specifically, small rabbits like pygmy rabbits are about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long and weigh less than a pound. Meanwhile, larger species grow to 20 inches (50 cm) tall and weigh more than 10 lbs. (4.5 kilograms). The size is not too big so the rabbit can fit most modern families. Give them a small spot in the corner and you already have a great friend. Dr. Lianne McLeod, a veterinarian, the statistics on The Spruce website have shown an interesting fact as follows: The largest rabbit breeds are the checkered giant (over 11 lbs.); Flemish giant (13 lbs.) And over; giant papillon (13 to 14 lbs.); and a giant chinchilla (12 to 16 lbs.). The world's longest rabbit, according to Guinness World Records, is a Flemish giant that clocked in at 4 feet 3 inches (129 cm) and weighs 49 pounds (22 kg). In contrast to these giant relatives, the small rabbit breeds include the Britannia Petite weighs less than 2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg); Netherland dwarf, under 2.5 lbs .; dwarf hotot, under 3 lbs. (1.3 kg); and Himalayan, 2.5 to 4.5 lbs. (1.1 to 2 kg). 3. Living behavior As mentioned above, keeping your bunny with a good routine is one of the main causes of his or she's good health and extended life span. Do not underestimate this because the things you may consider small but bring unexpected effects. Imagine a situation like this. You go to a pet store, choose a suitable rabbit for a reasonable price and then you bring it home. It sounds completely natural, right? But what I'm worth mentioning here is that the bunny doesn't immediately adapt to a new environment with strangers like you and your family right away. Worse than that, some rabbits take a very long time but still can't "catch up" to their changed lives. That's partly from themselves, but most of this comes from the fact that you can't give rabbits a proper routine. A rabbit is a wild animal, not a hybrid of any animal. Therefore, even when domesticated, deep down in their hearts there are still the most untouched features of a natural rabbit. Some of the most common rabbit behaviors can be found: digging, running and gnawing. In particular, they possessed a rather high curiosity. The instinct of an animal in contact with other creatures (here I mean ourselves) is to run away. A rabbit bought as a pet to run away from its owner is ridiculous. Approach them slowly. Do not force them in cages or tie their necks with rope. Is not. The first thing you need to do is create an association. Rabbits are playful animals with a curious nature. So when you first buy the best thing you should do is put them in a soft cotton basket and let them see or discover the new house they will stick with. One of the suggestions for you is the toy designed with high attraction for rabbits. Here is a list I think is appropriate: Shelltech Rabbit Chew Toys AIYA Bunny Chew Toys SunGrow Rabbit Teeth Coconut Fiber Ball BLSMU Parrot Beak Trimmer Calcium Stone Ware Manufacturing Rice Pops Small Animal Chew Treat These toys will make them closer to ourselves Rabbits are also very fond of running and digging. If your house has a yard or a large garden, do not be afraid to take them out on nice weather. Let them free their feet, nibble on dry branches or dig a few holes, for example. Of course, if you do not have the conditions to do so (because there is no yard, garden or you are in an apartment with a small area) then do not worry, the market for items to support the nurturing process. The rabbit is always happy to serve you. After the rabbit has become accustomed to being taken care of by you, you can proceed to the next step of installing them in a cage. The cages today are increasingly beautiful designed with diverse designs, versatile uses as well as an extremely affordable price. I have seen on the market the Mcage Large Indoor Small Animal Pet Habitat Hutch Cage - a masterpiece of the manufacturer Mcage or DQLJ Standard Litter Boxes with beautiful furniture. Take some time because maybe you will find a great bed for your rabbit. According to scientists' research, domestic rabbits prefer to live in underground burrows (except for fluffy rabbits) while wild rabbits nest on the ground. That means that a stable with a suitable covering and a sufficiently large space would be a good option. Manufacturers are very focused on this and with Amazon, choosing a cage will not be difficult. 4. Food for rabbits Besides learning about rabbit behaviors, their food source is also one of the most interesting. The reason rabbits have long been popular around the world, in part because they can eat almost all grasses, leaves, tubers ... not inferior to goats. Therefore, rabbit feed is not as difficult to find as with some other pets. Also, this type of green food is easy to find, easy to grow, available all year round while ensuring economic factors for farmers. This is one of the great advantages of raising rabbits. Feed for rabbits includes green food and pelleted food. In particular, green food including vegetables, leaves ... is the main food, while pellets like cereals, bran pellets are considered complementary foods. Each day only needs to feed about 5% to 8% of bodyweight. Note that rabbits aged 8 months or older should limit bran pellets to avoid obesity, including male or female breeding. Natural sources of rabbit food are diverse: Grass Rabbits like to eat grass, it can eat many kinds of grass, from wild grasses grown in the wild such as sesame grass, para grass, gigantea grass, Ruzi grass, stylo grass ... until elephant grass, which has a hard stem. Thanks to the sharp incisors, strong jaw muscles, rabbits can eat almost all grasses that can be eaten by large groups like cattle and goats. Leaves and vegetable Like goats, rabbits like to eat leaves and even prefer grass. So the leaves and strings of sweet potato, spinach, leaves and legumes, and other leaves such as fig leaves, banana leaves, jackfruit leaves, and even bamboo and rabbit leave all enjoy the export. However, you must note, all these leaves must be washed, dried to be used for feeding gradually. Tubers Rabbits also like to eat fruits such as carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes (sweet potato is good for feeding rabbits, except sprouted sweet potato roots to cause poisoning). They also like to eat ripe bananas, pumpkins, pears, apples... In general, most of these foods are high in protein, fiber, etc., essential nutrients for the growth of rabbits in every age. However, when feeding rabbits, you need to balance the appropriate food ratio, with vegetables, rabbits can eat freely, and fruit foods should not be given much because eating more than them is likely to cause gas, diarrhea run. Cereal Cereal foods, although rabbits love to eat, should be considered as a supplement for rabbits only because their main food is grass and leaves. Only grass and leaves can feed rabbits freely, while cereal food such as rice, rice, cold rice, green beans, peanuts, corn (fruit corn, seed corn, and ground corn) is restricted to feeding at meals only. Dark, and should only feed about a handful (about 100g) for each adult rabbit. If grain was fed, no pellets would be fed. Pellets Pellets, generally bran pellets, or mixed bran are nutritious food to help rabbits gain weight quickly. In the winter or when the weather enters a prolonged buying period makes it difficult to find natural food, this is a savior for the hungry stomachs of rabbits. Easy to eat with lots of flavors but this type of food is quite difficult to digest and more suitable for industrial rabbits. Therefore, you should limit its use unless you are too busy to spend time with the rabbits. This pellet should only be given to rabbits as they are between the ages of 7 weeks and 7 months. The important point to use is that from the age of 7 months onwards, the pellet feed is only limited to rabbits, about 5% of their body weight. Because they will make the rabbit quickly obese, reducing the fertility of both female and male rabbits. It is quite a harsh fact that today people only come to rabbits as an animal to entertain after tired working hours but few pay attention to the care of pet rabbits. For many people who fill their buckets with food and water, changing the lining of the pen one to two times a week is done. But not. Rabbit care is more like that. Based on the "lazy" mentality of the owner, many animal feed manufacturers have launched a variety of products that even a small handful of food can give your rabbit a great number of nutrients. Some of the highly-rated foods on Amazon include: Wild Harvest Advanced Nutrition Diet for Adult Rabbits Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Rabbit Food Mix SCIENCE Selective Supreme Junior Rabbit Food 4lb Oxbow Bene Terra Organic Rabbit Food Earthborn Holistic Unrefined with Ancient Grains & Superfoods Dry Dog & Puppy Food Feeding frequency Large sources of nutrients are incorporated into a limited amount of food. That means the amount of preservative that comes with each such package is quite large and they can have a direct negative effect on your pet. Please note the use of the above foods within a limit allowed. Someday, take your rabbit out to a field or a small space in the park and let him nibble on some grass. That's the real connection we are trying to get, isn't it? 5. Drinking water No animal can live without water no matter how high their stamina is. There is a misconception that persists among rabbit farmers that rabbits don't know how to drink water?!? Many people apply it in such a misleading way that they do not provide drinking water. They are confident that rabbits can survive because they are only fed fresh grass and rely on the water in the grass to sustain themselves. This directly harms the health of the rabbit. The demand for drinking water with rabbits is no different than other animals. The drier foods they eat, such as hay, the bran pellets become thirsty. Therefore, you only need to catch a rabbit to water for one day and it will become emaciated. Who would have thought that a rabbit is only a few months old, needs to drink a little water every day. Male rabbits and pregnant rabbits drink up to half a liter of water a day. Rabbits needing more than one liter of water a day to be able to produce more milk for their babies. Rabbit drinking water is best from tap water, rainwater ... In general, it is best to use clean water for humans. Clean water into a rabbit's trough several times a day. Overnight leftover drinking water must be discarded and scouring the trough to clean before adding new water. Rabbit water bowls also help to drink healthy water. 6. Reproductive characteristics of rabbits This is an unimportant problem for owners who own small rabbits. If you only have one, you probably won't care much about whether your rabbit will be male every day, whether it's likely to be infertile or not... That's for sure. But when you want to give birth or take care of a tiny baby from birth to independence, this is one of the most important issues. I will not talk too deeply into the specialized biological characteristics such as the openness of the female rabbit. Those articles need "rabbit researchers" to be able to understand and apply. One thing for sure, you should keep in mind that rabbits of the estrus age often exhibit extremely unusual behavior. No text provides accurate information as to when your pet should mate. Some texts state that only when rabbits reach the age of 2.5-3 months are they able to perform the maintenance of their race, some authors claim by the end of the 4th month. In my opinion, when performing the reproductive function, the rabbit's body will be subjected to a lot of great changes and need to have good preparation of "infrastructure". Because of this, it is recommended that mating, fertilization, and pregnancy should only take place at the beginning of the 8th month of pregnancy. Thanks to strong physical strength, the rabbit can reproduce well, and the reproductive time of female rabbits longer rafters than raising for early birth. Estrus behavior As for the estrus behavior of female rabbits, this will be clearly shown by the rabbit's external behavior. Although the first, as well as the next, female rabbits, have different manifestations exposed. If we pay close attention, tracking will be easy to know. On the other hand, if one neglects to pay attention to it, then one has to miss a cycle (about half a month), because of the "exciting" phenomena that female rabbits show during heat are usually very short in one session. come on. Observe all the unusual activities of the rabbit: Normally, the rabbit moves in his stall very deliberately, gently, slowly, but when it comes to estrus all his activities become different, he often hopping back and forth in the barn in a hyperactive manner. Aggressive bites Besides, the rabbits aggressively bite and break down the feeder, drinker, and then churn the straw and hay to feed the rabbits. During these hours, the female rabbit refuses to stand still. If lying down, he will stand up the high butt, ready to wait for the male rabbits to mate. In terms of diet, those days the rabbits were very anorexic, some children didn't mind eating. After the mating behavior of the rabbit is done, you will need to pay special attention to the health of the female rabbit. There will be the following periods that you need to consider. The gestation period is from 28 to 30 days, if the calving rate is usually, the gestation time will be extended by 1-3 days. Before laying rabbits, they often steal grasses and leaves into the nest and pluck their feathers, scratching their fur mixed with the underwear of the nest to make a soft nest. Rabbits lay 1 - 11 children, usually 6 - 9 children per litter. After giving birth, the mother rabbits usually eat each other, including many vitamins and sex hormones. The baby rabbits give birth, the mother rabbits lick the whole body and cover the whole fur. Mother rabbit has lactating milk to raise children, pregnant. So, after giving birth 1 - 3 days to mate. Mother rabbits after birth should be given antibiotics 3 days to prevent genital infections (metritis, mastitis). Can inject one of the following antibiotics: Forloxin (1 ml / 8 - 10 kg body weight, day / time, 3 consecutive days) or Vime-Apracin (1 ml / 5 - 7 kg body weight, day / time , 3 consecutive days) or Ceptiket (1ml / 10 kg of body weight, day / time, 3 consecutive days) 7. Some common diseases in Rabbits Pasteurellosis Cause Caused by Pasteurella multocida, the disease spreads quickly through the respiratory tract. The disease can occur at any age of rabbits and is considered the most dangerous disease for rabbits. Symptoms Rabbits eat poorly, have a fever of 41-42 degrees Celsius, shortness of breath, red-eye conjunctiva, and runny nose with oily fluid, diarrhea, thinning and dying after 2 to 5 days of showing the disease. The disease in the acute form of the rabbit dies very quickly within a few hours of manifesting the disease, almost without showing symptoms. Prevention The first thing you should pay attention to is that you should not put rabbits in any of the cages of any other animals, especially chickens and pigs because their resistance is very weak and there is a potential risk of spreading diseases from different types of animals. Increasing resistance to rabbits by periodically adding vitamins to food, or mixing them into the rabbit's drinking water. Especially, at the time of the season, it is advisable to use antibiotics (Streptomycin, Kanamycin ...) with a prevention dose equal to 1/2 of the therapeutic dose to prevent the disease. At the same time, farmers need to strengthen the disinfection of the barn with solutions such as Javen water (clothing bleach), 2% phenol, or formol, etc. We can prevent rabbits from disease by vaccination vaccine. Treatment Use specific drug Streptomycin at a dose of 0.01g / kg body weight, or use Kanamycin at a dose of 0.05g / kg body weight, or maybe oreomixin, teramixin ... to treat. Scabies Cause Caused by some types of exogenous parasites, scabies caused by parasites, the disease usually appears on the skin around the eyelids, nose, edge, toenails, heels, posterior skin subjects and genitalia. The disease usually occurs when conditions are poor hygiene, the disease occurs at all ages of rabbits. Symptoms This is one of the diseases with high prevalence and often appears in the summer. The disease does not cause the immediate death of rabbits, but the economic loss is huge, because the spread in the herd is very fast, making the rabbit thin and slow to grow. Some signs to identify a sick rabbit: rabbits often break itchy, shed and scaly. At the initial scabies site, hair loss is observed, then the white-gray bloody scales become thicker and dry up. Sometimes under purulent scabies pus due to infection causes dermatitis. Rabbits are noisy, eat poorly, get thinner and die. Disease prevention Rabbits should be ensured by hygienic and nurtured. Cages must be dry, clean, cool and moderate in density. Regularly check, quarantine and timely treat the animals that appear sick. Ivermectin can be used to prevent scabies at a dose equal to 1/2 the therapeutic dose, every 3 months. Treatment The specific drug is Ivermectin 2.5 (or Bivermectin), used subcutaneously. Dosage: 1 ml / 12 - 15 kg body weight, injected under the skin. You can also use a mixture of 1 part iodoform, 10 parts ether, and 25 parts of vegetable oil to apply to the scab. After the skin scab marks, repeat the treatment for 6-10 days, or wipe the wound with soap when waving (grinding scabies) soft, then gently remove, then apply benzoate benzene solution. Keep the barn clean and keep sick rabbits away. Diarrhea, abdominal distention Cause The disease occurs because rabbits eat bad food; sour food, rancid, moldy toxin; or because of the sudden change of food disturbs digestion. Untreated raw forages that contain too much water can also cause disease. Symptoms Diarrhea often occurs in post-weaning and adult rabbits. Rabbits have flatulence, belly is swollen, not quiet, short of breath, drooling around the edges and rabbits have diarrhea. Diarrhea has many forms: loose stool, gray with mucous membranes, bubbles, stomach lining with white mucus, pink intestine; Small, loose, soft stools, abdominal distension, intestinal bloating, bleeding; Loose stools like water, black, very stinky. Rabbits can die quickly from dehydration, electrolytes, and suffocation. Prevention Use clean, quality and hygienic food; When changing food sources, it is necessary to slowly transition to get used to the rabbit; It should be dried or stored before 1 day for green foods containing too much water. Treatment When manifestations of the disease, it is necessary to immediately stop eating, drinking and unhygienic factors. You can use Dilptomycin diluted for drinking 2-4 times/day, or for 1% nin-nin, or xintominxin, biomixin according to the manufacturer's instructions, combined with the use of water extracted from the leaves have acrid substances such as guava buds, tea buds, etc. and inject or take Vitamin A and B to increase resistance. Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Cause This is an acute infectious disease dangerous for both domestic and wild rabbits due to the Calicivirus virus. The disease affects rabbits of all ages, but clinical manifestations are only observed in rabbits 2 months of age and older. Mortality can range from 40 - 100%. Mode of transmission The disease can be transmitted by different routes, spread directly by direct contact with infected animals or indirectly through frozen carcasses or products from rabbits; through equipment and food contaminated with pathogens; through vectors transmitted from rats, farmers... The virus is present in the exudate, blood, and viscera, in the late stage, the virus can be found in the skin and mucous membranes. The ability to transmit disease through air and insects has not been proven. Symptoms The disease may manifest under 3 clinical forms. Super acute: The rabbit died suddenly after being infected 10 - 12 hours without any clinical symptoms, the most obvious manifestation was that the rabbit struggled strongly before dying. This form is most often seen at an early stage of an outbreak. Acute form: high fever 41 degrees Celsius; At first the rabbit appeared lethargic, moved slowly, before he became agitated, ran around the cage, convulsions, muscle tremors, squealed. Some rabbits present with suffocation as a result of sinus discharge that has blood and foam in them. This can usually occur in the middle of an outbreak. Chronic form: usually seen in rabbits under 3 months old with a bodyweight of 1.0 - 2 kg and usually occurs in the later stage of the epidemic. Rabbits become lethargic, suffer from anorexia and anorexia for 1-2 days, appear emaciated, ruffled and died. Preventing and treating diseases: When rabbits have been infected, the treatment has almost no results due to the virus pathogens, so farmers only prevent rabbits. The prevention of rabbit haemorrhage is firstly to apply biosecurity measures such as Quarantine, strict isolation, no import of rabbit meat, breeding animals, food in epidemic areas; cleaning, disinfecting cages periodically, using disinfectants for cages according to the instructions of veterinary staff or can use Benkocid according to the instructions of the manufacturer. Vaccination against rabbits is the most important method of prevention. Dosage of 1 ml / 1 rabbit from 2 months of age upwards, injected under the skin or muscle, can be repeated every 4 - 6 months. Note For any other disease that occurs in rabbits, the first thing you need to do is to calmly examine the rabbit's behavior for reference. After that, it is necessary to quickly take the rabbits to the veterinary facility for timely inspection and verification. You also need to pay attention to the rabbit heart vaccination, vaccines should be vaccinated for rabbits reaching 2 months of age or older, under the skin or muscle injection, every 4-6 months can be repeated. Conclusion In the context of the article, I hope that I have conveyed to you what may be considered most necessary on the journey to becoming a rabbit farmer. Taking care and raising rabbits does not fade easily. You have the time, you have the care and love, but without the knowledge, it's hard to do everything. Why not run to the pet store and grab an adorable bunny?