Tips For keeping your rabbits happy and healthy

Rabbits are becoming increasingly popular pets today but because they can be difficult to look after,  some owners make incorrect assumptions about their day-to-day care needs. Anybody who gets a bunny as a pet must know how to keep it happy and healthy.

If you have just adopted a baby bunny or you are just looking for ways you can help care for your beloved family pet, here are the top tips to make sure your long-eared friend is content and in top condition.

1. Make sure you monitor your pet's diet

Rabbits generally have unusual digestive systems and they are known to re-ingest some of their droppings. This is why you must give your pet bunny all the nutrients it needs for a healthy life.

Hay or grass are better suggestions for your rabbit's digestive health than nuggets because they form the majority of your bunny’s diet and your pet needs them for its gastrointestinal system to function properly.

You can also offer your pet washed leafy green vegetables and herbs but ensure root vegetables like carrots and fruit are given as a treat and in small amounts.

Check out some Rabbit food treats you can try.

1. Make sure your Rabbit engages in exercise

If your rabbit does not exercise as much as it ought to, it can put your rabbit at risk of getting a condition called GI Statis, a potentially deadly condition that would make its digestive system slow down or stop completely.

Not carrying out exercise can also result in your furry pet becoming overweight; resulting in urinary tract infection and a weakening of the bladder (which would lead to bladder stones).

Carry your rabbit out of its cage at least once every day for a run and make use of playtime as a way of encouraging exercise by buying him Rabbit Toys

1. Ensure your rabbit does not get hurt or injured

Many rabbits tend not to show any external signs of being in distress and would often be suffering

from pain or an illness without their owners knowing. Make sure you are on the lookout for changes in your rabbit's behavior which can indicate illness or pain.

In case the weather in your area is warm, it is important that you check your rabbit's fur or the skin around its bottom and tail areas at least once or even twice a day. Urine staining or any droppings that get stuck in there would attract flies, resulting in flystrike, which can prove fatal for your pet's health.

Do you need to get some Rabbit Healthcare products? Click here.

1. Make sure your home is bunny-proofed

If you have an in house rabbit, or when you bring your outdoor rabbit inside because of cold weather, it is important to deal with the safety hazards around your home and protect the rabbit against damage by:

• Neatly covering your home electric cables with wire covers
• Raising house plants out of reach as some of them can be potentially toxic
• Protecting the legs of your wooden furniture and other items of wooden nature in the surrounding with plastic corner protectors

1. Guard your rabbit against predators

You need to make sure your rabbit

home is a secure home to protect against an array of crafty predators. Cunning foxes can open insecure latches on a hutch and your neighbor’s dogs will make light work of digging into a rabbit run. Other predators like large birds, rats and even snakes can be in certain areas on the lookout for a meal.

Make sure your pet's hutch is raised off the floor to make it harder for predators to reach and ensure you use wire mesh rather than large holes that let predators reach, crawl, or slither inside.