Category: Animal Welfare

Gestation, Grooming, Giant Rabbits

4/11/2019

You'll find a rabbit post on the "g's" of rabbits located here. In this article I talked about Gestation, grooming and giant rabbits.

Wafer is the largest rabbit I own. She is half Flemish Giant. She is a bossy but easy for everyone to get along with. She just knows what she wants and that I usually give it to her without much fuss. :)

Flemish Giants are the most common giant breed of rabbit in North America. They are very similar to the Continental Giant.

Baby rabbits are normally born 31 days after breeding. Their mom makes them a lovely nest of fur and bedding and cares for them once or twice a day.

This is a picture of Horatio. He was going through a heavy moult and needed help to feel comfortable. I needed to bring him out to my board over the compost bin and pull out his tufts of fur and also run my hands through this fur backwards while slightly damp. Doing this for 10 days helped him get through his moult without being too uncomfortable.

Anyways, go read the full article here!

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Errors in Judgement

3/26/2019

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No one is perfect in how they raise their rabbits, mistakes will happen. The only question is, can you learn from them?

These mistakes vary from small to large and sometimes happen because events outside the rabbitry intervene. Join me as we talk about Errors in Judgement.

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Discussing Death

3/26/2019

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If you raise animals, death will become part of the equation.

I don’t know of any rabbit breeder who hasn’t experience death in their rabbitry. Now I know, I just finished talking to you about culling. I’m not talking about the deliberate death that you either choose or is needful, I’m speaking to the unexpected death that happens.

Discussing Death .it is not an easy thing to do, but very necessary.

Illness, injury, stress, weather concerns and more. Death comes for a variety of reasons. Read more here.

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Culling Well

3/15/2019

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An important aspect of raising rabbits (or any animal for that matter) is removing animals from your herd.

Sometimes this removal is planned

Breeding rabbits for show and needing to sell those who don't qualify
Deliberate breeding for companion animals
Breeding for food production
Raising up youngsters and no longer needing their parents
Choosing to downsize

At other times, it's just not planned

sick animals
animal didn't sell you thought would
animal returned to you
outside influences: Illness, family concerns, jobs, school, etc.

Regardless of the Reason

You need to know your options for culling well. This article will help.

In a nutshell you can sell or kill.

Sell

Only animals that are temperamentally and physically sound. Do not sell animals that are sick. You have no business ethically of passing along your problem to someone else. I know that sometimes animals get sick moving into a new home, I get that. Stress does weird things to rabbits. I'm not talking about rabbits who end up completely surprising you with health issues. What i mean is deliberately selling a rabbit who isn't eating, blows snot, has a weepy eye or whatever. Just don't do it.

Sell well. Honestly answer questions about your rabbits. Give out accurate pedigrees, Do what you say you will.

Cull

Anything you aren't selling. Make sure you have a back up method if your primary method fails for whatever reason.

You can

use them as food (yourself, pets, other animals)
bury them (enrich the soil)
bring them to a forest for animals to enjoy
donate to a wild animal rescue, zoo

Go On... go read the full article!

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Quick Rabbit Carrier Build

1/21/2017

Sometimes one doesn't have access to an all wire carrier OR you need something that will house a rabbit differently over a few days.

Enter in the Rubbermaid Carrier.

Rubbermaid carrier are fairly easy to do. You need some decent tools.

A sharp knife
Wire cutters
zipties
Rubbermaid container
wire
Drill with two different sizes bits
Jigsaw

Measure out where you want your wire to go. Cut your wire to the appropriate size. Hold it up where you are going to place it and trace around the outside with a dark marker. Measure in about 1.5 cm in from the wire edge, this is where you will cut the opening.

Use The bigger bit to make a hole big enough for the jigsaw blade to fit through. Use a narrow blade.

Go slowly and don't be surprised if you can only do one cut or possibly two, depends on the thickness of your rubbermaid container. Mine were fairly thin, so we made one cut with the jigsaw and cut the rest with a very sharp knife.

Once you have the plastic cut, use a drill bit just big enough for your ziptie to go through and drill all around your marked line for the wire. We marked where we drilled with the ziptie, and drill two holes, one on each side of the dark line (where the wire will be placed).

Put the wire on the INSIDE of the carrier to prevent rabbit from nibbling on the plastic. Then trim the ziptie ends short.

When you are done you will have a carrier that will work as an emergency bunny nesting site in the winter, as a carrier to take to shows or to just transport a rabbit.

In this particular case the carrier cost us $6.oo. We already had all the supplies.

Fit the rabbit to the box. This rubbermaid carrier will fit a rabbit up to 3 lbs, after that you will be looking into larger rubbermaid containers.

You can make them so they open from the side AND the top. If you are confident in your abilities you could wire on two sides. They are stackable if you need to bring in more than one rabbit in the winter.

I made this one to transport a small rabbit that had to sit for a week at a transporters home without having to worry if the carrier didn't come home. BUT with the view in mind of living in southwestern Ontario and occasionally having to bring kindling does in the house during hard cold spells.

This could also be used as a guinea pig or other small animal carrier. Change the size of the wire as needed.

Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease in Quebec

9/1/2016

Important message, please SPREAD THE WORD TO ALL BREEDERS:

Limit rabbits movements; sales, purchases, agricultural exhibitions, shows, rallies.

If suspected, contact 1-844-ANIMALS; unusual symptoms, mortality, etc.

This is the statement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency:

Declaration: Survey of a local outbreak of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in Quebec

August 25, 2016 - Ottawa (Ontario) - Government of Canada

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) investigation of a local outbreak of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) in small recreational farms East-du-Québec.

A survey is conducted on three farms near Rimouski, Quebec. The three farms are under quarantine to control the movements of animals, products and equipment and to prevent the spread of the disease. The outbreak is restricted to small recreational farms. Rabbits breeding commercial farms are not subject to this investigation.

The rabbit haemorrhagic disease is highly contagious and often fatal for the affected rabbits. This virus is transmitted to other rabbits through secretions, including saliva, eyes and nose runny, urine, feces and bedding, contaminated food and water. It can also be spread accidentally by humans, wildlife and insects or infected meat or fur.

The disease does not affect humans and has never been known impacts in other animals.

We remind operators of commercial and recreational farms to use biosecurity practices to minimize the risk of spread of the disease. Producers must do the following:

Report any suspicious symptoms to a veterinarian or provincial veterinary authority. 1-844-animals

Do not introduce new rabbits in their establishment if the animals come from a place where there was illness or death during the previous 60 days.

The CFIA is working with the province of Quebec as part of this survey and will provide updates as they become available.

UPDATE!!!!
Update on the Quebec Rabbit Hemmorhagic Disease. Only two PET rabbits at ONE person's home tested positive for the disease in Rimouski Quebec. The other two farms are under quarantine only because of the close proximity to the one hobby farm. This information came from the Veterinarian in Rimouski. No info yet on where the rabbits got this disease from. There are NO other cases.

What is RVHD?

Rabbit Viral Hemorrhagic Disease (VHD) is a highly contagious disease caused by a calicivirus that affects only rabbits of the Oryctolagus cuniculus species. This includes wild and domesticated European rabbits, from which our own domesticated rabbits are descended. It has not been known to affect any North American native rabbits or hares, such as cottontails, snowshoe hares and jackrabbits. VHD is also known by several other acronyms: RHD (Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease), RCV (Rabbit Calicivirus), and RCD (Rabbit Calicivirus Disease). VHD was first seen in China in 1984, and has since spread to Mexico, Continental Europe, Israel, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Symptoms may include:

Loss of appetite
Lethargy
High Fever
Spasms
Sudden death

VHD, however, is often a very swift and sudden killer, giving little warning. Rabbits may die without showing any symptoms at all. Some bleeding from the nose, mouth and rectum is sometimes seen. Any sudden rabbit death is suspicious and should be reported to your veterinarian or the State Veterinarian as a possible case of VHD

The incubation period of this disease is very short, and rabbits may die within 48 hours of exposure to the virus that causes VHD.
The death rate of rabbits exposed to this virus is very high, between 50 and 100%, with the latter number probably being closer to actual mortality rates. Rabbits who survive this disease are carriers and shed the virus for at least 42 days, perhaps longer.
Rabbit calicivirus is a very hardy virus, remaining viable in the environment for 105 days at 68F (i.e. remains stable for 105 days at room temperature) and for 225 days at 39F. It resists freezing.
There is no known cure for VHD. Vaccinations are available in countries where the disease in endemic, but there is no vaccine currently available in the US.

Suggestion:

Do not buy any rabbits from Quebec at this time. We have no vaccine available in Canada. Exercise caution when buying rabbits from breeders who have shown rabbits in or near Quebec. Contain this rabbit deadly virus.

Saving Baby Rabbits

2/17/2016

A baby rabbit is never dead until it is WARM and dead.

Tips:
1. Warm them up slowly
2. warm them all the way through before returning them to a WARM nest.

Ways to warm them
1. heating blanket set on low
2. warm water bags
3 heating rice bags.
etc.

My preferred method is to place them on the edge of a warm litter of older kits. This warms them up well and I'll often find them later in the middle of the heap. If I don't have an older litter I will bring them in and put them in a warm rice bag with towels from the dryer all around them.

Rabbits in the Winter

2/14/2016

Found this video on Youtube about caring for rabbits in the winter. Thought it had some good points (protecting from the wind, changing how you water them, providing hidey holes for warmth). I didn't agree with everything in the video though.

What didn't I agree with?
1. feeding lots of sugary foods. Rabbits in the winter don't need extra feed, they just need GOOD feed and it's not a time to put them on a diet.

My rabbits get hay and pellets one day, a grain mix and pellets the next. Days alternate. The rabbits do well. In winters where the weather is up and down I add pineapple juice into their water. It seems to raise the freezing temp (so water doesn't freeze as quickly) and it encourages the rabbits to drink more.

2. Not breeding in the winter because the babies will freeze. Is there a risk that babies will freeze? Yes, but it happens less frequently than you might suppose. If momma does her job properly the kits will be born into a well made nest. AND one can bring babies in the house if its particularly cold out (they generally only have to come in until they are well furred). Litters of more than four rarely have to come inside.

So what do rabbits NEED in the winter?

1. recognition that they come with built in fur coats so don't make them too warm. No heat lamps necessary. They do need protection from the wind.

2. Good food. Not extra feed, but good feed. Not a time for diets unless you have a fat rabbit.

3. Water in bowls not bottles UNLESS you have heated water bottles. Give them new water at least twice a day.

4. Breeding is fine as long as momma does her job. Bring small kits inside for a week until their fur comes in.

5. Giving a box to sit in if rabbits are acting cold. Some rabbits don't get cold, others like to get up off the wire. So weigh out your rabbits needs.

Checking Rabbit Weights

11/12/2015

I don't like linking to House Rabbit Society materials, but in this case.. it works. This table is helpful to people wondering if their rabbit is at a good weight or not.

I did try to find a video that would help as well but ended up annoyed at them.

So instead, let's just talk.

Overweight Rabbits and how to help them lose weight
Helping rabbits lose weight is fairly straight forward.
1. NO TREATS... so no apples, cheerios, bread nothing like that. NO yogurt drops.
2. Increase fibre... means giving them more grass hay. NOT a legume hay, just a simple grass hay and lots of it
3. Decrease pellets.
4. Increase exercise.

How to increase exercise?
In a caged rabbit.. add things that they have to jump over to get from their water to their food. Add a resting box they have to jump up on to reach.

For a house rabbit... put their food bowl into a different place, make food a reward for good behaviour, as a training reward.

Underweight Rabbits and how to help them gain weight
Helping rabbits gain weight is relatively easy.
1. Add safe treats...NOT yogurt drops but things like oatmeal and black oil sunflower seeds
2. moderate amount of hay
3. increase the amount of pellets

Keeping your rabbit at a good weight is important for several reasons
1. Obese rabbits can not keep themselves clean
2. Obese rabbits are more likely to develop joint and feet problems
3. Excess fat makes it harder for the internal organs to function properly.

So monitor your rabbits condition. It is better if they are a little thin then a little fat. It's easier to add the weight than it is to take it off again.

Pumpkin Surprise for Guinea Pigs

10/27/2015

Someone on Rabbittalk posted these pics of their guinea pigs. Isn't that just the nicest thing to do for your piggies?? Made me smile through and through.... and plan for after Hallowe'en to put the pumpkins out with the guinea pigs. :)

Those piggies are certainly intrigued aren't they?

<<Previous

Gestation, Grooming, Giant Rabbits

Errors in Judgement

Discussing Death

Culling Well

Regardless of the Reason

Sell

Cull

Quick Rabbit Carrier Build

Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease in Quebec

What is RVHD?

Suggestion:

Saving Baby Rabbits

Rabbits in the Winter

Checking Rabbit Weights

Pumpkin Surprise for Guinea Pigs

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