Choosing a Rabbit Part 1: Low and High Maintenance Bunnies

Welcome to our short series of articles devoted to the subject of choosing a rabbit. Choosing a rabbit is one of the most important stages of owning a pet rabbit and will have implications for your experience as an owner. In this first article we consider the very practical question of how much work you need to put into looking after your rabbit. Different species have different care needs which will affect how much work you need to put in as an owner - so it’s useful to know which types of rabbit require more or less maintenance before you make your choice.

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Cleaning Out
The main work required of a rabbit owner is cleaning out soiled rabbit litter and making sure there is plenty of rabbit bedding in your rabbit’s hutch.

The bigger your rabbit, the bigger hutch it will need - and this multiplies if you have more than one rabbit. The bigger the hutch, the more rabbit litter and bedding will be required to keep  the hutch hygienic and dry - and the more rabbit litter and rabbit bedding you will need to buy and dispose of. And of a course a larger rabbit means larger quantities of droppings and urine to deal with.

The largest breeds are the New Zealand and Sussex, closely followed by the Dwarf Lop. The New Zealand is the classic "white bunny" as they most commonly have white fur with pink eyes, and can be up to 12lbs in size. They also have a propensity to grow fat if diet is not controlled properly. A Sussex will weigh in at around 8.5lbs, and a Dwarf Lop at around 6lbs.

By contrast, smaller breeds such as the Netherland Dwarf or the Polish will typically weigh around 2lbs each and will obviously require much less space. This means less rabbit litter and rabbit bedding required, and cleaning out will be that much quicker.

However, if you simply love larger size rabbits for other reasons (many of them have the best temperaments and are safer to have around children, for instance) then SmartBedz rabbit litter can significantly help to keep the cleaning out issue manageable. Because SmartBedz pellets swell up on contact with moisture, it makes it easy to spot clean wet areas rather than cleaning out the whole hutch - simply top up the rabbit litter layer with new pellets. A complete clean out will be needed from time to time of course - but much less frequently than otherwise.

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Grooming
The length of your rabbit’s fur will determine how much grooming is needed to keep it in good condition and stop it getting matted. As well as looking unattractive, matted fur can contribute to a variety of health problems so it in important to take care of your rabbit’s coat. Both length and thickness of fur will increase the amount of grooming required.

Shorter hair breeds such as the Netherland Dwarf, Polish or Himalayan need almost no grooming except occasionally during moulting to help remove the hair that is shedding naturally. A breed with a medium length but thick coat such as the New Zealand or Sussex will require a weekly groom, rising to daily during moulting, while A Dwarf Lop needs grooming at least twice a week and daily while moulting. A long haired breed such as the Angora or Cashmere Lop will require almost daily grooming.

Grooming not only takes time, it takes care to avoid hurting the rabbit or even damaging its delicate skin, so can’t easily be left to young children. So if you’re looking for a low maintenance pet for your children to take responsibility for, a short coat breed will be the best option.

If you are keen on a longer haired rabbit, it’s especially important to ensure the rabbit isn’t sitting around in wet or damp hutches, as this encourages matting on the underside of the rabbit, or on the main coat if the rabbit spends time lying down. Using SmartBedz rabbit litter will greatly help to hold moisture away from the rabbit’s fur and skin until such time as you can remove the wet pellets.

Health Problems
Health problems in rabbits means discomfort for your rabbit and time and effort for you - either in visiting vets, applying treatments or remembering to check your rabbit for particular problems. We look at health problems in more detail in Part 2, but in general, you are more likely to reduce your workload by choosing a breed which is not known to be susceptible to particular health problems.

Attention and Stimulation
Hopefully, if you’re considering buying a rabbit it is because you are looking forward to interacting with it on a regular basis. Rabbits in general like human contact and stimulation, and require some level of stimulation to keep them happy - but some breeds are more demanding than others. Some breeds, such as the Polish, require lots of handling while young in order to get them used to human handling, so you will need to make time for this while they are still kittens. Other breeds such as the Sussex and New Zealand are more docile and will be happy to be handled or left alone, within reason.

To summarise - a short haired, smaller rabbit with no congenital health problems will provide a lower maintenance pet. A large, long haired rabbit that is extra prone to various health issues will require a great deal of time and attention.