With Easter being next month I felt his was a good time to post about whether a rabbit is the right pet for your family. I rescued at least 24 rabbits when I was fostering caged pets. I fostered a variety of types & sizes, straight up ears & lopped-ear rabbits, babies & adults. Some people think they make great Easter gifts for their kids, a pet should never be a surprise gift. If your family has researched the type of pet they want & discussed & all are on board, then a gift card saying you’re going to pick one out together is a much better idea. A pet should pick their family just like you pick your spouse or roommate.
Rabbits require daily care, scooping litter box, feeding fresh veggies daily, fresh hay & pellets twice a day. Through cage cleaning weekly or more & brushing the rabbit weekly. They need attention & handling daily to stay tame & exercise to stay healthy.
A home with a prey driven dog is not a good place for a rabbit, they will be stressed if a dog is trying to get to them or at their cage all the time. I have a Hunting breed mix, & a Pitt mix so I know with them around a rabbit is not a good pet for me at this time. Some rabbits have been known to die from fear.
A home with a cat that will ever be in the room with the rabbit whether caged or not is not safe. Cats instinctively go after rabbits & the enzyme in a cats saliva is VERY dangerous to rabbits & other small caged pets. A cat can just lick an opening of a rabbit (ear,nose, mouth or eye) & infect the rabbit & it can die. A small scratch from a cat can get infected & be deadly. If you have a cat then either keep the cat out of any area/room when the rabbit is there or reconsider getting a rabbit while you have a cat.
Rabbits are messy & not the best pet for a person who is a neat freak.
Rabbits live 8-12 years, so you need to be sure your ready for that commitment.
Rabbits need to see an Exotic Vet yearly for an exam & many Exotic Vets charge more for a visit than a regular exam for say a dog or cat. Also I recommend you find where the closest ER Vet is that treats exotic Pets as emergencies often happen on weekends or late when regular Vet is closed.
The rabbit in the photo below is one that my son “Cody” from another mother found while walking with a friend. They came to me & we went to where they saw it & searched for it. It was on a peninsula between the river, no way it got there on its own, it was dumped. By the timing of the year we are guessing an Easter bunny gift, no longer wanted. There are no houses near that area. We searched for it for about an hour, when we finally found it, the park district police kicked us out because it was late. We saw a cat near by as we were leaving & were concerned for the rabbit. We made arrangements with friends to meet there the next AM to try & catch it. We had about 6-10 people helping & 2 fishing nets & 2 rolls of plastic winter fencing. After several hours & gradually getting it fenced off, oh it got passed us quite a few times. We finally got her, I told Cody if it’s a female he could name her & told Micah he could name it if a male. These two guys were the netters & the quickest of the group. It was a young female that was dirty, hungry & thirsty. She most likely stayed alive eating grass, but she didn’t know how to get water. Domestic rabbits use a water bottle, so she was most likely dehydrated, just getting a little moisture from grasses. Glad we caught her & ‘Hope’ is what Cody named her, saying hope we catch it, hope we find her, hope she’s ok. Hope was taken to a Vet & sprayed before she was adopted out to a nice family.
Please know if you get a pet for your kids, you as the adult will most likely be the one caring for the pet. As much as I loved my dog & cat growing up they most likely would have starved or thirst to death had it been up to me. I was lazy & wanted to play & go hang with my friends, not do pet chores. My mom had to remind me often & I’m sure checked on my hamster & chameleons that were mine to care for. She was scared of them so she didn’t feed them, & sadly I have to say they were not cared for by me as a young child like they should have been. As I grew up & became more responsible I took care of them without always being reminded.
Rabbits are indoor pets unless your a show rabbit person or breed them for food or pelts. Rabbit need lots of space to move around & a penned area like an exercise pen to live in or around their cage for exercise time. This is a nice one because there is a caged area you can close off when your not around to monitor or when cleaning the one area. https://amzn.to/3Fen77i This one has a top & is a good play area & exercise also good for a rabbit when you clean its cage https://amzn.to/41P2HKW Rabbits can be territorial & best to clean their cage when they are not in it or they may bat at you or nip you. You don’t want this to start as the rabbit will learn quickly how to make you go away.
I will be blogging a series on rabbit care over the next few weeks, so if you have a rabbit or plan to get one please check back for more rabbit info so your rabbit can be the healthiest & happiest possible. We want them to not just survive but thrive. There is a table of contents on my blogs home page, upper left click on the 3 lines, it will list all the posts titles making it easier to find.
If you have questions you can email me or comment in this blog. Please share and like posts so others can see them as well. echoinggreatpetcare@gmail.com
Echoing Great Pet Care 