17 Things you need when getting a rabbit
Are you a soon to be first time rabbit owner? Or did you have a cage rabbit when you were a kid. But would like to have a free roam rabbit today? Here’s a list of things you need to give you and your new friend for the best and easiest start.
2 Hay
The main thing in the rabbit’s diet is hay. Wild rabbits eat many different grass species every day. They complement the grass with weeds, green leaves, branches and flowers. The hay you can buy at the supermarket is often of poor quality. You can see this by being very yellow and presented hard together, so the straws are small. The struktur of the hay is destroyed, and does not contain long fiber chains, which help the rabbit grind its teeth, which grow throughout life. Moreover, it is not as good for intestinal function. Good hay lies loosely in the bag and looks more coarse and greenish. We recommend buying herb hay with many different grass species and natural herbs (weed plants) in it. That way, your rabbit gets a varied rabbit diet. One grass species of grass is not enough to give your rabbit its daily varied diet. Organic hay or unsprayed fields– is the best.
3 Feed
Your rabbit must also have a little feed next to his hay. Since you should always try to give your pet a diet reminiscent of the diet of the wild cousins eat, you need to supplement your hay with rabbit pellets and wild weed plants from nature or dried herbs. Wild rabbits eat grass, leaves, branches and flowers. They do not eat wheat and soybeans, so avoid pellets with that in it. We have several kinds of REALLY good pellets eg: Grainless Health Complete or Bunny Nature. They are both without grains, maize and soy and contain many different grass varieties and herbs from unsprayed fields. REMEMBER to check the content list in your rabbit feed yourself! If you do not have the opportunity to pick fresh green plants, then it is important to supplement with dried herbs. In this way, your rabbit gets a varied and healthy diet.
4 Toilet tray
Rabbit WC. A tray like a small litter tray or something bigger with bedding in which they can poop and pee in. Remember if yor rabbit makes its business outside the tray – put your rabbit’s poop and paper you have dried pee up with down in the tray. Then it knows this is where the toilet area is. Remember to buy bedding as well.
5 Food bowls
Feed bowls for your rabbit are of course a must have. Snacks bowls and a feeding bowl. Please have several different food bowls for both different feed and vegetables. We have many cute rabbit bowls to choose from.
6 Drinking bottle or water bowl
Drinking bottle, water bowl or drinking fountain. Of course, they must always have access to fresh water. Some believe it is better to have a bowl of water as they can only get water drop by drop from a drinking bottle. Our own rabbits have both a drinking bottle and a water bowl, and they use both, so they must also like the bottle as well. However, they drink more water from the bowl than from the bottle. We think a bowl is more unhygienic, as dirt and hair from the coat quickly come into the water. If you choose a bowl, make sure it’s heavy enough that the rabbit can’t throw it around. Many rabbits like to put bowls in their mouths and then toss them around.
7 Hiding place
A small woodenhouse or other hiding place where it can seek safety. Preferably with two exits. Rabbits are prey animals and like to have an escape route. Wild rabbits have several escape routes in their underground caves.
8 Treats
Pea flakes is a incredibly popular treat, but not that healthy, so don’t exaggerate. There are a lot of different, not everything is equally popular, try your out some different treats. There’s also a lot of snacks who aren’t healthy. There are some treats with dairy products or sugar and honey, it is not healthy for a rabbit. None of our treats contain sugar, honey, yougurt or synthetic additives.
9 Gnawing material
Rabbits must wear their teeth all the time as they keep growing. This is best done on branches (in addition to the hay they eat). Branches also give rabbits some of the fibers they need. You can buy branches in the shops, but our experience is that they don’t bother gnawing in them because they are dried. So go out and get fresh branches from trees and shrubs, rabbits love them They’re going to rip off all the bark and eat it. They do that out in the wild too. It also activates your rabbit and prevents it from gnawing at your furniture. If you are prevented from picking branches yourself you can also buy very thin branches with leaves on them, they will gladly eat them completely. You can also buy small pieces of bark.
10 Hay hedge
The hay hedge is best placed next to the toilet, as rabbits like to eat while making pooping. When you place the hay in a hay hedge, you prevent your rabbit from eating hay with pee and dirt on it.
11 Activity toys
Prevents your rabbit from getting bored and making trouble at home. They like to examine things for goodies, wheeling balloons and balls, tossing things, digging and gnawing in wood. It is also very popular with toys that you store snacks or pellets in, so your rabbit must work for its food. This crackle cave is very popular to our rabbits. It’s good to only give them a toy for a while, for example, one day, and then hide it away some time before they get it back, then it stays exciting. Please have something different in the stores you change between. You can also jump with your rabbit.
13 Carpet or underlay
Choose a underlay if you buy an enclosure. The underlay must of course be firm to walk on, but must also be softer than just a wooden floor, otherwise your bunny can get paw wounds. The underlay is to protect your floor from pee, dirt and scratch marks. We ourselves have some plastic surfaces for office chairs with soft carpets over which can be replaced or washed as needed, because they become dirty over time. Some have put in a piece of linoleum floor, it should also work well
14 Digging box
It is deeply instinctive to the rabbit to dig. If it does not get any sand or anything else to dig in, it can begin to dig in your pillow or other places that are destroyed by it.
15 Nail clippers
A small nail clipper, they need to be cut regularly
16 Cord protector
This one’s really important. All rabbits love to gnaw in cables
17 Furniture protection
Be sure to protect the bed and sofa. Some rabbits love to pee right here. And once they start peeing somewhere, it’s very hard to get them to stop again. Put on something that doesn’t suck liquid until you find your toilet place together. For example, it can be a childrens pee sheet.
Love
Bunny and Cat
