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Tuesday, June 5, 2018

This is Jonah

This is Jonah. He is a neutered, male Dutch rabbit. They can be black and white or brown and white, but they generally have this saddle-shoe pattern. We got him from a breeder, but he is not show quality because he has some white mixed in with his gray. We weren't planning on showing him (for 4-H) anyway so we didn't care. He lives outside year round. When it gets severely cold (below 20F), we move him into another rabbit hutch in the garage. He is well cared for-- kale and parsley every morning and unlimited Oxbow timothy hay. We also give him about a quarter to half cup of Oxbow rabbit pellets each day. In summer, he eats less hay because he's out in the yard in this little pen eating grass. He also loves dandelion leaves and small branches from our baldcypress tree. I wouldn't say he's the most affectionate rabbit and sometimes he's downright obstinate about being held, but he's so soft to pet and fun to watch. If you give him any long tube of cardboard box or packaging, he immediately goes right through back and forth a few times. 

We keep his living space very clean as one can see by his very white feet. He uses a corner litter box in his hutch and we clean it daily. This is important because we don't want flies to be attracted to his hutch. Working at the exotic veterinarian for many years, I saw so many rabbits that had maggots inside their anus because flies had a chance to lay their eggs there. That definitely denotes an unclean environment. When a pet is in a cage, it doesn't have a chance to get away from flies so we have to do everything we can to keep the flies away from the cage. We have not had any problems with flies in the four nearly five years we've had Jonah. We worry more about the hot summer days and stray dogs more than anything. We had the hardest time choosing the right hutch and the right outdoor play area. Nothing seems to be made to last, but costs like it's supposed to. More on that later.