Vitamins are not necessary for the healthy rabbit. Rabbits will obtain all the vitamins they need from their cecotropes, grass hay and green foods and a small amount of pellets. The misuse of vitamins can cause serious disease. If your pet becomes ill, particularly if it is unable to eat the cecotropes, then your veterinarian may prescribe vitamin therapy. Do not use supplemental vitamins in a healthy pet. In addition, rabbits on a healthy diet do not need a salt or mineral block.

Rabbits can be litter box trained relatively easily. When beginning training, confine your pet in a small area, either in a cage or a blocked off section of the room, and place a litter box in the corner; try to pick the corner your pet has already used for her toilet. Make sure the sides of the box are low enough so your pet can get in and out easily. It is helpful to put some droppings in the litter box. Some people have also found it helpful to put some hay in the box to encourage defecation there as rabbits usually pass stool while they are eating. In exercise areas, provide one more litter box than the number of rabbits you have and put newspaper or plastic under the litter box to protect your floors from accidents. Never punish your pet while in the litter box.

The ancestors of our pet rabbits would have spent a good portion of their day in protected underground burrows. Our pet rabbits retain the same need to have a protected area in which they feel safe and secure. Some rabbits are content to sit in a box full of hay, others like a completely enclosed box in which to hide. Try providing places to hide, such as untreated wicker or straw baskets, litter pans or other shallow boxes filled with hay, cardboard boxes with an entrance hole and the bottom removed or large cardboard tubes. (Don't forget the new Oxbow structures, which can be used as edible toys as well.)

Rabbits get a fair amount of mental exercise from their diet of grass hay and green foods, but additional toys are appreciated. Rabbits like to chew, so give them branches from untreated trees (dry the wood for at least a month to prevent any adverse reactions to the sap), wooden chew toys designed for birds, or unfinished unpainted wicker or straw baskets.

There are a number of ways to pick up your pet depending on how calm she is and her size. The main thing to remember is to always support the hindquarters to prevent serious spinal injuries. Rabbit backbones are fragile and can fracture if the hind legs are allowed to dangle and the animal then gives one strong kick. Unfortunately, these injuries are usually permanent and frequently result in euthanasia, so prevention is the best policy.

Uterine adenocarcinoma is a malignant cancer that can affect female rabbits over two years of age (although I have seen it in an 18-month old rabbit). The best prevention for this disease is to remove the reproductive organs (ovaries and uterus) in a surgical procedure commonly called a spay. The procedure can be performed in females over four months of age. Spaying a rabbit also prevents pregnancy and can help control some aggressive behaviour.

Dental disease can be the result of a variety of factors including trauma to the face, genetics (jaw is too short or malformed such as seen in the lop-eared breeds of rabbits), nutritional disease, infectious disease and diet. Rabbit ancestors ate a diet that was tough and abrasive, therefore they developed teeth that grew throughout their lives. Without this constant dental growth, the teeth would wear down quickly and the rabbit would be unable to eat and eventually die. Any condition that causes a rabbit's teeth to be worn down improperly or causes mal-alignment can result in serious dental disease.

Rabbits are little eating machines and if you notice that your pet has changed his eating habits, there is cause for concern. The most common reason a rabbit stops eating is in response to pain. If every day you give a small amount of a healthy treat that your rabbit loves, as outlined in the Diet Section, you will quickly know when your rabbit’s appetite is changing. 

Rabbits can exhibit sneezing, coughing and excess tearing. Not all these signs are related to respiratory disease. Common environmental causes include perfumes, sprays, cooking fumes, ammonia fumes from accumulated urine in the toilet area, fabric softener on bedding, dust, poor air circulation, damp environment and hot environment. Dental disease can also cause signs that may mimic respiratory disease, such as excessive tearing that stains the eyes. Please consult your veterinarian if your pet is showing these signs.

Hairballs are often cited as a reason for rabbits to stop eating. The problem is not hair in the stomach (which is always in a normal rabbit's stomach due to grooming) but abnormalities in GI tract motility. A rabbit on a healthy diet with lots of grass hay and other foods as described in the diet section will not have a problem with hairballs.

True diarrhoea, where all the stool being passed is purely liquid, is rare in the pet rabbit eating a healthy diet. More commonly we see a situation where the rabbit has both normal and soft pudding-like stools in the toilet area. This is not diarrhoea, but a problem with GI motility usually caused by an inappropriate diet. You can read more about this in our handout Intermittent Soft Stools in Rabbits.

The normal colour of rabbit urine can range from yellow to dark orange-red. The colour comes from plant pigments in the food or from normal pigments produced in the wall of the bladder. The urine can be clear or cloudy with a white precipitate.