Rabbits are one of the most popular small pets, and given their specific care needs, it’s not surprising that they’re also the third most relinquished animal—a statistic that makes learning bunny basics a must for many shelters. This is the first article in a two-part series. Read the second part.

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection The compelling sight of a child with a bunny causes many parents to buy a rabbit for their son or daughter without a second thought—and without any knowledge of their needs.

Some companion rabbits are housed indoors, where they find healthy food, a litter box, fun toys, and plenty of love and attention. But the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria usually sees rabbits who haven’t been so lucky. The bunnies brought to the Virginia shelter frequently have fleas, excessively long nails, and weight problems; often they have “really bad attitudes because their caging has been inappropriate,” says Suzanne D’Alonzo, acting adoptions manager.

The problem is common to the shelter’s smaller residents. “I think I get more mistreated, neglected small animals by far— including bunnies—than I do dogs or cats,” says D’Alonzo.

Across the country, the pattern is repeated: many rabbits surrendered to shelters or rescue groups suffer from overgrown nails or teeth, parasites, or the effects of an inadequate diet. And the given reasons for surrender sound familiar: “Child lost interest.” “Allergies.” “Got too big.” “Landlord won’t allow.”

But often a different truth is hidden behind some of the stated reasons: most people who surrender their rabbits just didn’t educate themselves. They didn’t learn the minutia of these small animals’ care, or even the basics. Instead, they fell under the rabbit spell—the twitching nose, the soft fur, the floppy ears, the cute way their four-year-old says the word “bunny”—and never bothered to follow up on the real requirements of these complicated little animals.

Rabbits endure much mistreatment at the hands of those who don’t know better. Often bought as impulse buys at Easter or as “starter pets” for children, some rabbits can be found living neglected in outdoor hutches, their feet irritated by wire cage bottoms. Some live (though usually not for long) in local parks after being abandoned by owners who, having seen that brown rabbit in their garden, believe their pets will survive in the wild just as well. Other rabbits languish in small cages in children’s bedrooms, deprived of exercise, toys, affection, and vet visits.

Ignorance is widespread, in part because of a general lack of familiarity with these small animals, especially when compared with our society’s fixation on cats and dogs. Even someone who has never had the pleasure of caring for a dog would still likely know the fundamentals of canine care: dog food, housetraining, walks, and playtime. It’s pretty likely that at least one of this person’s friends or relatives has a dog—but he may never have known someone with a rabbit. The extent of his bunny exposure may have been that neon green rabbit’s foot he had in middle school, or the backyard rabbit hutches kept by his parents’ next-door neighbor.

Almost invisibly, though, rabbits have made their way up the pet ladder to become the most popular small mammal in the country. In a sad parallel, they’re also the third most relinquished pet at shelters. D’Alonzo recently met a colleague whose shelter takes in a staggering 12 bunnies a week, placing three a month at the most. And in areas where some shelters have chosen to stop accepting rabbits at all, others are left to handle the overflow.

And yet, many people who are interested in adopting rabbits don’t know that their local humane society or animal control agency even has bunnies available. Others who do make it to the shelter end up changing their minds when they learn of the adoption policies. “Up here [in Maine], they tend to want to put them outside in hutches,” says Kimberly Jackson, small animal specialist at the Animal Refuge League in Westbrook. “And we won’t adopt to that type of an environment. So we try to educate them as to indoors. And nine times out of ten, they don’t want them indoors.”

On the opposite coast, in Washington state, director of operations Glynis Frederiksen runs into similar situations when trying to find homes for bunnies at the Humane Society for Seattle/King County: “They have such incredibly specialized needs that I think most people really, once they learn … what is really involved with their care, if they’re not 100 percent committed, they’re just going to walk away and say, ‘Well, we’ll just get a cat; they’re easier.’ ”

While rabbits can be tough to take care of in the home, the shelter environment presents a new set of challenges. Specialized diets, the hiding/fleeing instincts of a prey animal, and the tendency to hide signs of illness can all pose problems. Some agencies have solicited the help of rabbit-savvy volunteers or local House Rabbit Society groups to ensure that they care for rabbits in the best way possible; local experts who want to lend a hand can be a great resource for shelters that need help meeting rabbit needs.

Good shelter practices like those featured in this article—proper handling, enrichment, feeding, housing, and cleaning— can keep rabbits happy and provide a model of care for potential bunny adopters. A sequel to this feature will appear in a future issue of Animal Sheltering and will explore how shelters can educate adopters and find rabbits permanent, loving homes.

Truth or Consequences

Debunking the myths of rabbit ownership

• Rabbits are easy pets.
• Rabbits are great pets for kids.
• Rabbits love to be picked up and cuddled.
• Rabbits can be fed a pellets-only diet.
• Rabbits can be set free when you can’t care for them anymore.

Misconceptions like these are significant contributors to relinquishment, abandonment, and, at the very least, substandard care. Overshadowed by decades-old myths that still plague domestic bunnies, important issues like spay/neuter, litter box training, and frequent exercise don’t even show up on the radar of many rabbit owners.

But what does show up front and center is often the Easter Bunny. The mythical egg-toting rabbit has caused more than one parent to buy “the next best thing” for their children at Easter—only to give it up a few months later when kids rapidly lose interest.

After parents fail at trying to bring the myth to life, rabbit surrenders surge in spring and summer. At the Dane County Humane Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the arrival of the hot months means the arrival of sometimes snippy adolescent rabbits. “June, July, when they’re going through the hormonal teenage phase and they’re not the cute little fuzzy thing that [parents] bought for their child—now they actually have a personality and might start spraying or nipping,” says humane officer Renee Stodola.

At any time of year, the existence of a pet store can drastically increase the flow of rabbits into a nearby shelter. After a store opened nearby, Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center rabbit numbers shot up, says operations manager Misha Goodman. “Prior to that, on average we would have maybe four rabbits a year relinquished to us, and now we have about four a month relinquished to us.”

Inadequate or inaccurate information provided by pet stores is a big factor in rabbit relinquishments, says Mary Cotter, marketing/education director for the House Rabbit Society. “[Rabbits are] bought very young, very small … and they’re sold as, quote, ‘dwarves,’ by the pet store personnel that actually don’t know what they are,” she says. “And they grow up to be eight-pound rabbits, and the person that’s purchased a small cage … thinks it’s a tabletop animal that never needs to get out.”

Research and planning can make all the difference in the success of a rabbit/ human relationship, says D’Alonzo. “The people I know who have purchased a rabbit or have come into one … and they weren’t prepared, they kind of wrestle with them for a couple months and never get the system down. The people who tough it out, by the time [the rabbit is] two or three, it’s going much better by that point. But very few people stay to that point.”

The source of pet rabbits can vary. “Here they don’t get them at pet stores; they get them at county fairs,” says Jackson of her shelter’s service area in Maine. While some breeders do care where their rabbits end up, others bring their rabbits to county fairs and flea markets around the country to advertise their multiple job options: “Rabbits for pets, fur, or meat!”

© Alexandra Buxbaum

Those rabbits lucky enough to be chosen as companions still often end up at Jackson’s shelter, where allergies are the primary reason given for their surrender. “I think ‘allergies’ is just an excuse— an excuse that they think is a good excuse,” she says.

No matter where they buy them, many adults bring bunnies home with the goal of having their children be the primary caretakers. For many families, this ends in disappointment; for their rabbits, it can end in homelessness. “Children should not be counted on to sustain interest,” says Cotter. “Children are at an age when it’s their job to become interested in new things all the time. That’s what growing up is about! … All that is fine and necessary and useful when the child’s growing up. But it’s not good for the animal.”

If a family wants to bring a bunny into their home, Cotter stresses that the adults in the family must take responsibility and realize that the rabbit may live as long as seven to ten years. They must understand that keeping any pet is a serious commitment for the whole family. “It’s not just a ‘We’ll do this till next year when he’s in Boy Scouts,’ ” Cotter says.

© Angie Knost Rabbits should eat no more than 1/4 to 1/3 cup pelleted food per five pounds of body weight daily.

Not By The Ears!

Getting a handle on handling rabbits

While most rabbits couldn’t hold a candle to the killer rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail—with his legendary “big, pointy teeth”—a bite from a real rabbit can be rather nasty, as D’Alonzo describes. “Picture beaver teeth,” she says. “They bring down trees, right? Now shrink them.”

Every rabbit’s personality is different, and bunnies, especially unsterilized ones, can be quite territorial. Animal care professionals who educate themselves on rabbit behavior and handling can help keep bunnies’ teeth and nails where they belong—and away from their flesh.

The causes behind specific bunny behaviors can often be traced directly to the rabbit’s immediate environment, says D’Alonzo. For a relatively small prey animal with territorial tendencies, that’s not surprising. Those defensive instincts are still strong in domestic rabbits. “When you have a cage where you have to pick up a rabbit or pull it out from the front,” says D’Alonzo, “you have hideous behaviors— rabbits that lunge, that bite, that kind of do this clucking growl, that slap you with their front feet …”

Removing a rabbit from that sort of setup and housing her in a different cage—for example, a former dog run transformed into a rabbit-friendly “bunny run”—can make a huge difference, says D’Alonzo. “A nasty little rabbit, you put it in a different cage and the rabbit says, ‘Hi, it’s nice to see you! Come on in, what are you all about?’ It [only] takes them hours to get a whole new personality.”

Like D’Alonzo, Jackson says that territoriality can be lessened with a simple change in scenery—or ceiling. “What’s great about the cages that we have is that the tops lift right off,” she says. “And once the top is off of their cage, they’re less aggressive because it no longer is their cage.”

As with dogs and cats, rabbits will often undergo a personality change after spaying and neutering—maybe even more so. Rabbits, especially unspayed females, will often act to protect their territory. Sometimes, the way they express their bunny fears may be misinterpreted, says Cotter. “[Unsterilized] rabbits get put down for being aggressive when they may not be aggressive at all. They may simply be protecting their territory because they have raging hormones.” To an unspayed female, she says, a cage is a potential future place for a litter.

When sterilization upon intake is possible, it can benefit bunnies. Behaviors like spraying, mounting, aggression, fighting, and digging can lessen or disappear, making bunnies more adoptable and making care easier. (If your shelter has an in-house or visiting veterinarian who is willing to do rabbit sterilizations but needs a protocol, contact the House Rabbit Society’s Mary Cotter at mec@cloud9.net. Cotter will try to put your vet in touch with another vet who is experienced in rabbit procedures.)

Even after obtaining as much information as possible from the person surrendering a rabbit—and, Cotter says, separating the facts of their narrative from the fictions—a shelter employee may still find it difficult to evaluate the new rabbit’s behavior, she says. The presence of an observer watching or interacting with a bunny when he’s inside a cage can cause him to become territorial—which in turn may mask his true personality—so a safe, enclosed space where he has more freedom may yield more accurate results.

While Jackson and other staff at the Animal Refuge League don’t have a formal behavior evaluation program like they do for dogs, they are able to glean information about behaviors and personality traits by observing rabbits for the first few days of their stay and watching how they interact with staff. (In shelters without experts in bunny body language and behavior, an experienced volunteer may be able to lend a hand. See the quick tips on rabbit behavior.)

© Angie Knost This rabbit is enjoying two features of a well-decorated bunny pad: a solid cage floor and soft material for comfort.

Complicating the situation for a rabbit with territorial tendencies, says humane officer Stodola, is the nature of the shelter itself—a bunny may be handled by several different staff and volunteers in her time at the shelter and she may not be able to latch onto one she knows she can trust. Fear and territoriality can make some staff believe a rabbit is “mean,” Stodola says. She recommends taking your time when handling rabbits. For a very frightened rabbit who must be moved, she says staff have found success in carrying the rabbit with a towel draped over her or—if she feels safest hiding in her litter box—in the box with a towel on top.

To pick up and carry a rabbit safely and securely, Stodola recommends placing one hand behind the forelegs, and the other under the rump. Holding a rabbit close to your body will make him feel more comfortable and secure, she says. “I find it helpful to kind of bury their head in the crook of your arm, too. It’s kind of ‘lights out,’ and they’re less scared.”

Because rabbits have very poor close vision, Cotter recommends that shelter staff avoid approaching a rabbit directly from the front when possible; this will help prevent aggressive action. Instead, bring your hand toward her from the side, holding it slightly above her head but still in her view. If she lays her ears back, she may be ready to box with her paws or nip. Bring your hand down to gently apply pressure on her head; that will give you the chance to remove food and water bowls with your other hand. In this way, you’ll be much less threatening.

“It’s a lot like horses,” Cotter says. “When you control their head, you calm them down and you make them less fearful and less likely to exhibit territorial behavior.”

To order a video on rabbit handling and nail trimming from the New York City chapter of the House Rabbit Society, visit www.rabbitcare.org. Other local chapters that may be able to provide help or advice to your shelter are listed at www.rabbit.org/chapters/index.html.

Rabbit Chow

Proper nutrition in the shelter

Although bunnies and large quantities of carrots seem to go together like, well, bunnies and Easter, that’s just another rabbit myth. In fact, carrots are high in sugar and, when eaten too often, may cause a rabbit to gain weight, says Cotter.

The main part of a rabbit’s diet should be hay, says Cotter, and a limited amount of pellets can supplement that. Feeding too many pellets can cause rabbits to become obese, so when feeding pellets in conjunction with grass hay, it’s best to limit the daily amount to 1/4 to 1/3 cup per five pounds of body weight. A pellets-only diet is an incomplete diet.

Although rabbits love to munch on hay, feeding alfalfa hay to older rabbits isn’t wise—though younger bunnies can consume it without problems, says Margo DeMello, administrative director of the House Rabbit Society. Older rabbits can eat grass hay, timothy hay, and oat hay. “There’s a lot of varieties on the market right now,” she says.

Hay can be tricky to store properly. Fortunately, odor is an accurate indicator of freshness: if hay smells bad, it probably is. Hay should smell good and fresh, and it should be free of signs of dust and mold. To keep hay in this condition, don’t store it in a closed plastic bag, says Cotter. That seals in any moisture and can promote mold growth. Keep hay in a cool, dry place, and if it’s stored in a plastic bag, leave the top of the bag open.

The extra care involved in storing hay is worth it for the benefits to rabbits. “[Hay] keeps the GI tract moving normally and it also helps keep the teeth worn down,” Cotter says. “A lot of people think that rabbits have to chew hard things to wear their teeth down.… Rabbits need to chew grasses—grass hay—to keep their teeth properly worn down … by grinding.”

Even when fed a proper diet, rabbits with malocclusion (when the top and bottom teeth don’t meet properly, preventing teeth from wearing down the opposite ones) may need their teeth trimmed when they become too long.

Salad should be given often, if possible. The best salad for rabbits can include greens like romaine or red lettuce, as well as chicory, endive, and herbs like basil, cilantro, parsley, and arugula, says Cotter.

DeMello acknowledges that feeding salads can be a challenge for shelters and suggests asking a volunteer “to be appointed the Carrot Bringer or the Greens Bringer.” This strategy can also ensure a good supply of hay.

Jackson has found a creative way to supply the Animal Refuge League’s rabbits with fresh food. “Twice a week, I go down to the local grocery store and they save all their greens that they would normally throw away,” she says. “They save them all for me and … I pick them up and sort through them, and so our bunnies get fresh salad twice a day, every day.” Each rabbit munches on a handful of mixed greens and herbs. When feeding the rabbits pellets, the Animal Refuge League uses heavy crock dishes to prevent them from tipping their food bowls.

Like most companion animals, bunnies love their treats, too. A guide to rabbit treats can be found on the House Rabbit Society’s website at www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/treat.html.

All I Want Is a Home Somewhere

Making rabbits feel at home

Rabbits housed outdoors can face a range of dangers—from extreme temperatures to lurking predators. For a prey animal like a rabbit, the instinct to flee, when thwarted by a cage or hutch, can cause injuries or even shock and death.

Properly housing rabbits inside the shelter can be tough, too. To serve as a model, shelter rabbit housing should be comparable to adoption guidelines and to the housing that adopters will be expected to maintain.

The shelter environment is extra stressful for an animal whose real or imagined predators are just around the corner, and many agencies don’t have the luxury of a separate small-animal room. Even those who do may still encounter complicated “roommate situations” like the ones at the Dane County Humane Society. “When we get ferrets in, we have the problem of ‘Where do we put the ferrets now?’ We don’t want to put them right next to the rabbits,” says Stodola. (In the wild, ferrets hunt and eat rabbits.)

Shelters can enjoy some flexibility, says DeMello. “[Rabbits] can be in the cat room, they can be in the small animal room, they can be in the rabbit room. You certainly don’t want them too close to the dogs because of the barking.”

© Angie Knost A cage with a litter box will make this bunny happy while showing adopters that rabbits can be litter-trained.

When determining how to keep bunnies content, the issue of where to house them in a room can be almost as important as where to house them in the shelter building. If possible, don’t house rabbits atop a bank of cages. Since heat rises, the bunnies might get uncomfortably hot. “Rabbits … tolerate cold better than heat,” says Cotter. “The shelter where I worked, the rabbits were way up high, and … you could actually feel the temperature difference when you stood on a chair to get to the high cages.”

Sometimes heat is unavoidable. Shelters with malfunctioning or nonexistent air conditioning can help rabbits cool down in the summer by placing a water bottle full of ice in their cages.

The first rule of housing rabbits in shelters or homes is “no wire floors”—unless the rabbit is also provided an alternative, flat surface where he can take a break from foot-unfriendly wire flooring. Corrugated cardboard can serve this purpose, says Cotter. “Rabbits can shred it, and it functions as both a piece of flooring and a toy, in a way. It gives them something to do; it’s nontoxic. It’s a mess to clean up, but it’s not a big deal. It’s free—you can replace it easily with broken-down boxes.”

Rabbits appreciate something comfy to lie on even when their cages have solid floors. The Dane County Humane Society has an innovative approach: local carpet stores donate carpet squares for bunny beds. Each square will stay with one bunny and is thrown out when soiled. Towels are used when the squares aren’t available, Stodola says, but they aren’t as durable. (If your shelter uses towels or carpet, make sure to check that rabbits aren’t chewing and eating them.)

A common recommendation for bunny dwellings is to house rabbits singly (unless a bonded pair comes in together, in which case they should be kept together and adopted out as a pair). “Unacquainted rabbits can fight, literally to the death sometimes,” says Cotter. And, she says, it’s sometimes quite difficult to determine a rabbit’s sex; surprise litters have resulted when an unsterilized rabbit whose sex was incorrectly determined was housed with another unsterilized rabbit.

Another reason for setting up solitary quarters is that adopters tend to want single rabbits—either as their first pet rabbit or as a companion for a rabbit they already have. Although rabbits aren’t solitary in the wild, where they live in warrens, domestic rabbits can be quite territorial about their cages in the shelter. Plus, rabbits need plenty of space. Cotter recommends a 2-foot by 4-foot cage for a rabbit wherever possible.

At Iowa City, a type of caging called “Companion Habitats” does a great job of both creating a comfortable home for rabbit residents and attracting shelter visitors to the small mammal area, says Goodman. She says the caging systems are well-lit and easy to clean—and display the animals well. “I can’t speak highly enough about them,” she says. “They’re a little pricey for the average animal shelter budget; however, we ended up getting a donation from somebody to purchase ours.”

Many different cage setups will work, though; the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria uses x-pens (commonly used to create puppy exercise areas) to fashion bunny “corrals.” The pens are about four and a half feet high, a height designed to stop runaway rabbits from hopping out and—because a rabbit was once stolen from the shelter—to keep rabbits safe from any visitor with an ulterior motive. A towel or sheet is placed on the floor to increase comfort, and the x-pen is placed on top. A chafing dish serves as a big stainless steel litter pan holding Carefresh litter, and on top of that, usually a handful of hay.

Alexandria rabbit cages are accessorized with hay racks (placed above the litter boxes), but they aren’t your typical hay racks. The shelter made a trip to the hardware store and bought a spice sack holder (intended for storage of small packaged foods like chili mix). This kitchen contraption holds more hay, boasts longer hooks than a standard hay rack, and is harder for a rabbit to knock down, D’Alonzo says.

For respite from the shelter life, rabbits at the Animal Refuge League get cardboard boxes, cat carriers, and wooden or plastic boxes—all great places to hide. To complete their temporary home, rabbits are also given a hay rack with timothy hay, a water bowl, food dish, and toys.

Litter Boxes

They aren’t just for going potty anymore

Bunnies like to do their business in litter boxes—and maybe accomplish a few other tasks while they’re at it. If available, litter boxes are an important element of rabbit housing for other reasons as well: they’ll show adopters that rabbits can be litter-trained, and they’ll make cleanup easier, too. If you cannot provide a litter box, you should “put newspaper on the floor of the cage and do your best,” Cotter says. “You’ll have to clean a lot more often because rabbits shouldn’t be standing in urine.”

Iowa City provides metal litter boxes rather than chewable plastic ones; chewing is an important bunny tendency to take into consideration when setting up housing and components. “Their chewing instinct is so high that they just want to chew on everything,” says Goodman.

Like cats, rabbits can be picky about their bathroom habits. “We have found that a number of these rabbits want two boxes,” says Goodman. “They want to lie in one and they want to defecate and urinate in the other. We also have had rabbits similar to cats that will use one box for defecating and one box for urinating.”

One normal rabbit habit that may be a surprise when seen by those unfamiliar with bunnies is coprophagy, also called pseudorumination—the ingestion of feces. Of the two sorts of droppings rabbits excrete, the softer ones produced early in the morning or at night are the kind rabbits consume; in this way, they increase their intake of B vitamins, vitamin K, and protein.

Stodola and staff use cat litter boxes or dishpans with high sides, lining them with newspaper and litter, and, on top of that, hay. “[That] encourages rabbits to sit in there and munch on hay, and then they do their business while they’re in there—which is very natural to them, unlike it would be to a dog or cat.” Never use clumping litter, says Stodola—if rabbits ingest it, it can cause blockages.

© Angie Knost

Coating the entire cage floor with a layer of litter is counterintuitive to litter box training, says DeMello. Several types of litter can work in the litter box itself, she says: wheat, oat and fiber-based litters, as well as paper-based litters like Carefresh, Cat Country, Critter Country, Yesterday’s News, and Good Mews. “Rabbits do eat their litter, because they just frankly like to put everything in their mouths,” says DeMello. “So it should be a healthy litter, nothing made of soft woods, like soft wood shavings or soft wood chips, but hardwood is fine, like aspen.” (Aspen shavings are safe for bunnies because they’re free of the harmful phenols found in pine and cedar shavings.)

If all this talk of litter boxes conjures up ideas of arduous, time-consuming litter training, fear not: that’s usually not the case. “The rabbit will litter train himself,” Cotter says. “They try to keep their cage clean by always going in one corner. And if you put a litter box in a corner that a rabbit has already selected, the rabbit will use it almost invariably.” For litter box contents, Cotter recommends a layer of newspaper, and then hay.

Fun and Games

© Angie Knost A cage can increase a rabbit’s territoriality, so observing her behavior when she’s outside of it can provide a clearer picture of her personality.

Giving rabbits playtime in and out of the cage

No matter how comfy or attractive their temporary homes are, bunnies need to get out for playtime, too. Ideally, says Kimberly Jackson of the Animal Refuge League, rabbits should get out of their cages for four hours a day, though she notes that’s virtually impossible in the shelter. D’Alonzo recommends two half-hour sessions a day as a minimum. “It makes such a big difference—any little bit of time out,” she says.

Staff at the Dane County Humane Society use puppy exercise pens for playtime, says Stodola. “They don’t put any rabbits together that don’t normally live together, and that’s pretty important,” she says.

Goodman urges an escape-proof, enclosed area for rabbits to play, whether it’s on grass or cement. Even if staff don’t have time to help rabbits hop to it, volunteers can pitch in and help bunnies stretch their limbs. Exercise areas should be far from the sight of dogs, though—even if the rabbits appear to be out of dogs’ reach. A curious dog doesn’t need to make contact with a bunny to harm her. “[Rabbits] will have a tendency to run scared and hit a fence,” Goodman says.

And when rabbits are back indoors, their cages should offer some tempting diversions, says Goodman. “Give them a wooden box to get up on or go under—they like to go under things, to get on top of things. A rock to climb on or jump over. Anything to make their environment more interesting is going to help.”

Flexible plastic toys should be avoided, as rabbits will likely chow down on the material. “Just be aware that rabbits are going to chew what you give them,” Cotter says. “That’s part of the point of a toy.”

Soft things, like towels or stuffed animals, can provide a bit of bunny fun, but Jackson cautions that some rabbits may try to—yes, you guessed it—eat the material after ripping it apart. Staff will need to keep a watchful eye.

Beyond chewing on toys, rabbits like to use playthings for more active fun, too, says DeMello. “They like things they can toss, things they can roll, things they can chew on, things they can bat.”

Some rabbits enjoy toys that hang off the sides of their cages, Goodman says. “They’ll actually stand up, which is great … because if they were in a natural environment, they would be standing up and jumping and running.” And a cute rabbit on his hind legs is just the thing to catch a potential adopter’s eye.

Shelters with few spare funds to spend on rabbit entertainment can find inexpensive bunny playthings in unexpected places. “I did a new thing this week,” Jackson says. “I went to the Salvation Army and bought a bunch of baby crib toys, the hard plastic playthings that go on the side of babies’ cribs. And I put them on all the bunny cages, and they love them.”

Other inexpensive toys can include paper towel or toilet paper rolls, wicker (for example, small baskets), hard plastic baby keys, and cat toys that are solid balls.

Of course, one rabbit may find a certain toy fascinating while another thinks it’s a big bore. “Each and every rabbit has its own individual personality,” Goodman says. “Some of them will play with some things and some of them won’t. You really have to test and see what they’re going to play with.”

Many toys designed specifically for rabbits can be found at www.busybunny.com, says Cotter. A shelter that puts a few of these items on their wish list may find rabbit fans coming out of the woodwork to facilitate some bunny fun.

What’s Up, Doc?

Shelter rabbit health

Upon relinquishment, many rabbits already have health problems that shelter staff must deal with—overgrown teeth and nails, respiratory infections, mites, fleas, and other parasites. If owners have kept rabbits in improper housing, the animals may suffer from sore hocks, says Cotter. (The rabbit’s hock is the joint between the foot and hip on the rear legs.)

Most of the rabbits entering the Iowa City shelter are estimated to be one year old, but some incoming stray bunnies are thought to be much older, says Goodman. Staff check teeth, look for signs of cancer, and check for injuries or abscesses in strays.

Cancer is quite common in rabbits, and spaying a female rabbit—in addition to making her more adoptable—is critical to preventing reproductive cancers. “Usually a female rabbit will develop uterine cancer by the age of four of five if they’re not spayed, and it doubles their lifespan if they are,” says Stodola.

In the past, Iowa City noticed several former pet-store rabbits entering the shelter with misaligned teeth that prevented them from eating properly, Goodman says. “I ended up contacting the shop that they were coming from, and they all ended up coming from the same breeder. … We requested heavily that the breeder stop breeding that particular line.”

From mites to coccidia, parasites seem to enjoy feeding on rabbits. A study at the Animal Refuge League from May 2004 to January 2005 found the Encephalitozoon cuniculi parasite had a significant presence. “We tested every single bunny who came in,” says Jackson. “And 50 percent were positive, although nobody showed any symptoms.” When present, symptoms of this disease—which is passed from rabbit to rabbit through urine—include head tilt, paralysis in the hindquarters, frequent drinking, and liver and kidney problems, says Jackson. Many rabbits infected with E. cuniculi may be asympomatic, however.

Health problems can crop up simply because of the shelter environment, says Stodola. Because of the change in diet and unfamiliar conditions, rabbits may become stressed upon entering the shelter. Staff should make sure that bunnies “don’t get so stressed that they just kind of shut down,” she says.

Monitor incoming rabbits’ habits for signs of illness and stress. “If they’re not eating treats, like veggies, and they’re not eating pellets, that’s a pretty big indication, and if their stools are really tiny and hard and dry, or they’re not defecating at all, that’s a huge indication,” says Stodola.

Even if a rabbit managed to keep an illness at bay in his familiar home environment, the stress of a new place with new housing, food, people, smells, and sounds can weaken resistance. “The rabbit might have had a subclinical infection that might have stayed subclinical, but just taking the rabbit to the shelter brings it out, so you have to be careful,” Cotter says.

Although the shelters interviewed for this article experience fewer problems keeping rabbits healthy than they do maintaining the health of cats, for example, several diseases can strike rabbits, like “the snuffles,” caused by Pasteurella multocida.

The viral Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) has made several appearances in the United States since its first incidence in 2000, with a recent outbreak in Indiana earlier this year. To learn more about this serious disease, read the 2002 article on RHD published in Animal Sheltering magazine. For thorough information on rabbit health in general, visit the House Rabbit Society’s website at www.rabbit.org/health.

House Rabbit Society Resources

General rabbit information
www.rabbit.org
510-970-7575

Shelter materials (e.g., cage cards)
E-mail: margo@rabbit.org
510-970-7575

Pros and cons of different types of litter
www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/litter.html#litter
www.rabbit.org/journal/1/liver-disease.html

Rabbit handling/nail trimming video
www.rabbitcare.org