© Vegetarian-Fun.com
Rabbits
A rabbit is a vegetarian pet that you can keep in the city or in the country. They eat vegetables, some fruits, your favorite flower bulbs and the flowers themselves if given a chance!
You can get rabbit pellet food from your local pet store, but when you provide the pellets, you must make sure that there is plenty of water available. The pellets are compressed plant material and it will cause the rabbit stomach problems if it does not have additional sources of liquid to complete the digestion process. Adult rabbits do well on fresh hay made from alfalfa, timothy and oats.
Speaking of the digestion process, rabbits are born without the proper gut bacteria to digest the vegetation on which they exist! So how do they get the proper 'gut bugs'? The mama rabbit provides her young with some of her feces. Seriously! Vegetable matter like grasses, bulbs, buds and the inner bark of twigs are hard to digest, so much of the plant matter passes through the rabbit undigested. As a result, their fecal matter actually does contain enough nutrition to be consumed again, beneficially. The baby rabbits will contentedly eat the partially digested food that has passed through the mother rabbit and gain not only nutrition from it, but the gut bacteria necessary for digestion! The gut bacteria establish a colony in the baby rabbit's intestines and both will happily benefit from the relationship from then on.
What they cannot eat is bread. The closest thing to bread that they can eat are the specially prepared pellets which do not contain any yeast. Bread will give clog a rabbit's colon and cause their nutrition to be compromised. This can be fatal, so watch your pets and make sure they don't get into the bread, because they LOVE it, even as it hurts them.
Another common household vegetable that rabbits should not be fed is iceberg lettuce. It will give them diarrhea and be messy as well. Dandelion leaves are great; romaine lettuce is good; bok choy, carrots and their leaves, celery and corn are all good foods for your housebound rabbit.
If you are going to try to bring another rabbit into the house, like for companionship's sake, not mating purposes, then go slowly and let them bond. Put the two in separate cages and place them in the same room for a couple days. Then let first one out to go explore the interesting scent of the other and then vice versa. This way they will become accustomed to the scent of each other without feeling the need to establish dominance and fighting each other.
Rabbits are known to be prolific reproducers in the wild. Gestation is 28 days! The young are known as 'kittens' and while three or four litters are born in the wild each year, only about 10% survive to adulthood. If you are intending to keep several rabbits together, you might wish to have them sterilized or suffer the consequences of being overrun by hordes of rabbits since your house probably does not have any natural predators!
If you intend to let your rabbit roam outside in your back yard, be sure to securely surround any desirable plants with chicken wire about two feet high. Make sure the bottom of the wire is buried 8 inches below ground level because rabbits will push their way beneath it to get to your delectable plants and shrubs. Additionally, make sure that your rabbit's outdoor exercise area is well-contained to keep them in and predators out.
You can make a rabbit repellent that is non-toxic and safe. At www.pleasebekind.com we find the following recipe: To make the repellent you need one whole spanish onion, one jalepeno pepper and one tablespoon of cayenne pepper. Chop up the onion and pepper. Mix together and boil in two quarts of water for about 20 minutes. Let cool and then strain water through a cheesecloth into a container. Using a garden sprayer, spray any area outside where rabbits are being a nuisance. The process may have to be carried out for a period of two weeks to assure success.
Make sure you take your pet rabbit to the vet for their shots and checkups. They can get fleas and pick up fevers, just like any pet. Be kind to your rabbit and you will have several years of enjoyment together.
For more information, also see The House Rabbit Society at www.rabbit.org/index.html
You can get rabbit pellet food from your local pet store, but when you provide the pellets, you must make sure that there is plenty of water available. The pellets are compressed plant material and it will cause the rabbit stomach problems if it does not have additional sources of liquid to complete the digestion process. Adult rabbits do well on fresh hay made from alfalfa, timothy and oats.
Speaking of the digestion process, rabbits are born without the proper gut bacteria to digest the vegetation on which they exist! So how do they get the proper 'gut bugs'? The mama rabbit provides her young with some of her feces. Seriously! Vegetable matter like grasses, bulbs, buds and the inner bark of twigs are hard to digest, so much of the plant matter passes through the rabbit undigested. As a result, their fecal matter actually does contain enough nutrition to be consumed again, beneficially. The baby rabbits will contentedly eat the partially digested food that has passed through the mother rabbit and gain not only nutrition from it, but the gut bacteria necessary for digestion! The gut bacteria establish a colony in the baby rabbit's intestines and both will happily benefit from the relationship from then on.
What they cannot eat is bread. The closest thing to bread that they can eat are the specially prepared pellets which do not contain any yeast. Bread will give clog a rabbit's colon and cause their nutrition to be compromised. This can be fatal, so watch your pets and make sure they don't get into the bread, because they LOVE it, even as it hurts them.
Another common household vegetable that rabbits should not be fed is iceberg lettuce. It will give them diarrhea and be messy as well. Dandelion leaves are great; romaine lettuce is good; bok choy, carrots and their leaves, celery and corn are all good foods for your housebound rabbit.
If you are going to try to bring another rabbit into the house, like for companionship's sake, not mating purposes, then go slowly and let them bond. Put the two in separate cages and place them in the same room for a couple days. Then let first one out to go explore the interesting scent of the other and then vice versa. This way they will become accustomed to the scent of each other without feeling the need to establish dominance and fighting each other.
Rabbits are known to be prolific reproducers in the wild. Gestation is 28 days! The young are known as 'kittens' and while three or four litters are born in the wild each year, only about 10% survive to adulthood. If you are intending to keep several rabbits together, you might wish to have them sterilized or suffer the consequences of being overrun by hordes of rabbits since your house probably does not have any natural predators!
If you intend to let your rabbit roam outside in your back yard, be sure to securely surround any desirable plants with chicken wire about two feet high. Make sure the bottom of the wire is buried 8 inches below ground level because rabbits will push their way beneath it to get to your delectable plants and shrubs. Additionally, make sure that your rabbit's outdoor exercise area is well-contained to keep them in and predators out.
You can make a rabbit repellent that is non-toxic and safe. At www.pleasebekind.com we find the following recipe: To make the repellent you need one whole spanish onion, one jalepeno pepper and one tablespoon of cayenne pepper. Chop up the onion and pepper. Mix together and boil in two quarts of water for about 20 minutes. Let cool and then strain water through a cheesecloth into a container. Using a garden sprayer, spray any area outside where rabbits are being a nuisance. The process may have to be carried out for a period of two weeks to assure success.
Make sure you take your pet rabbit to the vet for their shots and checkups. They can get fleas and pick up fevers, just like any pet. Be kind to your rabbit and you will have several years of enjoyment together.
For more information, also see The House Rabbit Society at www.rabbit.org/index.html
Receive two FREE bonus ebooks!
1. Vegetarian recipes
2. Smoothie recipes
How? It's easy!
Privacy policy:
Your email address is safe;
we NEVER share our list.
1. Vegetarian recipes
2. Smoothie recipes
How? It's easy!
Privacy policy:
Your email address is safe;
we NEVER share our list.
