Life-stage guide
Mobility, weight and appetite changes that need closer watching.
Fireworks harm rabbits in two ways owners rarely anticipate: a panic injury during the event, and the gut slowing to a halt in the day or two afterwards. This guide explains why a bolt hole with two exits matters more than soundproofing, why a frightened rabbit must never be picked up, how to move an outdoor rabbit saf
A rabbit's tear duct passes directly beside the root of the upper incisor, so when teeth fail to wear down on a low-hay diet the elongating root blocks the duct and tears run down the face. Covers the full differential list from dacryocystitis and corneal ulcer to E. cuniculi, thymoma and myxomatosis, how to clean the
A rabbit that has gone quiet is not resting. Rabbits hide illness until they can no longer compensate, and because the gut of a hindgut fermenter is not designed to stop, a rabbit that is not eating is an emergency measured in hours. Owners cannot reliably take a rabbit's temperature at home, so appetite, droppings and
A head tilt in a rabbit means the balance system on one side is misreporting. Two causes dominate and need opposite treatments: the parasite E. cuniculi and bacterial middle ear infection. This guide covers the mechanism, how peripheral and central disease differ, why a positive antibody test proves nothing on its own,
Most rabbit fights are caused by layout rather than temperament: one bowl, one tray, one hide with a single exit, one corridor with a dead end. This guide separates normal rank behaviour from a real fight, explains why bite wounds under fur are worse than they look, and covers the medical and hormonal reasons a settled
A rabbit that bites a live cable faces three injuries on three different clocks: the heart in the first seconds, fluid in the lungs over the next day and a half, and a mouth burn that reaches its true size days later. This covers making the scene safe, what to look for hour by hour, how to tell an electrical injury fro
Three things decide how a boarding stay goes: current vaccination given far enough in advance, a bonded partner going too, and the rabbit continuing to eat. This guide covers why vaccination timing matters and why indoor rabbits are not protected, why separating a bonded pair can break the bond permanently, sending you
Neither of these viral diseases can be treated once it takes hold, so the whole answer is prevention. This guide covers what myxoma virus and rabbit haemorrhagic disease actually do, why RHDV2 differs from the classic strain and why cover against one is not cover against the other, the transmission routes that reach a
Do not splint a rabbit. Rabbit skin tears, pressure sores form within hours, and the restraint needed to apply a splint is the very thing that fractures rabbit spines. This guide covers why a rabbit can break its own back with a kick, the differentials for sudden hind limb weakness, correct lifting and transport, how t
Rabbits are burrowers, not den animals, and a hide with one entrance is a trap rather than a refuge. This guide covers how rabbits actually sleep, why the full flop is the best welfare indicator you have, what a resting place needs in terms of exits, sightlines, overhead cover and surface, how temperature moves a rabbi
A rabbit conceals decline as a survival reflex, so quality of life has to be scored indirectly: from droppings, hay intake, weight and the face rather than from how the rabbit looks when you lean over it. This guide covers the rabbit-specific domains including caecotroph consumption and hock condition, the facial signs
Healthy acclimatised rabbits handle cold well; what kills them is wet, wind and a frozen water supply that stops them drinking and then eating, with gut stasis following within hours. This guide covers the winter coat and fermentation heat that keep rabbits warm, the hazards ranked, hypothermia stage by stage including
Travel slows a rabbit gut from both directions: it reduces eating and stress hormones suppress motility directly. This is the plan that prevents stasis on a journey, from lining the carrier with hay and never changing the diet, through reading droppings at every stop, to the arrival setup, the look-alikes for a rabbit
Rabbits are prey animals that find being caught and lifted genuinely frightening, and a struggling rabbit can injure its own spine. Target training replaces the chase with a rabbit that walks into a carrier, steps onto scales and holds still for a check, using nothing more than part of its daily food.
Assisted feeding keeps a rabbit's gut supplied while a vet treats the cause. How to tell stasis from an obstruction, what formula to use and what to avoid, the technique that prevents aspiration, and the two numbers that show whether it is working.
Rabbits do not bark. They are near-silent prey animals, so any sound carries meaning. Soft tooth purring is contentment, loud tooth grinding with a hunched posture is pain and often gut stasis, a scream is an emergency, and wheezing is respiratory disease rather than a vocalisation.
Rabbits have no paw pads. The underside of the foot is skin covered by fur, and it breaks down when it meets hard, wet or abrasive flooring. Sore hocks starts as thinning fur and ends, if ignored, as infection reaching bone. It is caught with a weekly look at the feet and fixed mainly by changing the floor.
Rabbit enrichment is not decoration. Continuously growing teeth, a strong drive to dig and chew, and a body built to run mean an under-stimulated rabbit chews your flat instead. The cheapest enrichment is also the most important, and almost all of it is free.
Rabbits are near silent, so a distressed rabbit gives you nothing to hear and everything to see: appetite, posture and droppings. That matters because stress and pain slow a hindgut fermenter's gut, and a grieving rabbit that stops eating is a same-day emergency. This covers why bonded pairs share a scent and why an ov
Rabbits ovulate in response to mating, so there is no infertile window and a doe can conceive again within hours of giving birth. This covers how to tell true pregnancy from a false one and from the gut stasis that mimics both, how to care for a pregnant doe, why a doe who ignores her nest all day is behaving normally,
A rabbit pulled from water is a veterinary case even if it hops away looking normal. The drowning itself rarely kills. Hypothermia in the first hour, gut stasis in the first day and aspiration pneumonia between twelve and seventy-two hours later do. This covers the rescue technique that will not fracture a rabbit's spi
A visible limp in a rabbit is late-stage pain, and the urgent risk is the gut stasis that follows it. How to read the gait, sort nail injury from fracture from spinal disease, and decide whether this is a today problem or a now problem.
A rabbit's gut is a continuous flow system, so a slowdown becomes an emergency within hours. This guide covers how to listen to both flanks and build a baseline, how to read dropping size, number and mucus, what changes by breed, age and season, and the critical difference between stasis and a physical obstruction, whe
Rabbit food packaging is written to sell. The ingredient list, the crude fibre figure and the shape of the food itself tell you far more than the pictures on the front. Learning to read three parts of the pack rules out most of the products that cause dental and gut disease in rabbits.
Rabbits do not get diagnosed with food allergies, and running a dog-style elimination diet on one is dangerous because the fibre you would remove is what keeps the gut moving. This guide explains the caecal fermentation behind most food reactions, the dental and mite causes behind the rest, and how to test a food prope
Rabbit eyes are large, exposed and easily injured, and the most damaging thing an owner can do is reach for the wrong drops. This guide covers the immediate response, the do-not list including why steroid products can cost the eye, what each sign actually means from corneal ulcer to retrobulbar abscess and myxomatosis,
Rabbit teeth grow for life and are worn down by the sideways grinding that only coarse forage demands, so a rabbit eating fewer hay wears its teeth less and the disease accelerates itself. The early signs are quiet: hay lasting longer, selective eating, a damp chin, caecotrophs stuck to the rear, a coat that has stoppe
Rabbit teeth grow for the whole of the animal's life and are worn down by chewing, not cleaned by brushing. Home dental care is a hay-first diet plus a weekly face, chin and appetite check that catches malocclusion and spurs early.
Flakes along a rabbit's back are usually fur mites appearing because the rabbit has stopped grooming there, and the reason is normally dental pain, excess weight or reduced mobility. This guide reads the distribution of scurf, separates fur mites from ear mites, ringworm, moulting and fleas, flags the zoonotic risk and
A healthy rabbit eats its caecotrophs directly and the owner never sees them. Finding them squashed in the hutch or matted onto the fur means either a diet too rich in starch and protein, or a rabbit that cannot physically reach round. This guide explains caecotrophy, separates the two causes by what is left behind, co
Most chronic disease in pet rabbits follows body shape: a folded ear cannot drain wax, a shortened skull cannot fit continuously growing teeth, and a heavy frame or a Rex coat leaves feet that have no pads unprotected. This guide explains the mechanism behind each, the staging owners can actually see, why a conscious d
There is no correct bath frequency for a rabbit, because water baths cause chilling, panic injuries and skin damage. The real question is why the bottom is dirty. This guide separates uneaten caecotrophs from urine scald and true diarrhoea, links each to diet, teeth, joints, weight and bladder disease, explains the fly
A rabbit can die from a predator encounter it was never touched in, and the small punctures from a cat are the wounds most likely to be underestimated. This covers containment and transport without adding injury, the ten-second checks that set urgency, why every bite needs same-day antibiotics before it swells, how sna
The danger in moving house with a rabbit is not the journey but the days afterwards, when a stressed rabbit eats less and the gut stops. This covers preserving the scent map by not cleaning anything, changing nothing else at the same time, how to run moving day and the first 72 hours, how to tell normal settling from g
Heat harms each species by a different route, so the cooling that saves a dog can harm a rabbit. This guide covers how dogs, cats, rabbits and birds each lose heat, the early signs in each, the correct cooling method for each including why dogs are cooled aggressively and rabbits and birds are never immersed, and why a
Rabbits are crepuscular, so being busy at dusk, dawn and through parts of the night is normal behaviour rather than a sleep problem. What matters is telling ordinary night activity apart from frustration, alarm, hormonal behaviour and pain, because each needs a different response.
Hay is not a supplement to a rabbit's diet, it is the diet. A rabbit living on pellets is under-worn in the teeth and under-fibred in the gut, but cutting pellets abruptly can stop a rabbit eating altogether. The change has to be made slowly, measured, and monitored through weight and droppings.
A rabbit sharing a home with a cat or dog faces an attack risk and a chronic stress risk, and most households plan only for the first. Covers why any cat contact is a same-day emergency, how chased rabbits die of shock and self-inflicted spinal fracture, how stress causes gut stasis, and how to zone the home properly.
Rabbits cannot sweat and cannot pant effectively, so they shed heat through the blood vessels of their ears and stop being able to when the air is as warm as they are. This guide gives the cool-down order that works, why immersion and ice make things worse, why a summer collapse must have its rear checked for flystrike
Blowfly eggs laid on a soiled rear hatch within hours in warm weather, and the larvae tunnel sideways under the skin so the damage is always larger than the visible hole. This guide covers why flystrike kills through absorbed toxins even after the maggots are removed, the underlying causes that gave the rabbit a dirty
Boredom and anxiety produce almost identical rabbit behaviour and need opposite treatment, and pain mimics both. This guide gives the baseline of genuine contentment, the tests that separate the three, why a frozen rabbit is frightened rather than calm, why trancing is a fear response, and the specific environmental ch
Most rabbits are given up at sexual maturity for reasons that neutering fixes. How to test whether the reason is fixable, why bonded pairs must never be split, which adopters to refuse, and what must leave with the rabbit.
An overweight rabbit cannot bend to eat its caecotrophs, which leads to soiling and flystrike, and fat also drives sore hocks, heat intolerance, arthritis and bladder sludge. This guide explains how to assess condition by hand rather than by eye, what is not obesity, and a staged reduction that never restricts hay, nev
Rabbits are herbivores, so a raw diet is a carnivore concept that does not apply; the real question is which fresh plants are safe and in what quantity. This guide covers what greens do and do not provide, the staple leaves and herbs worth using, the calcium and oxalate group, the plants that kill, safe foraging rules
Rabbits absorb dietary calcium largely in proportion to intake and excrete the surplus through the kidneys, which is why their urine is normally chalky and why calcium blocks, mineral licks and alfalfa pellets in adults cause bladder sludge rather than stronger bone. This guide sets out the diet that actually protects
A rabbit is small, has a small circulating blood volume, and goes into shock quickly. Direct pressure, warmth and calm handling are what you can safely do at home. Restraint mistakes and delay cause more rabbit deaths after an injury than the bleeding itself.
Discover emergency cooling strategies for dogs, cats, and rabbits when your apartment air conditioning fails during a summer heatwave. Learn how to create a DIY swamp cooler, apply safe physical cooling techniques, and spot the early signs of heatstroke.
Discover when your dogs, cats, rabbits, and other pets officially become seniors, how their physical and cognitive needs change, and how to adapt their care.
Outdoor rabbits can handle cold better than heat, but wind, damp, and sudden drops still cause dangerous cold stress. This guide covers hutch insulation, bedding, water that will not freeze, diet tweaks, and the warning signs that mean it is time to bring your rabbit indoors.
Weepy eyes and a runny nose in rabbits are signs, not diagnoses. This article explains the common causes, from dental disease to blocked tear ducts and infection, how to tell mild from serious, and when your rabbit needs a rabbit-savvy vet rather than home care.
Rabbits explore by chewing, which makes a free-roaming home surprisingly dangerous. This checklist covers the human foods and common houseplants that are toxic to rabbits, the warning signs of poisoning, and exactly what to do in the first minutes if your rabbit eats something it should not.
Sore hocks, or pododermatitis, are pressure sores on the underside of a rabbit's back feet caused by hard flooring, damp, and excess weight. Caught early they are very manageable. Learn how to spot the early stages, fix the causes, and know when a vet is needed.
Snuffles is a common rabbit respiratory infection causing sneezing, nasal discharge, and noisy breathing. This article explains the signs, why a runny nose is never just a cold in rabbits, and why prompt treatment from a rabbit-savvy vet is essential to prevent it becoming chronic or fatal.
Around age six a rabbit enters its senior years, and care needs shift. Arthritis, dental disease, weight changes, and reduced grooming become more likely. This overview explains what to expect, how to adapt the home, and the monitoring that keeps an older rabbit comfortable and catches problems early.
That sudden musky smell is often not dirty fur but the scent glands beside your rabbit's bottom, which can clog with waxy buildup. This guide shows where they are, how to clean them gently and safely, how often, and when a smell means a vet visit instead.
Rabbits hide illness and crash fast, so an emergency is the worst time to start searching for care. This guide shows you how to find and vet a rabbit-experienced clinic in advance, the questions to ask, and how to be ready so you can act within hours when it counts.
Fresh vegetables add moisture, variety, and nutrients to a rabbit's diet, but only after hay. This checklist covers safe daily leafy greens, vegetables to limit, foods to avoid, how much to feed, and how to introduce new greens without upsetting a sensitive rabbit gut.
Fresh herbs are a fragrant, low-sugar way to add variety to a rabbit's greens. This checklist sorts common kitchen and garden herbs into safe everyday choices and ones to limit, explains portion sizes, and flags a few herbs and myths worth being careful about.
Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus kills quickly and often without warning, even in indoor rabbits. Vaccination is the single best defence. This guide explains what RHDV is, how the vaccine works, when to start, and how to prepare for the vet visit.
Your rabbit's droppings are its daily health report. This checklist shows what normal pellets and cecotropes look like, which changes mean trouble, and why no poop for 8–12 hours is an emergency. Learn to read the litter tray and catch gut problems early.
You can't judge a rabbit's weight by looks alone under all that fur. This guide shows how to body-score by feel, weigh at home, and slim an overweight rabbit safely with more hay and movement , without the dangerous crash diets that can trigger fatal gut stasis.
Overgrown nails snag, curl, and change how a rabbit walks, but most rabbits hate having their feet held. This step-by-step guide shows how to restrain gently, find the quick, and trim little and often so nail day stops being a battle for both of you.
A rabbit's teeth grow for life, and when the back molars wear unevenly they form sharp spurs that cut the tongue and cheek. This article helps you spot the early signs , dropped food, drooling, weight loss , explains why hay is the best prevention, and stresses when a rabbit needs urgent veterinary care.
Mats pull the skin, trap moisture, and hide sores, and a rabbit's skin is dangerously thin and easy to cut. This guide shows how to tease out mats safely, when to clip instead, when to stop, and how to prevent them during heavy shedding seasons.
Grass hay should make up most of a rabbit's diet, but the label choices are confusing. This guide compares timothy, orchard, meadow, and other grass hays on fibre, texture, and who each suits, plus why alfalfa is a treat and not a staple for adults.
Gastrointestinal stasis is one of the most common rabbit emergencies, where the gut slows or stops. This guide explains how a hay-first diet, hydration, exercise, and daily poop-watching prevent it, and how to recognise the early signs before a slowdown becomes life-threatening.
A rabbit emergency moves fast, so the time to prepare is now. This checklist walks you through exactly what to stock in a rabbit-specific first-aid kit, why each item matters, and how to use the basics safely while you get your rabbit to a rabbit-savvy vet.
Rabbits hide pain and crash fast, so knowing the true red flags saves lives. This guide lists the signs that mean go to a vet immediately , not tomorrow , including not eating, no droppings, laboured breathing and collapse, so you never lose critical hours second-guessing.
Crusty ears, head shaking, and scratching often mean ear mites or an ear infection in rabbits. This article explains how to tell the difference from a healthy ear, why you must never pick off the crusts, and when your rabbit needs a vet for safe treatment.
Encephalitozoon cuniculi is a common microscopic parasite that many rabbits carry silently, but in some it attacks the brain, kidneys and eyes. Learn the warning signs like head tilt and hind-leg weakness, how vets diagnose it, and why early treatment matters.
A bored rabbit chews skirting boards, digs carpets, and gets destructive. This guide gives you cheap, safe, homemade enrichment , foraging toys, dig boxes, and chew objects , you can build from household items in minutes to redirect that energy and keep your rabbit busy and happy.
A bonded rabbit pair is not permanent. Hormones, illness, stress, and territory changes can trigger fights that undo months of work. This guide explains the daily signs of a healthy bond, the triggers that break pairs apart, and how to step in early before a squabble becomes a full break-up.
Rabbits process calcium unusually, so thick, chalky urine and bladder sludge are common. This article explains normal versus abnormal rabbit urine, how diet and hydration help, and the signs of a urinary problem that means it is time to see a rabbit-savvy vet.
Older rabbits often develop arthritis, which shows up as stiffness, reluctance to hop, and a dirty bottom rather than obvious limping. This guide explains the signs, home changes that ease painful joints, and when your rabbit needs a rabbit-savvy vet for pain relief.
A lump on your rabbit is rarely simple. Rabbit abscesses hold thick pus in a tough capsule that antibiotics can't reach, so they almost never drain or heal on their own. Learn where to check, why surgery usually beats pills, and the red flags that mean go to a vet now.
A rabbit eating hay, greens and a measured pellet already makes its own vitamin C and recycles B vitamins through caecotrophy, so most supplements duplicate work the caecum is already doing. This guide separates the few products worth owning, chiefly a recovery fibre formula bought before you need it, from the water ad
Most rabbit diarrhoea is not diarrhoea at all, it is uneaten caecotrophs, and the difference decides whether you have a this-week problem or a tonight problem. This guide gives the test that separates them, explains how the colon sorts fibre and why losing that mechanism is systemic, covers weaning enteritis, starch, c
A rabbit in serious pain sits still, keeps its eyes open, and may still nibble something. This guide covers the five facial features of the rabbit grimace scale and the breeds it cannot be used on, how to tell a comfortable loaf from a painful hunch, why loud tooth grinding and soft tooth purring mean opposite things,
Water is not a side issue in a rabbit: dry gut contents stop moving, and concentrated urine turns into sludge because rabbits dump surplus calcium through the kidneys. This guide covers why bowls beat sipper bottles, how to measure real intake with a kitchen scale, how to build a baseline that makes a change meaningful
Older rabbits are easy to live with and hard to place, and the trade is medical. This guide covers the dental disease, arthritis and back end problems that define senior rabbit care, the daily flystrike checks that save lives in warm weather, what to ask a rescue, and how to set a home up for a rabbit with reduced mobi
Most stings in rabbits cause local pain and swelling, and what makes them dangerous is location rather than allergy. A rabbit's larynx is locked into the back of the nasal chamber, so it cannot breathe through its mouth, and swelling of the nose, muzzle or throat closes the only route air has. This guide sets out the t
Weight loss is the earliest measurable sign of most serious rabbit illness, and a rabbit can keep eating while losing it. This guide covers weighing and body condition scoring at home, reading droppings and hay intake, and the causes in order of likelihood, from molar root disease that a conscious mouth examination can
