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First time bunny owner w/ a few q's

2650 Views 17 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Jess
Hello! Just today I brought home my pet bunny- a baby holland lop. I just have a few questions if someone could help me I'd appreciate it immensely!
1) our little girl is super friendly, and we let her out of her cage for about 30 mins. She was very curious, liked to be petted, and was fairly actively hopping around. As long as she's willing and isn't showing signs of distress how long can she be out of her cage and played with? I'm just concerned that she will be stressed or upset being out too much while she's still young and new to our family.
2) we gave her a cup of pellets, a third a cup of baby spinach, third cup of lettuce, a few slivers of carrot, and kaytee timothy hay. She ate all of the veggies, but hasn't touched her hay or pellets. I know she's only been with us for a day, but should I be worried?
3) how can we begin litter training her? What should we use for her bedding and what should we use for litter?
Thanks!!
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Congrats on your new bunner, and welcome to PT! :D


1. The first week or so she may want to be left alone, but after that bunnies need a minimum of 4 hours of exercise per day, so keep her out as long as you can. When she is fixed and a little older, you can even give her free range of a bunny-proofed room. That is what I do for my bun. He runs around during the day, and I have a big enclosure for him at night.


2. How old is she? Veggies shouldn't be introduced until they are 12 weeks old. If she is over 12 weeks, then that sounds fine. I wouldn't give spinach every day though, because it is high in calcium. Try parsley instead. Until she is 6 months old, she can have unlimited alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets. Her diet should be about 70% hay, so she should start eating more of it soon.


3. Baby bunnies don't litter train very well at first, just like any other baby animal. Once she is 6 months old, get her spayed and it will help a LOT with litter training. The best way to do it is to get a large litter box, fill it with compressed wood pellets or a different paper or aspen based litter, put hay in the litter box for her to munch on, and take out all other litter from the cage. Its important that the only litter in the cage is in the litter box, because otherwise it will confuse her. You can put towels, blankies, newspaper, ect in the rest of the cage.
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welcome to paw talk
Thank you both for the welcome :]
Jess- thanks for the info! As far as her age we haven't the slightest idea. She's still very small though. She's a holland lop and one of her ears hasn't dropped yet, if that gives a good estimate? I don't know how else to tell her age. How long should I wait until I give veggies? I don't want to give them too early or too late!
Where did you get her from? If one ear is still totally up, than she in probably still young. Do you know how much she weighs? That would probably be the best indicater. Dragonrain on here has lops, so she might be able to help more with that.


Did the veggies upset her tummy at all? If you think she is under 12 weeks, it won't hurt to wait a little while.
hi! Welcome to paw talk! I got a dwarf lop mix, and when we first got him (around 9 1/2 weeks) he had one ear up and one ear down, and now both his ears are fully up.. so yours might be the same. The vet told us, to start intro ducing veggies around 12 weeks (which my bunny is now) But to mainly hold off for a full diet of different veggies until closer to 5-6 months, just to be on the safe side.

And my benji is still not litter training well at all! I just keep moving the litter box around to each spot he decides he likes that week! I also put hay in it also, and it is working a lot better!

Do you have a picture of you bunny?
Hello and welcome! Congratulations on your new baby! I don't know anything about new bun care, but look forward to hearing more about Alfie.
Congrats on your new addition!

I have 2 holland lops, but I got them when they where already adults so I don't have any experience with raising lops specifically from babies.

I've read that their ears normally lop starting anywhere from 4 weeks old to a couple of months (3 or 4).

Also keep in mind that even some pure lops never get the normal lopped ears. Both my rabbits are pure bred holland lops are far as anyone can tell (I adopted them but was told they originally came from breeders) and one of them has the typical lopped ears. But my female has ear control and can lift her ears up to look like a normal bunny when she wants too.
Welcome! You have been given very good info, hows the bun doing anyway? I would recommend to get her used to being out of the cage and integrated with the family. I haven't ever really considered bunnies to be "cage pets".. My bunny has free roam of the room and hall when we're home but is "crated" so to speak when we leave or in bed :D Looking forward to pictures!
There's a link to a picture in my signature. I'm not yet at a high enough post count to post images or links.

Jess- we got her from a pet store called Pet Land. It's hard to weigh her, as she doesn't even register on the scale, haha. She's not even a pound. The veggies didn't cause any trouble for her. I haven't given her any more though, since I dont know how old she is. She still has no interest in eating any of her pellets, but has been eating A LOT of hay!

Caitlin14- Actually, my Mariska looks a little like your Benji in your signature! Which is twice as funny because my name is also Katelyn, although spelled slightly different.

Somebody- Thank you =]

Dragonrain- So it might be possible that her other ear might not drop at all?

Purple-hops- She's doing very well! She is incredibley friendly. We do let her free range in the room we keep her cage in. She is out from about 2:00pm until 10pm. She loves being able to run all over the place :D
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Posting so you can see the link in my signature
She is so cute and i see the resemblance between benji and Mariska! Benji's ears where the exact same at the start! She is so little and cute :) Benji was 9 1/2 weeks and definitely bigger than she is, so i am guessing she is fairly young. Very cute! Enjoy your bunny :)
OMG, I amost died with her cuteness! I wanted to save the picture and post it to facebook but not without permission first ! Beautiful name too!!
Aw, Mariska is so precious. What's that red mark in her upright ear? Is it just part of her coloration or a tattoo or something?
It looks like a 'D', I'd day tattoo from the mill/breeder.
She's adorable!

No her ear may never lop, you'll have to wait and see. Especially if you got her at a pet store, she may not even be pure lop but some kind of a mix.

She looks pretty young. Normally rabbits have to be at least 8 weeks old to be sold but pet stores don't always follow the rules with that. Hopefully she's at least 8 weeks. I'd go very slowly with introducing veggies since you don't know her actual age.

You'll have to post more pictures of her when you get up to 20 posts. She's very pretty.
I agree she is adorable! She's just this tiny cuddly furball =3
We were told that the D in her ear was a mark from the breeder the petstore bought her from was using to distinguish sex. Girls had a red D and boys had a blue D.
Even though I know very little about rabbits I agree that she doesn't look 8 weeks. Pet land said they'd had her for a week and a half by the time I got her, so she must have been tiny when they first put her up for sale.
Cute!


If she's from a pet store, she is probably under 12 weeks. They usually sell them pretty young.
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