Showing posts with label Rabbits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rabbits. Show all posts

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

Time for Bubble Wrap


If you've got rabbits out of doors, they may need some extra help with some bubble wrap, or other insulation around their hutch. My own rabbits lived outdoors all year round, out in their runs every day, and only coming into the shed or house if it snowed. Couldn't have made it without bubble wrap though, so if you haven't been saving it from packaging materials all year, it's an ideal time to nip out and buy some. Storage companies often have a good supply. A windbreak can be put up around the hutch to keep things a little snugger.

Hutches should be raised off the ground (ideally it would be on legs), bedding materials should be increased so the rabbit can snuggle themselves right inside it if they need to, and make sure water is always available. Keep a spare bottle indoors ready in case the outside one freezes, and seriously consider a thermal covering for the bottle. If you use a bowl instead of a bottle, it shouldn't be on the floor, but raised so bunny can't sit in it and get wet fur. A wet rabbit will find it very hard to stay warm, plus without water it won't eat food, and it needs to eat more food than usual to keep warm.

If you don't already clean the litter every day, make sure to do so now, it will be cold and wet and not nice for bunny to sit on! Just because it's cold outside, your bunny should not be neglected.

Don't panic! Rabbits can survive the winter, they just need a little help.

I don't have rabbits anymore, but I've been bubble-wrapping one of my wormeries. It's in my north-facing front garden, so could do with some help.

Both wormeries are doing well, the worms in my much warmer back garden shed are munching their way through quite a lot of poop. Slower in the front, but there were less worms to start with. I'll move a few around early next spring! They aren't able to manage all the garden poop just yet, but these things take time!

Friday, 10 April 2009

Rabbits are For Life, Not just For Easter

I'm sure that Dog's Trust won't mind me stealing their slogan. Rabbits are still considered okay to sell in pet shops that wouldn't touch dogs or cats (no animals should be in a pet shop where they can be an impulse purchase), and at this time of year rabbits are very much on people's minds!

Rabbits are gorgeous, fluffy creatures, but they are also smelly and stinky! Well, so would you be if you had to spend your life cooped up in a hutch that's much too small with hardly any time out of it and no cuddles.

Rabbits benefit from being in the house with people, or having a (neutered) spouse and plenty of free running time, either in a large run or in a very secure and supervised garden - don't leave them loose even if they can't get out, because foxes can get in. They are most active at dawn and dusk, which are the times most humans want to be a) asleep or b) watching telly, and are not the pet to have if you don't have time for a dog! They need as much love and friendship, cuddles as a cat or a dog and are damn miserable without it. If you already have a rabbit, why not train it?

Otherwise, stick to this guy... (which is my plan)