Caring for a blind rabbit?

[Bianca]

This is more of a curiosity question than anything. One of my local animal shelters has just acquired a fully blind rabbit. I have no immediate plans to rush out and adopt him (although he is very adorable!), but it got me thinking..

Does anyone here have experience with a fully blind rabbit? What additional care did they need in their environment? What was their behaviour like? Bonded or not bonded? How easy/hard/possible was litter training? 

I was just hoping anyone here with experience could share their insights/experience with me. Thanks!

[vanessa]

My bunny is blind and deaf. He gets along fine, but since going blind, he likes his little box that he lives in, and isn’t really comfortable outside it. Many bunnies are comfortable with lots of space, mine isn’t. i don’t rearrange his furniture. Everything goes in the same place. Since he is deaf, he gets tactile clues that I am about to handle him, or that I’m giving him food. I touch his whiskers before petting him, food ahead is nose, and left or right correspond with left/right ear. Pick up =stroke down spine to tail. For blind bunnies who are not deaf, verbal cues could be used so u don’t startle the bunny. When he was in a larger space (had better mobility), I kept all his furniture/things at the periphery. Middle of his space free of trip hazards. He had a bonded pal who could see and hear, and they were very much a snuggly pair with no issues. (Separated now due to his poor health). Perfectly litter trained before his poor health, blindness didn’t get in the way of that. He sniffs out his food, so I try to give him a variety of scents in his veggie selections, to add to his quality of life. I figure he can’t see or hear, but he can feel and smell, so he gets nice fragrant veggies, and different textures in his bedding choices (towels, fleece, blankies, etc).

[Q8bunny]

Your description made me smile with tears. He’s such a lucky bun to have you.

[Finnigan!]

I had a teacher who owned a rabbit with only one eye. The biggest obstacle that she faced was absolute trust. The rabbit would jump when someone pet it on the sightless side. I don’t know much about caring for a completely blind rabbit but I think trust is the key to caring one

[Boston's Mama]

Mine is mostly blind ( still has partial vision but seems to be more shadow he sees – like he looks in my general direction when I walk past if it shadows and changes his lighting )
For us trust is no issue – he’s actually the most trusting of all bunnies I have ever owned when it comes to trusting me – new people / new smells is different story. He will leap into my lap when I open his house up and he is very cuddly and completely ok with me picking him up – but with others he is not.
As said above – I do have to keep his cage the same. Moving nothing except to clean it and pop it back.
The only issues we found were :
1: I always leave sound on quietly when we leave at all – tv on low or radio – silence scares him as he can’t see well so background noise helps him.
2: I can’t bond – partially because my other boy (Oakley) is dominant and difficult to bond but also because my blind ( Boston) doesn’t see the humping etc coming so he lashes out.
3: water bowl level always needs to be full for Boston – he uses his chin to test the water level so he knows how far he needs to put his mouth in. If it’s too low he thinks it’s gone, if it’s half way he goes to far in and ends up with wet fur that becomes a mess. I keep it full now and he knows he only needs to dip his chin to check then drink

They actually get around really well most people who meet Boston don’t know he has vision issues until you move something or until he is looking for me and can only get the rough direction im in
He’s the sweetest boy ever

[Boston's Mama]

Oh and mine does not like hideaways / tunnels or other toys that involve being enclosed – i guess it’s the whole shadows thing again …(?)
He loves his open cat bed mat though. And a giant teddy he likes to lay all over.
Toys are noise toys – Dumbbells with bells in , plastic baby balls with bells in , keys , links etc – since he can’t see it’s good to have the sound to help the other senses tell him what’s in front of him etc.All his things are ground level and open and no hiding spots – but that is just what works for mine – it would be a case of seeing what your ( maybe soon to be yours??) bunny likes

[Bianca]

Thanks everyone!

I have another question. This rabbit is 4, I think it went blind a couple of years ago. It has white cloudy eyes. All I’m being told is “it’s genetic” but wouldn’t there still be a cause? Blindness tends to be symptom of something such as cataracts or an eye injury so even if it is genetic, genetic is just what spreads the symptom so I would assume there is still something I should know about?

[vanessa]

Cateracts can be genetic indeed. As long as there are no other symptoms, that may be all there is to it.

[Boston's Mama]

My boy I rescued at 8weeks – his blindness is genetic too

[Bianca]

Thanks.

I might have messaged them to let them know I would like to meet him. And another rabbit too, in the hopes that I can bond them and have two bonded pairs rather than try a trio with a blind bunny. Will see what happens and I’ll be sure to post updates!

[Boston's Mama]

Nawwww!!!! Looking forward to hearing the outcome

[FluffyBunny]

One of my bunnies went completely blind from cataracts when she was 5 years old. She is now almost 8 years old. To answer your questions:

1. She doesn’t really need any extra care. She no longer jumps up on things higher than about 6 inches or uses stairs, despite having been a jumper before she lost her sight, so I did have to rearrange her area a bit. Also, her eyes occasionally get bumped and get weepy for a day or two, so she’ll need them wiped off.

2. She is still the same feisty rabbit she’s always been, though she is much more careful and mellow than she was before she got cataracts. (Some of that might just be from age.) She can still run around the room, find her food, and everything a normal rabbit can do.

3. She was bonded before she went blind, and going blind didn’t affect the bond at all.

4. Her litter habits did go down sharply, though she had always been a “marker.” Some of that also has to do with the fact that she can’t move around as well as she used to due to some other issues.

[Bianca]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

Both rabbits I was interested in found homes today with other people – the shelter owner kept the netherland dwarf for her daughter, and the blind bunny found a home with someone else. But I did go to visit anyway, to meet their last remaining rabbit. He is a 1yo chocolate brown mix. To me he looks like a nethie mixed with a dwarf or mini lop. He is very cute but very jumpy about being handled. He did settle into my arms after a moment though and was actually quite happy there for a while – they took advantage of me holding him to clean his cage.

I’ll post a separate thread about this guy when I adopt him next week, but I do want to say thanks again to everyone here who gave me advice on caring for a blind bun. Thanks!

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