Feeding

House rabbits are provided an unlimited amount of timothy hay—roughage that reduces the chance of blockages and malocclusion while providing indigestible fiber necessary to keep the gut moving. They are typically given about two cups chopped dark, green, leafy vegetables per 6 pounds of body weight and up to two tablespoons of fruit or carrots per six pounds body weight daily. House rabbit owners commonly provide treats, although in very limited quantities, which can include a few pellets, a slice of strawberry, or other healthy foods. Advertised treats in the pet stores are occasionally used, although even more sparingly, since they typically have very high sugar and starch content.

Some of the vegetables that rabbits enjoy are romaine lettuce, escarole, turnips, collard, kale, parsley, thyme, cilantro, dandelion, and basil. The green, leafy tops of radishes and carrots also are excellent sources of nutrients—more than the vegetable itself. New vegetables are introduced slowly since rabbits have delicate digestive systems. Cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage are avoided because they cause gas and can lead to gastrointestinal stasis, which can be fatal. Starchy vegetables such as potatoes and corn are also avoided.

Pellets made from timothy grass supplement a house rabbit's diet. This differs from commercial rabbits, where pellets account for a much larger portion. Pellet amounts are determined by the weight of the rabbit and are listed on the back of the manufacturer’s packaging. Unlike pellets for rodents, rabbit pellets do not contain nuts, which contain more fat than rabbits can easily metabolize and can cause health problems such as fatty liver. If fresh grass or hay is not available, a high quality pellet is sometimes used as a fallback instead of hay as the staple food.

House rabbits are provided an unlimited amount of fresh water, usually in a water crock, tip-proof ceramic pet dish, or hanging water bottle. Rabbits on a consistent dietary regimen of fresh vegetables will drink less water, sourcing it instead through their greens.

Young rabbits have special dietary needs. They benefit from legume hays and pellets such as alfalfa, which are higher in protein, calories, and calcium than grasses. They are introduced to vegetables at 12 weeks old and fruit at 7 months. Also at 7 months, they begin transitioning from legumes to grass.

Litter training

A house rabbit is easily trained to use a litter box, especially if spayed or neutered. When placed in a new area, it is common for a rabbit to mark the area with his droppings. After he gets acquainted to the area, he naturally starts favoring a certain location. A litter box filled with about one inch of non-toxic litter is placed there. Cat litter boxes are commonly used; additionally, pet stores sell small animal litter boxes marketed toward small rabbits and ferrets.

Most pet stores carry safe litter that is easy to handle, clean, and absorbent. Wood pellets, Carefresh, and Yesterday’s News are popular. Aspen, hay, straw, and folded towels can also be used. Experts recommend not using litter made from pine or cedar because inhaling the aromatic oils in them may cause liver damage to the rabbit.

Placing hay close to the litter box can speed up the training, since rabbits like to defecate and eat at the same time. It can also be helpful during training to limit the space available to the rabbit. Starting at adolescence, rabbits that are not spayed or neutered may begin displaying territorial marking, which can frustrate efforts to litter train.

Housing

Rabbits need an enclosure that is at least 4 times the length of the rabbit. Typical enclosures are x-pens, multiple-level condos, large dog cages, a room, and even a whole house.

A puppy training folding fence 26 or more inches tall serves as a simple pen, called an exercise pen or x-pen. It provides more free space and is easier to clean than some traditional cages. Multiple x-pens can be joined to enlarge the enclosed area. An x-pen’s portability is useful for travel with rabbits and for introduction and bonding.

A customizable pen is a multiple-level condo. The rabbit condo can be made by using cable ties and storage cubes available at home supply stores (sample building instructions). Corrugated plastic and carpet remnants are commonly used as flooring. A multiple-level condo provides the rabbit plenty of jumping options and variety. The owner chooses the dimensions and layout.

Another type of pen is a large dog cage. House rabbit organizations caution against using a grid floor, as this will cause sore hocks (sores on the bottom of the rabbit’s back feet). Carpet or linoleum can be added to a cage that has a grid floor to protect the rabbit’s feet, or sometimes the grid can be removed.

A rabbit-proofed room outfitted with a litter box, toys, and food can also serve as an enclosure. Rooms shared with humans, such as a bedroom or a kitchen, are typical. Where it is practical to rabbit-proof an entire house, a house rabbit can freely roam the house as cats and dogs do. Depending on the rabbit, this could require additional litter boxes, possibly one per room or per floor.

Within its enclosure, a house rabbit is provided a small shelter to hide and rest in. Cardboard boxes work well both as shelters and chew toys so long as they do not provide sufficient elevation that the rabbit could jump out of a pen.

House rabbit - (1)SOSIALIZATION

A house rabbit is a domestic rabbit kept as a pet for companionship, who lives inside the home with his owners. House rabbits usually have an indoor pen and a rabbit-safe place to run and exercise, such as a living or family room. They are easily trained to use a litter box and can learn to come when called. Their diets typically consist of unlimited timothy hay, a small helping of pellets, and some fresh vegetables and fruits. House rabbits are very quiet pets. They are not well suited for families with unsupervised small children, due to the likelihood of frightening or harming these timid creatures by loud sounds or mishandling.

Socialization

Rabbits are very social animals. House rabbits become part of the family, just as cats, dogs, and birds do, and often get along well with these other animals. It is not uncommon to see a house rabbit grooming the cat or dog or another rabbit. Socialization takes time, especially between two rabbits, where the process is called bonding. Until two rabbits are bonded, they tend to be territorial and can be a danger to each other.

A rabbit needs at least two hours per day of out-of-cage time in a safe environment (see house proofing below). The strong muscles in his back legs will weaken if he is not given opportunities to run, jump, and play. When a rabbit plays, he will often do a binky, which is a happy dance where he will jump into the air, turn around, and take off running. This is the equivalent of a dog's tail wagging or a cat meowing. When calm and being petted on the head, he will gently grind his teeth with contentment. Rabbits enjoy gentle, quiet attention from their human counterparts, although most do not like to be cuddled, which takes them too far from their natural comfort zone as prey animals. A house rabbit typically learns his name and comes when called. Other tricks include begging and jumping hurdles.

House rabbit organizations warn that a rabbit does not make a good pet for small children because they do not know how to stay quiet, calm, and gentle around the rabbit. As prey animals, rabbits are alert, timid creatures that startle easily. They have fragile bones, especially in their backs, that require support on the belly and bottom when picked up. Children nine years old and older usually have the maturity required to care for a rabbit.

It is recommended that dogs and cats generally not be left alone with rabbits as their predatory instincts (or overenthusiastic play) can lead to the dog or cat attacking the rabbit spontaneously. Many owners have found, however, that after careful introduction their dog or cat does get along well with their rabbit.

Black-tailed Jackrabbit

The Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), also known as the Desert Hare, is a common hare of the western United States and Mexico, where it is found at elevations from sea level to up to 10,000 feet (3000 m).

Like other jackrabbits, the Blacktail has distinctive long ears, and the long, powerful rear legs characteristic of hares. Reaching a length of about two feet (60 cm), and a weight from three to six pounds (1.5 to 3 kg), the Black-tailed Jackrabbit is the third largest North American hare, second only to the Antelope Jackrabbit and the White-tailed Jackrabbit. The Black-tailed Jackrabbit's dorsal fur is agouti (dark buff peppered with black), and its undersides and the insides of its legs are creamy white. The ears are black-tipped on the outer surface, and unpigmented inside. The ventral surface of the tail is grey to white, and the black dorsal surface of the tail continues up the spine for a few inches to form a short, black stripe.

The Black-tailed Jackrabbit is a natural denizen of desert, prairie and chaparral communities, though it also commonly feeds in cultivated pastures and lawns. It may be seen during the day, though it is predominantly crepuscular and nocturnal in its habits. Diet includes cactus, sagebrush, mesquite, juniper berries, grasses, and crop plants such as clover and alfalfa. The hares drink very little, deriving most of their water from their food. Like most hares, Black-tailed Jackrabbits do not use burrows, but rest during the day in a shallow scrape, called a "form," dug into the soil and usually under the cover of available vegetation.

Black-tailed Jackrabbits rely on their acute hearing and speed and to evade predators. They can reach speeds of up to 40–45 mph (64–72 km/h), and can leap 19 feet (6 m) in a single bound. Their natural predators include Red-tailed Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks, and eagles, as well as mammalian carnivores such as coyotes, foxes, and bobcats.

Although they are generally solitary animals, Blacktails often forage and rest in groups, each individual relying on the eyes and ears of the others to detect predators. Like some other lagomorphs, such as the European Rabbit, jackrabbits will thump the ground with their hind legs as an alarm signal as they sprint away from perceived danger.

Breeding can occur year-round in the southern regions of the species' range. In the wild, females (does) rarely breed before the age of one year, although they are fertile before that age. A healthy doe may produce four to five litters per year, with one to eight young per litter. Wild leverets usually weigh between 80–100 grams (2–3 ounces) at birth, although healthy, well-fed captive individuals are known to have given birth to young as large as 155 grams (5.5 ounces). A doe usually gives birth to her offspring in a form or close to thick brush, and if there are multiple leverets in a litter, she will usually not leave them in a single location. This may be an evolutionary adaptation that prevents a predator from devouring an entire litter. Gestation lasts 45 days, and although the young are precocial, (i.e., active and relatively independent from birth), the mother hare will nurse her babies for a full 12 weeks before weaning them.

Black-tailed Jackrabbit populations may undergo "boom-bust" cycles which can be quite localized: the animals may be plentiful in one valley and almost absent from an adjacent valley. Population crashes occur mostly in response to disease (especially Tularemia), although environmental factors such as food availability also can affect population structure. These cycles may contribute to similar fluctuations in mammalian predator populations, such as coyotes, and may affect the numbers of transient migratory avian predators. Because Black-tailed Jackrabbits reproduce relatively rapidly, the population usually recovers quickly after a crash, given suitable environmental conditions.

The high prevalence of disease and parasites in wild jackrabbits also affects human predation. Many hunters will not collect the jackrabbits they shoot, and those that do are well-advised to wear gloves while handling carcasses and to cook the meat thoroughly to avoid contracting Tularemia. Most hunting of jackrabbits is done for "pest" control or sport.

Mountain HARE

The Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus), also known as Blue Hare, Tundra Hare, Variable Hare, White Hare, Alpine Hare and Irish Hare, is a hare, which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It is distributed from Fennoscandia to eastern Siberia; in addition there are isolated populations in the Alps, Ireland, Poland, the United Kingdom and Hokkaidō. It has also been introduced to Shetland and the Faroe Islands.

In Summer, for all populations of mountain hares, the coat is various shades of brown. In preparation for winter most populations moult into a white (or largely white) pelage. The subspecies Irish Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus hibernicus) stays brown all year and only rarely do individuals develop a white coat. The Irish race may also have a dark/grey upper surface to the tail, which in other populations always remains white. This tail color combined with it's large size (in comparison to most other populations of mountain hare) and the various shades of brown that the Irish hare may display, could lead an unexperienced observer to misidentifying an Irish mountain hare as a brown hare (Lepus europaeus).

Studies have shown that the diet of the mountain hare varies from region to region. It seems to be somewhat dependent on the particular habitat that the population under study lives in. For example, in northern Scandinavia where snow may blanket the ground for many months, the hares may graze on twigs and bark. In areas where snowfall is rare, such as Ireland, grass may form the bulk of the diet. Given a choice, mountain hares (in Scotland and Ireland at least)seem to prefer feeding on grasses. One study looking at mountain hares on a coastal grassland environment in Ireland found that grasses constituted over 90% of the diet. This was higher than the percentage of grass in the diet of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) that inhabited the same environment.

The Mountain Hare is the provincial animal of Medelpad in Sweden.

In northern parts of Finland and Sweden, the Mountain Hare and the European Hare compete for habitat. The European Hare, being larger, is usually able to drive away the Mountain Hare but is less adapted for living in snowy regions: its feet are smaller and its winter fur is a mixture of white and brown. While this winter fur is actually a very good camouflage in the coastal regions of Finland where the snow covers the shrubs but for a short time, the Mountain Hare is better adapted for the snowier conditions of the inland areas.

The Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus) was once considered a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but it is now regarded as a separate species. Similarly, some scientists believe that the Irish Hare should be regarded as a separate species.

About Arctic Hare

The Arctic Hare (Lepus arcticus) is a hare which is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. It was once considered a subspecies of the Mountain Hare, but it is now regarded as a separate species.





It is distributed over the tundra regions of Greenland and the northernmost parts of Canada as well as Alaska. In the far north, the hare becomes white during the winter to blend with the snow, similar to the ptarmigan and turns a gray-brown color during the summer months to blend with the mud and rock.




It is an average of 55–70 cm (22–28 in) long, and it weighs about 4–5.5 kg (9–12 lb). It has small ears to reduce its surface area to volume ratio.







The Arctic Hare mainly eats woody plants. It eats buds, berries, leaves and grass.^[3] It has a keen sense of smell and may dig for willow twigs under the snow.

The Volcano Rabbit

The Volcano Rabbit also known as teporingo or zacatuche (Romerolagus diazi) is a small rabbit that resides in the mountains of Mexico. It is the world's second smallest rabbit, second only to the Pygmy Rabbit. It has small rounded ears, short legs, and short, thick fur. The Volcano Rabbit lives in groups of 2 to 5 animals in burrows. Unlike many species of rabbits (and similar to pikas), the Volcano Rabbit utters very high-pitched sounds instead of thumping its feet on the ground to warn other rabbits of danger. It is nocturnal and is highly active during twilight, dawn and all times in between. The Volcano Rabbit weighs approximately 390–600 g (14–21 oz). As of 1969, there were 1000 to 1200 in the wild.


The Volcano Rabbit lives in Mexico. The rabbit has been pushed into areas on the slopes of the Iztaccíhuatl, Pelado, Popocatepetl, and Tlaloc volcanoes. The Volcano Rabbit is generally found between elevations of 2800 m and 4250 m in pine forests with a dense undergrowth of bunch grass and rocky terrain called the transverse neovolcanic axis.


The Volcano Rabbit feeds on green leaves in zacaton grasses, the undeveloped leaves of spiny herbs and the bark of alder trees. During the rainy season, it will also eat oats and corn from crops.

The most serious threats to the Volcano Rabbit are habitat degradation and target shooting.

The Pygmy Rabbit

The Pygmy Rabbit, Brachylagus idahoensis is a North American rabbit, and is one of only two rabbit species in America to dig its own burrow. The Pygmy Rabbit differs significantly from species within either the Lepus or Sylvilagus genera and is generally considered to be within the monotypic genus Brachylagus. Although it is listed as an endangered species in the Columbia Basin of the United States, the IUCN lists the species as lower risk. This is because the Columbia Basin population is a genetically distinct isolated relict population well on its way to evolving into a distinct subspecies, whereas the IUCN only considers species as a whole.

The Pygmy Rabbit is the smallest leporid in North America, with mean adult weights from 375 to about 500 grams (0.8 to 1.1 pounds), and a body length from 23.5 to 29.5 centimeters (9¼ to 11½ inches); females are slightly larger than males. The pygmy rabbit is distinguishable from other leporids by its small size, short ears, gray color, small hind legs, and lack of white fur on the tail.

The Pygmy Rabbit is typically found in areas of tall, dense sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) cover, and are highly dependent on sagebrush to provide both food and shelter throughout the year. The historic distribution of the Pygmy Rabbit included much of the semi-arid, shrub steppe region of the Great Basin and adjacent intermountain zones of the conterminous western United States, and included portions of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Washington.

The last male purebred Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit, found only in Douglas County, Washington, died March 30, 2006, at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. The last purebred female died in 2008.^[3] A crossbreeding program conducted by the Oregon Zoo, Washington State University and Northwest Trek is attempting to preserve the genetic line by breeding surviving females with the Idaho Pygmy Rabbit.