Grooming is a part of the health care routine for a pet rabbit. Grooming includes fur brushing, fur trimming, and also includes some body parts cleaning. The idea of grooming your pet rabbit is to keep your rabbit from disease and to keep it healthy, but it can also go beyond that where grooming can become an amazing way for you to bond with your rabbit. To help you out, this article will explain some ways to care your rabbit’s hair so it can be done nicely. Let’s get started!
1. The importance of rabbit’s hair brushing
Rabbits like to lick themselves to keep their body stay clean. Because of this, your fluffy friend can get hairballs if it consumes too much hair. You can also find similar behavior in cats, but rabbit cannot vomit like cats, so the eaten hairball can lead to serious problems such as blocking its stomach exit. Matting hair can also irritate your rabbit’s skin! This is why brushing your rabbit’s hair is one of the important processes of grooming. You have to remove the loose hair by brushing it out of the hair as soon as possible before your rabbits consume the hairball more.
2. How often you have to brush your rabbit
Your rabbits need to brushed at least once a week to every three days. Remember that your rabbits can perform shedding or molting, which is something natural so you don’t have to freak out! To know more about this, you can read about the changing and molting fur on rabbit here. Back again, rabbits tend to shed about every three months. They might shed heavily in spring and fall and lightly during summer and winter, so you might want to brush your rabbit more often during this time.
However, each rabbit can have different cases from one to another. They might shed in different ways and periods. Some of them will take a couple of weeks to lose their fur, while others can get it done only just for a few days. Thus, the best answer to how often you have to brush your rabbit is depending on your rabbit’s coat length and how quickly it sheds.
3. The best tools to brush your rabbit
You have to brush your rabbit gently because the rabbit is skin is quite fragile. Make sure you don’t hurt your fluffy friends because not only it will make your rabbit pissed off and uncomfortable but it also will injure and irritate the skin. To prevent this from happening, you can use a soft-bristle brush rather than a metal toothed slicker. A bristle brush can help you to smoothen the fur and get any extra shed hair You can also use a pin brush or a wide-toothed comb, depending on the length of your rabbit’s fur. Brush your rabbit’s back gently in the same direction of the fur. Don’t forget to not to brush it too hard! If you notice that your rabbit is hurting, you can stop for a while, and start it again afterward.
4. Cut out the matted hair ASAP
Long haired rabbits, like Angora rabbits, are a popular choice among pet rabbits because they look sleek and super fluffy. However, taking care of its fur might take extra work. Long haired rabbits tend to develop fur mats, or large clumps of tangled fur, easily. Once you notice your rabbit has matted hair or fur blockages, you probably want to remove it immediately before it gets more complicated. Using scissors to remove the matt apart is not recommended because it might injure your rabbit’s delicate skin. The best choice is to use specialized tools for matted hair such as mat splitter or mat rake. If you are not sure how to perform this procedure, it will be better for you to go to a professional groomer to get it done.
If your rabbit keeps on developing loose hair, hairballs, or matted fur, cutting the fur about an inch might help it. Don’t cut it too short or all the way to the skin because the rabbit might get prone to heat, cold, or any sharp edge stuff that may injure your rabbit’s skin.
5. Keep the eyes clear of fur
The long haired rabbit may also tend to have a heavy amount of fur around its eyes, this issue can lead to irritation or infection to your rabbit’s eyes. To prevent this, you can use a specialized tool such as a mascara brush or small flea comb to comb back the fur from its eyes.
6. Use water to remove more fur
After you brush your rabbit, you can use water to remove the excess fur. Using water does not mean you have to bath your rabbit. You only need to damp your hands a little with a spritzer bottle, and then gently stroke your rabbit’s fur from behind the ears all the way back to its tail, from the sides, and also from its belly several times. This will help you out to remove more fur.
7. More brushing to get the last bit out
If it’s not enough, you can remove the last bit of excess fur with a wire-slicker brush to remove mats and tangles, and finish it a softer brush. This extra step is important, especially during the molting or shedding season when your rabbit keeps on losing and producing new fur. Again, be careful when you brush your rabbit and only brush it in the same direction with fur so you don’t injure or damage your rabbit’s skin.
That is all about 7 amazing ways to care your fluffy rabbit’s hair! Remember that this process is not only important for your pet rabbit’s health but also for the bonding between you as the owner with your fluffy friend! Hope you enjoy the process as much as your rabbit!
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