Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Digestive Issues

With a rabbits extremely delicate digestive system, a common problem that plagues pet owners and breeders alike is digestive issues. If a rabbit stops eating for over 24 hours, death can quickly ensue. So it is important to figure out what is going on with your rabbit and how to fix it before the digestive system stops completely, which is called GI Stasis, or Gastrointestinal Stasis.

The first step is to answer a few questions. Is the rabbit producing excessive amounts of manure? Is the rabbit not produces fecal matter at all? Does the rabbit have soft or runny poo? Does the fecal matter have lots of hair in it?

Excessive amounts of manure or soft/runny poo indicates diarrhea. If you determine your rabbit has diarrhea, remove all pellets and free feed as much hay as your rabbit will eat. Make sure your rabbit is drinking. I also give the rabbit BeneBac or ProBios, which is a probiotic containing beneficial bacteria that helps a rabbit with digestive issues. Dandelions often help with the process of eliminating runny poo as well. If your rabbit's symptoms become severe enough you may have to take your rabbit to the vet. Diarrhea is often caused by a diet high in sugar, energy, carbs, and too low in fiber. Keep that in mind to prevent further incidents if you feed a low fiber, high sugar/carbohydrate diet.

If the rabbit is not producing any fecal matter, it likely has GI Stasis. Symptoms of GI Stasis are: little to no fecal matter, lethargy, sitting in a hunched over position, diarrhea, no gut sounds, and refusal to eat for more than 12 hours. Infant gas drops (simethicone) are helpful, because the rabbit may have gas, which extra hay and BeneBac won't help. A rabbit with gas can also be in severe pain; so nothing will help until you get rid of gas. Pedialyte (administered via syringe) will help hydrate a rabbit. I use one cup clean water, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/8 teaspoon salt. If the rabbit isn't eating either, I will add pellets, vegetable baby food, or canned pumpkin and syringe feed the rabbit. Fresh herbs, such as raspberry leaves, parsley, thyme, etc., can tempt a rabbit to begin eating as well.

Using the above suggestions, I have saved 9 out of 10 rabbits that suffered from digestive issues. But obviously, if you cannot provide the solution and your rabbit is not getting better, it is best to take your rabbit to the vet, or put it down humanely. It is our job as pet owners to make sure our pets are happy and healthy.


Monday, July 10, 2017

The Hardest Part of Being a Rabbit Breeder

The hobby of rabbit breeding is complex, fun, challenging, annoying, hilarious, and wonderful all at the same time. Trekking outside to do chores in below-zero weather and in 100 degree plus weather isn't always fun. Then there's the magic of visiting the rabbitry at 7 a.m. to find a healthy litter of kits.

But from the newbie's perspective, a question that often begs to be answered is: What's the hardest part of being a rabbit breeder?

I think the hardest part is the decision-making. It's hard to make those logical decisions with your head when your heart begs to be the final contributing factor. It's hard to make the decision of who to keep and who to sell. It's hard to make the decision of whether or not to stay in a breed you can't keep up with. That's where I am now. Mini Lops are an extremely popular breed, especially in my neck of the woods. And I just can't keep up with those breeders who have 30 holes and are producing an average of 10 or so litters. I produce a maximum of 3 litters a year. I can only keep one breeding pair, or maybe a trio. I don't have it in the budget to expand, nor do I have the space.

So even though  I do enjoy Mini Lops, I've decided that it's probably more worth it for me to focus on my other breed, which has also become my favorite; Jersey Woolies. This way I will have more cage space to refine my lines with the Jersey Woolies, and I feel that in the long run this will be the best decision. But it was hard. Because this means I'm selling out of Mini Lops. I've decided to keep my breeding pair, Newt and Hemingway, because they're both still actively showing, but I'm selling all of my juniors.

When you have to make a decision that affects your entire rabbit raising hobby, sometimes you wish you hadn't chosen rabbits.

Another hard issue in rabbit raising is ethics. Nobody wants to put a rabbit down. But when it's suffering, you have to have a quick, humane way to ease its suffering, or I firmly believe you shouldn't be raising rabbits. Sure, you don't have any culls now, but you will in the future. It's also hard to make the decision of an open or closed rabbitry. Open rabbitries provide more resources for your buyer to come and visit and see the conditions in which your rabbits are raised, as well as view the parents of the rabbit being sold. But open rabbitries also run a very high risk of illness; people carry germs when they enter your rabbitry, which pass on to your rabbits. The same rabbits you have spent so much money and effort on can so easily be destroyed with a hefty dose of ignorance. For this reason, many breeders have resorted to a closed rabbitry, where rabbits that are for sale are separated from the herd and viewed in a different location. This not only provides peace of mind for you, it also prevents potential problems.

I like to call our rabbitry semi-open. I will allow buyers near my rabbitry upon request, but I generally do not. For instance, if it's a pet buyer, I usually just set up an exercise pen in my front yard away from the rabbits, and put the rabbit or rabbits the buyer wants to view in the pen. For show or breeding buyers, however, I tend to bring them back to the rabbitry. This way I won't have a pet buyer commenting stuff like, "Isn't that cage a little small?" "Oh, they're all alone, poor things." "Why do you have them  outside?" and so on. A breeder will mainly be concerned as to whether they all have food and water, whether the facility is clean, whether the rabbits have a chew toy to wear down teeth properly, whether the rabbits have sufficient entertainment to keep them happy, and whether the rabbit is in good condition (healthy weight, no sign of illness, trimmed nails, friendly disposition, no DQs).

The hardships of raising rabbits aside; as long as you have formulated a logical, well thought-out plan for all aspects of your rabbitry, you can lie back and relax, free to simply enjoy the fuzzy little hoppers that have stolen our hearts so completely.

Happy Hopping!
-Joanna