Healthy Pets Scheme

Rabbits train to litter trays very quickly and can be very clean house-pet companions...

Rabbits

Wherever they come from, allow Parkside to check your new, young pet rabbit for free at the first health check. Most are weaned at 6 weeks of age. Pick up a Parkside rabbit care-pack at the same time.

12 weeks - Vaccinate against myxomatosis, with yearly boosters, but every 6 months in high risk situations. Viral haemorrhagic disease should also be vaccinated against, as this nasty disease is also in our area and can even be picked up from contaminated feed.  These vaccinations need a 2 week gap between them. If you can only do one vaccination, then Myxomatosis is the main vaccination to have done at this time.

Keep clean and dry especially in summer to avoid fly strike. Use a topical fly killer from Parkside if in doubt. Maggots are not nice.

Feed lots of hay and restrict pellet food to one meal per day, so they are forced to hay, greens and roots (carrot, turnip etc). This is how they prevent their teeth from overgrowing and causing mouth ulceration and eventual untreatable gum disease. In other words, do not be too good to them as they are made to eat LARGE quantities of poor quality food. If more people thought of pellets as chocolates and always gave hay, then we would see fewer teeth problems. 

Click Here to see a full feeding guide from Parkside and see more rabbit care in the Pet Facts + links section.