Bits for Pets Blog

Six abandoned kittens have found an unexpected new mother figure – a pet rabbit.

Veterinary nurse Melanie Humble took the three-week-old kittens to her Aberdeen home.

The kittens seemed to think Summer the rabbit was their mother and began to climb all over her and try to feed from her.

Efforts will be made to find the four males and two females permanent homes in the coming weeks.

Melanie, 29, told the BBC Scotland news website: “The abandoned kittens were handed in when they were about three weeks old and I took them home.

“Summer the rabbit was taken inside on Bonfire Night because of the fireworks and the kittens seemed to really like her and thought she was their mother.”

‘She’s gigantic’

She added: “They were trying to get milk from her and climbing over her. And Summer was not bothered by them at all.

“Summer is five months old and she’s gigantic. It is lovely to see them all together.

“They are all doing well and Cats Protection will re-home them.”

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“Our nine year old daughter is pestering us for a pet. We cannot give time to a dog, should we get her a rabbit?”

CAROL SMILLIE:-

I think it’s a great idea to get a pet for your daughter as it will give her a sense of responsibility and a friend in the house. It’s also good that you are aware of the responsibility of owning a pet. Ninety per cent of children will nag for a pet but few will make good on all the promises. Robbie, my son, had a guinea-pig, Georgie, when he was about 8. We asked a neighbour to look after it when we went away on holiday and it took him the best part of a week to notice that the guinea-pig wasn’t there when we got back. So you need to be realistic and to be prepared to take on the animal if your child gets bored.

Your nine-year-old needs a tactile animal, one that she can play and interact with. Guinea-pigs and rabbits are good fun: awake during the day and happy to be handled – although you must make sure that they are picked up and stroked often. They are also portable and their cages are easy to clean out. Rabbits can also live indoors as they can be house-trained, like a cat. If you choose a hamster or a rat, don’t keep it in your child’s room. They scatter sawdust everywhere and they can become quite whiffy.

Last, if you have never had an pet before, you must check that your daughter isn’t allergic to animals. You will need to expose her to various pets in other people’s houses.

Christie, my eldest daughter, has to wash her hands every time she touches a guinea-pig or rabbit or she comes out in a rash. Once you’ve established that your child is OK, make sure that you buy a pet from a good breeder who has children. That will mean that the animal will be used to being handled by young people.

EMMA MAGNUS:-

The Animal Welfare Act 2007 makes it an offence for a child under 16 to buy a pet, so it is good that you are considering how much time you have, rather than your daughter’s time constraints, as all responsibility will come down to you. Rabbits are the third most common pet in the UK and seem like a good option for younger children who can’t walk a dog alone or may not be able to cope with the attention it needs.

However, a rabbit can live for between five and ten years, by which time your daughter will be 16. Will she still be interested then? Also, unless you let your rabbit in the home as a house pet, it should be kept in a pair or with a guinea-pig, as they are very social animals. Unfortunately, most live alone at the end of the garden in a small hutch, cared for by begrudging parents. Many are rehomed – or put to sleep. The Rabbit Welfare Association and the RSPCA say that more than 10,000 rabbits are brought into rescue centres each year.

Rats can get a terrible press, but they are amazingly interactive as a pet. They learn quickly, are rarely aggressive and, unlike rabbits which, as a prey animal are prone to panic, they can be handled easily. They usually live for two years so are an ideal first pet and can be replaced cheaply. Unlike hamsters they are also awake when we are, so that you’re more likely to see it, and its nibbling and activity won’t disturb your sleep.

To test your daughter’s commitment to pet-keeping, why not get her to offer to pet-sit for your neighbours? If she reacts well to the daily chores, I would say go ahead with an animal that has a short life span. If she proves that she is more than capable of caring for an animal, you could move on to bigger pets as she grows up and is able to take on more responsibility.

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I’M great with arithmetic. My maths is correct 93 per cent of the time and who cares about the other eight per cent?

I’m even better with statistics, despite the fact that 49 per cent of them are completely made up.

But when it’s all boiled down, rabbits are the boys when it comes to number crunching.

To start with, there are 67 breeds of rabbit with 537 varieties. They range in size from 1kg (that’s the Netherland Dwarf) to more than 6kg (the burly and aptly named, Flemish Giant).

Life span, if properly looked after, is normally six to eight years, but we do see rabbits living for more than a decade.

Females are called does, males are called bucks and generally you get between six and eight youngsters, called kittens, in a litter. The largest recorded litter size is 24.

It may surprise you to know that rabbits are the third most popular pet in Britain, with more than two millionrabbits living with us. Remarkably, one in 20 households now owns one or more pet rabbits.

But round about now is when the numbers begin to be bad news.

Unfortunately, around 33,000 rabbits are handed in to rescue centres every year.

That’s 33,000 owners who didn’t think long and hard about whether they really wanted a rabbit and whether they could devote the time and energy required to keep them fed, cleaned and occupied. If you are thinking about the work required, speak to the Rabbit Welfare Association ( 0870 046 5249 or www.houserabbit.co.uk).

Rabbit Rehome (www.rabbitrehome.org.uk) lists details for rescued rabbits looking for new homes and can put potential owners in touch with local rescue centres. Or contact the SSPCA.

And, as you might expect, the numbers get worse.

At least 80 per cent of rabbits in the UK are fed incorrectly and one of the most common reasons for rabbits becoming unwell is a poor diet. There are a number of reasons.

Firstly, rabbits’ teeth continue to grow throughout life.

While they chew 120 times a minute, it is crucial that rabbits are fed high-fibre diets to grind down these teeth. Hay or grass should be the bedrock of this diet, not the aesthetically-pleasing-to-humans muesli type mix that is still sold in many pet shops.

This type of diet allows selective feeding so that the rabbit just picks out the tasty bits, rather like a child presented with a huge finger buffet.

Consequently, 75 per cent of rabbits have dental abnormalities.

Next problem is that rabbits pass two forms of faeces. The hard pellet that is genuine waste and a soft caecotroph which must be re-ingested by the rabbit for proper digestion.

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Rabbits are the most abused domestic pet in England and Wales, with 35,000 abandoned every year, says the RSPCA.

The animal charity said a survey found that 70% of rescued rabbits had been kept hutched 24 hours a day.

Almost 40% had had no food, and half had been living in filthy conditions, it told the BBC.

It found that people bought rabbits but then quickly lost interest. On average the abandoned pets it came across had been dumped after just three months.

Many were simply released in the street or into the wild.

Responsibility

Rabbits are the third most popular pet after cats and dogs and the RSPCA says that rescue centres are struggling to cope with the 35,000 unwanted pets abandoned every year.

Anne Mitchell from the Rabbit Welfare Association warned that parents needed to realise the responsibilities that go with caring for rabbits.

The animals can live for up to eight years and cost £4,000 over their lifetime.

“If you didn’t have the children, would you be keen to have the rabbit? If you wouldn’t, don’t do it,” she said.

“Ninety percent of children get bored, they’re tired very quickly of the chores.

“You can’t treat it like Barbie doll and Action Man and just stuff it in the cupboard under the stairs, although sadly some of these rabbits do end up like that, totally neglected.”

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