Hello, I’m a total newbie

[Flakes]

Hello, just adopted a rabbit yesterday. Don’t know what breed or how old he is. His name is Dortmund.

I got him from a couple who didn’t want him. When I picked him up his cage was filthy — layers and layers of poop. I don’t think the people I got him from ever cleaned just added more layers of bedding once the old layer was too disgusting. It took me 2 hours to scrub the cage clean.

I should say that I know absolutely nothing about Rabbits. My therapist suggested I get a pet to help with with my PTSD and they don’t allow dogs in my building.

I’ve bought Dortmund a much bigger cage, and also a wire enclosure for him to run around in when he is out of the cage. I also made a hidy hole out of an Amazon box that I cut holes into and ripped off all the packing tape; he spends a lot of time in there. Which is fine. I’m trying not to interact with him too much since I personally would be terrified if I was taken away from my home by a giant. I mostly feed him bits of apple through the bars of the cage.

I scheduled a vet appointment in two weeks, to have him looked over.

Any advice would be appreciated. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

 

[Augustus&HazelGrace]

My first advice is to not feed anymore apple at all. For food first, you will need a good quality horse timothy or grass-type hay such as orchard, meadow or oat hay. This will be fed unlimitedly throughout the day so if you have the room to put a bale of hay that would be great if not you can buy small bags in your local farm store. Make sure if you do this there is nothing added and it is JUST the hay. Next, you will need to get a good quality pellet, Oxbow and Small Pet Select have good pellets if you buy at your farm store make sure it is just plain pellets without any nuts, seeds, or colorful stuff. Veggies are your next step and each new veggie will need to be introduced slowly and only after they are 4 months old and beings you don't know how old he is you need to wait a few months before you start introducing these. No bedding is needed in the bottom of the cage just in the litter box and the best thing to use is a cat litter box don't buy a small corner litter box it's just not big enough. The best litter is pine horse stall pellets they come in 40lbs bags for like 5 or 6 dollars. Also, @Alyssa and Bugs♡ is from Iowa too. Can you post a picture of your rabbit so I can try to tell you what breed he is? And do you know how much he weights even if this is just an estimate, I need this to tell you how much pellets and greens he needs?

 

[Flakes]

Yeah, I knew the apple thing wasn't that great for him. It was mostly a treat for not running away from me and sniffing me through the bars of the cage. I've filled his food bowl four times with Orchard Hay so we're good that way. And I ordered a couple of cat litter boxes and a forty-pound bag of pine horse stall pellets just now. No idea what he weighs and I don't want to traumatize him by picking him up, at least not for a couple of days. Does fluff ball count as a weight?

 

[zuppa]

Hi, that's great that you've got a new housing and run for him sounds good if you could post some pics we can see and give some advice.

Food: Apple is allowed only 1-2 times weekly and just a slice without seeds, given as a treat, but I think you just don't have any other food for him. For now just check your fridge if you have any green vegetables, like cabbage leaf, broccoli, kale, green lettuce(except of Iceberg), herbs like cilantro, basil, parsley, thyme etc, just post what you have there and we'll tell you what suits what is a no-no.

You will want to visit your pet store or where you can get hay, it will be 80% of what he should eat to be healthy, then get him a bag of dry rabbit food (check it should have 19% or more fiber on pack, he will be getting about 60 gram per day so if you get 2 kg bag it will last one month.)

I broke my touchpad and can't copy-paste pics without a mouse so here's a link you will see healthy food pyramid for rabbits there
http://www.fosterbunnies.com/food.htm

You want to setup his toilet as well he will poop a lot and if you won't train him for toilet you will have same layers of poo in a few days! Best way is to get him a cat litter box with high sides and fill it with wood pellets you can also get from pet store or supermarket it can be for cats but just make sure that it is WOOD not other cat litter because it 's not safe for rabbits they can chew it so only WOOD.

Will post some pics in other post

 

[Hermelin]

Spend as much time you can with your boy. So he can build up a bond with you.

I would recommend to read about rabbit body signs/ signals so you can easier understand him easier.

http://rabbitresource.org/care-and-health/behavior/how-to-speak-rabbit/

https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/rabbits/behaviour/understanding

https://www.thesprucepets.com/rabbit-communication-basics-1239300

Your boy should have free amount of hay and using daily pellets ration as treat work great, when you are building a bond.

Most bunnies dosen’t like being picked up or held. Often it’s something they need to learn or need to have trust towards you to accept it. My experience with bunnies is that positive reinforcement it’s best way to teach them.

Often around/ behind the ears many rabbits love being petted, but it all depends on the bunny. They have quite the different personalities, when you get to know them [emoji5]

You can litter train your boy, so you won’t have to waste a lot of bedding later on.

Myself let my indoor bunny free roam indoors after he was litter trained. He have a little corner in the kitchen. Bunnies need to at least get 4 hours outside the cage. To move around and explore. They are quite curious as pets even though some can be quite skittish, they have the drive to explore.

Myself have had many scares because of my bunnies. From climbing in the bookshelves to running out the door to the street.

They are lovely pets, as long as you have patience. You will get to know your bunny better when he bond to you [emoji5]

 

[zuppa]

Do you know his age? He looks like a mini lop or just lop mix but at 2-3 months of age. Beautiful!

 

[Flakes]

I would love to let him roam free, but it isn't an option. I have a small apartment and way way way too many wires. While I work from home, so I can give him lots of attention, I also work in technology and have like 4 computers in my living room alone.

The best i can do is set up a caged in a roaming area and lay down a tarp and fleece.

 

[Flakes]

No idea how old he is.

 

[zuppa]

Well you said you know nothing about rabbits but from your latest post I see you've done some reading already and doing right things! Just ask if any questions I am glad your bunny is in right hands

 

[Flakes]

I watched lots of youtube videos last night.

 

[zuppa]

I watched lots of youtube videos last night.

Very good! Now this forum is great and some people keep rabbits for decades so you'll find tons of advice here and always can ask a question we're even better than Google!

I feel you have a cage and run, you are trying not to stress him and let him be for 24-48 hours at least, you gave him a hide, toilet and hay, I don't put hay into a bowl hay manger would be better, you can fill it twice a day and he suppose to eat about his own size of hay every day, more is better.

Bowl is for food and not to overdose. Also he needs water available at all times do you use bottle or bowl?

I agree that toilet box could be bigger but if it's really a he I can tell you I have 3 male rabbits and two of them using a corner toilet like yours very successfully, anyway you can have this and an extra toilet box larger size, you will see how it goes just keep his floor clear of hay because he will think that it is all his toilet, every rabbit is a bit different you'll watch him and will learn his habits eventually and can train him

 

[Flakes]

A couple things.

i plan to clean his cage again either tonight or tomorrow. The first time I did this, as much as I didn’t like doing it, I picked him up and put him into a pet carrier crate. Until the Run arrives in the mail from Amazon (Oct 2) I plan to use this method. Is this okay, or should I just wait a couple days for the run to get here. He really didn’t like going into the box yesterday.

One of the videos I saw yesterday suggested putting down a layer of puppy training pads under the pellets so that Rabbit urine wouldn’t stain anything and for easier cleaning. I ordered a box, but then I saw Dortmund chewing on the packing tape from the Amazon box I gave him. So I had to take his hiding spot away and remove the tape. I am reluctant to put anything plastic in his cage even a diaper like material to make cleaning easier. But I could be wrong.

 

[Augustus&HazelGrace]

It is just fine for him to be in the crate for a few minutes, over the next couple of days. Puppy pads are not necessary beings the litter will soak up the urine so therefore it cannot stain the litterbox. As for the box, this is perfectly ok. Cardboard boxes phone books and black and white newspaper are all of the ok things to chew on. In fact, we want them to chew on these things rather than anything else. @Blue eyes has a picture of how the litterbox should be set up with the wood stall pellets.

 

[zuppa]

You don't need those puppy pads wood pellets absorbs urine pretty well and also you're right puppy pads are not good if he's a chewer.

I clean twice a week or even once a week for some of my rabbits are extremely well trained, sure if you keep it clean from day one your toilet training will go better.

I would remove blankets and everything from his floor before he's toilet trained, because they like to pee on soft, so only put pellets into his toilet and if he pee on his floor wipe it with paper towel and put it under his pellets in his toilet, so he will know that this is his spot. Rabbits like to pee in one spot usually corner so if you see he wants to use another corner just move there his toilet, make sure it smells a bit like toilet maybe it's too clean and he didn't get your idea yet. When you wiped his pee from the floor you clean it with a bit of white table vinegar 5% so his floor is always clean and only his toilet smells like toilet.

There are more tricks

 

[zuppa]

This is an example I used this litterbox for training there are wood pellets underneath and hay on top, I put also a little of wood pellets into corners just in case to absorb urine, if you remove them as you say once a day it will be great and clean. In the red box little wood pellets are also where his water bottle fixed it's dripping.

After cleaning toilet box is ready



Cleaning after 3-4 days of use. Can you see wet spots in right top and bottom corners? Top from urine and bottom from dripping bottle.



Refilling toilet box removing wet spot in right top corner but put some soiled pellets so he can smell toilet there, don't use chemicals


And then I filled the rest of the box with hay so he can eat it and use his toilet same time so it looks like photo 1.

This was just an example this was my setup a few months ago during toilet training, now it is different as he's very good now.

In your case I would just feel all his box with wood pellets and you will see he will only use one spot so you can remove it and move some dry pellets into that corner.

 

[Flakes]

A couple of websites I went to suggested using a spray bottle with white vinegar for cleaning. My litter box isn't nearly that big, maybe I should go to the local indie pet store to pick up something bigger.

 

[zuppa]

A couple of websites I went to suggested using a spray bottle with white vinegar for cleaning. My litter box isn't nearly that big, maybe I should go to the local indie pet store to pick up something bigger.

Yes white vinegar 5% is your best friend you don't really need anything else, I also use it with a spray nozzle.

Your corner toilet is a bit too small but you can keep it as an additional spot my Fred uses it nicely and never pees outside of it, see there's only one spot he's a very tidy and pedantic rabbit



When he had a bigger box it looked like this before cleaning 4 days

 

[Preitler]

Vingar is used to clean spots where he should not pee, to cover the smell, so don't use it on his toilet.

He doesn't need a lot of space right now, I would enlarge his place gradually. Also, when you have to pick him up I would give him a small treat afterwards, a few thumbnail pieces of apple per day don't hurt. I use their regular pellets as treats (they don't get much of those).

Anyway, whatever is said about "the right bunny diet" (there are many ways to feed a rabbit), just keep up what he's used to for now. The move is stress enough, and any diet change can be too. If you change something after he settled in, do it very slowly, start with every new stuff with thumbnail sized pieces and increase slowly over 1-2 weeks. Simplified, rabbits relay on bacteria for digestion, and they need to grow the right ones before they can safely stomach a lot of some new stuff, that takes time. There foods that are easier to digest than others, but it's better to be on the safe side.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We use Orchard Grass as I'm very allergic to Timothy. I also made a cardboard Castle--very large amazon box with 4 other boxes inside--2 on bottom and 2 on top of those with a hole cut to connect the bottom ones and the top one, an entrance hole on the bottom area and a hole cut in the top of one so they can get from the 1st to the 2nd floor and another one cut in the top of the 2nd story so they can get on top of everything. I had a really tall one a couple of years ago that was 4 floors inside and a tiny hole in the top for our avatar--she weighed 2 pounds. I came in and found our 20 pound Checkered Giant on top--didn't think she could fit thru the hole, but bunnies will surprise you.

 

[Anna R.]

congrats on your new best friend. sounds like you are doing everything right. This is the place to be, lots of great advice here. I have learned so much from just reading. Lots a great people and loads of cute bunnies. Just have a lot of patience is my only advice and enjoy your new friend. It takes them time to warm up, they are prey animals after all.