Pet Habitat South Africa

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16 Sep 2018

Caring For Rabbits In The Home

Posted By : Guest

Filed Under : Rabbits | Rabbit Food | Bunny Nature

There are cat people and there are dog people – there are also rabbit people who open up their homes for free ranging bunnies to enjoy their life as house pets. As rabbits are clever, clean creatures who can be litter-trained, why not have bunnies as part of the family?

Having indoor rabbits means bunny-proofing your home. These chewy little pets will get their teeth into anything they can – furniture, curtains, electric cables, slippers, plants and practically anything else. So, when you’re not able to keep a very close eye on them, they’ll need to have a safe area to spend time in that’s equipped with cosy beds, hiding places, litter tray, safe toys to chew and plenty of good quality feeding hay to nibble on.

To coax your rabbits into their safe space, try some irresistible treats such as Bunny Nature Crunchy Crackers, which are perfect for hand feeding.

Meeting The Nutritional Challenge

When it comes to what to feed your indoor rabbits, there are some nutritional challenges to meet. While indoor rabbits may roam the lounge rather than the great outdoors, they still need to get everything from their diet that a wild rabbit would. With this in mind, we recommend feeding Bunny Nature Rabbit Dream Trimello shaped pellets. Pellets are a complementary addition to your rabbit's diet and can be a source of nutrition when fed correctly.

The CEO of Bunny Nature says: "When developing and producing animal-friendly food, we always put the animals first. We look at where they come from, what they eat there, what their social behavior and eating behavior look like. It is not only important to provide that information and understand their nutritional needs, but it is also essential to apply this knowledge consistently when choosing the right food. That makes all the difference."

Bunny Nature Trimello shaped pellets offers the following benefits:

Biological diversity: contains 42 - 63 different plants from natural meadows
Balanced recipe for long healthy life: 75 important ingredients that are correctly dosed
3 fibre mix: 3 different fibre lengths for tooth abrasion and healthy intestinal flora
Optimal protein & energy content: perfect supply for entire body
Optimal crude fibre to starch ratio: protects against fattening
Organic, non-GMO ingredients

What Is So Special About Ingredients Of Bunny Nature Pellets?

Most quality rabbit pellets contains only 10-15% timothy grass. Bunny Nature pellets on the other hand contains 60% plants and herbs from your rabbit's natural habitat.

Bunny Nature pellets contains between 42-63 different plants such as:

timothy, meadow fescue, red fescue, meadow foxtail, blue grass, cocksfoot, cow parsley, rough dandelion, meadow chickweed, common yarrow, lady's mantle, vernal grass, field clover, ribwort, meadow sage, meadow trefoil, tall fescue, meadow bellflower, caraway, meadow knapweed, common hornwort, bedstraw-meadow thistle, soft tristle, common dandelion, tussock grass, true meadowsweet, field hornwort, wood strawberry, bird's vetch, gemander speedwell, meadow pippweed, true bedstraw, downy meadow oats, common horsetail, field horsetail, white bedstraw, white cranesbill, fat meadow daisy, field widow's-flower, cuckoo's-flower pink, common loosestrife, field-speedwell, tall oat grass, meadow rye, medium plantain, greater meadow-knap, narrow-leaved vetch, forget-me-nots, meadow saxifrage, lesser burnet, creeping cinquefoil, cowslip, nodding campion, lesser meadow-grass, grass stitchwort, meadow goats-beard, stinging nettle, fragrant speedwell, red clover, bush vetch, geneva goutweed, goutweed, daisies, oat peel bran, sunflower seed extracted, linseed extracted, apple pomace, carrot pomace, wheat bran, rape seed extracted, fennel seeds 0.5%, papaya dried 0.25%, camomile blossoms 0.25%

What Foods Should You Avoid Feeding?

Contrary to popular belief, rabbits and guinea pigs should never be fed a muesli-based diet. Research by the University of Edinburgh in 2013 revealed that muesli style diets can increase the risk of a number of health issues. This is because muesli style diets can encourage selective feeding, where rabbits will often reject the nutritious parts of the mix, which can result in:

Obesity
Dental issues
Digestive problems – the gut can stop working altogether in serious conditions
Uneaten sticky droppings, attracting flies that lay eggs and cause flesh-eating maggots.

Even though rabbits can learn to love their humans, they need company of their own kind and should share their indoor home with at least one other bunny buddy.

Follow Our Top Tips On Feeding

Your rabbits’ diet should not be changed overnight. If you’re moving onto new food, do so gradually, mixing a little bit in at a time over a course of 10 days.
All rabbit pellets should be fed in small portions, as a supplement to a hay and grass-based diet. Follow the feeding guide on the back of the pack and adjust as necessary to keep your rabbits in a lean, active condition.
85-90% of your rabbits’ diet should be high quality feeding hay or grass to help wear down their continually growing teeth and to keep their gut moving to reduce the risk of digestive problems. Rabbits also need constant access to grass/hay to express their natural grazing behaviour.
A handful of dark, leafy greens such as basic, broccoli, dark green cabbage and curly kale can be fed daily for additional nutrients and as a treat.
Clean, fresh water should be constantly available.