A beautiful brown rabbit was frolicking on the grounds of my school today (smack in the middle of downtown Orlando near a very busy highway!) - being the animal lovers we are, s/he has now been adopted into our family. Hooray!
Going now to research bunny love as this is the first of this type of critter to enter our happy, furry home!
Anyone with any tips to share on the care and keeping of this beauty?
Thanks so much!

S/He is a love - much like the disposition of our guinea pig, Rainbow Munchie who left us not too, too long ago.

Happy Leap Day for us!
peace,
lorax and Mischief Cat (who is so excited she can barely contain herself!)

Congrats on the new family member!

Woo-hoo! What a cool surprise for you both! I always wanted a lil guy when I was younger - tried bringing one home from the fair once, but mom made me give him away the next day :( Sorry I can't help you with any pointers, but I wish you guys luck. Does the munchkin have a name yet?

You should put a pic up for us :) And how in the world did you wrangle him?

Be well...
TE

I used to have rabbits (angoras) - I loved them! Check out a good book on rabbit care, but they are pretty easy to maintain.

I fed mine pelleted feed, and supplemented with alfalfa hay (but angoras require higher protein for hair production). The hay is just good fiber to go along with the pellets. It's good for them to have stuff to chew on, as they need to keep their teeth worn down. Their teeth grow constantly. I used to give mine branches from our old apple tree.

You can actually train them to a litterbox, though I've never done it. My first rabbit was supposedly trained to a litterbox, but I kept all mine outdoors, so it didn't matter. I did let my first (originally named "Peter" ;-)) in the house to "visit". He was very polite and well mannered. However, they can't not chew..... watch carefully as they seem attracted to power cords, etc....... Peter's indoor days ended when he chewed a mouse cord in half. This was about 12 years ago, when a mouse cost around $50..........

Enjoy!!! I've been dying to get another rabbit, now that my kids are older..... but til hubby moves the border-collie-who-lives-in-the-backyard to another pen, it's not a great idea.

Mama Fox

Had a turtle once...named him Theodore....wouldn't eat...we let him go.

A son of liberty

I'm not an expert but I did raise some rabbits. Make sure you feed them rabbit pellets not grass and vegitables. The pellets have the neccessary vitamins etc. I saw the other post abot having something for them to chew. Thats exactly right. They have to wear the teeth down or they just keep growing. Wood is good. Their teeth are actually very sharp. They need to chew. Good luck with the rabbit...Chuck and Amy.

The House Rabbit (makes me think of Harry Potter) was initially named Peter - for obvious reasons.
However I liked Watership Down very much and wanted to reread it and perhaps pull a charater name from the story (which may still happen...) but I believe I just determined that he is in fact a she and Tallulah, I remarked just this AM (prior to rabbit hunting) is a lovely name.

Rabbit wrangling involved me crawling around under the hedge of azalea bushes, our school custodian wielding a fishing net and a retired electrician pulling the rabbit out of his hat - er, the shrubbery.

Just read that the ASPCA decreed February as rabbit adoption month. How apro pos!

She's digging right now in her litter box and just spent the last hour curled up in my lap, falling asleep once flat on her back.
Yep, we got a good 'un here! Someone must be missing this dear creature something terribly!

She looks like a wild brown rabbit - will share pics soon. MC had the idea of letting her curl up in our Easter Basket... Photo Op?! Surely!

Thanks to all you pet loving folks for your good wishes for the newest member of our family!

peace and sweet, warm nose twitches!
lorax, MC and for the time being, Tallulah

Hurray for a new friend! How exciting for the two of you. S/he could not have walked into a better home! Lucky rabbit. Best wishes and hope you're having fun with your early Easter present! Milagro

Chuck and Amy -
House rabbits should actually have a diet based on hay (timothy or alfalfa based on age) and leafy greens, with limited pellets. Pellets were designed for weight gain in the rabbit meat industry.

Anyone interested in proper husbandry for their rabbit should talk to a veterinarian (preferably one experienced with rabbits) and check out House Rabbit Society.

Good Luck!
CrowGirl

Quote

House rabbits should actually have a diet based on hay (timothy or alfalfa based on age) and leafy greens, with limited pellets. Pellets were designed for weight gain in the rabbit meat industry.

This is good advice. I wrote that I fed my rabbits pellets and hay - they had free access to both. But two things my rabbits had going on that the "average" (and "above average"!) pet rabbit doesn't: they were growing fur, and they lived outside year around. So they needed the extra protein for fur production (I clipped or plucked them (it doesn't hurt!) several times a year) and the extra calories for warmth (I never lost a rabbit to weather - they lived in the Rabbit Fortress, built by my hubby, and were very cozy - and they wore angora sweaters year around ;-)).

Good luck with Tallulah - now I'm wishing I had a rabbit to pet. Guess I'll go pet one of my bad cats instead ;-))

Mama Fox

(I liked Watership Down very much and wanted to reread it ) Ugh. That movies gave me the worst nightmares when I was a kid. All that blood coming across the field and that scary rabbit all tore up. I could watch Freddy and Jason, but Watership Down scared me half to death. *shivers* :) Kris

My two cents...

House rabbits should actually have a diet based on hay (timothy or alfalfa based on age) and leafy greens, with limited pellets.

Thank you for adding this correction!!! Timothy hay, various kinds of dark leafy greens and other vegetables should be their main source of diet. Anything that ends in "greens" is good for them such as dandilion greens, turnip greens, collard greens, etc. Mine really loves endive. Spinach should not be fed as it is too high in calcium. Alfalfa hay and alfalfa based pellets are also high in calcium. Too much calcium in rabbits can lead to urinary tract disease. There are now timothy hay based pellets as an alternative to alfalfa pellets. I have only seen one brand at PetsMart however, so be sure to read the label closely. Regardless the amount of pellets should be restricted, but much more so with the alfalfa pellets. Also watch out for calcium chew treats. Even though I was doing everything else correctly, I didn't pay attention to what was in the ice cream shaped chew treats he loved and I recently went through a little urinary problem. No more of those for him!!

Anyone interested in proper husbandry for their rabbit should talk to a veterinarian (preferably one experienced with rabbits) and check out House Rabbit Society.

I agree!! Find a vet who has experience with pocket pets, because not everyone knows enough about nutrition and ideal husbandry! The House Rabbit Society is a wonderful organization!!!!!

Ok... climibing off of my rabbit nutritional soap box...

er dvm

Timothy hay, various kinds of dark leafy greens and other vegetables should be their main source of diet. Anything that ends in "greens" is good for them such as dandilion greens, turnip greens, collard greens, etc.

Now I haven't raised rabbits in about 25 years or so and mine were outside in cages but the conventional wisdom around here was to feed them rabbit pellets as a main diet and vegitables alone would give them diarrhea. My rabbits were fine and lived a long time. Are house rabbits different?...Chuck and Amy

Now I haven't raised rabbits in about 25 years or so and mine were outside in cages but the conventional wisdom around here was to feed them rabbit pellets as a main diet and vegitables alone would give them diarrhea. My rabbits were fine and lived a long time. Are house rabbits different?...Chuck and Amy

I don't know that house rabbits are necessarily different, but there has been a lot more research into rabbit nutrition. It has been found that too much calcium leads to urinary tract problems, hence the focus on timothy hay based products vs. alfalfa pellets. Vegetables alone probably would lead to diarrhea and possibly other digestive problems, but they also supply water to aid in hydration (and prevent urinary sludge) in addition to their nutritional value.

er dvm