I'll be right up front.. I tend not to worry about litter box habits since
1. my rabbits are housed in hygienic wire bottomed cages. and 2. whenever I've had to litter train a rabbit it has been so unbelievably easy to not even be an issue. When I've advised people on litter box training I tell them NOT to put the litter box in right away, but give bunny a chance to pick their potty corner (with young bunnies can take a week or so) THEN take the dirty litter, place in litter box, put litter box in the same corner. Hanging hay in the corner seems to help. With adult bunnies I just take some urine based litter put in a litter box wherever I like and the adult bunny will use it without fail. BUT recently I had a lady email. She's having trouble getting a 100% litter box trained bunny. Well.. I've been talking with folks. Getting a 100% trained bunny is not generally going to happen. You see what happens is that rabbits scent mark. They will almost always leave some bunny berries behind as they explore their living space. Bunny berries are REALLY easy to clean up. Just sweep 'em into a dust pan and into your composter if you have one, or garbage if you don't. NOW the problem may be that your young rabbit is maturing Maturing rabbits, just like maturing teenagers, sometimes have less than ideal bathroom habits. They have to deal with hormones and learning (or re-learning) correct habits. Give them time to sort it through OR if it's being problematic... Get a neutering job done. Neutering helps get rid of the hormones (particularly in a boy rabbit) and will in a girl rabbit as long as the job is done completely. Whenever I have needed to bathe my rabbit I simply have run some warm water, stuck bunny into it. swished him/her around and then held a towel until dry. Easy peasey. :) They never get overly dirty so they don't really need that much of a bath. BUT some bunnies get rather dirty sometimes...bucks from pee spray (if they are sprayers) and sometimes does get messy when caring for a litter and wee youngsters when learning to care for themselves sometimes just need a helping hand. These are cases OUT OF THE ORDINARY. Normally bunnies do NOT need to be bathed. They keep themselves clean. There are two main methods 1. Dry method. use cornstarch, work it into the coat and brush it out. As it comes out it takes the dirt with it. 2. Wet Method. Give the rabbit a bath in warm water. Towel dry the bunny well. Do not get the rabbit wetter than you have to. Really no need to wash the whole rabbit if only his feet and rear end are dirty. To get rid of pee stains use vinegar or lemon juice. Just spritz it on, wait a spell and then rinse it off. :) Links
Lots of things a person can do about odour in the rabbitry
There's a product called ABATE XP which is really outstanding at all odor control/neutralization. Worst case, when I had to scrape the entire rabbit area down to black STINKY gunk, a pound of this stuff, sprinkled dry, then lightly watered, on a 40x40 foot area....totally eliminated ALL odor within 2 hours. That's pretty darn impressive! Keeping flies away is imporant in a rabbitry. Helps to prevent fly strike! (you just don't want to go there ...not a fun place to be).
Numerous things can be done to keep flies populations down.
Remove all maggots, give a flush to the area with peroxide, and just hope that you got them all. REMOVE the rabbit to someplace with zero fly population and just hope that she makes it. I've used ivermectin before which acts quickly, but you're still just hoping that the rabbit will want to live. Here are some other methods that people have used. I can't vouch for them, but if they work for you YEAH!!!
Bunnies like and need hay. It gives them something to munch on without getting fat, and gives them fiber to keep things moving along. Both are important for rabbits.
Given a chance though...rabbits will sit in their food to eat it. This results in a fair amount of spoilage. Hay racks help prevent spoilage. Here are some pages on either hay racks to purchase or that can be made. Rabbitweb: how to make a hay rack Using a Suet Holder Guinea Pig hay rack(works for rabbits too) ZooPlus has this idea for a hay rack From At Home Pets this post. Other ideas that I have heard.
NOTE: use your brain when giving foods to rabbits. start tiny, monitor health, and then increase portions. Too much of any one thing is never a good idea.
NOTE: I am NOT vouching for the safety of this list, as you will see from my personal notes that I don't have a problem with some things that she says are a problem, and other things are cautionary that she doesn't comment on. I saw it, thought hmm....this might give some ideas. Why not keep an reference to it. The following comes from here. Bunny ForageI I've been looking for a list of plants and such that are OK to feed to rabbits, as well as those that are big no-nos. I stumbled across this list while researching as to whether it is safe to feed pigweed to chickens (it seems to grow very well in spots where I have had my mobile chicken pen...) I call this method of research where I find answers to one question while searching for the answers to another "Planned Serendipity" The rest of what follows is from http://www.carlaemery.com/newsletter03.htm Home-fed Rabbits--Rabbits are a little picker than chickens. They are, of course, herbivores. They like to eat at night. In the daytime when I'm working in the garden, I stuff their cages with stuff I know they like: sunflower stalks, Jerusalem artichoke stalks, Bermuda grass, celery and celery root, carrots, prunings from fruit trees. In the morning, there'll be much less, as they eat their way through the jungle. A rabbit in a cage crammed with food is a happy rabbit! I grow wheat and snip off green tops for them. They love that too. Here's more info on what rabbits can and can't eat... CAN EAT: Acacia: no food value, but twigs can be entertainment Alfalfa: fresh or hay Apples: all parts Barley Beans and bean vines (not soybean) Beets: both top and root of regular, sugar, or mangel Bermuda grass Blackberry bush leaves Bluegrasses, including Canadian Bread: dry, or soaked in milk Buckwheat Cabbage: some is okay, too much may cause goiter Carpet grass Carrot: root and tops. Cereals (if fat-free and fresh) Cheeseweed (malva) Chicories Clovers: any but sweet clover Coltsfoot Corn: fresh or dried ears, fresh or dried stalks. Cow Parsnip Crabgrass Dandelion Dogwood Fescue: red, etc. Filaree (stork's bill) Grains: all types, unless dirty, damp, or moldy Grapefruit: all parts (don't feed too much) Grass: Lawn clippings, grass grains, as long as they carry no insecticides & are fresh Hazelnut leave Jerusalem artichokes: tops, stems, or roots Kale Kentucky bluegrass Knotgrass Kohlrabi: all parts of plant okay Kudzu Lettuce: all kinds - personal note: be aware that iceberg lettuce can cause problems. Feed VERY limited amounts. Lespedeza Malva (cheeseweed) Meadow fescue Milk: fresh or sour, as well as milk products Millet: foxtail and Japanese Milo Napier grass Oats Oranges: all parts (don't feed too much) Orchard grass Panicgrass Parsnips Peas and pea vines Plantain Poplar Potato: but, not peelings, sprouts or leaves! Prairie grass Redtop grass Rhodes grass Root vegetables Rye, rye grass, and Italian rye grass Sheep sorrel Sorghum grains Spinach: in limited amount Sprouted grains Sudan grass Sumac Sunflower: leaves, stalks, or seeds Sweet potatoes: vines or tubers Swiss chard: in limited amount Timothy Turkey mullein Turnips: all parts of plant Vetch Wheat Willow BAD FOR BUNNY: Some greens are high in oxalic acid in the uncooked state: pigweed, amaranth greens, spinach, comfrey, and Swiss chard. To a small-weight rabbit, especially a young one, these can be a problem. I do feed some spinach and chard to mine because they like it, but I don't give them a whole lot. The plants listed below range from deadly poisonous, to hard-on-a-bunny, to no nutritional value. Amaranth Arrowgrass Bracken fern Bromweed Buckeye Burdock Castor beans Cherry leaves Chinaberry Chokecherry leaves or pits Comfrey --- Personal note: some folks feed this with no problems. Fireweed Foxglove Goldenrod Hemlock, poison/water Horehound Jimson weed Johnson grass Larkspur Laurel Lupine Mesquite Milkweed -- personal note: yet wild bunnies have been known to eat this no probs. Miner's lettuce Moldy bread, moldy anything Oak Oleander Pigweed - personal note: mine will eat the young leaves, they leave the stalk and older leaves Poppy Potato leaves, sprouts, or peels Rhubarb leaves Soybeans or soybean vines Sweet clover - personal note -- what's wrong with clover? Tarweed Tomato leaves Other personal notes: mine will eat melon rinds of all sorts ... plus any flesh I leave on them. I make a point of only feeding one slice per week. Don't want to overdo this wet food at all. Mine do not do well on cabbage itself, they can handle limited amounts of broccoli stalks. I am VERY careful with this family of plants. For other ideas check out carla's page here. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2014
Categories
All
|