Rabbits Grooming Tips and Guide

Grooming your pet rabbit is essential to promote its health in addition to providing neat appearance. Absence of grooming may force the rabbits to do it themselves thereby accumulating fur intake and eventually develops digestive problems. Moreover grooming the rabbits keeps the house neater.

It is not recommended to give even an occasional bath to rabbits. Rabbits hate to get wet and turn extremely stressed if given a bath. However, if the rabbit gets something stuck on their fur and requires to be washed, you could spot remove the dirt with water only and if necessary little amount of diluted pet shampoo can be used.

Brushing a rabbit does not need much time however they need to be done carefully. The skin of rabbit is quite fragile, and should not be treated harsh. If sores develop on the skin the rabbits tend to nibble on them which may cause serious health problems. Brushes like wire slickers should not be used, instead the grooming brushes specifically designed for rabbits like those with soft plastic bristles or rubber groomer could be bought from pet shops.

Most of the rabbit breeds shed their fur once in three months. During those days, a thorough but gentle run through the fur using a fine tooth comb could be a good supplement to regular brushing.

Frequency of brushing required for a pet rabbit depends on the breed as well. While some needs to be brushed once a week few others requires brushing everyday. Long haired breeds like Angora, requires to be brushed every day for several minutes. Some prefer to trim the hair as and when they grow, to such long furred rabbit breeds.

Considering the effort in brushing everyday, trimming once in a while is beneficial. The trimming has to be done quite carefully that it does not nick the skin, especially around the hocks of the rabbits. They may result in sores that hurts the rabbits for a long while and causes health hazard as well.

If the rabbits are left without brushing for long, their fur may get matted. You could try to work the mat out using a wide toothed comb and ensure not to comb too hard. If brushing doesn’t help, you could clip it off using scissors. Unless you are adept with scissors, it is better to avoid cutting the mat out of rabbit fur.

You can also seek help from someone who could hold the rabbit while you are cutting the mat with scissors. Round tipped scissors with blunt edges are preferable. If the mat is due to any sticky or dried substances, then a spot wash will help. A commercial orange and oil based spray can be used as well to the dirt and wiped clean using a damp cloth.

All the brushing that you can provide to the pet rabbit is only supplemental to its natural instinct of cleaning itself.

         

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