To keep rabbit as pet, you need to prepare a lot of things to ensure the life quality of the rabbit itself. First of all, you need to decide where you would place your rabbit. You need to understand, the cage selection must be adjusted with the environment; because there are two types of rabbit cages: first one is indoor and second is outdoor. If you decided to keep indoor the rabbit, then you should certainly pick indoor cage for her, but pick outside rather than inside the house, hutch (outdoor cage) was the perfect option.
Furthermore, because of myths which has thrived in our society about rabbit, I hope you wisely consult any problem to the vet or animal expert rather than trust what people said which is sometime untrue (unless they have experiences, of course), especially about baby rabbits. We all know that baby rabbits was much vulnerable than the adult one. It would be so much better if you – once more again – consult with the experts if you find any abnormality or just simply because you are a beginner.
Then, we move to how you maintain rabbit’s health physically and mentally – although both of them was tided strongly. When rabbit was mentally disturb (such as distress and frighten) it affects rabbit’s physical condition. Also, note this: frighten is one of the rabbit’s dead caused in many cases. Rabbit is gentle animal, they easily scare and surprise and it’s pretty normal for “prey” animal. That is why, do not scare you rabbit with unpredictable moves or sounds because it would totally scare them to death.
So, let’s see, what else you need to know – oh, yes, of course! The main priority of the ownership, the foods! I think I don’t have to explain further about foods, because yes, it is the most important part of all living creatures. Higher sources of foods contained with beneficial substances would influence the growth of your rabbit. Therefore, it was always suggested by many expert to feed pregnant rabbit with double nutrition foods due the health of the baby inside of her.
As you know, rabbit prime foods was hays and grasses; these foods was rich of fibers and easily to digest by rabbits. But, do not forget, that rabbits need other nutrient such minerals and vitamins. Although there are many commercial products of vitamins for rabbits, sometime we still worry do these products are really safe for our rabbits? Then, let me share a good news for you, my friends; you don’t have to feed your rabbit with commercial product, because you could make natural vitamin for your own! How to make rabbit vitamins naturally? Check this out!
Rabbit Nutrition
As herbivorous animals, rabbits eat plant materials as their main diet. From hays, grasses, pellets, fruits, and vegetables, these are what commonly rabbit eat. But, recent research was reviled that pellets was not every good material to rely on, because the high amount of calories which caused obesity on rabbits.
However, there are some nutrition that rabbit need and get from foods: energy, protein, copper, calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins. Now, we would learn the best food that rich of vitamins and the perfect choices to replace commercial products. Stay tune with us in this article: how to make rabbit vitamins naturally.
Natural Vitamins for Rabbit
The best natural vitamins feed to rabbits are all kind of fresh organic plants, from fruits, vegetables, and greens. There’s no other sources that is more perfect than this. Although, you must remember, these foods should not become the prime diet for rabbit because the amount of sugar contained. It is always suggested putting these foods as additional diet besides hays and grasses. Excessive supply of sugar within body cause some overweight issues which leads to another kind of disease such heart disease.
Hays and grasses – both are higher sources of vitamins D and A as well the calcium, and other beneficial substances. Variety of hays could be rotate daily to prevent boredom, such as timothy, brome, oat hay, and orchard. Rabbits need all kind of vitamins to support their body, but you need to remember, vitamin C is the only exception. Unlike human, vitamin C was one of the most important vitamin that maintain our immune system. But, in rabbit vitamin C trigger health problem if your measurement isn’t right.
Excess amount of vitamin C inside rabbits leads to damage kidneys and other kidneys problems. Furthermore, besides hays and grasses, the best source of vitamins was contained in fresh vegetables. Feed specific amount of vegetables every day, and rabbit would not need vitamins supplement anymore. For the examples: spinach, kale, and collard greens was rich of vitamin A, and fresh leafy greens contained with vitamin C. To ensure your rabbit get all the vitamins inside their bodies, try to feed them three times, each time with different vegetables.
However, here are the lists of vegetables allowed for rabbits:
- Spinach, mustard greens, parsley, radish top, broccoli, cucumber, green and red lettuce, edible flowers, brussel sprouts, basil, cilantro, celery, and many more.
Then, fruit would be our next for super rich source of vitamins. But, you could only feed fruit to rabbit maximum 2 tablespoons each day. So, here we are few lists of beneficial fruits for rabbits:
- Apple, pear, banana, kiwi, papaya, peach, berries, pineapple, plum, tomato, strawberry, grape, melon, and nectarine.
Make Delicious Treat
Last thing you could try is create a delicious raw treat for rabbit from combination of fruits and vegetables. The ingredients needed are four baby carrots, a cabbage leaf, three grapes, and two cherries. Next, put cabbage leaf on the bottom of bowl, then you could chop up the cherries and grapes, slice carrot into thin layers. As the last touch, put some blueberries on top of the other ingredients; the treat was ready to serve.
This salad recipe was very easy and could be change with different ingredients as experiment. All you need to remember is always washed all the ingredients before you serve it to the rabbits, and one more thing, do not overfeed your beloved rabbit!