Dwarf rabbit.

Question
QUESTION: I got my dwarf rabbit about three days ago, and since then he has not eaten a thing. He some times chews tiny bits and pieces of his alfalfa cube, drinks a lot of water, but eats nothing. When i wasn't home, someone fed him some grass a little bit earlier, and it wasn't washed, it was from our yard, we don't spray our grass ever.. but now i'm worried... any suggestions?
ANSWER: Hi Amber,

I would immediately take your rabbit to your good rabbit vet to get him checked out.  He should be examined because rabbits should not be without food this long, it can cause serious medical problems that can lead to death.

Also you need to feed him the right things.  He needs to have a lot of timothy hay (from pet stores), hay cubes are fine but they do not take the place of regular timothy hay.  Feed him timothy pellets (just pellets without any extra junk (seeds, etc) in them).  Pellets should be 1/4 cup per day, max, for a dwarf rabbit.

Don't feed him any outside material.  

I would suggest researching diet needs at the House Rabbit Society web page (www.rabbit.org).  At the search engine type in "nutrition" and "diet" and many excellent articles will come up that you can read and print out.

Lee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much, i got him to eat, and i bought him some timothy hay and he's been eating it like crazy, i'm taking him to the vet any how, because i haven't found the sex of IT yet, and i need to get him/her fixed!.. but my new question is,

i've heard a lot about dwarf rabbits, that they are not good pets, especially if you have other pets at home, like my two dogs... i have a yorkie mix and a rat terrier.

i try to socialize with the rabbit as much as possible to make it feel comfortable. I have a play pen for him, it's very big and impossible for he/she to escape, or the dogs to get to him, i put some hay and water in and some toys (wood blocks) for he/she to play with and let the dogs see what's going on so they feel compfortable as well, the rat terrier is very nice with the rabbit, and doesn't mind him/her at all, however, the yorkie constantly barks and moans at the rabbit.. i also heard that they are very fragile, and normally don't live very long.

the thing is, i really want to know if this is a good pet considering i have two dogs, and i wanted a rabbit who would be able to roam the house, and be sort of cuddly.  

Answer
Hi Amber,

that is great news he or she is eating.  Hay is the thing they absolutely need to have, all the time.  Whatever isn't eaten after a day, just replace it because it won't be fresh anymore or new-smelling to him.  Give him new hay.  And lots.  Grass hays are what they are designed to eat the most of (and need) to stay healthy.

Two dogs and a rabbit are not the ideal combo.  Esepcially any dogs that are used for hunting.  But it also depends on the dogs' personalities as well.  One of your dogs is okay, one isn't.  Is it possible to work with that dog and see if you can get him to a point where he is okay?  How trainable is he, and how well does he obey your commands?  If he isn't trained yet, consider going through an obedience course with him so that it may be possible to train him  to be okay around your rabbit.  If he isn't trained I wouldn't suggest him having access to your rabbit.

In any case the barking is probably adding to the stress of the rabbit, unless you have him in an area of your place where you can block out this noise or separate the dogs from this area for most of the time.  They are more fragile than a cat or dog, and being a prey species they tend to be on guard more and be more cautious of things than a predator animal (dog or cat).  A barking dog can stress them out especially if the rabbit really has no where to escape the dog.

They do live as long as a cat or dog, as an indoor house rabbit.  Females need to be spayed to make it 10-12 years, otherwise over 80% will get uterine cancer by age 5-6 and die from that, prematurely.  

Right now with your one dog you can't let your rabbit roam the house.  You need to train the dog (obedience training) to take commands and listen to you, and then you will be able to get him used to the rabbit more safely and under your control, or you need to really close off the area of your house where the rabbit is, and give him that room, but keep the dogs out (and if you can put up a more solid door to keep barking noises out, that would be important to do).  I don't advise you surrendering the rabbit, as you have workable alternatives you have not tried yet.  Many people do this kind of thing and get along just fine.  It boils down to knowing your pets and accomodating their needs as best you can.  The dogs can live without one room of the house.  The rabbit can be happy with a room to roam and play in.  You will need, however, to set up, either in the room or outside of it, a gate so that when you enter or exitthe rabbit room and open the door, there is a gate that the rabbit can't escape or the dogs can't run into the rabbits' room.  A pet exercise gate of at least 30 inches high will do fine.

Lee