To kick off the Easter season, I thought I would go over the main problem area of all holidays that will relate to rabbits the most, Easter. Easter is a great way to get away with decorating with bunny decor, but not live rabbits. Here are the reasons why.

What Really Started the Problem

As many know, most children know Easter as the day when a rabbit comes to their house, leaves candy and goods in a basket, and leaves. This is all fine, until others take it to a more serious level. People are buying live rabbits to celebrate Easter. I don’t see anything wrong with buying a rabbit with the mindset that you will take care of it the best you can and with the correct and most proper information, but others don’t understand that mindset.

What is Wrong With Buying a Rabbit During Easter?

Here is the list I have put together to go against buying rabbits for Easter:

• The lack of knowledge with care
• Giving the rabbit to young children
• Rabbits being thrown out in the woods because they are too “needy” of an animal
•  The rabbits are treated like toys
• End up in shelters a couple days later… again

The Results of This Problem and the Problems That Come With It

From all of the effects of buying a bunny during the Easter season, I have to say that when people buy the rabbits for a nice little pet for their young children but realize how much they really need and then get rid of them, that is the time to really show how bad it is to buy a rabbit during this season. Rabbits are being killed, others brought back to the original shelter.

Don’t forget that this happens to little chicks as well. Chicks will be bought as a little prop for Easter, but then let off to the wild to be killed naturally once the season is over, it isn’t fair.

*DISCLAIMER* I realize that not all people would do this, but this does happen every single year, causing rabbits to die because people will throw them out in the yard to live in the woods, or they will try to find a shelter to bring them to. There is nothing wrong with bringing a rabbit to a shelter, but when the shelters are full, the rabbits are shipped all around the state, country, etc. just to find a temporary home, causing way too much stress that could have been avoided.

My Advice

If you were planning to go buy a rabbit for Easter, but you do know proper care, will keep the rabbit as long as it lives, and can assure that it will live a long, happy life, I don’t see anything wrong with buying a rabbit for Easter. As long as any young children are  supervised. The rabbit could be killed if the child isn’t supervised. Also keep in mind that the rabbit shouldn’t be owned by that child due to many reasons, which will be addressed in my next Easter post in two days.

 

Thank you for coming back once again today. Please continue to come back every day up until Earth day for my usual posts and my holiday themed posts. Until tomorrow’s post, stay on track and read any post you may have missed!

There are so many rabbits out there with head tilt, one of them I came across when looking on the website of a rabbit sanctuary. In this case, I saw the rabbit at first and was horribly concerned, but then realized that it was how the rabbit was born. I learned many details about head tilt from the rabbit and thought you may like to know it as well as this rabbit’s story.

How I Found Out About This Rabbit

This rabbit that I will be talking about was from the same rabbit sanctuary as Oliver and Luna. This specific rabbit’s head was tilted to a 90 degree angle. The description page and details about this rabbit were all positive. From all of the rabbits with head tilt I have heard of, they all seemed to be very playful, happy, and caring bunnies. Even though they are in pain, they don’t show it by nature. We found this sanctuary on Petfinder and would definitely recommend this sanctuary to anyone in the general area of Appleton, WI. If anyone had seen this rabbit on Petfinder, they would have known him as Ringo.

A Summary of Ringo’s Life…

1. Ringo was born with his head tilt and was tended to immediately by the vets working at the sanctuary 5 out of the 7 days of the week.
2. Once weaned and ready for neutering, the procedure was done.
3. The workers in the shelter made sure to support Ringo and treat him like any other bunny, with care, compassion, and love.
4. Ever since then, Ringo had been looking for a forever home and was taken home multiple months ago.

What Did I Learn From the Description?

From what I could tell from Ringo’s description, he was the most upbeat, playful, loving bunny that could ever be asked for. I learned that the rabbits with head tilt do tend to need a specific vet to be taken care of by. The sanctuary employees will often recommend going to the same vet that the rabbit had already been going to for opinion reasons. One vet may crash down on another for doing something out of what their opinion states. Head tilt caused in rabbits, as for Ringo’s case, was caused by genetics. I will be going over all of the causes of head tilt later in a different post.

What I have Learned From Researching this Condition

From researching head tilt, I have realized many things. First, I was born with torticollis (AKA head tilt). I knew this from the start, but forgot the medical term until I looked into more information on head tilt, like if it has a cure. I have also been able to connect to other sites of information that also support what I have researched in the past. Head tilt is so much more complicated than it seems, which is why I have been going over it in so much depth.

What We Can Do As the Rabbit Community To Help This Rabbit?

I am glad to say that Ringo has been adopted for quite some time, but for the other rabbits out there struggling with head tilt, look into how you can help. In my situation, I would look into donating some money towards that rabbit and making some extra items to support this rabbit in need. Other options to help a rabbit with head tilt would be…

• To adopt the rabbit
• Volunteer to help with that rabbit
• Foster that rabbit if the shelter is willing
• Sponsor the rabbit to insure a good, healthy life

 

That will be it for today’s post on head tilt. I have officially started preparing my holiday themed posts, so make sure to check them out. I will be posting the holiday posts on odd numbered days of the week until Easter, along with an Earth Day themed post for then.

Please share this post with all of your friends and family to reach out to all of the rabbits and give this post a like if you would be willing to make a difference. I will talk to you tomorrow during the holiday post if you’re willing to come back then.

Rabbits with head tilt go through a lot. Most won’t be active or even interactive. They’re constantly in pain and can’t do much about it, but you can. So today, I’ll be going over the ways to help a rabbit with head tilt (since they can’t do much about it).

Why Do They Even Need Help Anyway?

As mentioned before, rabbits do go through pain because of head tilt. Some may need a lot of relief time if their head tilt is more serious. Some reasons behind helping rabbits with head tilt include:

• Preventing stress on neck muscles
• Allowing a cure
• Preventing the pain from worsening
• To keep a rabbit from suffering
• To give the rabbit a break like any other
• To support all rabbits of all cases
• To give the rabbit a normal life

 

What to Do to Help a Rabbit With Head Tilt

Some way to prevent stress:

• Give extra attention
• Bond that rabbit with another rabbit
• Give food and treats on a scheduled basis (helps the rabbit to get used to what to expect each day)
• Give a large cage (for all rabbits)
• Give the largest play space possible (for all rabbits as well)

Some ways to ease pain:

• Give pain medication when instructed by vet
• Follow advice from the vet
• Give an area for resting
• Give a cool or hot pack to rest against (depends on weather and rabbit)
• Massage their neck

Some ways to relax the rabbit:

• Give easy access to all things in the play area and their cage
• Give a large area for a resting spot only for the rabbit to wind down
• Give treats regularly (in a safely small amount)
• Create a routine
• Spend time with the rabbit

Ways to Support Other Rabbits With Head Tilt

Most big cities will have an animal shelter consisting of only rabbits. In that shelter, there may be a rabbit with head tilt that is struggling. The best way to help that rabbit would most likely be to adopt it, but not all people would be up for that task. Here are multiple ways that you would be able to help that rabbit:

1. Give a specific donation. When I went and adopted Oliver and Luna, there was a mini-lop at the specific shelter that we were adopting our bunnies from. This rabbit did not have head tilt, but had over-grown teeth that were being treated, but continuously kept overgrowing. With the adoption fee, we gave another 20 or 25 dollars to go towards that rabbit.
2. Volunteer. Volunteering is a great way to help a rabbit in need because of the accessibility to that rabbit. The rabbit will be able to interact and while volunteering, many will take the opportunity to encourage themselves to do something for that rabbit. Most will have a changing moment that inspires that person to then make essentials for that rabbit so that their life doesn’t have to be so hard.
3. Making items. As I had just mentioned, a great way to do something fun and simple for a rabbit in need is to make items specifically for them to help them thrive. Rabbits with head tilt will often rely on the following:
   1. A cushion to sleep against
   2. Easy access litter boxes and hay racks
   3. A hideaway that has bumpers all around the sides
   4. Bumpers for anywhere

These are the items that would work great for DIYs to support these rabbits out there struggling with head tilt.

 

Thank you for coming back again for another post. I encourage you to go out and find a way to help a rabbit in need. If you are able to find a rabbit with head tilt, find a way to change that rabbit’s life forever.

As I’ve mentioned, I will be making a little series in a way all about head tilt since not many rabbit owners will give detail about head tilt. Today, I will be going over what problems that may be caused and how this problem started and what all happened.

 

Problems Your Rabbit May Run Into

The rabbit may happen to run into:

• Not being able to go up ramps
• Not being able to keep their neck supported
• Not being able to be active
• Falling to one side
• Struggling to drink/eat
• Falling completely
• Tripping
• Losing track of sight

How These Problems May Have Been Started

Many of these problems will be started by genetics. Other scenarios will usually be related to how the rabbit was positioned in their mother’s womb. Rabbits with head tilt will usually have problems with what I have listed. This is very serious and could cause a rabbit overbearing pain and problems if not tended to.

What Will Happen If Head Tilt Isn’t Payed Attention To

If head tilt isn’t tended to, the following could happen…

• Your rabbit will most likely suffer and have problems with nutrition if they aren’t helped to eat since their head will be at an angle that prevents our rabbit to pick much up.
• Your rabbit will go through so much pain from not being able to rest their neck on something properly, or having the medications to help cure the pain, not the problem. Pain with head tilt is sad to have to watch and go through, but believe it or not, torticollis is in humans too, I know personally through my experience. From this perspective, it is easier to respect rabbits through what they are bearing through.
• Head tilt easily isn’t cured, but it can happen. With a determined rabbit owner, and a lot of money to spare, torticollis, or head tilt, can be cured. There are many aspects needed to be addressed, so I will come back to this some other day.

Thank you for sticking around. I’ll be starting to use more of a variety of pictures  in my posts soon and using different strategies to hopefully make my posts a little more interesting. Please make sure to come back every other day a new post and I will talk to you then, bye.

 

Head tilt is a very serious topic that isn’t very well portrayed in the rabbit community. Many rabbits may end up with head tilt and is a very serious subject, so the next couple of posts will be based on head tilt as well.

The Overall Explanation to Head Tilt

Head tilt is the problem of when a rabbit’s head naturally will tilt to one side, usually dramatically. Head tilt is very well known to cause a lot of problems when it comes to pain problems and balance.

Some things that may need to be changed:

• Ramps
• Feeding access
• Bedding
• Cage Format
• Etc.

How It Is Caused

Head tilt can be caused by many things, a few being:

• Genetics
• Age
• Arthritis
• “Posture”

The Overall Effects

Head tilt can cause many scenarios including:

• Struggles with walking/hopping
• Struggles with eating/drinking
• The rabbit’s neck becoming sore
• Many more problems go on, but I find that simple everyday things are effected no matter what.

Thank you for coming back for this brief post. I will be doing a small series on head tilt o fill you all in on all of the information needed.

Last post was all about clicker training, how to do it, what it is, etc., so today I will be going over agility, which can tie into clicker training.

Agility Overview

Agility is all about using an obstacle to overcome, avoid, and to learn a way into being fit, accept in this scenario, the rabbit is finding its ways into this. This also includes tricks.

Starting Off

A few steps needed before starting…

1. Some sort of reward system (clicker training)
2. Obstacles to use
3. A rabbit in a good mood
4. Perseverance

Once these are all in check, feel free to get your rabbit ready by going over the basics of your system, such as going over the clicker system with clicker training..

What to Expect

Nothing is perfect, so even if you think your rabbit is ready, they may have something to worry about, or same way with yourself. If your rabbit is distracted, they are not going to listen to you what so ever.

• Your rabbit losing your attention
• Your rabbit confusing what trick is what
• Your rabbit may even just misinterpret what they are being taught to do

Fun Tricks

• Spin in a circle
• Jump over a hurdle
• Jump on your lap
• Stand on hind legs
• Figure 8
• Follow the leader
• Run through the tunnel

The Benefits of Agility

Agility does have to do with many components that could be strengthened including…

• Balance
• Coordination
• Activeness
• Self-control
• Power/strength

Agility can really help a rabbit become more fit, active, and controllable.

Using Agility as a Tool

There are many ways agility can be used as a tool. Many rabbit owners, including myself, will use agility as a way to strengthen your rabbit’s bond toward yourself. Rabbits included in agility will be more energetic, pleasing, and comfortable around you as a result.

 

Thank you for coming back for this post. I still post every other day and will keep it that way until notified. Please stick around and read through any posts that you may not have gone through.

Today will be an overall summary of the components of clicker training for rabbits. This will include what clicker training is, how it works, how to start, and how it will help in the long run with tricks.

What is Clicker Training?

Clicker training is using a strategy to have a rabbit follow a certain pointer and using a click as the reward.

Components include:

• Using an object as the pointer
• Using a clicker for a reward
• Using this strategy for trick teaching to be easier

How does Clicker Training Work?

Clicker training works by using a 5 step process:

• Teaching your rabbit to follow something they already know
• Teaching your rabbit to follow a pointer
• Teaching your rabbit that the reward is the click
• Teaching your rabbit new tricks to keep them entertained
• Teaching your rabbit to stay engaged in what they are doing to get exercise and a proper reward out of it all.

How to Start Click Training

1. Teach your rabbit to follow your finger by using something to attract them, such as a treat. Use the treat to give to them when they touch your finger and repeat for a while.
2. Then, come back for a new session and use some sort of pointer, such as a wooden dowel to do the same thing, give a treat when they touch the pointer and follow it around. This may take quite a bit of time, so be patient and don’t forget that rabbit attention spans are only about 10 minutes will clicker training.
3. Once your rabbit has caught on that touching the pointer is good, start clicking a clicker or a pen when you give a treat, with or without the pointer for a while.
4. Now, you will be able to get your rabbit into doing tricks. Start with something easy, such as a spin. Start by using your finger as a pointer, then go to a dowel or something. Don’t forget to use the clicker as a reward, then give the treat.
5. Now you can go ahead and teach your rabbit all of the tricks you would like! Rabbits have pretty slim attention spans, so make sure to respect that!

*Don’t overfeed treats and spread these steps out as much as needed!

How Clicker Training Can Help with Tricks in the Long- run

• Even without a stick or target, using a clicker to train your rabbit to go in the carrier, cage, or hop up on your lap can be very helpful.
• You could teach your rabbit to come to you by using the clicker.
• Clicker training is motivating for your rabbit because they know when they hear the click that they did the right thing, and to continue for satisfaction!

 

As always, that you so much for coming back once again. I post every other day and would appreciate if you would share this post and channel with your family and friends if you liked it!

 

Today, I will be going over some easy toys that many will easily be able to make for their rabbits with materials from home. These toys are also great for the environment since they are all made from recycled and natural materials.

 

Flower Shaped Chew

Materials:

• Cardboard toilet tube
• Rabbit safe yarn/twine (sisal and jute if taken through precaution)
• Scissors

Directions:

Cut the toilet paper tube into five rings. Then, take some of your rabbit safe yarn and string that material through all of the rings, tie tightly leaving some yarn material on each side. From here, use the excess yarn material to tie the cardboard toy to a cage, hutch, hiding house, x-pen, etc.

Homemade Chew Sticks

Materials: 

• Pesticide, bug, toxin free twigs

(Safe twigs for rabbits include willow, spruce, ash, birch, maple, apple, pear, etc.)

• Make sure that the twig never touched the ground, was infected by any disease, bug, or parasite, and is still safe, just do your research.

Directions:

Look around your land for any rabbit safe tree that others wouldn’t mind you taking a couple sticks off of. Simply snap or cut off the twig and inspect to decide whether it will be safe or not. (If your not sure, feel free to freeze, bake, or naturally disinfect the stick to prevent any problems.) Take it to your rabbit for a nice, crunchy treat.

Themed Hay Holder

Materials:

• Paper lunch bag
• Scissors
• Hay
• Rabbit safe yarn/twine
• *BONUS* Favorite herbs, dried treats, pellets, etc.

Directions:

Start by taking the paper lunch bag and opening it up wide. Then, take the scissors and make any designs, creations, and cuts for any theme. Then, stuff the bag from the top full with hay, add herbs or treats if wanted. Then, tie off the top to prevent the bag from opening.

Candy Themed Treat Roller

Materials:

• Toilet paper tube
• Lunch bag or similar paper material
• Scissors
• Treats
• Rabbits safe yarn/twine
• Treats, herbs, pellets

Directions:

Take the paper lunch bag or other material and cut the material to size out a little larger than the toilet paper tube. If you don’t understand, just cut the material to be able to wrap around the tube easily and be long enough on both sides to be tied. Wrap the paper material around the tube snugly and tie one side. This is the time to add any treats, herbs, pellets, etc. From here, all that is needed to do is to tie the other end and give the toy to your rabbit.

Roll/Chew Ball

Materials:

• Cardboard
• Scissors

Directions: 

First, cut out three of the same sized circles, approximately 2 or 3 inches in diameter. With one circle, cut four slots to make four even sections, cutting most of the way to the middle, but not all of the way. Then, cut small portions off of the slits. Your done with that circle. With the next two circles, cut to the middle and make the slits as wide as you did with the other circle. In the middle of the two circles, cut a small triangle for a slot.

Fold the first circle in half (along with two of the slits). Then, take one of the one slotted circles and interlock the slit with the folded over slits of the first circle. Unfold the flaps of the first circle and fold them up to meet with the other slits, then add the last circle to interlock. Unfold the flaps to make the ball look like this…

(Check out StormyRabbits on YouTube for her tutorial. Sorry if the explanation was horrible, but it’s way harder to explain than expected. The toy is called a roll and chew for those who would like to find it on YouTube, keep in mind the picture I am showing, because there are two versions given from her channel.)

Other Made-up Ideas…

 

Thank you for coming back for this post and come back every other day for a new post. If you like this style of post, give it a like to let me know your opinion.

I have done many posts relating to cages, playpens, etc. and have gone over parts of setup, but never went into detail on what to look for in an area for your rabbit’s cage, along with how you may want to set up the cage to avoid other problems.

 

What To Look For In a Cage

• Open concept with some area for a hiding spot
• A large enough area for a nice sized litter box
• Safe material
• A layout that will work for your rabbit

Reasoning…

An open concept gives availability for situations to work for more peoples’ bunnies, which can also allow a large litter box to fit correctly inside the cage. Safe material can be for the cage itself, or for any odd situation that could cause a material problem. Don’t forget that the layout itself has to work for your rabbit. If your rabbit is a senior, you probably won’t want to have any steep ramps in the cage.

Figuring Out Sizing

• Look at the space that you have available to you.
• The best bet is to go on the bigger side and to look into where you want to put the hutch to cover any problem areas.

Before buying a cage, make sure you measure to spot that you would like to place the cage to avoid spacing problems. Also, make sure that there is enough space for your rabbit to be able to travel easily around the cage. A rabbit should be able to take three large hops and still have space for comparison.

Planning the Layout

• Draw it out on paper

Things to Look Out For…

• Make a large area just for hiding
• Keep toys in a certain place

What to Do to Avoid Layout Problems

• Keep water bowls away from litter boxes
• Keep hay away from fleece areas
• Make an area only for fleece to prevent messes
• Use absorbent material around litter boxes and catch hay

Space for Price

Many stores will sell the same cage, hutch, or pen at different prices. If you want to get your cage online, many online prices will vary, even though the product is the same thing. You may have to do a lot of searching, but if you find the same product for a better price, money can be easily saved.

 

Thank you for coming back and please come back every other day for a new post. Share this with your friends and family to spread proper rabbit care, and I’ll talk to you next time, bye.