Your bunny is an intelligent, social animal that needs affection and special care. The average life span of a healthy rabbit is 5 to 10 years.

Handling
Approach your rabbit calmly and slowly. (Never run up or make fast movements as this may scare them and may cause injury to your rabbit). NEVER, pick up a rabbit by the ears!! This is a major No-No. You can damage the rabbit. Put one hand under the rabbit and one on top; bring the rabbit against you with the bunny’s nose in the crook of your elbow. Let the bunny rest on your arm and put your other arm on his back to maintain balance. Your bunny likes to be held close to your body so it doesn’t feel like he or she might fall.

Water
Offer fresh, clean drinking water daily. This is one of the most important factors for the success of your rabbit project. Without water, your rabbit will stop eating. If your rabbit has stopped drinking water, this is a danger sign. We cannot stress this enough, make sure your rabbit has clean, fresh, cool water at all times. If you use automatic waterers, check the lines for build up. If you use water bottles, make sure they do not leak or are stopped up. And always, wash your bottles and waterers out.

Feeding
Rabbit pellets should be the main diet for your rabbit. You may purchase your bunny’s pellets at a number of places from pet stores, feed stores or larger feed outlets. The first can be quite expensive purchasing in small lots. The least expensive way to go would be from your local feed store or you can also purchase the pellets in quantity depending on the number of rabbits you have. Be sure that if you decide to change their feed you do so gradually by mixing their usual feed with the new until their digestive system grows accustomed to the new feed.

We use no more than 16 % Protein for our Mini Rex. They seem to do great on this percentage. Once a week we offer small amounts of carrots or apples as a treat for our bunny’s. We do not feed lettuce, cabbage, spinach or any kind of watery vegetables because this can cause runny stools and upset stomachs. We give our bunny’s a special treat consisting of Old Fashioned Oats (not the Quick) and black sunflower seeds, except in the summer months. They love it and it helps maintain a good fur coat. We also offer Doc’s Rabbit Enhancer to our show stock. The amount of pellets to be given depends on the size of your rabbit. Our Mini Rex receive ¼ to ½ cup of pellets each day. Remember to remove any un-eaten pellets each day.

We also feed Timothy Hay to our bunny’s. The hay can be given at any time. We offer hay once a week. Hay is good to give your rabbits as a source of roughage if they come down with diarrhea. Take the rabbit off pellets for a day and give them Timothy Hay instead. If you do not have Timothy Hay substitute Alfalfa if that is all you have. This will help them. We prefer not to use Alfalfa as it has a higher protein level.

If you handle your bunny on a daily basis with tender loving care, offer fresh, clean, cool water and give a good pellet diet while offering hay, you will have a happy and healthy bunny.