Life span and house rabbits

Question
One argument for house rabbits is that their average life spans are longer than outdoor rabbits.

Do they stay young or do their just check into the nursing home and hang on?

Are GI problems more common to older rabbits, domestic rabbits, wild ones or equally common to all.

Answer
Dear Tom,

Great question!  In my experience, indoor rabbits who have access to some outdoor play time tend to *stay* younger for a longer time and have fewer health problems.  

I suspect the reasons outdoor rabbits have lower life expectancy is a combination of a few things:

1.  Less personal monitoring by human caregiver results in illness not being detected in a timely fashion (we see this   a LOT!)

2.  Outdoor rabbits are more at risk from environmental extremes of heat and cold, and are more at risk of being killed by predators (and yes...sadly...we see a lot of heat stroke and predator kills of outdoor rabbits, especially if they are kept in a hutch where they have no place to get away from heat or dangerous animals).

A houserabbit is under the constant watchful eye of the human  caregiver who can learn to detect early signs of health problems and address them before they become serious or life-threatening:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.html

And in my experience, a rabbit generally doesn't start acting geriatric until about the age of 10 or beyond.  Rabbits younger than that, if well cared for and having good genes, tend to be mobile, active, and not all that different from a mature rabbit of 3 or 4.

GI problems may increase in frequency with age because--as with humans or any other animals--health problems increase in likelihood as we age.  GI problems such as ileus are usually not illnesses in and of themselves; they are symptoms of other problems, such as molar spur pain (common in older rabbits) or other illness.  You can read more here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

Wild rabbits generally don't live long enough to suffer GI problems related to other illnesses, but they do have their share of parasites, which can cause a different type of GI problem.  It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges, since GI problems in domestic and wild rabbits usually have different origins.

Hope that helps get you started.  Please write back if you have any other questions.

Dana