Keeping Your Rabbit a Healthy Rabbit

If you are going to keep a pet rabbit in your household, it's important to make sure he's a healthy rabbit. Keep your pet happy with these basic guidelines.

By Samantha Johnson and Daniel Johnson
Published on December 1, 2014

Looking to get a rabbit for a family pet? Samantha Johnson and Daniel Johnson have the information for raising baby bunnies into mature, award-winning adults in How to Raise Rabbits (Voyageur Press, 2011). This excerpt, which explains what to watch for and how to keep your pet rabbit healthy throughout his or her lifetime, is from Chapter 5, “The Healthy Rabbit.”

Keeping Your Rabbit a Healthy Rabbit

We have made this statement elsewhere, but it bears repeating again: basic health care starts with a clean rabbitry. If your cages are kept clean, the trays are emptied regularly, the cages are disinfected on occasion, your nest boxes are kept tidy, your waterers and feeders are washed regularly, and fresh water is provided at all times, the health of your rabbitry will be leaps and bounds ahead of that of another breeder who doesn’t follow the same protocol of cleanliness. A healthy rabbit cannot thrive in dirty conditions. In addition, a regular feeding program is essential to the good health of your herd. This means having regular times for feeding, as well as maintaining continuity of the components of your feeding program.

There is some difference of opinion as to the best routine for feeding rabbits to promote good health. It is generally accepted that rabbits eat most readily during the evening and overnight, so many rabbit breeders give pellets and hay during the evening feeding. Some breeders feed their rabbits only once a day, while others feed pellets and hay in the morning, as well as in the evening. Others provide pellets in the evening and hay in the morning. Whichever routine you settle upon, always try to maintain regularity and feed your animals at the same time each day. Rabbits, like so many other animals, thrive on a routine and expect their food at the same time each day. Don’t disappoint them.

Personally speaking, I feed my rabbits pellets twice per day. I feed hay once a day as free choice in their hay racks, and if I notice that they’ve eaten it all when I feed them the second round of pellets for the day, I refill the rack. I like them to have the option of munching on hay at all times. It helps to relieve boredom and keeps them busy. My twice-per-day feeding routine stems from years of raising horses and the habit of heading to the barn twice a day to feed the horses. It naturally followed that my rabbits are on the twice-daily feeding routine.

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