We all think of rabbits only as cute and furry animals. While they may be cuddly and affectionate, they do need time to get used to their surroundings. With given time, and adequate reinforcement, they will adapt easily.
Rabbits enjoy the presence of humans but are less amenable to being held. Rabbits are more intelligent than most people thought. They can be litter trained and can even be taught little parlor tricks to amuse others.
There used to be a Japanese man who raised a rabbit called Oolong and it could amazingly balance tiny objects on its head as it hopped. There are over 50 different breeds that are recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association. However there is much more varieties than that, for example Snowshoe hares are not included in the listed 50 breeds. This is because as a professional association concerned with organizing them in fairly strict standards they have differentiated the breeds accordingly.
With different features, sizes and colors specific to each breed, there are some similarities among all the rabbits irrelevant of their breeds. Rabbits belong to Lagomorphs species. Since they have constantly growing teeth they are often misunderstood as rodents. Rabbits are highly prolific animals who produce large number of offspring. Rabbits can have a life span of 10 years and rabbits tend to reach full maturity in about 6 months, when they can begin to breed. This is because they had survived in the wild being prey to a lot of predations.
They have an innate instinct to protect themselves and this has helped in their survival over thoussands of years. Their gestation period is as little as a month and they produce a lot of kits - rabbit babies. Unlike other mammals whose teeth shift but do not grow after adulthood, rabbit's teeth keep growing through out their lives, To control the growth of the teeth, they keep chewing on anything and everything possible. That could be a problem for rabbit owners since they damage the furniture and other materials in the house. One of the favorite toys for your rabbit could be your shoe. This problem can be handled by consciously keeping the shoes out of reach.
Rabbit proofing the furniture at home helps to prevent the furniture from further damages. Owners should provide their rabbits with lot of chewable toys available in pet shops to keep them from exploring and chewing other items in the house. Another natural instinct of rabbit is digging because they live in burrows in the wild. This can become and issue with domestic pets, as they will dig holes in the garden and spoil the foliage. Rabbits are animals that stress easily.
Due to stress, rabbits can suffer from a number of medical afflicitons. They can be easily disturbed with loud noises and screaming. Unknown to most children, rabbits do not like it when children play with their ears.
They may even attack the children if they are stressed out. The vision of rabbits is about 360 degrees so they can watch for danger around them. However, they do have a blind spot under their face that is approximately about 10 degrees. So they may move their head constantly in order to estimate the distance of objects by analyzing the object in different angles. Rabbits need regular grooming.
Though they are clean animals naturally, it is necessary to brush them often to avoid accumulation of fur balls in the intestine. With more and more people choosing rabbits as their pets, it is clear that these small animals are gaining popularity and make good companions who amuse their owners well.
Moses Wright loves to help pet owners with their pet problems whenever he is free. You can find free pet problems and solutions resources, rabbit problems and solutions on his site.