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Questions on warren living.

22 11:04:56

Question
Can rabbit see in the dark?  If not how do they navigate the tunnels of the warren?

Are rabbit good housekeepers?  There's a big pile of poop at the main tunnel entrance.  Do rabbits keep the warren clean or do they just dig new ones after messing up the old one?

Is there any danger of bad air or lack of oxygen in the warren?

Answer
Dear Tom,

Interesting questions!

Rabbits can see in the dark to some degree, but there has to be a little bit of light to stimulate the retina for any vertebrate to be able to see.  For more information on what rabbits see:

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

In the darkness of the warren, rabbits navigate primarily by smell, sound and by using their whiskers to sense the walls and turns of the tunnels.

Rabbits do like to keep a clean "house," and they tend to have middens where everyone goes to do their business. This is one reason they are relatively easy to litterbox train, as herbivores go.  Rabbit poop is pretty innocuous, though.  It's mostly processed plant material, and as it breaks down, it readily becomes part of the soil.  It's not particularly stinky or nasty.

Rabbit warrens invariably have multiple entrances, and this helps with air flow.  I've never heard of oxygen depletion being a problem in a normal rabbit warren.

Hope that helps.

Dana