12 Jul, 2010
On Kids , Rabbits And Rabbit Hutches. Or How To Keep Your Kids Happy
Posted by: admin In: Pet Care
Children just love having a pet, and there’s dozens of different types of pets to choose from. There’s big and small, but many parents who are choosing a pet for their child would prefer to choose a small animal. And one of the best small pets for kids is a rabbit. Lets see why rabbits make such great pets, and let’s talk about some tips for building your own rabbit hutch to house that first rabbit for your kids.
Rabbits make wonderful pets for kids. They are very social, fun to be with and love spending time with people. They can be house trained so you don’t need to worry about mess, and kids love a rabbit as a pet. A pet rabbit generally lives around 10 years so you need to understand that once you have a pet rabbit you will have one for quite some time.
A rabbit can be easy and cheap to feed. You can buy simple rabbit pellets at the pet shop and they will also with a range of green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli leaves as well as hay and some fruits.
But it’s important to spend a little time thinking about the rabbit cage, or what is technically called a rabbit house that you will get for the rabbit. A rabbit hutch is housing for your rabbit. It is designed to allow the rabbit to live outdoors safely protected from predators and to give it some room to go to sleep and to exercise and to browse on grass.
Rabbit hutches are generally constructed from timber and wire. You keep your hutch outside and move it around from time to time so that the rabbits can feed on fresh grass through the wire on the bottom of the rabbit hutch. A second compartment is always provided in a good rabbit hutch so that on rainy or windy day the rabbit can be safe indoors from the weather. This is where the rabbit usually sleeps. It is best to cover the floor of the compartment with sawdust or hay which gives the rabbit a warm and comfortable place to sleep.
It’s important to choose the right floor for your cage. Many people use wire which is fine if your rabbit hutch is to be placed on the ground. Using wire allows your rabbit to eat the grass through the wire. However wire is an uncomfortable thing for rabbits to walk on and they don’t particularly like walking on wire. So if you’re hutch is off the ground and you use wire on the floor your rabbit will probably spend most of his time in his compartment.
But wire does allow the rabbit droppings to fall through the rabbit cage making it easier to clean. However again if you’re lifting the rabbit hutch off the ground try and find a material that is easier on the rabbits feet such as slats that allows the droppings fall through but doesn’t hurt his feet.
You can use a solid material like wood or metal. Metal doesn’t soak up urine like wood so doesn’t smell as wood can do, and so is easier to clean, but neither metal or wood allows the rabbit to eat grass off the ground.
How big should the rabbit hutch be? Generally most hutches sold in pet shops are too small. Suggestions I have seen are that the cage should be 3 or 4 times the size of the rabbit, but I think that is way too small. Bigger is much better, but if you buy a small rabbit hutch you must take your rabbit out daily to exercise.
And you need to clean the hutch and replace the hay each day, so you need a good door on it that allows this.
A rabbit is an excellent pet for kids. Do your research on rabbit breeds, and give yourself plenty of time before you buy one to sort out a solid, effective and well built rabbit hutch.
And of course you can always build your own hutch. That’s just part of the fun of having a rabbit.
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