Homemade decorative rabbits

Decorative rabbits have recently become very popular. These cute little animals are bought as a gift to children or just as their home companions. The care and maintenance of animals is simple. Food for them is cheaper than meat for cats and dogs. After all, rabbits are herbivores, hay for them can be prepared independently, and vegetables and grain cost a penny.

Decorative rabbits

Preparing to buy a rabbit

Before deciding to buy a pet, read all about decorative rabbits. It is important to learn how to care for them, what to feed, what diseases they encounter. After that, it’s worth deciding whether you want to start a large or dwarf animal, because the size of the cage and the place that you should allocate for it depend pet.

You can keep a rabbit in a cage or in an aviary.The requirements for the cells in which they will live are as follows:

• It is desirable to choose a size 4 times larger than the size of the rabbit, the normal area is not less than 60 × 80 cm
• Pallet in the cage should only be plastic so that the baby does not damage its paws and claws, before settling the rabbit it should be washed
• The litter is made from sawdust or shavings, the rabbit will simply eat straw
• You need to prepare a special tray for the toilet, but it’s worth putting it in the cage after it has been mastered by the tenant
• Special cribs for hay and feeders are put in the cage for grain and wet agitators, a drinking bowl or a bowl for water
• It is also necessary to equip a small house where the animal can hide
• If desired, you can put a wheel or another toy in the cage
• A rabbit can grind its claws on its own if it has the ability to dig holes in a deep litter.

An aviary for a rabbit can be made independently. You need to build a fence of plywood or mesh, lay a wicker rug on the floor, covering it with sawdust on top. As in a cage, a manger for hay, a food bowl and a drinking bowl should be put in the enclosure. Be sure to come up with a small house for the rabbit, prepare a toilet tray for it.

The cage or aviary should be placed in a shaded place, away from drafts or heating appliances. It is advisable that the rabbit live in the bedroom, where people rarely go during the day. If this is not possible, settle the animal in the quietest corner of the house.In the afternoon he loves silence, his noise scares him greatly, the animal gets stress. Excitement reduces the life span of decorative rabbits.

Buying a rabbit

So, everything is ready to receive a new tenant in the house. Now you can start choosing and buying. It is best to purchase a small animal in a trusted pet store or go to a nursery for decorative rabbits. So you will have more chances to get a healthy animal of the desired breed.

How to choose a decorative rabbit? First you need to know that these animals are ordinary and dwarf size. Mini animals will not take up much space in the apartment, they do not need a huge cage. The weight of the babies is about 1 kg, and the weight of large decorative species is 3-4 kg. In addition, dwarf breeds look very cute. Large rabbits are also decorative, but they need a lot of space, feed, an aviary or a cage will occupy almost half of the room.

Now it’s worth deciding on the length of the coat. According to this principle, rabbits are divided into:

• Shorthair
• Normal Coat
• Longhair.

Care for short and medium the wool is very simple, it does not need to be combed. But longhair require regular procedures, otherwise their fur will get confused and will look ugly. Rabbits also differ in the shape of their ears. Fold rams are very popular now, they look pretty, but also require special care.Animals can have very different colors – white, black, white with black, red, gray, spotted, very beautiful blue animals.

Choice of breed and price

The oldest decorative the breed is considered to be the white Polish decorative rabbit Garmelin, who bred it is unknown. The most popular and beautiful varieties:

• Hermeline
• Dutch color minor
• Dwarf lop-eared sheep
• Angora
• Viennese blue dwarfs
• Lion-headed
• Foxes
• Japanese
• Dwarf Rex

How many is a decorative rabbit? This question often worries novice owners. The cost of decorative rabbits depends on the breed, its purity and place of purchase of animals. The price of dwarf pets starts at 1000 rubles per individual. You can find cheaper, but the quality and health of such animals is doubtful. In nurseries and shops, the average cost is 1500-2500 rubles. Elite breeds cost 3,500-4,000 rubles. If a rabbit is from show parents, they ask for 5000-7000 rubles for it.

Before buying, be sure to read how to distinguish breeds, see how rabbits look when they grow up, carefully study the description and characteristics, colors, etc. It is best to buy an adult rabbit, the ideal age is six months. Keeping, feeding and caring for it is simpler.

Features of care and maintenance

How to care for decorative rabbits?What conditions of detention does he need? To make a pet feel normal, it is worth following a few rules:

• Decorative rabbits tolerate cold well, but do not like heat. The optimum temperature for them is 18-20 degrees. If it is very hot in summer, you should put a wet towel on the cage or inside it a bottle of ice. You can wipe the rabbit’s ears with cool water, since he exchanges heat through the veins of these organs.
• Rabbits are nocturnal animals, they sleep during the day and become active in the evening, closer to 18 o’clock. Therefore, do not bother them in the mornings and in the afternoon, it is advisable to remove unnecessary sounds and fuss from the house at this time, or to put the cage in the far corner.
• The furry animals are very neat, they go to the toilet in one place. It is necessary to trace where the rabbit is crap and put a tray there. They wash the cage 2-3 times a week so that an unpleasant odor does not appear.
• So that the decorative rabbits feel good in the apartment, they need to be walked daily. For this, the baby is released from the cage for 1-2 hours, after first removing everything that can be eaten from the floor, as well as dangerous objects, so that the rabbit does not injure itself. A walk on the street is also acceptable, but only in dry, warm weather and with a harness.

Direct care for a decorative rabbit also has its own nuances. They depend on how long his coat, hanging or erect ears are.The rabbit needs to regularly trim its nails so that it does not spoil the furniture and floors. Bathing is optional, the rabbits themselves wash their wool. Water procedures are necessary only in cases where the animal has diarrhea, has a bad smell or is very dirty on the street. To prevent bathing from harming the pet, they carefully wrap it after bathing until the coat dries.

Regularly comb decorative rabbits with long hair, especially when it sheds. Downy breeds also need to be cut, their thin hair quickly grows and tangles. If you don’t cut such a rabbit in time, it will turn into a dirty ball. Special care should be for the care of sheep. A decorative lop-eared rabbit is demanding, he needs to regularly inspect and clean his ears.

Eye care is also necessary so that nothing happens to them. Eyes are wiped with dry cotton 2-3 times a week. As you can see, the content of a decorative rabbit of an exotic breed is not simple. Therefore, beginners should buy animals that have short hair and straight ears. Pay attention to unpretentious, disease-resistant breeds.

Feeding rabbits

We talked about how to keep a decorative rabbit. But growing a healthy animal is impossible without proper nutrition. Feed your pets the following foods:

• Hay. The basis of the diet should always be present in the cage, since the rabbit eats it constantly. Hay is harvested on their own or bought.
• Fresh weed and tops. These foods should be present in the summer. Decorative rabbits can eat clover, timothy, plantain, yarrow. You can not give garlic, onions, buttercups, bleached, tops tomato and potatoes, euphorbia.
• Grain. You can use ready-made feed from the pet store or make oats, wheat, barley and other cereals yourself, you can give crushed peas, nuts, seeds.
• Vegetables. The most useful vegetables for rabbits are carrots, fodder or sugar beets, boiled potatoes, cabbage, and the animal eats zucchini, pumpkin, and green salad with pleasure. It is better not to give tomatoes, raw potatoes.
• Fresh and dry fruits, children are given small quantities of apples, pears, watermelons, melons, and occasionally you can treat them with berries. It is better not to give exotic fruits (pineapples, bananas, tangerines, oranges, dates) for an adult and a small rabbit.
• Twigs from trees. Decorative rabbits will be happy to eat branches of apple, pear, currant, raspberry, mountain ash, willow, they can be given needles in winter.
• Mineral additives. Chalk, salt stone should always be in the cage, if necessary, give special additives.
• Vitamins. It is better to give vitamins as prescribed by a doctor in the spring, when there are few of them in natural products. In other cases, there is no need.

Feeding of decorative rabbits is carried out 2-3 times a day. Do not allow obesity, animals with excess weight often get sick. Hay animal eats constantly.The fact is that they have weak gastrointestinal motility. Food passes through the tract only after a new serving arrives.

All foods must be fresh, with no signs of mold, rot. Grass and hay cannot be harvested near roads, city entrances, there is too much dirt and toxic products. It is best to mow the grass in a meadow outside the city, or in the country. Access to water is made permanent. It is better to take an automatic drinking bowl, in a regular bowl the liquid will quickly become contaminated and deteriorate.

Character and education of rabbits

The decorative rabbit has a very sweet and calm character. This animal is fearful, but eventually gets used to its house and owner. When he is fully mastered, there will be no limit to curiosity. In order to tame and not frighten a pet, in the first days after the acquisition it must be left alone for a while. Then it is lightly stroked while eating. If the rabbit has stopped mowing at any touch, you can easily pick it up.

Is it worth it to start a small decorative rabbit in the house where the dog or cat lives? It is undesirable to do this, because dogs and cats predators can consider the rabbit as prey. Even if they will not eat your new friend, they will gladly drive around the apartment, scaring them to death. A furry animal will get stress, it may even die. Also, they do not advise to start a rabbit for a too young child, he can torture him.It’s better to buy this animal for the student.

The decorative rabbits have a high intelligence. They can be taught to walk on the tray. To do this, put the container in a corner where most often the animal fulfills its need. You can put inside the litter labeled with rabbit urine. When you think the baby wants to use the toilet, put it in the tray. After a few “landings,” he will learn to go to the toilet himself. You can put the tray on the wall opposite from the feeder, rabbits often travel and empty at the same time.

A pet with big ears can learn simple tricks, learn to jump over a hoop or other obstacle, respond to a nickname, grab a hoop, put it in front of the animal, and hold it in your hand treat. When the bunny jumps over the hoop, treat it and stroke it on the back. They act similarly with the nickname. They pronounce the name of the rabbit at the same time and at the same time hold out a tasty treat. You can only train the rabbit to posit By no means encouraging, you should never beat him so that he does not become too shy.

Breeding rabbits

Puberty in decorative domestic rabbits occurs in 6-8 months. The rabbit often has a rabies outfit, this species has very intensive reproduction, at which time the female behaves uneasily, bites, refuses to eat, loses weight, sometimes the rabbits make strange noises. If the mating with the male is successful, the hunt passes, pregnancy occurs, its term is 30 days. Ornamental breeds give birth to about 4-5 rabbits at a time.

In fact, it is not worthwhile to breed these animals without experience. The fact is that small females often do not bear rabbits. Young birthright are bad mothers, they can abandon offspring. Then the cubs will have to be fed from the bottle, kept in special conditions while they grow up.Even good care allows only a small number of babies to survive.

Keeping a male fertilizer is also a problem. Rabbits are aggressive during the hunt; they can use any objects, including shoes, toys, clothes, to satisfy their sexual instinct. Not everyone will like this behavior. Allocations of the male smell very strongly, this constantly stinks in the house. If a boy and a girl do not like each other, they can be seriously injured. In addition, to preserve the breed, it is necessary to correctly select and cross the pair, which not everyone can do.

Most breeders recommend that their clients sterilize decorative rabbits, and not breed. This must be done when the babies are 3-5 months old, even before puberty. At that time, the animals were vaccinated and strengthened enough for the operation.

Diseases of the rabbits

Proper care of domestic decorative rabbits can protect them from many diseases. But no one is safe from the fact that trouble will not happen. The health of decorative breeds is not different. What does a sick decorative rabbit look like and what pathologies lie in wait for him.Here’s a short list of diseases:

• Injuries
• Bloating
• Colds
• Overheating or hypothermia
• Allergy
• Pathological molting
• Eye problems
• Myxomatosis
• Coccidiosis
• Helminthic invasions
• Skin parasites

Why is a decorative rabbit injured, what is the reason? The animals have a very fragile spine. They can be picked up only very carefully, in no case be allowed to jump from a great height. Back injury is the most common pathology associated with improper care. Walking a small decorative rabbit can also end tragically if it gnaws some muck that was not cleaned by the owners on time.

Low-quality foods cause bloating. In this situation, the rabbit eats poorly, does not move, its abdomen is enlarged. With a cold, snot flows from the nose, wheezing is heard in the lungs, the rabbit sneezes, loses appetite. Another common problem is conjunctivitis. It can be both infectious and non-infectious. A common cause of eye problems is dust, hay and dirt. If the animal is overheated, he drinks a lot, then stops moving, falls on his side or throws back his legs. During hypothermia, it curls into a ball, shakes.

If the animal has skin parasites, it itches, becomes restless, and hair falls out.When fleas and other insects are concerned about the animal, they must be fought, bathe the rabbit in a special shampoo with insecticides. The first symptoms of helminthic infestations are very diverse, often helminths come out of the anus. Infections are manifested by fever, lethargy, purulent discharge from the nose, intestines, sometimes with blood, diarrhea. The rabbit eats nothing, with many contagious diseases the animals die.

What to do if the rabbit gets sick

When the decorative rabbit has dangerous symptoms, it became lethargic, you need to contact to the clinic. Diagnosis and treatment of diseases, especially infectious diseases, should be carried out by a veterinarian. Do not give your pet medicine at home without consulting it. So you can not only harm your health, but also lose your favorite. Proper care of decorative rabbits avoids many problems. But protecting them from infections is not always possible. Therefore, the animals are vaccinated without fail.

The content of the decorative rabbit has its pros and cons. The animal needs good care, fresh food. Not all residents of city apartments have the opportunity to harvest hay on their own, and in the store it is expensive. Therefore, it is worth weighing the pros and cons before buying a furry animal. After all, animals are not toys, we are responsible for their lives. Therefore, you can not keep them day or month, and then throw them away.