What You Have to Know About Rabbits

Rabbits are considered one of the most favorite pets of kids worldwide. If you ask their owners why, you will find that their popularity can be mostly attributed to their appearance and their calm demeanor. See not only are they cute but they are peace loving as well. They do not fight with their mates and more importantly, they do not bite humans. This is perhaps the reason why a lot of parents opt to giving their children rabbits for their first pet as compared to dogs and cats.




Then again, even if rabbits are fairly popular animals, there are still a lot of people who do not know much information about them. So to somehow educate everybody about rabbits then here are a few facts that you have to know about them.



• Contrary to popular belief, rabbits and hares are not of the same species. Hares in general are larger than rabbits. They also live in simple land nests as opposed to burrows. And finally, baby hares are already born with hairs unlike baby rabbits (kits) which come out hairless.



• Rabbits, whether domesticated or wild are not aggressive. This is because they are generally considered as prey animals. They would rather flee rather than confront other animals or potential predators. This explains their very peaceful nature.



However, it is important to note that even if rabbits seem calm all the time they do have the tendency to feel threatened with the slightest quick movements or loud sounds. Because of this, it is very important for them to be housed in enclosed rabbit hutches.



• Speaking of rabbit hutches, these structures in UK are generally made of high quality wood and wire. Those materials are chosen because wood is effective in keeping your pet protected against the heat and cold temperatures outdoors. The wires on the other hand are especially ideal for large rabbit hutches because it allows air to circulate within the enclosure.



• Because rabbits love to explore things and keep themselves busy, buying them toys and exercise tunnels may be necessary if you are going to keep them as pets.



• Rabbits breed quickly and their mating season is generally longer compared to other animals. To be more specific, the mating season of rabbits lasts for 9 months and their gestation period only lasts for a month. So if you are going to put in an adult male and female in one hutch, in a span of 3 months, you are likely to have 3 dozen or more litters to take care of. And if you do not want this to happen, you can either have your pets spayed/ neutered or you can simply put females and males in separate hutches.



• Lastly, rabbits do have the tendency to live for approximately 9 - 12 years. So before buying one for a pet, make sure that you can commit to taking care of them for a long time. If not, try to consider other pets as animals or better yet, do not get a pet at all.