Bunnies as Pets: Bunny Spay and Neuter Explanation

You want to know more on bunny spay and neuter topic? Your bunny pet has grown into adult male of female bunny, and he/she is now acting inappropriate? Well, hormons and urges are strange thing, let me tell you that!

Before I continue writing on bunny spay and neuter topic, I am recommending you start reading this blog from beginning to keep up with important things for this topic: Bunnies as Pets.

Do you stil think spaying and neutering
 is out of the option?

I have been asked yesterday by one bunny owner, if he should get his bunny to vet for neutering. Bunny neuter, or spay policy is clear: domestic bunnies should be neutered and spayed for various reasons. 

Bunny spay and neuter corner: 

What do you know about bunny behaviour when hormons strike?

If you don't spay or neuter your bunny then he/she will become more and more agressive. Biting is going to become even greater problem, and your bunny is going to start humping on everone and everything. Your leg could be first victim! As every animal, and human being, bunnies have urges, and needs. If there is no other bunny to help him furfill those needs, than your bun is going to become agressive. 

I bet you are asking yourself if spaying and neutering hurts your bunny. And if he is going to hate you afterwards?

I understand you completely, here. It is relly not easy to make steps toward such procedure if you love and cherish your bun. But, the procedures are relly simple, and not that painful to your bunny as you would guess. 

On the other hand, you are releasing your bunny from a state of anxiety. In case of female bunnies, you really have to spay them. Most of female bunnies will get ovarial cancer in frist 4 years of their life, if not spayed. 

This medical excusse is not in place for male bunnies, but it will ease his life, that is for sure.

Some of you think would it be better if you get male and female bunny together. Would that be better than spay female and neuter male bunny? 

If you own female bunny, I already explaind there is reasonable medical excuse for doing that! Ovarial cancer is not good thing, and you should spare your beloved bun of that!

If you get female bun for your male bun, then you can expect to soon have a nice big group of lil bunnies jumping around and colonizing your house. 

The simplest solution possible, for you and your bunny, is to do spaying and neutering.

Only vet can perform this!

You should know there are some possible complications of this procedure, but they are rare. Every medical procedure has risk of complications. And here, good reasons overdo the bad ones, when it is about bunny spay and neuter. 

I hope you have found information you needed. I hope this post was useful to you! Let me know, and leave the comment!

2DK2HDHMNSSU

Gastrointestinal (GI) Stasis In Rabbits; Why Is My Rabbit In Pain?

Today's topic is GI stasis in rabbits. Do you have a playful rabbit, that suddenly stopped playing? Is your rabbit silent, depressed and does he reject to eat? Does everything indicate your bunny is in pain? "Why is my bunny in pain", you must be asking yourself.

One of the reasons could be gastrointestinal stasis in your rabbit.

Before I continue writing about on this topic, I suggest you to read previous posts about what kind of food to feed your bunny with or, to simple start reading from the beginning: bunnies as pets. And now, lets talk about GI stasis in rabbits, and why is your rabbit in pain.

Proper food is important in prevention of
GI stasis in rabbits.

Gastrointestinal anatomy of rabbits:

Rabbits GI tract is very similar to the one in humans. But there are some differences. Rabbits use coecum besides the stomach to process their food. In coecum, food rich in fiber, is kept for some time. There, the same food is being fermented by bacteria (resident flora of rabbits GI). 

Rabbits resident GI flora is different than in humans. They don't use Lactobacillus colonies to ferment the food, but other types of bacteria. 

It is important to keep the number of resident bacteria on same level. If bad bacteria outnumber the good ones, it can cause GI problems. Bad bacteria produce lots of gas, which bloats bunny's belly.

Main causes of GI stasis in rabbits:

• wrong diet programme (lack of hay and other fiber rich food in bunny diet) to check what does bunny food pyramid look like check it here: bunny food pyramid.
• Foreign body in the rabbits GI tract.
• Other diseases (pain can trigger GI stasis).

Symptoms of GI stasis in rabbits:

Main symptom of GI stasis is lack of appetite. You will notice that, suddenly, your bunny is withdrawing into his corner (cage). He is loosing weight, and refuses to eat anything. This is mostly caused by bloat from the gas produced by growing bad bacteria in the intestines. Cause of this gas, your bunny feels like his stomach is full, and thus he is loosing appetite.

Of course, your rabbit is in pain too. Distended stomach can be very painful. With rabbits in pain, you can hear their pain (they grind their teeth loudly)

If you try to rub their belly, you will feel it is distended, and not soft as it was before. You bunny will react too. 

You will also see their poop is missing, or the droppings are very small. This is one of the most important signs. If there is stasis, it is obvious that droppings will be missing. 

Pathology:

In case of lack of fiber in bunny's diet programme, we are talking about GI flora dis balance. Hay is important to keep the number of good bacteria constant. If you are feeding your bunny to lots of pellets and giving him little or no hay or vegetables, in some time, GI stasis is imminent. GI motility is very important here too. It is known that rabbits fed on pellets and no hay have slow GI motility. When GI motility slows down enough to allow gas to accumulate, and to allow excess amounts of water to be absorbed, at that time problems start. 

Not only that gas is preventing food to go on, but also, the water resorption causes digested masses to go to dry and compact. This, with hair in the stomach can lead to forming hair balls, that can completely block the passage. Gas accumulating is causing bloat, and the pain coming from distension. Dry food and hair masses are blocking the passage, and the extended and full GI is telling bunny that he is not hungry. The water intake is also stopped, so dehydration is one of the signs. And it can lead to the death of the bunny.
Your bunny is in pain, and dehydrated and he is loosing weight.
GET HIM TO THE VET!
For more info on bunny language, follow the link.

Pain can cause GI stasis too. The most common reason is pain from molar spurs growing into gums or tongue (see bunny teeth care). In this case pain and starving is leading ti GI stasis. You have to know that even 24hrs without food, can cause major health disorders in rabbits. The process is the same as when they don't eat fibers, just faster.

Treatment of GI stasis in rabbits:
Fifty percent of these conditions, can be treated only by putting rabbit back to fiber rich diet. Tummy massage is useful too. BUT YOU MUST TAKE YOUR RABBIT TO THE VET if your rabbit is in pain. No matter what the possible condition could be.
Metoclopramid and cisaprid are good procinetic drugs. They will improve peristaltic.Hydratation is key in recovering!

I hope this post about GI stasis in rabbits was helpful, and that you have found what you were looking for. And remember, if your bunny is in pain, GI stasis is only one of the possible reasons. Seeing vet is best choice to solve the problem. Every condition is treatable, if discovered in time. 

Feel free to ask anything you want, and to join the blog so you don't miss next posts.
Thank you for your time.

2DK2HDHMNSSU

Toys For Bunnies: Make Cheap Toys For Your Bunny

Hello everyone!
Today's topic is toys for bunnies: make cheap toys for your bunny.
Last time I was writing about bunny teeth care. I mentioned there how important it is to give things to your bunny that he can chew to keep wearing off his teeth. Before I start writing about toys for bunnies and how can you make cheep toys for your bunnies, I suggest you start reading blog from beginning if you haven't read it already: bunnies as pets.

Toys for bunnies: cheap toy (paper bag)

Bunnies are playful pets. They love to run, chew, jump around, anything but to stay at one spot. If you have one I believe you understand me. They need toys more than cats and dogs need them. If your bunny doesn't have toys to play with, he will find something in your house to play with. I believe you will agree with me that carpets, and shoes are not cheap toys, at all. And besides that they are not the best toys for your bunnies to play with, either.
Not many toys for your bunny can be found on the market . And even if you find few toys, they won't be cheap toys, that is sure thing. If you try to understand that your bunny cares only about chewing, throwing things around, rolling thing and making noises when they land on the floor, you will see that you don't need to buy things for that purpose. And, besides, it is great fun making toys for your bunnies.
Every bunny has different personality. What one bunny likes, other one, of course, can ignore it. You have to experiment with toys. See what does your bunny like.


Related article:

Toys made of Hay for Your Bunny!
I suggest you to read this excellent post about toys made out of hay and wood. Learn how to provide lots of fun for your pet, and at the same moment to feed him with quality hay. On this post you can find Amazon links to some very interesting toys too.

So, what are the best and cheapest toys for your bunnies?
I will start from my Gary. He loves bags. All sorts of bags. Paper bags are his favorite toys, though. Every time I buy something I bring him one paper bag. They like to play with plastic ones too, but keep those away from your bunnies. Bunnies will eat plastics, which is not healthy for them (for anyone). The good thing about these bags is that they are multifunctional toys. First of all they are cheap toys. Bunnies can chew them, and train their jaws and sharpen their teeth that way. They can use them as shelter (their safe place to run from unusual sounds). Jumping on the bags is an other way of having fun. They are just enjoying sound of paper being scrambled, or just torn apart.

Toys for bunnies: cheap toys (fun and tasty)

Empty roll of toilet paper is an excellent choice. They can bite it, roll it on the floor or throw it around. To make it even more interesting for your bunny to play with toilet paper rolls, you can try filling the tunnel with some hay. So it will be fun and tasty. You can try cutting edges in different shapes, and then folding the shapes toward outside. It will make it easier for them to bite it.

Willow toys are an other thing that you can make for your bunny. Balls and huts made out of weaved together willow twigs, is great fun for most rabbits. You can weave them together, just find some nice willow trees and choose a few nice twigs and twine them in and out of each other.

Toys for bunnies: cheap toys
(willow balls)

Bunnies like obstacles. They love to jump over things, or to crawl under something, or to go trough tunnels. So you can make a tunnel out of cardboard. No need to explain that (:D). You can put more effort in it, and use 2 or three cardboard boxes. Those can be put together, and connected by a tunnel, or a hole in their walls. Make a training polygon out of cardboard boxes. Be innovative!

Packages of cereal is great source of fun for your bunnies too. They can bite it, jump on it, or even enter the package (if bunny is small enough :)). 

Towels are good toys too. Towels, old scarf, some old pieces of clothes. Make humps of those things. Your bunny will be happy to go on it, and trough it. Bunnies like to push things between front and back legs using front legs. Old clothes and towels are just perfect for it. 

If you, or someone close to you have a baby. You can "steal" one toy and give it to the bunny. They will enjoy those bright colors, and ringing sound those toys make when thrown around. I suggest you use a plastic ball with ring, or something in it that can make sounds when manipulated. 

Try with corks and plastic bungs. 

Anithing that comes across of your mind. Use simple solutions and imagination to make cheap toys for your pets. Toys for bunnies are easy to be made. They don't ask for much. Just be innovative.

I hope this Toys For Bunnies: Make Cheap Toys For Your Bunnies post was useful. If so, tell me. If not, ask what do you want to know. I will do my best to answer, and to update the post with new information.

Thank you for your time.