Raising Healthy Rabbits
The main mistake people tend to make in trying to raise healthy rabbits is to provide too much warmth. Rabbits tend to do better in colder weather and tend to overheat easily in the summer months. Rabbits have a very fragile heart and overheating can easily lead to death by cardiac arrest. In the colder months that are not so severe (at or above freezing) simply provide them with adequate shelter and a way to get out of the elements and use body heat of other rabbits to stay warm and they should be just fine.
In the very cold months, provide a source of heat but also a way to escape from it so if they begin to feel too hot they can simply go to another area of the rabbit house or hutch. Rabbits do not sweat, neither do they pant or release heat in the way some other mammals do. Rabbits dissipate that extra heat only through their useful ears. Do monitor your rabbits in the winter and always provide a shelter, but remember they are no colder than you in your thick coat, gloves and mittens.
The summer months can be rough on rabbits and steps are needed to be provided to keep them from heat exhaustion. Simple solutions are to provide frozen bottles of water in the rabbit hutch. Aside from overheating there are other ways in which you need to keep your rabbit healthy. Provide plenty of water all the time but try to somewhat limit your rabbits’ amount of food if possible, as an overweight rabbit can experience many health problems. Rabbits eat about 4 oz of food per day. Provide enough for all rabbits once per day and do not refill until the next morning even when it is gone.
Keep the area they sleep and play clean by removing the rabbit droppings as needed. Some rabbits are very clean and will only go in one area, making the cleaning process very easy, others will spread their droppings all over and it will take more work to ensure the cleanliness of the hutch. Never leave rabbits to sit in the used rabbit litter as the urine can actually burn through their fur and cause nasty and painful rashes on their skin. The unclean feces, no matter how small, attract flies and their larvae which will end up with adult rabbits sick and many deaths of baby rabbits when the flies lay their eggs.
It is also very necessary for your domestic rabbit's health that they have daily attention and some grooming. They may not need this grooming physically but mentally they do. Rabbits can form close attachments with their caretakers and suddenly ignoring them for days can cause depression and health problems. So be good to your rabbit and he or she will almost certainly live a long and healthy life.
You are free to use this article on your website or for your email list as long as this resource box is left intact. Don't forget to join our affiliate program and earn great commission! Our affiliate program is managed by a third party payment processor, Clickbank.