Perhaps the reason why rabbits are so popular with boys is that they are
something which they can attend to and care for entirely alone.
A rabbit-hutch is a simple affair, but if the animals are worth caring
for, they are worth something better than an old packing case for a
house. One of these, if water-tight, does well enough for the shell of
the hutch, but it will require some fixing up before it is ready to be
the abode of a rabbit that "knows what's what."
In the first place, as regards the floor. If this is not kept sweet and
clean, the inhabitants will be liable to disease. Let the floor slope
gently to the back of the hutch, and let it be double, so that the upper
one can be drawn out to be cleaned. This upper board should be painted
with two or three coats of paint, and every day it should be drawn out
to be washed and brushed. The advantage of the slope is that the floor
may be easily drained, and to carry off the drainage a gutter should be
placed along it. When the board is cleaned it should have a layer of
sand sprinkled over it after it has been put back in its place.
The hutch should be from thirty to thirty-six inches long, eighteen
inches wide, and about as many high. As a rabbit should not be expected
to eat in its sleeping-room any more than a human being should, the
hutch should be partitioned off by a board, leaving the sleeping-room
about twelve inches long. In this board should be a round hole large
enough for a rabbit to pass through, and protected by a door sliding up
and down in a groove.
The simplest way to make the front of the hutch is to nail strips of
wood down it, but this is not the best way. Galvanized (white) wire
netting is perhaps the best thing, and it can be bought very cheap at
any hardware store. The mesh should not be more than three-quarters of
an inch wide, or some prowling cat may get her paw into the house and do
mischief. The writer lost his first young rabbits by allowing too large
a space between the bars of his hutch. The open front of the hutch
should extend as far as the end of the living-room. The sleeping-room
should be inclosed by a solid door, opening in the ordinary way; and
inside this should be a shutter about six inches high, sliding in a
groove up and down. The advantage of this is that when the doe has young
ones you may open the door and look at them without danger of their
falling out.
The bedding should be of straw, well broken and bruised. It need be used
only in the sleeping-room, except in very cold weather, and it should be
changed at least once a week. It should always be put in dry. The hutch
should be raised about a foot from the ground.
It used to be thought that cabbage and bran were all that were necessary
for rabbits, but modern fanciers have learned better. The principal
thing in rabbit-feeding is variety, and as rabbits will eat almost every
kind of vegetable, this is easily managed.
A little book called _The Practical Rabbit-Keeper_ gives a table of diet
for a week. This is printed here, not because it need be strictly
followed, but to show what is meant by variety of feeding:
SUNDAY.--Morning, roots and dry oats; afternoon, green food and
hay; evening, mash of potatoes and meal.
MONDAY.--Morning, roots, crushed oats, and tea leaves; afternoon,
small quantity of green food and hay; evening, bread and meal mash.
TUESDAY.--Morning, soaked oats; afternoon, roots and green food;
evening, crusts of bread (dry).
WEDNESDAY.--Morning, barley or wheat (dry); afternoon, roots and
green food; evening, mash of meal and pollard.
THURSDAY.--Morning, roots and dry oats; afternoon, green stuff and
hay; evening, soaked pease or lentils.
FRIDAY.--Morning, hay and roots; afternoon, green food; evening,
meal and potato mash.
SATURDAY.--Morning, dry oats and chaff; afternoon, green stuff and
roots; evening, bread.
The diet given above provides for three meals a day, which makes the
rabbit appear to be a very greedy animal. But, on the contrary, it is
very dainty in its feeding, and will neither eat much at a time nor
return to that which it has left. Hence it is best to give but little at
a time, and to feed regularly. Food should be given in a trough like a
gutter, and to prevent the rabbits getting into it, it is well to fasten
wires from end to end of the trough, just far enough from the sides to
allow the rabbits to get their heads into it.
When a doe has "babies," she will eat nearly twice as much as at other
times, and she should be separated from the little ones at her
meal-times, so that she may eat in peace. The young ones may stay with
their mother for seven or eight weeks, but should then be taken away,
one at a time, and put with other young rabbits, if there are any, the
bucks and does being kept separate. The father buck will often kill the
little ones, so he should be kept apart from them.
If good care is taken of the rabbits, they will probably escape disease,
but in a long spell of wet weather, or in a sudden cold snap, "snuffles"
may make its appearance. The symptoms are like those of a severe cold
with us--running at the eyes and nose, etc. A good authority recommends
sponging the eyes and nose with warm tea, and a few drops of camphorated
spirit given twice a day.