bad advice *sigh*

[babybunsmum]

so i was cleaning off my book shelves to get ready to paint my rec room & came across a book i have about rabbit care.  wow.  the advice in this book is TERRIBLE! 

‘rabbits require a simple diet of rabbit pellets supplemented with occasional tidbits of bread and vegetables.’  they reccommend unlimited pellets.  they also say all wire cages with raised wire floors are best.  this book was published in 1995 and unfortunately was what i bought when i got my first bun.  no wonder i didn’t know what the heck i was doing for so long!  i thought i had the best advice.  

have current dietary & housing reccommendations really changed that much since 1995?

[Sarita]

Well, that’s not your fault! At least you cared enough to seek advice and that’s the important part.

Well, I know House Rabbit Society started in 1988 and I’m not certain what type of advice they gave back in 1988 but I’m pretty certain in 1995 they didn’t give that advice.

I do think that the information that is written varies greatly depending on who is writing it – obviously the person that wrote this didn’t have rabbits as pets, but perhaps raised them for other purposes.

[babybunsmum]

yes i think the author had more experience breeding than having rabbits as pets.  i got the book in a pet store and under the nutrition section it has pics of hagen brand pellets.  i suspect that hagen had some influence in the food reccommendation seeing as they supplied the photos of their pellets and no other brand is mentioned. 

i remember finding the house rabbit society online, probably not until the late 90’s, and wondering why they said spaying & neutering was so important since my vet told me it wasn’t.  at that time they didn’t have any canadian vets listed (or at least not in my area).  wierd since there’s a pretty large veterinary university not far away from me (in guelph).  ah well.  it just reinforces how glad i am to have this website & forum available now!  thanks binky bunny!

[Beka27]

 ***SIGH***

tell me about it.  when we got Meadow i took out some library books about rabbits geared towards children.  i thought they’d be fun to read with Michael (4 year old) before we got the bunny.  to give him an idea what to expect.  the books were horrible.  it’s no wonder to me that so many young people get the impression that having house rabbits require little to no effort.  the books don’t tell it like it is.  so then they "learn everything they can about a pet bunny"… and are completely ill-equipped.  the HRS one is pretty correct i think, but i wish they could come out with a newer (more informative) book.  theirs is the Urban Rabbit book , right?  i think the one they have is still about 10-15 years old or so.

[Sarita]

I have one at home that I think is pretty okay that is geared towards children – when I get home I’ll dig it out and take a look at it again and let you know the title of it.

I do think that even some of the House Rabbit Handbook is now dated – at least the edition I have – mainly about housing and cages. I have to look for a newer edition and see what it says – I may actually have given my away.

I do like “Houserabbits for Dummies” too – I think that’s the title – I don’t like that they mention breeding though but I suppose that’s what the publisher requested.

I have another book (at home of course) that I think is pretty good too that I’ll dig out.

I really like “Rabbit Health in the 21st Century” by Kathy Smith though. I thought she was supposed to come out with a new edition (it’s in the 2nd edition) – I’m going to have to ask her if she is. I highly recommend this book though – it’s very good.

[Lisa_43]

Well here in Aussie land most people would give the same advice as what is in that book.

I go to pet shops and they know nothing about rabbits apart from the dollar sign that’s in front of the cage.

The rabbits are huddled in a square Perspex container and all they get to eat is rabbit mix full of corn etc and some hay.

[JK]

Don’t even get me started!

[osprey]

Yeah, the House Rabbit Handbook is a bit dated.  I am pretty sure they don’t discuss any of the newer advances in housing like NIC cubes or XPens.  Books also seem obsessed with Timothy hay, all they ever talk about is unlimited Timothy hay, never any of the other healthy grass hay choices or the fact that hay gets stale and needs to be changed.  The Web has been a wonderful resource for rabbit people, because we each learn little things from people or trial and error, and then share it amongst ourselves.

[Sarita]

I agree Osprey – I think forums and yahoo groups are some of the best ways to get information and experience from others for rabbit care (and other things too).

[skunklionshow]

I have 2 books, the dummies book and then another book w/ lots of pictures.  My kids prefered the book w/ all the pictures and it had pretty good information.  I found binky bunny while searching the pets section on craigslist.  I also viewed house rabbits site.  I love the forums!  You can always ask basic questions and get a personal point of view from other rabbit experienced savvy folk.  I would have been a pretty half a….sed rabbit owner w/o this site.  I’ve learned so much and acknowledge that I still am not an EXCELLET bunny person…well I’m no Binky or Scarlet, but I can provide a safe, healthy, happy environment for my buns.  I only wish I had more info back in the 70’s (I’m showing my age) when we had pet rabbits that lived in the garage!

[JK]

I have the House Rabbit book too and also Rabbits for Dummies and both are pretty good for someone who has absolutely no experience at all with rabbits.  I agree though the BEST info is on this site and the various rescue sites.  They seem to be all on the same page so to speak as far as food, housing etc. And it’s so great to post a question and have a ton of quick responses!  I have learned SOOOOOOOOOOOO much from everyone here.  It’s fantastic.

[Beka27]

i liked the Dummies book.  it was very straightforward and covered a good amount of topics.  i got it at the library, but i will most likely purchase it soon.  i like having books at hand.  another one i liked was The House Rabbit Primer.  it was one of the more up to date ones at the library and it has a nice second half that covers all kinds of health things.  Not many of the other books i saw gave a whole lot of info about altering rabbits.  if they mentioned it at all, they said it’s good for them, but that’s about it.  the whole cage thing was something else that i think was glossed over in most of the books.  either the suggested dimensions were way too small or they were suggested wire bottom cages.  someone here should publish a new book.

[Sarita]

Beka – that’s the other one I have “The House Rabbit Primer” and I like it as well! I thought it was very good – I haven’t looked at it in awhile but I pulled it out tonight to review it again.

[Ash]

I have the The Simple Guide To Rabbits by Bobbye Land that the previous owners of Mr.B gave us along with the rest of his stuff. It seems accurate about stuff but of course not everything. I think this site (thank you soooo much Binky Bunny for starting it) and rabbit rescue sites are a wonderful tool for research and educating.

[BinkyBunny]

Thanks LopsNLopsOfLove, we’re trying!

Two other great resources are "Rabbit Health in the 21st Century" and "Why does my rabbit…." Both together provide great info about health and behavior.

[BunnyLugs]

You know what, babybunsmum, I think I had that book! Don’t worry though. Nobody with a shread of common sense would’ve bought a wire bottomed cage. I was 6years old am I thought that was a stupid idea!

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

I didn’t even bother getting any books when I brought home bunny! Call me 21st century, because I just went straight to the internet! I’m super-cheap so that probably had influence too. I think I found BB on Craigslist though when I was browsing for random stuff (possibly when I was looking for a crate for the bun or selling my bearded dragon?).

[babybunsmum]

lol… yeah i’m a bit old-school & it took me a while to get used to going to the internet first when researching something.  now i’m so used to it i feel wierd to go ‘unplugged’ for even a whole day!  but i have to admit… i still love my books.  especially in a power outage

[Scarlet_Rose]

Awe skunklionshow, you are so modest! I think you’re doing a great job, like everyone else with their furry bunny pez dispensers. : ) Yeah it is pretty disturbing even if you go to the library and check out the books in rabbit care. Even the newer stuff is awful and like it was said, it’s great to have forums, you get input from many, not just one person or book and together (not to mention if you have questions, unlike a book, they get answered). all together I think we’ve got a really good background and are up and up on all the newer stuff. I really love this site!

[Ash]

digxmexnow- I got Mr.B from Craigslist also!

I have a comment about the book I said I had and was good/decent… everything is good EXCEPT the food part. “Acceptable Treats for Adult Rabbits: oatmeal, breadt (preferably whole wheat, mini wheat cereal, cheerios, crackers,….” It also had listed some actual healthy treast such as banana and apples but I couldn’t believe it, ALL those things were on my vets BANNED list of food to give rabbits ( since she’s the vet majored in rabbits I’ll take her word over the book lol). But other than that the book is good.

[Gravehearted]

oo you guys wouldn’t believe what we used to feed our bunnies in the 80s! they got alfalfa pellets, not much hay and teddy grahams before bed! looking back now, i feel like a drug dealer for bunnies, but we didn’t know any better.

a lot of the books give really out dated and ridiculous advice about rabbits! i remember re-reading one we had from ages ago and being appalled like you were babybunsmum!

i still like the House Rabbit Handbook, my copy is pretty old now. It looks there have been newer editions, wonder if it’s been updated.

[Scarlet_Rose]

The House Rabbit Handbook’s last edition was the Fourth in 2005. = : ) It has a lot more info than the original and includes NIC condos.

[babybunsmum]

sweet!  i think i know what’s going on my ‘wish list’ for next christmas  

[Scarlet_Rose]

*chuckle*

[Author]

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