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Paws & Claws

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas. She lives in Blacksburg now, and answers local pet owners' questions every week in The Roanoke Times and roanoke.com.

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Q We are going to give our children a rabbit each for Easter, a long-standing promise from their uncle. The big question is should they live in a run in the yard or a room in the basement with a window.

A Rabbits can be kept indoors or outdoors. An indoor rabbit can either be caged and just let out for supervised play and exercise, or it can have free range of a rabbit-proofed room. If a pet rabbit is given free range in a house, it should still have a cage or box in which it can hide because in the wild it would have a burrow or hiding place to escape predators. This is a rabbit's response to any hint of danger or when frightened.

Rabbits generally have clean habits and will use the same area of a room as a latrine each time; they can be trained to use a litter box. Rabbits are great chewers, so it is important that all electric wires are well out of reach. Rabbits also like to nibble at plants. Both dieffenbachia and oleander plants are highly poisonous to rabbits.

A rabbit cage should be divided, with a space for sleeping and a space for living. A free-range indoor rabbit requires only a sleeping area. A cage with a plastic floor can be covered with a layer of straw or shavings, allowing for easy daily cleaning. If two or more rabbits are kept indoors, each should have its own cage, otherwise there are likely to be fights if they share a cage.

Outdoor rabbits should be housed in properly constructed hutches that provide shade and shelter from the wind and cold below about 39 degrees Fahrenheit.

Space to move around in the hutch is important. The length should allow the rabbit to hop forward three times, about 20 feet. The hutch should also be tall enough for the rabbit to stand up on its hind legs. (Plans are available from libraries, and agricultural extension agents or hutches can be bought ready-made from farm supply stores.)

A grazing ark is ideal for rabbits to feed on the lawn. The ark should be moved each day to a fresh area of grass. The ark should be pegged down so it cannot be tipped up. Be aware that lawn weed killers, pesticides and some fertilizers are all poisonous. Penned rabbits will often dig shallow holes to lie in. To reduce this, green food should be hidden in a pile of hay so that they have to work to find it.

Rabbits tolerate cold better than heat. They shiver when cold, but if acclimatized and sheltered, they do well in temperatures above freezing. However, rabbits are unusually sensitive to mildly high temperatures (temperatures above 82 degrees Fahrenheit). They cannot sweat, except through sweat glands on the lips. Panting does not seem to help and they can rapidly become dehydrated, especially as the high temperatures seem to stop the rabbit from drinking. They need shade and a cool burrow to prevent dehydration and give heat relief. Some rabbits have suffered from heat stroke when kept indoors in an overly warm basement.

Pet rabbits can be kept in the same space as other household pets after a period of adaptation. Pet birds such as parakeets do well; well-trained dogs will tolerate a pet rabbits. However, cats are always unpredictable and should not be left alone with a rabbit.