{"topic_id":"aemv_care_guide_rabbit","category":"exotic-pet-care-guide","context":"---\ntopic_id: aemv_care_guide_rabbit\ncategory: exotic-pet-care-guide\ntitle: \"Rabbit — AEMV exotic companion care guide (housing, diet, common disorders)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians (AEMV), Exotics Companion Care Series trifold (PDF landed pdf-raw/aemv/rabbit.pdf), retrieved 2026-08-16\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/aemv/rabbit.pdf\ndate_parsed: 2026-08-16\ntokens_estimated: 420\nverification:\n  method: paraphrase\n  claims: 12\n  note: \"Paraphrase of AEMV client-education trifold; 12 key facts (temperature, cage size, wire spacing, gestation, diet cautions, disease names) are quoted verbatim and substring-checked against the landed PDF text via verify_exotic_aemv.py. Narrative sentences are restated in the dataset's own words; AEMV is a veterinary professional association publishing free client-education material with no on-document redistribution restriction.\"\n  date: 2026-08-16\nsource_document: \"AEMV Exotics Companion Care Series — Rabbit\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians (AEMV)\"\n  title: \"Rabbit — AEMV Exotic Companion Care Guide\"\n  url: \"https://aemv.org/exotic-pet-care-guides/\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-08-16\"\n  ref: \"\"\n  doc_type: \"veterinary association client-education PDF (free)\"\n  needs_review: false\nauthority_tier: T2\nauthority_tier_basis: \"T2:veterinary_association\"\nauthority_tier_date: 2026-08-16\n---\n\n# Rabbit — AEMV Exotic Companion Care Guide\n\nSource: Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians (AEMV), *Exotics Companion Care Series* \"How to Keep Your Rabbit Happy, Healthy and Safe\" / \"Common Disorders of Rabbits\" / \"About Your Rabbit\". PDF landed at `pdf-raw/aemv/rabbit.pdf`. This is a consolidated husbandry-and-health manual drawn from that single veterinary-association source; figures and disease names are quoted from the PDF, narrative is paraphrased.\n\n## Species overview\nRabbits are lagomorphs; domestic rabbits descend from European rabbits. They are gentle, quiet companion animals that need socialization and careful handling — the hindquarters must be supported, because a kicking rabbit can suffer serious spinal injury.\n\n## Housing & environment\n- Maintain ambient temperature between 55–85°F (13–29°C) with good ventilation; clean the enclosure every few days.\n- Provide a hide box or tunnel, items for chewing (untreated wood, cardboard, safe wooden toys free of artificial dyes/flavors), and substrates such as shredded paper, straw or hay; avoid pine, cedar and corn cob for bedding.\n- Give as much space as possible — ideally the rabbit can travel three hops in every direction inside its house — plus a large exercise run. Provide at least some solid flooring (wire or slatted flooring can cause foot lesions).\n\n## Diet & nutrition\n- The most important part of the diet is grass hay, available at all times, plus a limited amount of high-quality uniform pellets made from grass hay (about 1 tablespoon per 2 lbs body weight).\n- Avoid \"gourmet\" pellets that include seeds and other additives, and any pellets containing grains (corn, wheat) or dried fruits/nuts. Growing and lactating rabbits may be offered alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets, but are weaned off alfalfa between 4 and 6 months (too high in protein/calcium).\n- Offer a handful of fresh dark leafy greens and other vegetables daily (introduce gradually). Fresh drinking water must always be available (sipper bottle, checked for leaks). Rabbits practice cecotrophy (ingesting soft cecal droppings).\n\n## Social & behavior\n- Rabbits may be kept as pairs (spay/neuter to prevent unwanted reproduction, aggression and fight injuries). Supervise interaction with young children; handle carefully, especially when removing from the cage.\n\n## Common disorders\nAEMV lists: cardiac; gastrointestinal (poor/reduced appetite, reduced pooping, diarrhea); eye (bulging, draining/crustiness, cataracts, redness); dental (crooked/overgrown teeth, drooling); infectious (Escherichia coli, Pasteurella, Bordetella, syphilis, Myxmatosis, viral hemorrhagic fever); malnutrition (obesity, slow digestive tract, poor hair coat, dental disease); nervous (Head tilt, circling, paralysis, seizures); trauma/injuries (fractures, wounds, burns/electrocution); urogenital (Calcium sludge, stones); skin (Sore hock, urine scald, fur loss, parasites); reproductive (uterine/testicular cancer, mammary masses); respiratory (Runny nose, labored breathing); zoonotic (rabies, Lyme disease).\n\n## Veterinary care\n- Take the rabbit to a veterinarian immediately after purchase, then for an annual exam; have the oral cavity examined for dental disease.\n- Spay females early: it has been reported that 80% of female rabbits over the age of 3 years may develop uterine cancer.\n- Do not administer medications unless vet-directed; some drugs for other pets or humans are toxic to rabbits.\n\n## Resources (per AEMV trifold)\nAssociation of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians (AEMV.com); Lafeber Emeraid (lafeber.com/vet/mammal-medicine); Oxbow Animal Health (oxbowanimalhealth.com); House Rabbit Society (rabbit.org).\n\n## Honest scope note\nSingle-source manual from one veterinary-association trifold; a general care overview, not a substitute for species-specific veterinary advice or for the per-aspect topics (husbandry/nutrition/health/toxicology) already in this dataset. Disease list and husbandry numbers are quoted from the AEMV PDF; no NRC-style nutrient-requirement percentages are provided by this source.\n","sources":["exotic-pet-care-guide — Rabbit — AEMV Exotic Companion Care Guide (retrieved 2026-08-16)"],"source":{"authority":"exotic-pet-care-guide","title":"Rabbit — AEMV Exotic Companion Care Guide","url":"https://aemv.org/exotic-pet-care-guides/","retrieved":"2026-08-16","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"AEMV Exotics Companion Care Series — Rabbit","verification_file":"pdf-raw/aemv/rabbit.pdf"},"source_document":"AEMV Exotics Companion Care Series — Rabbit","source_file":"pdf-raw/aemv/rabbit.pdf","trust":{"authority_tier":"T2","fidelity":"paraphrase","license":null,"display_grade":"B"},"tokens_estimated":420,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}