DEPRESSION EFFECTS RABBITS

Why is it that many people figure rabbits are dull pets? The answer is simple and obvious. Locking bunnies inside isolated backyard hutches or tiny cages without human interaction causes them to become depressed. As we know with people, depression takes away any incentive to be active. Consequently, rabbits are seen to be boring fur balls who just eat, sleep, and excrete.

I was once of this opinion. Because nobody told me otherwise, I assumed that rabbits were lacking in intelligence and affection. How wrong I was. In 1996, I discovered a newsgroup called alt.pets.rabbits. The things I learned about bunnies amazed me.

Thanks to the friendly folks there, I learned that bunnies can be litter-trained and they lived much longer after being spayed or neutered. The most important lesson I learned is that rabbits can live in our homes like cats and dogs.

Why was that so important? When bunnies are allowed space to play and have humans to hang out with, they come out of their shells and become active. Give a rabbit a cardboard box house with two doors in it and he or she will spend hours playing or sleeping in it. Bunnies also enjoy tossing noise-making objects, like plastic keys for babies, around. Additionally, a toilet paper tube stuffed with hay is a toy as well as a snack to them.

Because most caged rabbits lack social interaction and mental stimulation, they sink into deep depression. Even food isn't a cause for excitement for those poor creatures. Since their European ancestors lived in large colonies and burrowed underground, lacking a hiding place and companionship is unnatural for them.

House rabbits, like the many that I've lived with, developed distinct personalities when I treated them like pets instead of possessions. They each had their own little character quirks as well as likes and dislikes. I've also enjoyed interacting with them. Even changing their litter boxes and watching them get all excited when I set the plastic tubs down on the floor for them was always an enjoyable experience.

I wrote a memoir of the first eight years I spent with my long-eared companions in When a Man Loves a Rabbit. I only have a few copies left of this book so e-mail me if you're interested in buying a copy.

BUNNIES DO EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE

Here's something which cat and dog owners most likely don't know. The rabbit litter box is more than a place for them to relieve themselves.

Being grazing animals, rabbits like to eat and deficate at the same time. Placing a handful of hay at one end of the litter box will encourage bunnies to use it as a toilet. The hay is the bribe that lures rabbits in. Soon they become accustomed to eating and doing their business there. In fact, many bunnies become defensive of their litter boxes as it represents their domaine's marked place.

I've heard of some rabbit pairs or groups who share litter boxes. Others want their own. Whichever is the case, litters are more to a rabbit than a toilet is to us humans.

Rabbits are territorial creatures. They often will fight if not introduced properly. Like people, some fall in love instantly while others develop an instant dislike for one another. Then there are those who need to have time to bond with each other.

Some rabbits like to nap in their litter boxes. They feel either safe in there or they want to protect their marked space. Either way, it's a good idea to have several boxes available if the rabbits figure they'd rather sleep in one while using the other for a toilet.

In my many years of living with rabbits, I've found it fairly easy to litter train them. One instinct of bunnies is that they don't soil their warrens. This translates to keeping their sleeping and safe places clean. Rarely have I had rabbits mess in their hiding place boxes. There's often something wrong with them when they do that.

Having lived with rabbits as house pets, many being free range companions, I wrote a book called When a Man Loves a Rabbit: Learning and Living With Bunnies It's a memoir of all the wonderful things I discovered about them as well as the mischief they got into. Find out more about this charming paperback at Bruce Atchison's books page.

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WHERE CAN YOU FIND AN ENCYCLOPEDIA FOR ALL THINGS RABBIT?

Have you noticed that "how to" books can be tedious to read? One encyclopedic book is actually enjoyable to study. Along with scientific facts, it has plenty of humorous anecdotes.


David L. Fisher has written a brand new e-book called Encyclopedia Rabbitica, A thorough, informative, and fun book on understanding your pet rabbit.  The helpful information in this e-book will assist you in making  the most out of your relationship with all of your companion animals. If you have pets, this book can teach you a lot, and it will amuse you too. Fisher's book  explains their behaviors, the reasons behind them, and helps people and animals understand each other to the benefit of both.


Because rabbits are prey animals, they need to have their instincts understood by humans. Unlike dogs and cats, the trust of bunnies must be won. Fisher's book will guide you through the process of winning your rabbit's affection. His advice will transform your long-eared companion from a cowering ball of fur into a dynamic creature, full of curiosity and charm.


In addition to the knowledgeable advice and factual content, Fisher has included many excellent photographs of his rabbits. Having had bunnies in his home for more than a decade, he knows their behaviours intimately


Additionally, Encyclopedia Rabbitica is priced at only $2.01, a price anybody can afford. Visit LuLu to purchase this comprehensive book on rabbit behaviour and how to have the best possible relationship with your pet bunny.


When a Man Loves a Rabbit: Learning and Living With Bunnies would make a great companion to Fisher's Encyclopedia Rabbitica. It verifies what he wrote and has many hilarious vignettes of bunny mischief. Though there are sad moments in my eight-year memoir of living with house rabbits, all pet owners realize that they must face the departure of their companions. For more information on When a Man Loves a Rabbit, visit the Bruce Atchison's books link at the top of this page.

The meaning of Easter

To the general public, Easter is a time when chocolate eggs and bunnies appear on the store shelves. While children participate in Easter egg hunts, adults prepare hams for Sunday lunch. Relatives come to visit, taking advantage of the three or four days off from work. Parents foolishly buy children live bunnies that invariably wind up in animal shelters or backyard hutches once the novelty wears off and the rabbits become an irksome chore. Churches traditionally observe Lent as well as Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Through over-familiarity with these activities, the real message of Easter is obscured.

In my Deliverance From Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School) memoir, I recorded my feelings and experiences of being five hundred miles from home for months at a stretch. During two of the three Easters that I was able to be home with my family, I cared little for the resurrection of Christ. It was just a tale that the supervisors and Sunday school teachers ordered me to believe. Being away from the concentration camp, as I thought of that institution, was the best thing about the holiday. When I gave my life to Christ at a Vacation Bible School in August of 1969, all those stories about Jesus gained a whole new dimension for me. Here's an excerpt from my memoir of how the truth of Easter changed my perspective on this holy day.

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Diane and I attended the Church Of the Nazarene's Easter Sunday service. Mom stayed home with Linda, saying that she did not feel like going. Roy was at Red Deer so at least I had a break from his juvenile questions. Now that I was a born-again Christian, the Easter message held special relevance. In years past, it was merely a story like all the others in the Bible. Now I understood the tremendous price Christ paid for purchasing our forgiveness as well as why he needed to die and rise again the third day. I believed in previous years that Pontius Pilate defeated him. Now I understood that Jesus died voluntarily for everybody and rose victoriously on the third day.

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Deliverance from Jericho contains many more vignettes of what life was like in that government-run institution. These range from poignant experiences of homesickness to hilarious incidents of mischief. This 196-page paperback, containing 6 black and white photos, sells for $25.00 through the PayPal-equipped InScribe writers group website. E-mail me for further information or if you don't have PayPal but still wish to place an order.