If you want to learns all about rabbits then this is a good place to start. People have been keeping rabbits as pets in the Western nations since the 1800s. Rabbits do really well indoors, and can be trained to use a litterbox just like a cat. Like all other type of pets, you need to show a rabbits care and attention.
People will most often purchased their rabbit from a breeder. The reason that people prefer to buy from breeders, is because they believe that pet stores often sell rabbits that are crossbred. Most often you can find these breeders listed in the classified ads under pets or livestock. There are other places to find rabbits, such as through rabbit breeders club publications, or through magazines related to rabbits which offered will include listings of breeders. These days a lot of breeders are actually advertising on their rabbits online.
If it's all possible though you should find a local breeder to obtain your rabbit, because any time you ship a rabbit over a long distance it causes undue stress on the poor thing. For the most part, you'll find most of the smaller breeds of rabbits in pet stores like the Holland lop, the Mini Rex, and the Netherland dwarf. Although these breeds of rabbits are a lot smaller than regular habits, this doesn't change the fact that they can live a long and healthy life. Often times though, many of your smaller breeds of rabbits are apt to have tooth problems like malocclusion.
Another really good place to check to find a rabbit is your local Humane Society, as they frequently have adult rabbits which have already been spayed and neutered and are relatively tame from being handled all the time. There are some conditions and circumstances, where your rabbit from a humane society may need some special attention because they were rescued because of abuse, so they may have some behavior issues.
All about Rabbits Training and Play
Just as with cats, you can train your pet rabbit to use a litter box in a specific part of your room. You can also put the litter box inside the rabbits cage, or you can train it to use the cage itself as a litter box. You will find the training your rabbit to use a litter box will become a lot easier after the rabbit is spayed or neutered.
Rabbits don't learn like dogs do, as with Voice Commands, but you will find that they recognize patterns of sound from your voice.As an example, if your rabbit is being bad like biting, you can let it know by making a high-pitched noise or an extremely low pitched noise, and your rabbit will get the message.Rabbits can learn their names, although they don't actually recognize the name as much as they do the pattern of the sound. Rabbits are really smart, and enjoy playing games and playing with toys.
Rabbits can be allowed to run loose in your house as long as you have rabbit proofed it, (i.e. removed any electrical cords or other items that could hurt the rabbit if they chewed on it). It is in the rabbits nature to chew on things that are in their area, and they love to chew on wires, but you can train them not to do so.
If you are going to let your bunny rabbit have the run of your house, you need to make sure that it is not possible for it to be able to get into anything that is valuable to you or is dangerous to it. Rabbits don't have the same comprehension as dogs or cats, so it isn't a good idea to physically punish your rabbit when it does wrong, as this will most often cause you rabbit to just become frightened and confused because they don't understand. If these things are carefully considered, a rabbit can become an excellent house pet.
Companionship With Other Rabbits
It isn't really a good idea to put unneutered rabbits of the same gender together as they often fight. Most often the cause of the fighting is because of inappropriate sexual behavior, as one male will try to mount the other and it will stress the mounted rabbit out and make it aggressive towards the other one. Unless you are wanting to breed your rabbits, putting rabbits together of opposite sexes which are not fixed, is not a great idea as they will breed very rapidly.
Because of the problems involved, it was once highly preferred to keep rabbits in their own individual cages. However, it is becoming common to spay and neuter pet rabbits allowing male and female rabbits to live together. Even with staying in neutering, it isn't a guarantee that there won't be any fights. Often times when rabbits are kept singly they develop behavioral problems such as biting or withdrawal behaviors. These problems can often be stopped by keeping your rabbits in pairs.
You can often adopt pairs of rabbits that are bonded and desexed from animal shelters, and they are normally one of each gender. A good thing about getting your rabbits from an animal shelter is that they have already had most of the expenses done to them, like getting them fixed, and if they are repaired you don't have to worry about having them get used to another rabbit.
Guinea pigs
Often times you'll read in book that it is a good idea to keep rabbits and guinea pigs together to help meet their social needs. While this is successful sometimes, it is generally considered not a good idea to keep the animals in the same cage together.Guinea pigs are not as tough as rabbits, so they can be easily hurt if they rabbit decided to become aggressive against it or it could become distressed and die just because it was afraid. Guinea pigs are easily startled, so chances are it would not be intentional but it is better that they are left without the chance of causing harm to one another. The diets of these two animals are also quite different from one another, so they have to be fed separately. Guinea pigs require additional Vitamin C in their diets that rabbit food doesn't have. If the guinea pig doesn't get its vitamin C it could lead to scurvy.
For the most part, guinea pigs don't really show any interest in the social activities that rabbits require like grooming, which is a big take away from what you were hoping for by putting the rabbit and guinea pig together in the first place.
Dogs and Cats
For the most part it is not a really good idea to leave your rabbit alone with your dog, as they can become over enthusiastic in their play, which could lead to the dog harming the rabbit. On the other hand cats, can potentially get along with rabbits very well as long as they are introduced properly and are about the same size as each other. It's funny that sometimes when you introduce a cat into a home that has a rabbit, the rabbit will establish his authority over the territory by acting aggressively towards the cat, who will normally cede the point, as it is not really concerned with the whole idea.