Some Random Questions

Question
Hi.About two weeks ago my mom got me a grey rabbit.We named the rabbit Kurly because she has curly,grey hair.I have three questions. First, do you have any idea what kind of rabbit Kurly might be?Her ears stand straight up and she's going to grow and be a BIG rabbit.Second, everytime I get a waterbottle for her, something's wrong with it.My first one (Lixit)kept on leaking,my second one (All Living Things)made too much noise, and the third one (Kritter Canteen I believe, a light blue bottle)Kurly wouldn't drink out of it because I guess she didn't like it. Is there a nonleakable, quiet bottle out there? What kind do you use?My third question is can I give Kurly an alfalfa cube as a treat once a day like along with her daily pellets and timothy hay? Sorry if my typing confuses you I'm on summer vacation and I think I forgot some grammar.Hehe.And thank-you I appreciate you for helping everyone with their beloved rabbits.

Answer
Hi Vanessa,

thanks for the note.

Curly, grey hair....hmmm.  I would guess she may be an angora breed.  Longer-hair breeds require their owners to do more maintenance work on them than other breeds of shorter hair rabbits.  You will need to brush her daily (there are specific types of brushes for grooming, I would recommend one with plastic bristles instead of metal) to help keep her hair from getting tangled, and also so that she doesn't have to eat so much (loose) hair when she goes about her daily grooming.  Otherwise she can get blockages in her stomach or intestines and this is a very serious, life threatening condition.

As for water bottles, yes they can leak.  If she doesn't like them or you can't find any you don't have problems with, you can also see if she will drink water from a ceramic crock (bowl).  If she likes it, I would get severals fairly heavy ones that aren't easily tipped over.  We use crocks on all of our rabbits except one.  We have several sets as we will give them a fresh crock with fresh water every day, and having more than one makes swapping out the old one with the new one very easy.

Third, it really depends how old she is.  Alfalfa hay is not good for rabbits who are older than one year - too much calcium in it can cause kidney stones.  You can give her timothy cubes as treats, but I would keep them about a half-inch thick - too much and they won't eat as much timothy hay as they should.  They are like us, they will eat what they like the most, first.  Hay cubes are generally liked more than hay.

You also need to find a good vet that is experienced with rabbits.  You and your folks can go out to the House Rabbit Society web site and go to this page:

www.rabbit.org\vets

and look up House Rabbit Society-recommended rabbit vets in your area.

Feel free to write anytime.  Lee