Rabbit Care - Social Needs for your Rabbit
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How to Care for Your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Basic Health Considerations for your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - How to Give Medications to your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Proper Housing for your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Choosing the Proper Diet for your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Spaying or Neutering your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Social Needs for your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - Grooming Tips for your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - How to Bunny Proof Your Home
Rabbit Care - How to Handle Your Rabbit
Rabbit Care - How to Relax Your Rabbit
How to Find a Veterinarian
How to Care for Your Ferret
How to Care for Your Rabbit
Photograph Your Pet
Veterinary Needs
When to Select a Veterinarian
Selecting a Veterinary Hospital
Questions to Ask when Selecting a Veterinarian
Ferret Care - Proper Diet
Ferret Care - Grooming and Hygiene
Ferret Care - Training
Ferret Care - Cage and Housing Requirements
About me:
I first got introduced to rabbits as pets when a dear friend and fellow pet devotee Kris Ratliff helped me adopt my first rabbit, Mokona. She herself was going through vet school, and was a vet assistant at a local pet hospital in MD. Her experiences, and my own from there on out helped me perfect the basic forms of rabbit massage shown in a video here on Monkeysee.
With a music therapy background, I knew that therapeutic goals are accomplished in many ways, some that might not always be viewed as successful as others. I believed that rabbit massage as therapy, and a connection between a rabbit and it's owner would not only increase happiness, but work on health related goals at the same time. This strive to achieve has been shown over the years with hands on demonstrations with my own rabbits, and with countless others. I believe the stronger connection between the pet (be it dog, cat or rabbit), the better the quality of life, and the closer connection between pet and owner.
I started my work with Friends of Rabbits back in 2000 and have assisted in numerous spa days, educational events, fundraisers and overall activities.
About the group:
Friends of Rabbits is an independent rabbit rescue and welfare group based in Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia. Our goal is to rescue homeless and abandoned domestic rabbits and to promote the adoption and welfare of domestic rabbits through education and example. Domestic rabbits have been created through human intervention, and are dependent on us for survival. It is therefore our responsibility to care for them.
Friends of Rabbits believes that all rabbits are valuable as individuals, regardless of physical attributes, personality or health.
Friends of Rabbits does not condone the exploitation of rabbits for profit or medical research.
Friends of Rabbits is not licensed to rehabilitate wildlife. All wildlife rescue cases will be referred to licensed rehabilitators.
Friends of Rabbits believes all domestic rabbits should live indoors with humans.
We believe all domestic rabbits should be neutered or spayed, except in case of other overriding medical concerns, and they should receive the same level of veterinary care as other companion animals.
Friends of Rabbits believes all rabbits deserve a quality life, including toys, exercise, mental stimulation and social interaction with humans and other animals. These are as essential to ensuring a healthy life as food, water and shelter.
Although our goal is to ensure all rabbits in our care are spayed or neutered, live indoors and receive appropriate medical attention, we also support sanctuaries that shelter abandoned, abused and unadoptable rabbits that may not always be able to meet these standards. Friends of Rabbits also recognizes other legitimate rabbit rescue groups, humane societies and animal shelters. Friends of Rabbits respects the privacy of its members and does not share its membership list with any other organizations.
Rabbit Care - Social Needs for your Rabbit
Rabbit care expert Aileen Kara Hudspeth discusses rabbit care and discuss social needs for a rabbit.
Transcripts
Aileen Kara Hudspeth: Hi, my name is Aileen Kara Hudspeth with Friends of Rabbits talking about how to care for your rabbit. We are going to talk about social needs of rabbits today. I am going to reference many of the things in front of me, but let's get stated off. Everybody loves toys, rabbits need toys. Toys, why? Well, because they enjoy having fun, they enjoy playing, they enjoy making noise, they enjoy things they can chew. Chewing is a natural behavior for them. Their teeth consistently grow so they need to keep chewing to relieve that pressure. They also have a variety of different types of textures they can use. I have willow here, different types of mats, rabbit may prefer different type of texture as they are chewing. For instance, we have have a maize mat here, we have a seagrass mat here, we have a straw mat here some of which if they are given, they are obviously used well, loved well. There are toys that make noise. This is a woven palm with a bell.
Now obviously, you can not just find a toy in your house with a basket that you may have been given or any other thing. You need to be worried about the toys you are giving your rabbits, have to be made for your rabbits. For instance, these toys here look like they are colored, they are colored, but this is food grade coloring so it does not affect the health of your rabbit. A colored basket or a lacrate basket may not be the best thing for your rabbit and it could affect their health. So make sure that what you are buying was meant to be a toy for your bunny. Obviously, if you do not provide toys for your rabbit, they are going to find other substitutes such as telephone book or any books that you might you might have on your book shelf. Obviously, this is not good because there is glue in the book binding and that is not something that you are going to want your rabbit to be biting on. Now rabbits need space. They may stay somewhere for quite some time, but they need to be able to stretch, they need to be able to play, they need to be able to exercise, they like jumping, they like running, like stretching out, they like making noise. They enjoy playing with each other. Rabbits by nature are social creatures and will interact well with other rabbits and other species. However, before bringing your rabbit into a pet friendly home already, please make sure you reach out to your animal group, spay or neuter them first and they will be able to help you make that transition into your new home a pleasant experience. These are some of the things that you need to think about when you are looking at social needs for your rabbit. We are now going to talk about rabbit hygiene.
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