I have to admit, when we purchased our first 2 rabbits I thought "How hard can this be?" After all, I had a rabbit in high school, no big deal!
Granted no one told us this would be easy, but I certainly never expected the challenges we started facing early on in our rabbit education. The stories and experiences are something we'll continue to share here, in hopes of helping others as they start in on their own adventure, or maybe have someone else say "ya, that's happened to us too! Glad it's not just us!"
To those thinking about entering the world of rabbits, it really is a fun project with kids and adults alike. Who doesn't love a furry, fuzzy little critter that makes little to no noise! However, you will learn things about bunnies that you never expected. First and foremost - they poop. They poop a lot! Now, this is easy clean-up, but something to keep in mind. They pee, yep, they do... and with urine means ammonia and in an enclosed area this could peel the paint right off the walls.
But, they can be litter box trained! We have had a number of Holland Lops become family pets who have proven this to be the case! We have found some patterns in their cage habits and that of their parents in determining who has the potential of being a good house bunny with prospect of being litter box trained. Quite the experience! But they can become cuddly fun little buddies!
If you're looking at entering the world of breeding and raising rabbits, you should know that rabbits don't always have the best motherly instincts. Sometimes, this is simply gross. The world of raising rabbits is a roller coaster. You have great experiences and then you have very sad experiences. You have things happen that make no sense and that will shock you and then there are things that you can eventually find reason for.
Many people believe the phrase "breed like rabbits" and think this means it's an easy thing to do. But in nature, rabbits can breed often and have large litters because they have a high mortality rate. Just this week we had the high of babies being born Easter morning! Technically Ponder had 7 babies, but we really only consider that she had 5 because 2 were on the wire and cold when we did chores at 7 that morning. We were thrilled at having 5 babies. And then 2 days later we're down to 2 babies, as this morning 3 were on the wire. We will never know if they were crawling out to find mom and that's were they landed, or if they were still latched on to mom when she jumped out of the box. Nevertheless, we are down to 2 babies. This is typical, at least for us. So we constantly try to figure out ways to help prevent this. (If you have suggestions, please send them!)
Ending this with words of encouragement, because regardless of the sad or disturbing things that can happen, the joys are much greater.
Granted no one told us this would be easy, but I certainly never expected the challenges we started facing early on in our rabbit education. The stories and experiences are something we'll continue to share here, in hopes of helping others as they start in on their own adventure, or maybe have someone else say "ya, that's happened to us too! Glad it's not just us!"
To those thinking about entering the world of rabbits, it really is a fun project with kids and adults alike. Who doesn't love a furry, fuzzy little critter that makes little to no noise! However, you will learn things about bunnies that you never expected. First and foremost - they poop. They poop a lot! Now, this is easy clean-up, but something to keep in mind. They pee, yep, they do... and with urine means ammonia and in an enclosed area this could peel the paint right off the walls.
But, they can be litter box trained! We have had a number of Holland Lops become family pets who have proven this to be the case! We have found some patterns in their cage habits and that of their parents in determining who has the potential of being a good house bunny with prospect of being litter box trained. Quite the experience! But they can become cuddly fun little buddies!
If you're looking at entering the world of breeding and raising rabbits, you should know that rabbits don't always have the best motherly instincts. Sometimes, this is simply gross. The world of raising rabbits is a roller coaster. You have great experiences and then you have very sad experiences. You have things happen that make no sense and that will shock you and then there are things that you can eventually find reason for.
Many people believe the phrase "breed like rabbits" and think this means it's an easy thing to do. But in nature, rabbits can breed often and have large litters because they have a high mortality rate. Just this week we had the high of babies being born Easter morning! Technically Ponder had 7 babies, but we really only consider that she had 5 because 2 were on the wire and cold when we did chores at 7 that morning. We were thrilled at having 5 babies. And then 2 days later we're down to 2 babies, as this morning 3 were on the wire. We will never know if they were crawling out to find mom and that's were they landed, or if they were still latched on to mom when she jumped out of the box. Nevertheless, we are down to 2 babies. This is typical, at least for us. So we constantly try to figure out ways to help prevent this. (If you have suggestions, please send them!)
Ending this with words of encouragement, because regardless of the sad or disturbing things that can happen, the joys are much greater.
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