Rabbit as a pet:
Pet rabbits kept indoors are referred to as house rabbits. House rabbits typically have an indoor pen or cage and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as an exercise pen, living room or family room. Rabbits can be trained to use a litter box and some can learn to come when called. Domestic rabbits that do not live indoors can also often serve as companions for their owners, typically living in an easily accessible hutch outside the home. Some pet rabbits live in outside hutches during the day for the benefit of fresh air and natural daylight and are brought inside at night.
Whether indoor or outdoor, pet rabbits' pens are often equipped with enrichment activities such as shelves, tunnels, balls, and other toys. Pet rabbits are often provided additional space in which to get exercise, simulating the open space a rabbit would traverse in the wild. Exercise pens or lawn pens are often used to provide a safe place for rabbits to run.
A pet rabbit's diet typically consists of unlimited Timothy hay, a small amount of pellets, and a small portion of fresh vegetables.
Rabbits are social animals. Rabbits as pets can find their companionship with a variety of creatures, including humans, other rabbits, guinea pigs, and sometimes even cats and dogs. Rabbits do not make good pets for small children because they do not know how to stay quiet, calm, and gentle around rabbits. As prey animals, rabbits are alert, timid creatures that startle easily. They have fragile bones, especially in their backs, that require support on the belly and bottom when picked up. Children 10 years old and older usually have the maturity required to care for a rabbit.
The service and therapy animals organization Delta Society has used pet rabbits as therapy for adults and children since the 1970s.
Monday, October 27, 2008
- A Rabbit as a pet
-Breeding
Breeding:
Most rabbits produce many offspring each year, although scarcity of resources may cause this potential to be suppressed. A combination of factors allows the high rates of reproduction commonly associated with rabbits. Rabbits generally are able to breed at a young age, and many regularly conceive litters of up to seven young, often doing so four or five times a year due to the fact that a rabbit's gestation period is only 28 to 31 days.[9]. In addition, females exhibit induced ovulation, their ovaries releasing eggs in response to copulation rather than according to a regular cycle. They can also undergo postpartum estrus, conceiving immediately after a litter has been born. [1]
Newborn rabbits are naked, blind, and helpless at birth (altricial). Mothers are remarkably inattentive to their young and are almost absentee parents, commonly nursing their young only once per day and for just a few minutes. To overcome this lack of attention, the milk of rabbits is highly nutritious and among the richest of that of all mammals. The young grow rapidly, and most are weaned in about a month. Males (bucks) do not assist in rearing the kittens. [1] The mother rabbit is able to become pregnant again 4 days after the birth of her kittens.[citation needed]
Food & Water
Food & Water:
Rabbits are herbivores so do not feed them meat, they still need some protein.
There diet should be:
-Constant Timothy hay, as much as they need.
-As much rabbit pellet food as your pet store says the rabbit needs for its size and age, should be about a quarter cup if older then 6 months.
-2 cups vegetables and legumes daily.
-Fruit but only as a treat so very little.
-Use Alfalfa hay if you rabbit is under 6 months or is a nursing or pregnant mother.
List of good vegetables:
-Celery (strings removed)
-Alfalfa sprouts
-Dandelion flowers and leaves
-Kale
-Radish tops and sprouts
-Carrots
-Broccoli (mostly stems and leaves)
-Fresh herbs such as;
-Basil
-Parsley
-Cilantro
-Mint
Almost any fruit is good such as pears, apples, grapes, bannanas, etc
Never feed Your Rabbit any of the Following:
-Green Beans
-Potatoes
-Beets
-Avocado
-Cabbage
-Sweet potato
-Corn
-Onion
-Rhubarb
-Crackers
-or anything with un natural sugar in it.
Do not make sudden changes in your rabbits diet as it can cause stomach aches disarray and other bad things, if you want to change the diet slowly add the new food to there old.
Water:
Plastic sipper bottles are best.
Ferret as a pet
A ferret for a pet:
In the United States, ferrets were relatively rare pets until the 1980s. Dr. Wendy Winstead, a veterinarian and former folk singer who had her first ferret in 1969, sold ferrets to a number of celebrities including Dick Smothers and David Carradine while making television appearances on programs such as the David Letterman Show with ferrets in the 1980s,[17] writing books and promoting them until her death in the 1990s from cancer. A government study by the California State Bird and Mammal Conservation Program found that by 1996, approximately 800,000 or so domestic ferrets were likely being kept as pets in the United States.[18]
Exercise & Health care
Exercise:
Ferrets love exercise (playtime) they need lots of stuff like toys to keep them entertained, they also need supervised playtime out of there cage to keep them happy, but make sure they are never left alone outside of there cage because they can escape through just about anything. Some very good ferret toys are found around the house:
-Paper Bags
-Tennis Balls or Baseballs
-String
-Pop Bottles
-Tubes
There are so many things a ferret would love to play with but before you allow your ferret to play with something ask yourself is this safe? do i care if this gets destroyed? And can this hurt my ferret in anyway?
Healthcare:
Like on the Guinea pigs page if you think your ferret has a problem then go see a vet.
Brushing & nail care
Brushing & Nail care;
Ferrets do not need allot of brushing but every now and again they will enjoy one.
They need there nails to be trimmed this can be one of the most uncomfortable things because overgrown nails can cause discomfort and even pain, do not attempt cutting there nails without proper instruction on how to do so for it can hurt your ferret.