Hop to It: A Guide to Training Your Pet Rabbit

by Samantha Hunter

Offers advice on selecting, transporting, feeding, handling, grooming, and training a rabbit, and includes information on common health problems.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 1991

Reviews

[Kelsie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somehow a used copy of this ended up in my house and I perused it to see if it had any new insights for me. Instead, I ended up being absolutely appalled at the amount of inaccurate and harmful information. DO NOT look to this book for rabbit care advice; this woman advocates both trancing your rabbit to 'calm' it and replicating the 'danger' foot thump so it freezes up and can be handled. A trance is a response to being caught by a predator, and is incredibly stressful and potentially harmful for the rabbit. It should never be purposefully utilized! Intentionally invoking responses of fear in an animal for your own convenience is cruel and irresponsible.

This book also promotes using a wire-floored cage that does not provide enough space for the rabbit to run around. Rabbits do not have padded feet, and wire floors can lead to sore hocks. They also need enough room to excercise - preferably at least several square feet of penned in space. The diet advice was the last glaring issue I had here: timothy hay should be the primary food source for a rabbit, with a much much smaller portion of pellets. Hay is crucial to the rabbit's digestive system - don't feed it enough hay and you will have a nasty mess to clean at their back end, and eventually more serious health problems. Fruits and vegetables are not interchangeable either - a small portion of greens is fine each day, but fruits should be given in very small quantities as a special treat, as they have high sugar content.

The House Rabbit Society is an infinitely better resource for rabbit care.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very outdated

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of written like a long blog post.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will never look at rabbits the same way again, they can be as clever as cats and dogs and just as manipulative!