How To Keep Your Kids Happy With A Rabbit And A Rabbit Hutch
There’s no doubt that just about all children want a pet. Whether it be feathered or furry they just want one. But the range of choices for a parent considering buying a pet for their children is enormous. Why does a rabbit make a great pet for children and how do you buy, or build the perfect rabbit hutch to house the rabbit.
Rabbits make wonderful pets for kids. They are very social, fun to be with and love spending time with people. They can be house trained so you don’t need to worry about mess, and kids love a rabbit as a pet. A pet rabbit generally lives around 10 years so you need to understand that once you have a pet rabbit you will have one for quite some time.
Rabbits have a simple diet. It is perfectly fine to feed them dedicated rabbit pellets which you can buy from a pet shop, as well as complementing that feed with fresh hay and vegetables. A rabbit loves many dark green vegetables like spinach, broccoli leaves and carrots and is also very happy to eat various fruits such as apples and pears. Rabbits are simple and cheap to feed.
If you’re thinking of getting a rabbit for a pet for your children there are some things to consider before you rush in and buy your first rabbit. The main consideration is housing the rabbit. You will need a rabbit cage, or what is often known as a rabbit hutch. A rabbit hutch is a simple construction that allows your rabbit to browse outdoors on grass whilst also having shelter from the elements in a part of the hutch.
Most rabbit hutches provide a sheltered area where the rabbit can sleep out of the weather as well as an area where you can hop around during the day to exercise and browse on grass. Good rabbit hutches can be moved around from place to place.
It’s important to choose the right floor for your cage. Many people use wire which is fine if your rabbit hutch is to be placed on the ground. Using wire allows your rabbit to eat the grass through the wire. However wire is an uncomfortable thing for rabbits to walk on and they don’t particularly like walking on wire. So if you’re hutch is off the ground and you use wire on the floor your rabbit will probably spend most of his time in his compartment.
There is an advantage to having a wire floor with a hutch above the ground. The droppings fall through making it much easier to clean. However you wish to do this look for a material which has much wider areas for the rabbits feet and much smaller holes. Plastic slats may well do the job better.
You can use a solid material like wood or metal. Metal doesn’t soak up urine like wood so doesn’t smell as wood can do, and so is easier to clean, but neither metal or wood allows the rabbit to eat grass off the ground.
What about the size of the cage? Suggestions I have seen is that it should be 3 or 4 times the size of the rabbit, but to me that is way too small. If you have a rabbit hutch this small you must allow your rabbit out to exercise every day.
And build a hutch with a good door as you need to clean the hutch and replace the hay each day.
A rabbit is an excellent pet for kids. Do your research on rabbit breeds, and give yourself plenty of time before you buy one to sort out a solid, effective and well built rabbit hutch.
Why not build a hutch for your rabbit yourself? That just adds to the fun.
