(Ready for flames.) It's discouraging to find the same close-minded attitudes here at RT that I fled from at the "other" rabbit forums (fora?).
Examples from RT, paraphrased to be short:
"Vets are terrible/a waste of money/just out for money/will kill your rabbit(s)."
"Feeding your rabbit 4-6 cups of fruit/vegs a day is...[stupid/will kill it]."
"Pet rabbit owners think they have to sterilize [rabbits] immediately."
Examples from other rabbit forums:
--"Rabbits living on wire get sore hocks." (as if it's 100% cause and effect)
--"Rabbits must live indoors." (most people cannot fit more than 6 to 8 rabbits into a house, let alone babies. OOPS! I forgot! NO BABIES ALLOWED!)
--"Rabbits MUST have a minimum of 3 to 4 hours EACH DAY of exercise outside their enclosure." :roll:
--And, of course, the personal attacks I witnessed (yes, even from mods) against a couple of people who innocently asked questions about cages, breeding, and/or raising meat rabbits. I PM'd these people and told them about RT.
OK. Let's look at some "hot" topics:
Spay/Neuter:
Unless you've been raised with breed-able animals, jumping right in with intact animals is pretty intimidating/scary. Being in a military family, I wasn't raised with pets--we occasionally had a cat--so my lifetime experience with breed-able animals of any species is pretty limited.
--My college boyfriend and I took in a female cat in an Atlanta winter (ice storm and all) who turned out to be pregnant. We helped with the baby kittens, but MammaCat delivered them when we were both at classes/work.
--It took me 5 years of living with Bernese Mtn. Dogs to even
feel comfortable about the
possibility of an intact female or male in my house, but of course since I'm active in Rescue, my doggies are (by Rescue policy) usually neutered/spayed before they take up permanent residence.
--I've never had a rabbit before. I started researching rabbits last summer, hoping to acquire a fiber rabbit. What with one thing and another, I ended up with an American Chinchilla male (neutered by Animal Control) who was part of a confiscation due to lack of shade, water, and other humane necessities (a back-yard meat operation inside city limits--contrary to the law *sigh*).
I've read plenty on RT about intact males spraying urine in their owners' faces, spraying on the walls, etc. Not something I want to deal with, for sure not in the house! Does biting me as I feed them because they want to be bred? Also not something I want to deal with, although being bitten by a rabbit can't possibly be as bad as some of the "grazes" and "nips" I've received from rescue dogs (deep bruising that takes three or more weeks to go away). In any case, the urine spraying and the "wanna be bred" biting sound like terrific arguments
in favor of spay/neutering rabbits, at least to me. And, for such a surgery, I'd like a medically trained, rabbit-savvy veterinarian to perform it. Not myself; not even an experienced breeder/mentor. Rabbits are known to be especially sensitive to anesthesia, even in the hands of rabbit ("Exotics") certified vets, so I've already written down the names of three such within a 20-minute drive of my house. I'm glad they're there, frankly.
I've read some heart-wrenching experiences here at RT from breeders who sent home pet rabbits and then learned that the new "owners"
--didn't keep the male(s) and female(s) separated or
--gave them away/sold them to people even less well informed or
--couldn't give any account of what happened to the rabbits
But it also seems that (at least some) breeders *also* want pet rabbit owners NOT to spay/neuter. What, then, when children mess up Mom's/Dad's careful rotation of males/females in the play yard? Unplanned babies.
It seems that there's just no pleasing some people on this point.
Feeding Rabbits:
I feed my own rabbit minimal pellets--maybe one-third the amount recommended for a 12-lb rabbit--because I
also feed him 4 cups (liberally measured) of plant foods each day (2 cups per day for every 5 lb of rabbit). These plant foods may be foraged from my garden and roses/blackberries or "gathered" from the produce store; they encompass herbs, leafy vegetables, root veggies (small amounts; one 1/2-inch [1-cm] slice of a sweet potato a day, for example), and branches. He
also gets tree branches for chewing and orchard grass hay.
He's lived here since September 28, 2013. I can't claim any long-term health results for him yet, but his weight four weeks ago was within 0.05 lb (23 grams) of what he weighed when I brought him home and had him weighed at the vet's office.
The
House Rabbit Handbook (5th ed.) has 3 detailed pages on "Diet Plans for Healthy Rabbits." The plans are broken down by age: The Young Diet (birth to 1 year) and The Adult Diet. The second and third pages provide special dietary plans for rabbit-keepers who want to provide extended care to pet rabbits with long-term illness (e.g., kidney disease) or other problems (e.g., need to gain/lose weight).
The only way to counter the incorrect (in this one case) information attributed to HRS is to quote the book directly. I hope I'm not violating copyright by providing this quote from p. 59:
"The Young Diet
"Take extra care with weanlings, under seven weeks old, to keep their food clean....Watch for sensitivity to a particular food by adding only one new food at a time.
"
Table 3. Beginner Diets: Babies and 'Teenagers'
"
Birth to 2 weeks: Mother's milk.
"
2-4 weeks: Mother's milk, nibbles of alfalfa hay, pellets, well-washed greens--introduced one at a time (Orphans: baby food starter, see page 85)
"
4-7 weeks: Mother's milk, unlimited alfalfa hay and pellets (for kids and mom), clean veggies/fruit--add one at a time.
"
7 weeks-7 months: Unlimited alfalfa hay and pellets, additional veggies/fruit--one at a time.
"
7 months-1 year: Introduce grass and oat hays, gradually eliminate alfalfa, gradually limit pellets, expand variety of fresh produce."
Neither in this Diet section nor elsewhere in this book does HRS say that 8-week-old babies should be fed 4 to 6 cups of fruits/veggies per day, unlimited hay, and minimal pellets, as alleged earlier on this thread. I don't know where that information originated, but it wasn't
The House Rabbit Handbook.
Rabbit Handling/Temperament:
I've also read many tales of woe here about scratched arms from simply reaching into cages to change water/feed dishes. These scratching/biting rabbits aren't even being picked up; they're simply being served. Should they then all be sacrificed?! What genetic bottle-necks that would create! :shock: Or should rabbit-keepers perhaps wear protective gear, gear which I've seen available for sale and which wouldn't be that difficult to make from scrap leather or canvas? esp. when the scratchers are those does who "want to be bred" or "have just been bred" or are otherwise "hormonal." It doesn't seem right that a breeding doe would be put down for scratching her human when she's acting like a rabbit and protecting her space. It seems more reasonable that the human would protect him/herself with protective arm guards (vambraces) or leather gloves with long cuffs.
Children/Large Rabbits:
I won't address the children/large rabbits aspect in detail. My rabbit, although 12 lb, isn't what I consider "large," and I have no small children in my life right now.... However, there does seem to be a
bit of logic in a Very Large rabbit: s/he would be too large for any young child to even entertain the idea of picking up!
(Thinking here of a 20-lb Flemish Giant, esp. when stretched out in "lounging" position.)
Thus my thoughts.
