Rabbit Care
Housing
The first consideration for housing your Dwarf Hotot rabbit is location: indoors or out? A rabbit housed indoors is protected from extreme weather conditions and predatory animals. Caring for an indoor rabbit is easier and more pleasant than going out to a hutch in all weather to feed, water, and clean. You can also form a closer bond when you share the same space as your bunny. So, I highly recommend keeping your Dwarf Hotot indoors. Indoors could be inside your home, in a barn, or even a well-ventilated garage.
Next, we shall consider the type of cage. I prefer a cage with a solid floor and a wire top. They are easy to clean, comfortable for the rabbit’s feet, readily available online and in most pet shops, and fairly affordable. Many are also visually appealing if your bunny will live in your home.
I've been using the 30x36" DuMor brand wire cages from Tractor Supply. The plastic pan sits perfectly inside the cage to offer the benefits of both a wire cage and a solid floor pen. I litter train my bunnies so I don't need to remove the pan for emptying. In the home, they aren’t very pretty as they come but you can easily build a wooden base for the cage to sit on in a style or color that fits your decor. If you choose to use the waste pan under the cage instead of inside it, be aware that the size can be awkward to remove and clean.
Wood hutches are another common way to house rabbits. A wooden hutch is easy to build or buy. They can be attractive and are often very large. A wood hutch is your best bet if you’ll be keeping your rabbit outdoors in order to best protect from predators. The biggest drawback from a wood hutch is the wood is absorbent. It’s difficult to fully clean the hutch if it becomes urine soaked. I recommend litter training to keep the hutch as clean as possible.
Finally, we will talk about what size cage your rabbit needs. Dwarf Hotots are small but moderately active rabbits. The absolute minimum cage size I suggest for a single Dwarf Hotot is four square feet of floor space and at least 14 inches tall. In my own rabbitry, the smallest cage I will use is six square feet.
Other features to consider when cage shopping:
* If your rabbit must live outside, it's imperative to provide appropriate housing. I suggest a wooden hutch that is raised off the ground to at least waist high. Mount the hutch securely to a wall or attach very sturdy legs that can't be easily tipped over. I would choose a hutch that has a solid roof of its entirety and a fully enclosed shelter area. Choose wire with small enough openings to keep out rodents.
Feeding
The backbone of your rabbit’s diet should be a high quality, nutritionally complete rabbit pellet. About 1/4 cup is plenty of pellets for a single, mature Dwarf Hotot. Feed a pregnant doe or bunnies under six months of age a little bit more and free feed a doe with her litter. I urge you to carefully measure the pellets for all but a doe with a litter. In my experience, bunnies are excellent beggars and get fat on air. Avoid an overweight rabbit: remember the ideal weight for Dwarf Hotots is 2.5 pounds!
I feed hay to my rabbits daily. Hay has a lot of benefits for a rabbit's dental, digestive, physical, and mental health. It helps with proper wearing of a rabbit's constantly growing teeth. Hay provides extra fiber to keep the digestive tract clear. Hay also encourages your rabbit's natural foraging behavior. I prefer to rotate between different kinds of hay periodically to give my rabbits a range of tastes, textures, and micronutrients. Timothy, orchard, meadow, oat, and bermuda hays are all good options for rabbits and are commonly available in pet stores and online pet suppliers. If you have more than a handful of rabbits, you may wish to purchase hay in bulk. It should be stored in an area that is well-ventilated, dry, and out of direct sunlight to keep it fresh longest.
I feed a few optional supplements to my rabbits. Every day I feed my Dwarf Hotots a half tablet of papaya enzyme. Papaya can help prevent fur blockage in rabbits. I also give Dr. Cheeke's YQ+ on a daily basis, another digestive supplement. To help prepare my rabbits for show condition and while does are nursing a litter, I feed Doc's Rabbit Enhancer. Again, these supplements are optional but I have found the benefits to be worth the extra expense.
You can feed fresh fruits and vegetables if you introduce them slowly. Strawberries, blueberries, kale, Swiss chard, and leafy lettuce are favorites of my own bunnies. I will also forage things such as clover (Trifolium repens), plantain weed (Plantago major, Plantago lanceolata), and chickweed (Sterralia media) - just be certain that foraged greens are from areas known not to be treated by herbicides and pesticides.
Grooming
Generally, rabbits are good about keeping themselves clean. Unless you have one of the rare bucks (males) that pees on himself to mark his territory, you should not need to bathe your rabbit. Dwarf Hotots need only occasional brushing when they are shedding. The only regular grooming required is to have the nails clipped every 4-6 weeks.
Health
The next topic in our quest to care for rabbits is health.
According to the breed standard, Dwarf Hotots have an ideal weight of 2.5 pounds with a max size of 3 pounds.
It’s a good practice to run your hand along your rabbit’s back at least once a week. You should be able to FEEL the spine, but not see it, in a rabbit of a healthy weight. If you can see the spine, your rabbit is underweight. If you cannot feel the spine, your bunny is a chunker and needs to lose weight. Even better if you have a small animal, postal, or infant scale that is accurate within the ounce to track your bunny’s weight.
One of the most important ways to have a healthy rabbit is to keep its environment clean. To keep the cage cleaner, I litter train my rabbits. The litter box can be emptied several times per week while the rest of the cage stays pretty clean.
To maintain solid floor cages: use a damp cloth to wipe down the cage base every 2-3 weeks. At least twice per year, I take the cages outside for a hose down and thorough scrub. I leave them to dry in the sun.
If you have a wire cage: scrub the solid resting surface weekly or as it becomes soiled. Use a stiff bristle brush to scrub the cage floor monthly to remove hair and manure that may get stuck. At least twice per year thoroughly wash and scrub the cage.
Food and water dishes should be cleaned weekly. I like to use stoneware bowls from the dollar store. They are inexpensive, hold a considerable amount of food or water, don’t spill easily, and I can put them through my dishwasher. Wash or replace toys when they become soiled.
In general, I have found Dwarf Hotots to be a healthy rabbit breed. They can be prone to intestinal blockages. Feeding hay and papaya tablets daily helps eliminate this risk.
Litter Training
Many are surprised to learn that rabbits are fairly easy to litter train. I train all of my rabbits to a litter box to keep their cages cleaner and make the task of cleaning up easier on myself. Here are some basics to litter training your own Dwarf Hotot:
Manage Your Expectations:
Kits learn litter training quicker if their mom is already litter trained. If not, it usually takes young bunnies a bit longer to catch on to relieving themselves in a box. I have found that most female rabbits litter train easily while males take longer and are often less fastidious to making sure everything makes it into the box. My best trained rabbits get all of their urine and 90% of their manure into the litter box. My messiest rabbits will leave droppings around the cage but still get urine in the box.
Use the Right Litter Box:
When I first started litter box training, I purchased the triangular type that are marketed for rabbits and other small pets. Even my smallest bunnies were too large to comfortably use this type of litter box and as a result, accidents were more common.
I prefer to purchase cheap plastic cat boxes. The ones I buy are 12x16 inches and I don’t recommend getting one much smaller than that.
Choosing Litter:
If you use a bedding material in your rabbit’s cage, the litter MUST be a different substance and texture or your rabbit will not understand the difference. For example, if you bed the cage with paper bedding, use pine pellets in the litter box.
DO NOT USE CLUMPING CAT LITTER! Recycled paper bedding (such as CareFresh) is very absorbent but can be costly and doesn’t help as much with odor. Pine pellets for horse stalls are affordable and absorbent and the scent of pine is pleasant. Aspen shavings are somewhat absorbent and help with odor. You could also use hay or straw, if you have them in bulk it can be very inexpensive but are neither useful for odor control nor absorbency.
Training:
Usually rabbits will choose one corner of their cage to relieve themselves. If you know where your rabbit currently toilets, you can place the litter box there with some manure or soiled litter inside. Otherwise, select a corner that is easy for you to access and place the box there.
Some rabbits will avoid the box and either go beside it or in a different corner. Having a second (or third) litter box on hand and placing it in the new potty spot is helpful. Avoid fully cleaning out the litter box while your rabbit is learning. Leave some manure and wet litter in the box each time you refresh it until your rabbit is reliably using a litter box. Extra litter boxes can be removed once your rabbit has chosen one to use.
Remember to be patient. Every rabbit will learn at its own pace. I’ve had a doe litter trained in three days and she later taught her babies to use the litter box. On the other hand, I had a very stubborn buck take WEEKS to use his litter box regularly.
Enrichment:
I am a big proponent of giving rabbits plenty of enrichment. In the cage, I like to offer a selection of 3-5 different toys. I keep an extra supply of toys so that I can rotate them out occasionally for interest. Rabbits like toys that they can chew, toss, rattle, and roll. Look for toys made of safe woods, paper/cardboard, sisal, palm, seagrass, etc.
Some budget rabbit toys ideas include cardboard boxes, cuttings from rabbit-safe trees (apple, maple, ash), pine cones, and tubes from paper towels and toilet tissue. You can create a dig box with a cardboard box filled with shredded paper, bedding, or organic potting soil.
Rabbits are naturally curious and like to explore. A puppy exercise pen (sometimes called an X-pen) makes a great playpen for a rabbit. In pleasant weather, you can let your rabbit play outdoors with supervision. I prefer to give my rabbits time in the exercise pens at least a few times per week.
* More information coming soon!
The first consideration for housing your Dwarf Hotot rabbit is location: indoors or out? A rabbit housed indoors is protected from extreme weather conditions and predatory animals. Caring for an indoor rabbit is easier and more pleasant than going out to a hutch in all weather to feed, water, and clean. You can also form a closer bond when you share the same space as your bunny. So, I highly recommend keeping your Dwarf Hotot indoors. Indoors could be inside your home, in a barn, or even a well-ventilated garage.
Next, we shall consider the type of cage. I prefer a cage with a solid floor and a wire top. They are easy to clean, comfortable for the rabbit’s feet, readily available online and in most pet shops, and fairly affordable. Many are also visually appealing if your bunny will live in your home.
I've been using the 30x36" DuMor brand wire cages from Tractor Supply. The plastic pan sits perfectly inside the cage to offer the benefits of both a wire cage and a solid floor pen. I litter train my bunnies so I don't need to remove the pan for emptying. In the home, they aren’t very pretty as they come but you can easily build a wooden base for the cage to sit on in a style or color that fits your decor. If you choose to use the waste pan under the cage instead of inside it, be aware that the size can be awkward to remove and clean.
Wood hutches are another common way to house rabbits. A wooden hutch is easy to build or buy. They can be attractive and are often very large. A wood hutch is your best bet if you’ll be keeping your rabbit outdoors in order to best protect from predators. The biggest drawback from a wood hutch is the wood is absorbent. It’s difficult to fully clean the hutch if it becomes urine soaked. I recommend litter training to keep the hutch as clean as possible.
Finally, we will talk about what size cage your rabbit needs. Dwarf Hotots are small but moderately active rabbits. The absolute minimum cage size I suggest for a single Dwarf Hotot is four square feet of floor space and at least 14 inches tall. In my own rabbitry, the smallest cage I will use is six square feet.
Other features to consider when cage shopping:
- Easy to clean. We discussed how wood can be hard to thoroughly clean. Shelves, tunnels, and tight spaces all make cleaning time more difficult which may mean the cage isn’t cleaned as often as it should be.
- Look for at least one large door to easily move your rabbit and supplies in and out.
- Correct size. It’s so important I’m mentioning it again.
* If your rabbit must live outside, it's imperative to provide appropriate housing. I suggest a wooden hutch that is raised off the ground to at least waist high. Mount the hutch securely to a wall or attach very sturdy legs that can't be easily tipped over. I would choose a hutch that has a solid roof of its entirety and a fully enclosed shelter area. Choose wire with small enough openings to keep out rodents.
Feeding
The backbone of your rabbit’s diet should be a high quality, nutritionally complete rabbit pellet. About 1/4 cup is plenty of pellets for a single, mature Dwarf Hotot. Feed a pregnant doe or bunnies under six months of age a little bit more and free feed a doe with her litter. I urge you to carefully measure the pellets for all but a doe with a litter. In my experience, bunnies are excellent beggars and get fat on air. Avoid an overweight rabbit: remember the ideal weight for Dwarf Hotots is 2.5 pounds!
I feed hay to my rabbits daily. Hay has a lot of benefits for a rabbit's dental, digestive, physical, and mental health. It helps with proper wearing of a rabbit's constantly growing teeth. Hay provides extra fiber to keep the digestive tract clear. Hay also encourages your rabbit's natural foraging behavior. I prefer to rotate between different kinds of hay periodically to give my rabbits a range of tastes, textures, and micronutrients. Timothy, orchard, meadow, oat, and bermuda hays are all good options for rabbits and are commonly available in pet stores and online pet suppliers. If you have more than a handful of rabbits, you may wish to purchase hay in bulk. It should be stored in an area that is well-ventilated, dry, and out of direct sunlight to keep it fresh longest.
I feed a few optional supplements to my rabbits. Every day I feed my Dwarf Hotots a half tablet of papaya enzyme. Papaya can help prevent fur blockage in rabbits. I also give Dr. Cheeke's YQ+ on a daily basis, another digestive supplement. To help prepare my rabbits for show condition and while does are nursing a litter, I feed Doc's Rabbit Enhancer. Again, these supplements are optional but I have found the benefits to be worth the extra expense.
You can feed fresh fruits and vegetables if you introduce them slowly. Strawberries, blueberries, kale, Swiss chard, and leafy lettuce are favorites of my own bunnies. I will also forage things such as clover (Trifolium repens), plantain weed (Plantago major, Plantago lanceolata), and chickweed (Sterralia media) - just be certain that foraged greens are from areas known not to be treated by herbicides and pesticides.
Grooming
Generally, rabbits are good about keeping themselves clean. Unless you have one of the rare bucks (males) that pees on himself to mark his territory, you should not need to bathe your rabbit. Dwarf Hotots need only occasional brushing when they are shedding. The only regular grooming required is to have the nails clipped every 4-6 weeks.
Health
The next topic in our quest to care for rabbits is health.
According to the breed standard, Dwarf Hotots have an ideal weight of 2.5 pounds with a max size of 3 pounds.
It’s a good practice to run your hand along your rabbit’s back at least once a week. You should be able to FEEL the spine, but not see it, in a rabbit of a healthy weight. If you can see the spine, your rabbit is underweight. If you cannot feel the spine, your bunny is a chunker and needs to lose weight. Even better if you have a small animal, postal, or infant scale that is accurate within the ounce to track your bunny’s weight.
One of the most important ways to have a healthy rabbit is to keep its environment clean. To keep the cage cleaner, I litter train my rabbits. The litter box can be emptied several times per week while the rest of the cage stays pretty clean.
To maintain solid floor cages: use a damp cloth to wipe down the cage base every 2-3 weeks. At least twice per year, I take the cages outside for a hose down and thorough scrub. I leave them to dry in the sun.
If you have a wire cage: scrub the solid resting surface weekly or as it becomes soiled. Use a stiff bristle brush to scrub the cage floor monthly to remove hair and manure that may get stuck. At least twice per year thoroughly wash and scrub the cage.
Food and water dishes should be cleaned weekly. I like to use stoneware bowls from the dollar store. They are inexpensive, hold a considerable amount of food or water, don’t spill easily, and I can put them through my dishwasher. Wash or replace toys when they become soiled.
In general, I have found Dwarf Hotots to be a healthy rabbit breed. They can be prone to intestinal blockages. Feeding hay and papaya tablets daily helps eliminate this risk.
Litter Training
Many are surprised to learn that rabbits are fairly easy to litter train. I train all of my rabbits to a litter box to keep their cages cleaner and make the task of cleaning up easier on myself. Here are some basics to litter training your own Dwarf Hotot:
Manage Your Expectations:
Kits learn litter training quicker if their mom is already litter trained. If not, it usually takes young bunnies a bit longer to catch on to relieving themselves in a box. I have found that most female rabbits litter train easily while males take longer and are often less fastidious to making sure everything makes it into the box. My best trained rabbits get all of their urine and 90% of their manure into the litter box. My messiest rabbits will leave droppings around the cage but still get urine in the box.
Use the Right Litter Box:
When I first started litter box training, I purchased the triangular type that are marketed for rabbits and other small pets. Even my smallest bunnies were too large to comfortably use this type of litter box and as a result, accidents were more common.
I prefer to purchase cheap plastic cat boxes. The ones I buy are 12x16 inches and I don’t recommend getting one much smaller than that.
Choosing Litter:
If you use a bedding material in your rabbit’s cage, the litter MUST be a different substance and texture or your rabbit will not understand the difference. For example, if you bed the cage with paper bedding, use pine pellets in the litter box.
DO NOT USE CLUMPING CAT LITTER! Recycled paper bedding (such as CareFresh) is very absorbent but can be costly and doesn’t help as much with odor. Pine pellets for horse stalls are affordable and absorbent and the scent of pine is pleasant. Aspen shavings are somewhat absorbent and help with odor. You could also use hay or straw, if you have them in bulk it can be very inexpensive but are neither useful for odor control nor absorbency.
Training:
Usually rabbits will choose one corner of their cage to relieve themselves. If you know where your rabbit currently toilets, you can place the litter box there with some manure or soiled litter inside. Otherwise, select a corner that is easy for you to access and place the box there.
Some rabbits will avoid the box and either go beside it or in a different corner. Having a second (or third) litter box on hand and placing it in the new potty spot is helpful. Avoid fully cleaning out the litter box while your rabbit is learning. Leave some manure and wet litter in the box each time you refresh it until your rabbit is reliably using a litter box. Extra litter boxes can be removed once your rabbit has chosen one to use.
Remember to be patient. Every rabbit will learn at its own pace. I’ve had a doe litter trained in three days and she later taught her babies to use the litter box. On the other hand, I had a very stubborn buck take WEEKS to use his litter box regularly.
Enrichment:
I am a big proponent of giving rabbits plenty of enrichment. In the cage, I like to offer a selection of 3-5 different toys. I keep an extra supply of toys so that I can rotate them out occasionally for interest. Rabbits like toys that they can chew, toss, rattle, and roll. Look for toys made of safe woods, paper/cardboard, sisal, palm, seagrass, etc.
Some budget rabbit toys ideas include cardboard boxes, cuttings from rabbit-safe trees (apple, maple, ash), pine cones, and tubes from paper towels and toilet tissue. You can create a dig box with a cardboard box filled with shredded paper, bedding, or organic potting soil.
Rabbits are naturally curious and like to explore. A puppy exercise pen (sometimes called an X-pen) makes a great playpen for a rabbit. In pleasant weather, you can let your rabbit play outdoors with supervision. I prefer to give my rabbits time in the exercise pens at least a few times per week.
* More information coming soon!