Unique Apartment Pets: Rabbits

Apartment pets have to be able to live comfortably in small spaces. Most pet-friendly apartments allow unique and affectionate small pets like rabbits.

Preparing Your Home for a Rabbit

Before you bring your new pet rabbit home, you will need to purchase a rabbit cage. This is where your rabbit will stay at night and when you’re not at home. The rabbit cage should be at least four times the size of your rabbit. Line the cage with a wooden baseboard, and include comfortable bedding like a fake sheepskin rug, toys and chews, a water dish or bottle, a food dish and a litter box.

Like most apartment pets, your pet rabbit should be allowed out of her cage when you’re home for exercise, so you need to sufficiently bunny-proof your apartment or part of your apartment beforehand. (You can keep her confined to one area of the apartment with a pet fence.) Rabbits like to chew, so keep items you don’t want destroyed high up and out of their reach. Put plenty of boxes, cardboard tubing, old books and magazines in her bunny-proofed area for her to chew up. Line all electrical cords within reach with spiral cable wrap for her protection, and put boards over wooden furniture and baseboards.

Feeding Your Rabbit

As with other apartment pets, rabbits need to have access to fresh water at all times. You should clean her water every day. She should also always have access to fresh grass hay in her cage. You can add to her stock several times a day, and clean out the old stuff at least once a day. You should also feed her 2-4 cups of fresh vegetables every day, including:

• Carrots (including tops)
• Broccoli
• Romaine (not iceberg) lettuce
• Spinach
• Kale
• Parsley
• Greens (dandelion, mustard, turnip, collard, etc.)

Do not feed your rabbit potatoes, beans, cabbage or cauliflower. You can also feed your rabbit rabbit pellets in lieu of vegetables, but a diet of fresh vegetables is much healthier for her. If you’re going to use pellets, be sure to feed her vegetables frequently as well.

Keep Your Rabbit’s Home Clean

Clean your rabbit’s litter box daily, and spot clean her cage at least once a day. Once a week, thoroughly clean her cage from top to bottom. Cleaning apartment pets’ environments gets rids of bacteria to keep not only your pets healthy, but you healthy as well.

Taking Your Rabbit Outside

Although your rabbit doesn’t have to go outside, you may feel like bringing her outside with you occasionally. Be sure to outfit your rabbit with a rabbit leash and keep track of her outside (like you would a dog). If you have your own lawn outside of your apartment, you can put your rabbit’s fence outside and let her run as she pleases. Never leave her unattended, though, as rabbits make attractive prey for wild predators and even neighboring dogs. You should also be sure that no poisonous plants or grass with poisonous chemicals are present in your rabbit’s path.

When it comes to apartment pets, rabbits are clean, intelligent and relatively simple to take care of. Their small stature make them fit in perfectly with any apartment.