Do you think you can take a rabbit for a walk?
The answer is yes, you can walk a rabbit.
It's true that rabbits are not like dogs that you have to take them out
and you have to follow a routine of walks to meet their needs.
Your rabbit doesn't do the necessities outside, but in its cage.
But it's true that taking rabbit for a walk, will strengthen our bond,
rabbit will investigate a little, have fun and exercise.
So it's very healthy for them to go for a walk.
In this video I'm going to share tips you need to know for taking a rabbit for a walk.
Everything about your pet
RABBITS Taking a rabbit for a walk
Before explaining how to take the rabbit for a walk, first you should know,
that if you've decided that you don't want to take your rabbit out,
that you prefer when it's in a controlled space, such as your home,
you should know and keep it in mind that you can't keep the rabbit locked up 24 hours a day.
Rabbit or any animal.
In this case you have to know that the rabbit is an active animal that needs to move,
that needs to exercise.
If you keep your rabbit indoors and you don't want it to go out to the street
for whatever reasons,
you have to enable a controlled space inside the house where your rabbit can exercise.
How can we do it?
Choose the room that is safe, remove all the cables and things rabbit can destroy
and for example we can prepare playground for a rabbit.
How to prepare it?
You can use for example hay tunnels of different sizes and shapes
and place them all over the room so they play and hide.
Hay is very versatile, rabbits not only feed on it,
but it helps them to take shelter to entertain themselves and play.
As you can see here, on this table we have space enabled for them
and we can create a similar space with balls of hay or these little bridges that they also like
all this creates a fun space, to encourage them to exercise
and above all to make sure that absolutely every day they exercise for a few hours
and spend some time out of the cage and closed walls.
if you have ever wondered what would happen if you take your rabbit out on the street,
you have to know that in some countries such as for example Spain it's not common to walk with rabbit,
we are not used to seeing it, but in other countries, it's very common.
And in fact the rabbit is so used to it that it does the same action as the dog.
Have you ever seen a person who walks the dog and it seems that the dog is in control?
Rabbits will act the same when they get used to it, so it's very easy.
Now I'm going to explain how to do it,
but don't worry because rabbit can go out the same as any other animal on the street.
I want to emphasize that the decision to walk with a rabbit is always yours.
As I've said, it is not necessary to walk a rabbit, you can enable your home to do it.
It's very important that you take into account, apart from your opinion, behavior of the rabbit.
Why? Because there are some rabbits that don't get used to going out on the street
and no matter how hard you try,
you see that they are reluctant, that they are uncomfortable or that they are very scared
because the noises from outside affect them too much.
So when you see that the rabbit is stressed, is having a bad time or something is wrong,
don't do it.
If the rabbit is young, it's very likely that it will be much easier for it to get used to the street.
When rabbit is older and spend many years in home and never gone out
rabbit it so used to being at home that it's hard to take them out.
Is it possible? Yes, of course.
But you have to take it into account and remember that it's normal that they don't want to
and under no circumstances we can't force them.
I'm going to list, the most important things you need to take your rabbit out for a walk.
First of all, undoubtedly the most important thing is
that your rabbit has to be vaccinated and dewormed.
It's also important to tell your vet that you want to start taking your rabbit for a walk.
Why? Because internal treatment might vary.
When rabbit lives within the four walls of the house, is not risking being infected
or be in contact with other types of animals or feces
or whatever it is that can be found on the street.
If you say it, it's possible that your vet takes some type of precaution
like extra vaccine or whatever
so your rabbit is completely healthy and safe during walks.
So first, go to the vet and say that you want to start taking rabbit out to the street
and get some instructions, vaccination plan to be able to safely start.
What are we gonna need, what is rabbit going to wear to be taken for a walk safely?
The first thing you probably think of is collar. Are we going to use it? No!
Never put a collar on a rabbit.
Why? Because the rabbit's body is different than cat's or dog's body
and collar can harm them, it's not suitable for them.
What we can use... and I'll show you if these little ones let me, is harness like this one.
As you see it's a shirt-type harness.
It adapts to the body of the rabbit, it doesn't harm it,
because it's elastic, with very soft seams.
Look, for example if you look here you will see that this plastic clasp, that you can open,
is not in direct contact with the animal's skin.
It has reinforcement on the back,
and the fabric is the only thing has contact with the animal's skin.
It opens very easily as you see.
As you see it's x-shaped and it's like a t-shirt.
It's very easy to put and it's very comfortable, it will not hurt your rabbit.
It has a buckle right here, for the leash to be safe and comfortable for your rabbit.
Now when we know which harness we should use, let's talk about leashes.
Which elements are important in a leash?
First we should choose a short leash, like this one for example.
Why should we use short leashes?
Because when we start walk with them in the street there are many stimuli,
there are many things that can make them to escape or scare them.
It's important to have a short leash that allows us to keep the rabbit close to us.
You can use one like this leash, that I have here, that as you see is relatively short.
Or you can use a leash like this, that is elastic.
These two types of leash are recommended when we start taking our rabbit for a walk.
Now, let's go to the second part.
There is another type of leash that we need to have.
This type, because this type of leash is extensible.
There are different lengths, this specifically has 3 meters, but you can find 5 or 10...
Why do you need this type of leash?
Because once your rabbit get used to walks and new environment, it will be no longer afraid.
We can leave them in loose leash to let them investigate, run, play...
so that in the end your rabbit has as much fun as possible.
What's next? Next, let's talk about how to get started taking your rabbit for a walk.
Well, the first thing we have to do if rabbit has never been out on the street
is to train it at home.
Put the harness on rabbit, put on the leash and walk with it in a patio or just quite large space.
Make sure rabbit is comfortable and did get used to all the elements.
How can we encourage rabbit to walk, to make it like it? With snacks.
I have here for example snacks from Naturaliss
and as you can see they are really small so are very good as a reward during training.
Every time we want rabbit to approach we put snack in our hand,
we call it so it walks toward us little by little and gets used to wearing harness.
That is our goal. To make rabbit feel as comfortable as possible.
Why is it so important that rabbit feels comfortable,
walks willingly and follows us during walks?
Because we can't pull the leash.
It's very common, we do this gesture when we're walking a dog,
we pull them, so they accompany us, but with the rabbits we can't do this.
We could hurt them so it always has to be rabbit who walks on its own initiative.
Once we have accustomed it to these small walks,
next we do the same exercise, but already in the street.
How do we start these walks? For short periods of time.
First walk should last more or less ten minutes.
We go out to the street, walk the rabbit, give it snacks to do the same thing as we did at home
so they see that it's a normal daily routine, that they know.
We go out for 10 minutes.
Next day we go out for another 10 minutes.
And little by little we are increasing the time of our walk
so that your rabbit gets used to it in 100%.
When we walk a rabbit, we should act like it was a baby.
Why did I say a baby? Because I will make a comparison.
When father or mother with a small child wants to start taking it out,
they are not going to just grab it and say "ok, let's go", when it's just started walking.
Why? Because we understand that this child can get tired even if it likes the walk.
They take a baby carriage to get a child to the destination,
where they want to go, in this case would be a park.
They let the child play a little and when they go home
and child is tired and can't walk anymore they use it again.
It's exactly the same with rabbits.
So what do we do?
We will take a carrier. You put the rabbit here and go to your destination site.
Once you are there, you start doing I've just talked about so your rabbit walks.
And when you see that rabbit is tired, doesn't want to walk anymore and needs rest,
what you have to do is put it back in the carrier.
You can also take hay and leave it the carrier and in the places where you walk,
in the street, in the grass or wherever it is,
because it's an element of entertainment that will distract rabbit.
Rabbit will bite it and will be much more relaxed, thanks to this it will more like to walk.
You can't forget about the water. It always has to be available especially on a hot day.
I take the opportunity to say to not take rabbit out in extreme temperatures
in the hottest times in a day, such as noon because it would be fatal for the poor animal.
Always check is the external temperature appropriate for them
and always carry water, so they can hydrate during a walk.
Second advice is that each animal needs different amount of time.
You may have a friend, you've seen a video or someone has told you
that his rabbit learned this in one day, others will say in a week and so on...
You have to get to know your own rabbit and you should know
that this is a process in which you have to work a lot with it.
And that it is an adaptation process.
You have to have patience and work with your rabbit, little by little, day by day.
It can take a day, a week or even months.
It doesn't have any specific time limit.
Remember also what I've told you, that not all rabbits are suitable to do walks.
If you've been trying for a long time and you see that your rabbit is reluctant
and doesn't want to go for a walk, you have to respect it and adapt to it.
Cuniadvice
In other words, if it is very hot we can't walk them, if it is very cold neither.
We have to find an average temperature that is suitable.
And the Cuniadvice is that they can't be taken out when it is raining.
They are very sensitive animals. If rabbit gets wet, gets cold it could get very sick.
Rabbit can get very sick from a walk, that can even end up in death, if it is not treated properly.
So you can see the seriousness of the situation.
Always take precautions with the rabbit and walk them in environments that are optimal for them.