rabbit toys, etc

Question
Dear Mr. Lee,

What kind of toys are appropriate for a bunny?  I'm looking at cat toys and
dog toys, as well as small animal toys, for less expense.  The question I have
the most is, she's such a chewer, could I give her rawhide? I also wonder if the
heavy plastic bones or rubber pulls or rope pulls made for dogs would be
good for her to chew.  As for cat toys, I'm keeping away from plastic toys
which could splinter but wondering about things she can chase like a bell in a
ball.  A lot of cat toys are probably simply too delicate for a rambunctious
lagomorph.  Would catnip be a bad idea?

Is it true that we can't get her a friend because rabbits only get along with
their littermates?  Do rabbits want or need friends?  She gets played with at
least once a day for a few hours.

Then feeding:  Does it make sense to feed her at night, because she will be
more active, than in the morning?  Can she have too many fresh vegetables?  I
know to limit her pellet intake (Dwarf rabbit:  1/8 cup per day?) and I know
she should always have eating hay.  What about dry oatmeal, which she loves?    
I know not to give her cookies, crackers, sweets or fats.  

Also, I'm a little disappointed that she doesn't eat out of my hand like she did
when she had just come from the pet shop, where her diet had probably not
been very interesting.  She'd rather lick and nibble and even bite the hand
that feeds her (literally!) but sometimes she just turns away.  I have always
felt bad about people training animals with food when it meant there were
times when the animal was hungry, so I think it would be wrong to give her
less so she would want it more.  I think she is mostly playing coy (she'll eat it
in her cage if she is ignored), it's just that it's such a joy to hand feed a
rabbit.  

She trained fast to use a litter box (though the training was pretty funny
sometimes:  She figured out the litter box had something to do with peeing
so she sat in it and put her tail over the edge and peed on the floor...!).  What
is the best way to keep her from doing something (other than making it
impossible)-- will she learn NO like a dog?  When we try to keep her out of
trouble, she will go and try to do it over and over and over every time she is
redirected or comes out again, like she thinks it's a game.  How do you teach
a rabbit you are serious about something?  Returning her to her cage doesn't
seem to help.

She is less than a year (we just got her a month ago) and she seems to be
maturing sexually-- acts like a cat in heat sometimes.  I know it's possible to
spay her but it's expensive:  Is it bad not to spay a bunny?  

A food for thought question, why is everyone so down on non-pedigree pet
rabbit breeding?  There are a lot of rabbits to be sure but no one is giving
them away (at least not in the city).  If rabbit rescues gave bunnies away
that'd be one thing.  There's no more harm in breeding rabbits than breeding
dogs and cats, who are rarely pedigreed, and giving them away to people, is
there?  I'm not trying to argue, just want to know what the thinking is.

I have read a bunch about pet rabbits on the Internet, it's just I have all these
specific questions.  I hope you don't mind me asking so many!

Thanks

Natasha
Suzy
&
'Heather' (the bunny)

Answer
Toys:  plastic baby keys for teething are good.  Hard plastic that won't break into little pieces.  Small wood chew toys.  Seagrass mats and balls.  Various wicker items like balls, cubes, tents, tubes.  No rawhide.  The only dog toy I'd say would be okay are those 'chew bones' made out of cotton and have knots in each end.  They like to nibble on the frayed ends of these, jsut make sure they are 100% cotton and are not scented with any flavor.  Get plain colors to avoid dyes.

Rabbits don't HAVE to have another rabbit.  (They don't always get along with littermates either.)  If you spend a lot of time with her and she's happy, she's doing okay.  Rabbits don't need to have constant companionship.  They rest and sleep during the day and you wouldn't be disturbing them then anyway.

Feeding. Some people feed them more than once a day.  Just split up their amounts, or maybe do pellets in the moring and greens at night, or about half of each in the am and at night.  It depends on what they're now used to and what kind of consistent, regular schedule you want them on.  We tend to spread out the food during the day, so they have things to look forward to and they don't get just one big meal a day all at once.  Greens: I would not give her much especially if she doesn't have any now. You have to build up tolerance to greens - gut bacteria must adjust to deal with new foods.  It takes about 2 weeks for the gut to adjust.  Only one new green at a time, so if she has problems (gas, diarrhea, etc) with it, you'll know and know what not to feed her.  Only give a few greens you can get regularly.  I recommend green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, and italian parsley.  Guidelines are no more than 1/2 cup of greens per day, per 5 pounds body weight.  SO if she's 5 pounds or under, it would be a maximum of 1/2 cup of all the greens you are giving her, or a little less.  Don't start her off at 1/2 cup.  You'd start with the first green, couple pieces, over two weeks building to 1/6 of a cup.  The second green, 1-2 peices, along with the 1/6 cup of the first.  By the end of week 4 you are giving 2 greens, 2/6's of a cup.  End of week six, 3 greens at 1/6 cup each (1/2 cup max).

I rarely hand-feed my guys a meal.  They will take treats from my hand, but not regular meals.  They grow up and it's not a 'novel' experience anymore.  They are hungry adults.  We don't have our parents feed us meals anymore either!

Litterpan: either get a raised back litterpan (corner or square, whatever she is used to and gives here pplenty of room) or install urine guards around the pan.  You may also want to put an old cotton towel under the pan, so that when soiled you can swap out with another towel and cleanup will be less hard to do.

I didn't see she was not spayed.  Part of her toilet habit is tied into her not being spayed.  I would go to a good rabbit vet to have this done. You will lengthen her life by doing so.  Females who aren't spayed have an 80% chance of developing uterine cancer by age 5-6 and dying from it.  If they were spayed, her cage aggression would go down, toilet habits would improve, and she;d be able to live a normal indoor house rabbit lifespan of 10-12 years.

Look for a good rabbit vet here (not all vets are good rabbit vets):

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

Casual breeding by regular pet owners:  this is a problem.  Regular breeding done casually by pet owners of any animal is a problem.  It almost always results in creation of unwanted animals.  The animals may be of weak stock and suffer from genetic problems.  Bottom line is we regard dog owners and cat owners who just let their animals reproduce at will as neglectful and irresponsible; it is the same with rabbit owners.

Never give them away for free - you will have snake owners posing as rabbit lovers who will use them for live snake food.  Charge at least $20-25.  Then again I would not recommend breeding pet quality rabbits as there is a glut of supply, so much so that over 40,000 rabbits a year are euthanized at shelters all over the US.  Perfectly healthy rabbits owners got tired of.  Didn't want to pay for neuter/spays so they dumped them.  Kids didn't take care of, something now unwanted.  Spend a day at a shelter (even one that doesn't take rabbits, cats and dogs are the same way) and ask them about some of the stories and the reasons why people give up animals.  The thousands of cats and dogs and rabbits that are put down for no good reason other than people no longer want them.

Just my two cents.