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Rabbit

ANIMAL GUIDE

Rabbit

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Ecological Habits

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Rabbits are herbivores with the life expectancy in around 7 to 8 years. Greens and grass hays are the main food source for rabbits which able to maintain the healthy and normal gastrointestinal function.

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Rabbit are color blindness with a blind spot directly in front of their nose in around 5-10cm. Thus, the unique curved shapes of the rabbit’s ears make a good auxiliary to them. These ears allow the rabbits to catch and amplify important signals. They are very sensitive to the environment who able to figure out exactly where the sounds came from. The expansive surface area of the rabbit’s ears which loaded with blood vessels also allows the cooling effect in rabbit while rabbits cannot sweat.

Common Rabbit Species

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Lion Head

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Lop

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Mini Dwarf

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Netherland Dwarf

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Holland Lop

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French Lop

Different Color of Rabbits

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Rabbit Grey

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Chinchilla

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Himalayan

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Blue

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Blue eye pole

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Red eye pole

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Silver Marten

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Yellow

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Silver Fox

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Sable Point

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Otter

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Tan

Diet

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Rabbits are herbivores while greens and grass hays are the main food source for them. For the domestic rabbits, their diet should be made up of good quality 75% fresh hay (such as timothy, alfalfa or oat hay), 20% pellets, 5% fresh vegetables, fresh water and treats.

Food

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Pressed Food

Rich in fibre and hays and ingredients are processed into the uniform pellets for rabbits. Avoid the picky eating diet which is the most popular pellet.

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Puffed Food

Balanced nutrition with crispy taste and attractive odor

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Mixes

Also known as Muesli, are primarily cereal-based with oats, corn, beans and dried fruits which allows your rabbit to pick and choose what they like, in some cases, unhealthy for rabbits.

Major Health Problems and Cares

 

Skin diseases

Improper environmental hygiene, wounds, eczema and vitamin deficiency are the common reason to cause bacterial infection and affect the skin health of rabbit. These would cause the redness of the skin and the localized hair loss. To prevent these problems, please keep a clean living environment for rabbits and always be aware to their skin health and physical conditions.

Diarrhea

Stale food with harmful bacteria or a sudden change in diet would cause diarrhea for rabbits with the symptoms of softened stools or watery stools and odor. Bloody stools can be seen in some severe cases as well. To solve this problem, please provide enough water and electrolytes for them. The severe diarrhea in rabbits can be life-threatening, so please seek for the medical treatment immediately at the veterinary clinic without delay! Also, please keep the food and hay in a cool dry place and make the dietary changes slowly by providing the type of food in a small amount at the beginning for prevention.

Intestinal Blockages

Rabbits would groom themselves constantly and thus get furball just like cats do. However, rabbits cannot vomit like cat. Those excessive swallowed hair cannot be digested but coil with the protein in the intestinal tract and cause a fatal blockage in the digestive system. To solve this problem, provide the active enzymes from papaya which aims to break down excess protein. Once you find that your rabbit has an intestinal condition, please do not hesitate but bring your rabbit to the veterinary clinic immediately.

Guinea Pig

Guinea Pig

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Ecological Habits

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Guinea pigs, also called Cavy and Cuy, are herbivores with the life expectancy in around 5 to 7 years. Same as rabbits, greens and grass hays are the main food source for guinea pigs which able to maintain the healthy and normal gastrointestinal function and prevent oral problems. More important, guinea pigs cannot synthesize vitamin C. Thus, they must be intake vitamin C from food and supplements.

 

We can determine the emotion of guinea pigs according to their squeak. Moreover, guinea pigs are very sensitive to sound and smell. They can identify people by their smell. 

Common Guinea Pig Species

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Basic

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Peruvian

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Crested

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Abyssinian

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Rex

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Skinny

Essential Nutrient - Vitamin C

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Guinea pigs cannot synthesize vitamin C but an adult guinea pig needs to consume about 15 milligrams of vitamin C per day. Therefore, choose the food, snack and supplements which contain more multivitamin C is necessary. Without vitamin C, the following problems may occur:

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  1. Affect the collagen synthesis that causes an easy damage in micro-vessels and internal bleeding in mucosa, serosa, muscles, or other tissues

  2. Affect the normal bone growth and cause joint swelling

  3. May cause tooth loss or other oral problems

  4. Diarrhea, anorexia, weight loss and thick fur

Chinchilla

Chinchilla

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Ecological Habits

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Chinchillas are herbivores with the life expectancy in around 10 to 12 years. Same as rabbits, they are afraid of heat but fit well with the cold weather. Chinchillas have the soft and dense fur. There are around 40-60 individual hairs emerging from each of the chinchilla hair follicle.

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Chinchillas need to chew on objects in order to maintain the health of their teeth which their teeth would grow constantly. The normal healthy teeth of Chinchillas with enough calcium are yellow in color.

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Chinchillas are athletic and they have the long hind limbs which are adapted for leaping. Thus, it is necessary to use a tall cage when raising. They would also roll in the bath sand by themselves to clean their body. When they are dissatisfied, they will run away, make a noise, and even pee. They are also afraid of the noise while these stresses can cause chinchillas to bite their hair.

Diet

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Chinchillas have a very special and sensitive digestive system. They need to consume a large amount of fiber a day in order to maintain the good body health. Thus, hay, such as Timothy Hay and Orchard Hay, is the main food source for Chinchillas, followed by pellet and dried fruit. However, Alfalfa Hay contains a high proportion of protein which is not suitable to use as the main hay for Chinchillas. These would cause obesity and affect the health of them. In addition, provide fresh water every day is fundamental. 

Diarrhea

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Stale food with harmful bacteria or a sudden change in diet would cause diarrhea for Chinchillas with the symptoms of softened stools or watery stools in brown-green color. To solve this problem, please provide enough water and electrolytes for them. Also, please stop feeding Alfalfa Hay and any other Chinchilla food but only Timothy Hay for at least 5 days until the stools are back to normal. For the prevention, please keep the food and hay in a cool dry place and make the dietary changes slowly by providing the type of food in a small amount at the beginning.

Fractures

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Chinchillas are athletic and they can recover well from the minor physical injury. However, fractures may be problematic because chinchillas normally sit on their hind legs and eat with their front paws. The fractures and injuries will therefore disturb their natural eating behavior. Once you find that your Chinchilla has an abnormal eating behavior, please do not hesitate but bring your rabbit to the veterinary clinic immediately.

Mental Health

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Lack of a proper housing, noise, lack of protein, genes factors and abnormal hormones secretion are the common reasons to cause Chinchillas stressful and nervous. Sometimes chinchillas would even chew on their own fur.  To solve the mental problem, please reduce the noise in their living environment and supply a proper housing. Feed your chinchilla a balanced diet every day could help as well. 

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