Today’s topic for Rabbit Adoptathon week will be about providing enrichment for your bunny. Rabbits are very intelligent, curious creatures. They get bored if they do not have enough space to run around and explore and/or enough “toys” to entertain them. Follow these tips to make your bunny a happy bunny.
Give them space! If your bunny is contained in a puppy pen, condo, or cage, make sure you let your bunny out everyday into a bunny-proofed room. Rabbits love to sniff and examine their surroundings. Plus, they need room to do bunny 500s and binkies!
Get creative with cardboard! By cutting rabbit-sized doors and windows into an old cardboard box, you’ve transformed it into a cardboard castle for your bunny to renovate. They’ll love widening and shaping the doors and windows to their liking. Putting a smaller castle inside a larger box gives them even more things to renovate. Rabbits also like tunnels. So be sure to save any narrow/tall boxes or tubes for your bunny’s enjoyment.
Shake, rattle, and roll! Rabbits like toys they can hold in their mouths and toss. Baby keys, toys made for birds, and toilet paper rolls are all things they enjoy.
Get down to their level! Rabbits prefer interacting with you on the ground. Wait for them to approach you and investigate so you can build trust with your bunny. Once they’re comfortable with you, they’ll enjoy being petted and will seek out your attention.
For more information, see the following articles from My House Rabbit:
Today’s theme for Rabbit Adoptathon week will be about litter training. We get a lot of emails from people who are frustrated by stubborn, “outside-the-box” bunnies. Here are our best tips:
Rabbits tend to poop while they eat hay. So it is always a good idea to place ample amounts of hay either in the litterbox or in a hayfeeder right next to the litterbox (so the bunny is forced to sit in the litterbox if he wants to munch on hay).
Mop up urine with a paper towel and pick up stray poop and place both in the litterbox. This helps get the message across that the litterbox is the place that they should do their business.
Be patient and persistent. Litter training takes time, especially if your rabbit has learned bad habits. It takes a while to retrain them. If you can see they’re about to go to the bathroom outside their litterbox (they may lift their tail or sometimes they sort of shimmy down in a seated position right before they go), try to pick them up and put them in the litterbox or corral them in. This is oftentimes easier said than done of course.
Limit their space. If your bunny is free reign, you may want to limit their space initially using a puppy pen until your rabbit is consistently practicing good litterbox habits. Then, very gradually increase the space, ensure those good habits remain intact. Eventually, you will be able to take away the puppy pen completely.
If your bunny is insistent on going in one corner of the room, sometimes it’s easier to give in to their stubbornness, and place a litterbox in that corner. Sometimes when rabbits consistently choose another place to go, they are trying to tell you that that’s where they want to go.
If your rabbit is pooping/spraying pee everywhere, this is probably due to your rabbit marking his territory. It’s a good idea to get your rabbit spayed/neutered in order to ease territorial feelings.
Sometimes rabbits deliberately pee on your couch or bed because they’re showing you who’s Top Bunny in the house. You should correct their misconception immediately. See our blog post, “Being Top Bunny” and the House Rabbit Society’s article, “FAQ: Training” for more information.
To promote rabbit care and adoption, AfFURmation and Bunny’s Blog are co-hosting a Rabbit Adoptathon Hop starting Sunday, May 13th at 6pm ET and ending at 6pm ET on Saturday May 19th.
Here’s what you do to get involved in spreading awareness:
If you have a blog, create a post anytime during this week about rabbit care or share information about adoptable bunnies. Add in the Rabbit Adoptathon badge (code below) so others can do the same on their blogs.
If you’re on Facebook, you can share an adoptable bunny’s information by using the Facebook Share button located on each animal’s profile page on Petfinder.com.
Learn more about the Adoptathon Hop at AfFURmation.
(Copy the code above and paste it into your blog if you want to get involved.)
The folks at Mint.com and Humane Society Silicon Valley put together a helpful infographic outlining the lifetime costs of pets. It’s so important when you decided to adopt a pet rabbit or bonded pair into your family, that you are willing and able to shoulder the costs.
Here at My House Rabbit headquarters in New London, CT, the unseasonably warm weather has resulted in some fresh treats for Coco and Cosette. (It was 70 degrees today!)
Since we also had a very mild winter, some of the lettuce that I started last fall survived through the winter months and then flourished once I covered the bed with some garden fabric. So for the past few days the rabbits have indulged in freshly grown romaine, carrots, and dandelions (ok, so actually I just plucked those from our yard… but we also have a pot of intentionally-grown dandelions that are currently thriving). I’m going to experiment more with extending the growing season next year by using a cold frame and making more use of my garden fabric on the raised beds.
Anyone else harvesting veggies for their bunnies now?
Many of us in the bunny community already know that year after year, shelters and rescues get inundated with unwanted pet rabbits a few weeks after Easter.
So let’s try to spread the word that pet rabbits should not be Easter impulse buys! It comes down to this: if you haven’t done any research or put any thought into whether or not a real rabbit is a good fit for you and your family, go the chocolate bunny route instead.
Check out the adorable video of happy, enriched bunnies created by the RSPCA. You can find out more tips on providing enrichment to your bunny at the RSPCA site.
For more bunny enrichment tips, view the following articles by My House Rabbit:
Rabbit lovers in the northeast US: You may be interested in attending the annual House Rabbit Society / Rabbit Rescue & Rehab Conference on Sunday, October 23 from 10am – 5pm at the Radisson Hotel in New Rochelle, New York.
The rabbit care conference will cover topics such as rabbit behavior and training, bunny bonding, medical Q&As, demonstrations, goodies, and more! You may even run into actress/comedienne and longtime rabbit advocate Amy Sedaris!
September 24-25, 2011 (the fourth weekend of every September) is devoted to learning about proper rabbit care and appreciating the unique companionship pet rabbits offer. Below is a sampling of how you can celebrate rabbits this weekend!
(If your rabbit rescue is hosting an International Rabbit Day event, contact us, and we’ll add you to the list.)
Rabbit Care Information
Check out our articles in Rabbit Care, Rabbit Behavior, Rabbit Health, and New to Rabbits? sections for information on providing a safe, happy environment for your pet bunnies. There is also a wealth of information on the websites listed on our Resources page.
Baskets for Bunnies is a new nonprofit organization that assists rabbit rescues with supplies and funds. Founded by Gretta Parker, the organization hopes to take some of the fundraising burden off shelters, so they can focus their attention on rescuing more bunnies.
In the future, Parker plans to expand Baskets for Bunnies to include a spay/neuter program and to support rescues internationally.
If you are interested in learning more about Baskets for Bunnies, the rescues they support, or donating, please visit them at their website or find them on Facebook.
Today’s theme for 
Rabbit lovers in the northeast US: You may be interested in attending the annual House Rabbit Society / Rabbit Rescue & Rehab Conference on Sunday, October 23 from 10am – 5pm at the Radisson Hotel in New Rochelle, New York.
Baskets for Bunnies
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