how to raise a lop eared rabbit
How to Raise a Lop Eared Rabbit
Caring for a pet rabbit involves ensuring a proper and complete diet, cleaning and maintaining the rabbit's living area, and grooming the rabbit, so that it stays clean and healthy. This Buzzle article provides information on how to care for one of the most popular rabbit breeds, the lop eared rabbit.
- The Holland lop
- The English lop
- The American fuzzy lop
- The Mini lop
- The French lop
- You can keep your lop bunny outdoors, but you need to think how the external climate will affect your bunny.
- An outdoors hutch should be covered with a fly-screen mesh to prevent insects from bothering your bunnies. It should also be protected from foxes, dogs, and cats, who may try to harm your bunny.
- If you live in a warm climate, then your bunny will need fresh, clean water regularly, as well as plenty of shade. If it gets too hot, you may need to bring it indoors for sometime.
- If you live in a cold climate, then your bunny needs a warm hutch, with a nice toasty shelter, so it will not freeze at night.
- Keep your rabbit's hutch out-of-reach from other pets.
- The hutch or cage should be 2 feet by 2 feet by 4 feet in measurement, and have a solid base.
- Your lop eared rabbit should be able to stand on its feet as well as lie down comfortably, so construct a cage accordingly. Approximate cage size should be 3 times the rabbit's size.
- Large lop breeds like the French lop, need a lot of room to reside in, due to their big size.
- Try to keep a small cardboard box, with some hay in it, as a sort of rabbit "bedroom" in the hutch. This is for your rabbit to hide away or sleep in.
- Place a litter box in the hutch, with some newspaper. This lessens your cleaning job, and trains your rabbit to use its own toilet.
- Clean out the litter box everyday, and change the bedding and hay in the hutch weekly.
- Your lop eared bunny's diet must consist of pellets, fresh veggies, and hay.
- Feed your pet good quality rabbit pellets, which are free from corn, potatoes, or nuts. Fresh pellets should be fed everyday, and should be high in fiber with a low protein content.
- Young lops need alfalfa pellets, and lops older than 7 months need timothy pellets. Do not feed alfalfa hay to older and adult rabbits.
- Rabbits feed on hay and grass to keep their teeth in good shape and to help their solid food digest. So, oat, timothy, and grass as well as alfalfa are ideal for a lop rabbit. Hay should be fresh, clean, and dry. Check for mold prior to feeding your rabbit.
- Do not overfeed your pet, older rabbits should be fed 1/8 of a cup of pellets per day.
- For veggies, variety is the key. Green leafy veggies like romaine lettuce, broccoli, dandelion leaves, watercress, and cabbage are good. Minimize the intake of carrots, they can get too starchy. Do not feed your lop iceberg lettuce, corn, beans, peas, onions, and any seeds or grains.
- Fruits are meant as occasional treats as they have too much sugar for regular intake. They should be seeded and peeled, and fed in small portions only.
- Your lop is not a human, so no processed foods, breads, chocolate, chips, or biscuits.
- Rabbits drink a lot of water, so make sure your lop has a fresh, clean drinking water supply. Use a shallow but spill-proof bowl to store the water in the hutch.
- Clean the water and food containers of the hutch everyday.
- Lop eared rabbits have floppy, falling ears, hence they are more prone to ear infections. Check your bunny's ears carefully. Look into the ear canal for signs of infection or ear mites.
- If the rabbit's ears smell bad, or if a lot of wax has formed in the ear, consult a veterinarian immediately.
- You can clean earwax using wax removal medicine, but do so carefully, and with medication as approved by a vet.
- Rabbits breed a lot. To avoid turning your house into a rabbit-filled home, neuter or spay your lops in time.
- Lop rabbits are very clean pets, as they groom themselves around the eyes, nose, and ears repeatedly, but they need a human to brush them to get rid of loose hair.
- If your lop has a short-haired fur coat, then a light brush is needed daily, to brush away broken hair.
- With woolly or very long-hair, brush twice a day.
- During the rabbit's molting season, a lot of hair is shed, so brush your rabbit at least thrice a day.
- Your rabbit's nails can grow long, and it could hurt itself while grooming. So trim nails once in a while, either on your own or visit the veterinarian.