new

[Leah]

I AM New and considering getting a pet rabbit but I hear they have a
strong body oddor so what can I do about that?

leah

[cottontail]

Hi Leah,

Well, some intact (not neutered or spayed) rabbits sometimes have
odors when they poop/pee, but in general, I've never really
encountered any smell problems with any of our rabbits (from my 20+
years of experience). Currently we share our apartment with 4 house
bunnies, and you'd never smell them because I clean their litter boxes
every few days.

As they are prey animal, they naturally don't have any body odors,
except when they sexually mature and develop hormones. Spay/neutering
them will definitely help reduce litterbox odors. Spay/neuter has
other advantages like preventing ovarian cancer in female rabbits,
better temperament, better toilet habit, and so on. If you do decide
to get a pet rabbit, I'd recommend to have her/him fixed :)

Is there a House Rabbit Society in your area? If so, visit them and
see if a pet rabbit is really for you or not. Your local animal
shelter may also have rabbits. Pet rabbits usually live for 10 plus
years. Oh, and rabbit rescue groups and animal shelters often have
young bunnies as well ;)

Good luck! Let us know if you have any other bunny questions =:)
T.

[Ros]

Hello Leah and welcome

I'm Ros, a retired teacher. I live in England with my 2 rescued lops,
Cinnamon and Nutmeg, aka The Varmints

How nice to be getting a new bunny. You have a very enjoyable time
ahead of you.

I'm puzzled about a 'strong body odour'. Having had rabbits for years
now, the only smell I've detected is a very pleasant, sweet aroma from
the head area.

Unpleasant smells would only occur in conditions that shouldn't arise,
when a rabbit's home hasn't been kept clean enough or it has
inadvertently soiled its fur and not been cleaned immediately (and
thoroughly dried, of course) that would be essential to prevent a
horrible condition called Fly Strike where bluebottles and
greenbottles (the flies that infest corpses) lay their eggs on the
soiled fur and their maggots hatch and begin eating your rabbit
alive. Absolutely something to avoid. Such flies will also get into
dirty, smelly bedding and do the same thing, so beds and litter trays
do need to be kept clean.

One thing that can get a bit smelly is if a rabbit's anal scent glands
get clogged up, but that is very easily resolved with the very gentle
use of a q-tip that has been dipped in vegetable oil The buildup can
be easily cleaned away then the bun is fragrant once more. This is
obviously something to be done very, very carefully.

Since it seems you may be new to rabbits, may I suggest some sources
of advice for beginners? This is going to be quite a list, but very
much worth researching BEFORE getting a rabbit, so that you know what
you're committing to. sites are from various countries.

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/rabbits/a/rabbithomes.htm
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/rabbits/RabbitProfile.htm
http://www.rspca.org.au/animal/petcare_rabbit.asp
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/BlobServer?blobtable=RSPCABlob&blobcol=urlblob&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1154077759040&blobheader=application/pdf
(please studiously ignore this site's advice on handling. Rabbits
should NOT be picked up by the scruff and most certainly not by the
ears as some would have us believe!)
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urlblob&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=RSPCABlob&blobwhere=1099596629449&ssbinary=true&Content-Type=application/pdf
http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=RabbitsPetCare
http://www.bva-awf.org.uk/pet/buying/rabbit.asp
http://www.pethealthcare.co.uk/Features/rabbits_706
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.html#rabbitcare
(this is the formost UK source of excellent info about rabbit care and
there are a variety of leaflets available for you to read/print out at
this location)
http://www.smallanimaladvice.com/rabbits.php
http://www.bluecross.org.uk/web/site/Pawprint/AllAboutPets/CaringforRabbit.asp
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/rabbit_horse_and_other_pet_care/how_to_care_for_rabbits.html
http://www.crealy.co.uk/content/S632884699827651250/Your%20New%20Rabbit.pdf
http://www.rabbitrun.com.au/bunnycare.html
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#diet
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/feeding_en.pdf
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/firstrabbit.html
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.html
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#litter
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#firstl
http://www.rabbit.org/care/new-bunny-index.html
http://www.rabbit.org/care/living-with-a-house-rabbit.html
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html
http://www.3bunnies.org/newtobunnies.htm
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/firstrabbit.html
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/shybun.html

Leah, may I ask which country you live in? That would affect the
advice members may be able to give you about getting supplies, finding
a rabbit-savvy vet (an absolute MUST), etc

Best of luck and happy reading!

Ros

[Sailorbunny]

hi leah!
welcome to rabbit haven!
im trace, and i live in Bristol, UK with my 2 housebuns, Dinky &
Thumper.

you really do have a treat in store in becoming a bunny owner..they
really are the best pet to have! :)

regarding the bunny body odour you mention..im confused as to where
you have got this info from hun..
i have had rabbits now for nearly 5 years and i can tell you that
bunnies have no body odour problems whatsoever!
the only problems you would encounter is from their indoor litter
trays or outdoor hutches not being cleaned regularly
(i clean my buns' litter trays out daily) a build up of bunny poop and
pee-pee does not smell nice and cleanliness is vital to
a bunnies welbeing, as well as what ros said about flystrike, its
essential to keep litter trays and hutches clean.

bunnies themselves produce no odours, except if some poop gets stuck
to their bums (which should be washed off asap) or
during the time when they become sexually mature..most bunnies (male
especially, but females too) will "spray" what they persieve
as their "territory"..but again, this can be cleaned up with a non-
phenol based disinfectant...the best course then would be like
cottontail
said, to have your bun fixed.

read through the sites ros suggested..there is a lot of great advice
on buncare on them! ^^

thanks for joining and hopefully enjoy being a bunnymummy!...xxxxxx.

> http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/rabbits/a/rabbithomes.htmhttp://animal-world.com/encyclo/critters/rabbits/RabbitProfile.htmhttp://www.rspca.org.au/animal/petcare_rabbit.asphttp://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/BlobServer?blobtable=RSPCABlob&blobco...

> (please studiously ignore this site's advice on handling.  Rabbits
> should NOT be picked up by the scruff and most certainly not by the

> ears as some would have us believe!)http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urlblob&blobheader=...http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirec...http://www.bva-awf.org.uk/pet/buying/rabbit.asphttp://www.pethealthcare.co.uk/Features/rabbits_706http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.h...

> (this is the formost UK source of excellent info about rabbit care and
> there are a variety of leaflets available for you to read/print out at

> this location)http://www.smallanimaladvice.com/rabbits.phphttp://www.bluecross.org.uk/web/site/Pawprint/AllAboutPets/CaringforR...http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/rabbit_horse_and_other_pet_care/how...http://www.crealy.co.uk/content/S632884699827651250/Your%20New%20Rabb...http://www.rabbitrun.com.au/bunnycare.htmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#diethttp://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/feeding_en.pdfhttp://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/firstrabbit.htmlhttp://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.htmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#litterhttp://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#firstlhttp://www.rabbit.org/care/new-bunny-index.htmlhttp://www.rabbit.org/care/living-with-a-house-rabbit.htmlhttp://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.htmlhttp://www.3bunnies.org/newtobunnies.htmhttp://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/firstrabbit.htmlhttp://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/shybun.html

>
> Leah, may I ask which country you live in?  That would affect the
> advice members may be able to give you about getting supplies, finding
> a rabbit-savvy vet (an absolute MUST), etc
>
> Best of luck and happy reading!
>
> Ros
>
> On Oct 18, 3:58 pm, Leah <Leahh...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I AM New and considering getting a pet rabbit but I hear they have a
> > strong body oddor so what can I do about that?
>

> > leah- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -