Bunnies can make wonderful pets, but they also require some special care to ensure they live long happy and healthy lives.

Vaccinations

Bunnies are vaccinated against Calicivirus after they are 10 weeks of age. A booster vaccination is then required yearly for life. Calicivirus and Myomatosis are diseases that have been introduced in Australia to help control the wild rabbit population. Whilst there are no vaccines available to prevent myxomatosis, rabbits should be vaccinated against Calicivirus. 

Diet

The basic diet for bunnies should consist of 80% fibre. The source of fibre can be from lawn grass (not clippings), grass hay, or straw. Do not feed your bunnies Lucerne hay as it has high calcium content and can cause bladder stones to form, which require surgical intervention. A high fibre diet is essential to a healthy bunny as the fibre helps to control teeth growth as well as maintaining healthy gut movements. We recommend any good quality hay and for those fussy bunnies you can feed oxbow western timothy hay or oxbow botanical hay.

You can feed your bunny pellets as a small part of the diet; roughly they should consist of about 10% of the overall diet. As a general rule you should feed 1/4 cup of pellets per 1.13kg of body weight per day. There is only one brand available in Australia with an adequately high fibre level and these are called Oxbow bunny basics. We now stock these at Reservoir Vet Clinic.

You should also feed your bunny a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs. A general rule of thumb is to feed your bunny 1 cup of fresh food per 1.8 kg of body weight. You can also feed your bunny some commercially available treats such as Critter Berries which are available from the clinic.

Some good vegetables to feed bunnies are basil, beet tops, bok-choy, broccoli leaves, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chickweed, clover, dandelion flowers, endive, radicchio, radish tops, raspberry leaves, strawberry leaves, mint, parsley, peppermint leaves, spinach, Swiss-chard, watercress and wheat grass.
Some acceptable vegetables are: cauliflower, green peppers, snow peas and turnip.

Never feed raw beans, corn, rhubarb or potato peels or iceberg lettuce.

Good ‘treats', in small amounts: apple, banana, blueberries, carrots, grapes, mango, peach, pear, strawberries and raspberries.

DO NOT feed your rabbit chocolate, bread, human sweets or cereals.

Desexing

All bunnies should be desexed at 6 months of age if you are not planning on breeding your pet. The main reason for desexing females is the prevention of uterine cancer as it is reported that 60-80% of entire rabbits will develop uterine cancer. Male rabbits should also be desexed to prevent urine spraying and it helps to ensure a calm and friendly temperament.

Housing

Bunnies need to be housed in an appropriate rabbit proof hutch. The hutch should be big enough to allow your pet to lay out-stretched while still having 3-4 times stretched out rabbit lengths.

Bunnies can also be trained as indoor pets, but you need to ensure that you rabbit-proof the rooms you will allow your friend to have access to. Things you need to look out for are electrical cords and restrict access to any nice furniture as they like to have a chew. Bunnies are inquisitive pets and will tend to chew new things while exploring so make sure that they have no access to any precious possessions.

Bunnies can be litter trained so that they are suitable for indoor access. You need to buy a cat litter tray and line it with newspaper and then fill it with hay. Bunnies like to toilet and chew at the same time. Bunnies are naturally clean pets and will toilet in the same area so try to pick an area of the house where they will feel safe and won't be startled and place the litter tray there.

Even bunnies who are housed indoors do require at least four hours of daylight in order for them to absorb enough Vitamin D.

Take care on hot days with your bunny as they can overheat very easily. Rabbits are unable to sweat or pant, so they can only cool themselves down via their ear veins, but this is inefficient in the heat of the summer sun. Some tricks on cooling your bunny down are:

• Place frozen plastic bottles of water in the cage so that he has something cool near him.
• Bring inside on very hot days.
• Place a wet towel over the cage (a bottle of water with tiny pin holes sitting on top of the towel will keep it wet all day)
• Direct a fan through a wet towel.
• Keep them in the shade (it changes through the day so take care in choosing the right spot)