My rabbit is not herself

Q

I have two five-year-old female spayed rabbits. One of them is less active than the other and her back feet have lost hair and look a bit thickened. I wonder if this is the cause of her slowing down and should I contact the vet?

A

This needs a vet consultation before it gets any worse with secondary infection.

It might be a case of pododermatitis, which rabbit breeders sometimes call “sore hocks”.

There are some known underlying causes and two important ones are being overweight or arthritic. Both of these problems will restrict activity and result in the rabbit lying around too much.

Another cause is a hutch that is too small for the rabbit to get adequate exercise.

Weight gain is very common in older rabbits and may be caused by incorrect feeding. Many owners struggle with conflicting advice, feed incorrectly (with muesli-type diets etc) or simply get the quantities wrong.

A common mistake is to overfeed with pellets, which should only form five per cent of the diet.

Pellets should be fed according to the manufacturer’s instructions, which as a rule is about a level tablespoonful per kilo.

Around 10 per cent of the diet should be greens and 85 per cent good-quality hay or grass.

Charities such as PDSA, RSPCA and the Blue Cross all provide good advice on diet.

The Rabbit Welfare Association &

Fund has produced a booklet called “On

the Hop”, which I recommend for information on all matters concerning rabbit welfare.

Q

Our male cocker spaniel cross loves chasing a ball when we are out for a walk, but refuses to let us have it back. He goes straight to his bed when we get home and guards it, getting quite snappy. What can we do?

A

There are two separate problems here. The first is his refusal to drop the ball, and the second is his guarding it once in his bed.

Refusing to give the ball back is very common and should be relatively easy for you to solve. He needs to learn a new command, such as “drop it”. As with all dog training, this is reward-based. When he has the ball, offer a treat and give the command.

As soon as the ball is dropped, immediately give him the treat. Don’t try to take the ball away or chase after him – that’s just part of his game.

With patience and consistency, the majority of dogs learn quite quickly.

Guarding objects in his bed is less straightforward. It is likely he will guard any object he has in bed, not just the ball. This could escalate and end with someone getting bitten. For this reason I recommend the help of a qualified animal behaviourist.

This helps the family to learn subtle signals that dogs give out before growling or snapping.

Programmes work on the basic principle of positive rewards for good behaviour, and counter conditioning to distract from the bad.

It aims to teach the dog that when people are approaching his bed it always results in pleasant experiences, such as praise or a treat.