How to Groom Your Rabbit | Pet Rabbits

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Mary: So we're talking today about grooming rabbits and for rabbits who shed profusely this is super important. Most rabbits shed really heavily about three times a year. Some rabbits seem to never stop shedding. But most rabbits will have defined shed periods where you'll actually see a pattern on their back as the shed moves toward one end of the rabbit or the other. When the rabbit starts shedding copious amounts of hair will be coming out. The rabbit is naturally going to groom himself and ingest hair. There's always hair in a rabbit's stomach so don't feel that you have to avoid getting hair in a rabbit's stomach you won't be able to. But if you can lighten the load a bit by good grooming that really helps. This is the kind of comb that I use. I believe it's called a flea comb. There's a variation of this comb made that actually had a red rubber thread through it to help collect hair that way. Some people use a brush. It doesn't really matter what you use as long as your rabbit will tolerate it enough to allow you to do a good job. So this rabbit, like Bean is shedding and you'll notice, excuse me, with the shed pattern when a rabbit is shedding like this you can actually pluck him, you can take hair out...

Amy: Some rabbits don't like it when you pluck though.

Mary: Most rabbits don't like it but you may have to do it once in awhile because there is so much hair that you won't even be able to get the comb through it efficiently if you don't remove the tufts that are sticking out. This is one I just took off of this rabbit. And now Amy's going to groom him with the comb, see what comes out and also show you...

Amy: Well I actually use, it's a human, it's for your eyebrows but you can see that the comb is really thing like this...

Mary: Very fine, yeah.

Amy: ...and that's what I do when I get the cheeks. I just go under the eyes and make sure I get all the sand off her...

Mary: And this is great if your rabbits have runny eyes at all and there's a little bit of a stain pattern under the eyes this fine comb will kind of open up the hairs and allow the skin to breathe again which is really good.

Amy: Yeah, or I do their ears a little bit like that. But this one, yeah I never used this. Show me how you...

Mary: Oh I'll show you. Okay, yeah. Excuse me little Bean, may I have you? What a good boy. What a good boy.

Amy: And speaking of grooming. I want to talk to you about cleaning. You don't need to give your rabbit a bath ever. Correct?

Mary: No. I think we're going to do a separate talk just on baths. But no, that's a good question for grooming. Rabbits bathe themselves, they're like cats. They're prodigious self groomers and they will keep themselves immaculately clean given half the chance. So you do not need to do that for your rabbit. And we're just showing you today...

Amy: So you're not going against the hair you're going into it...

Mary: I'm not, some people like to go against the hair and if the rabbit tolerates it...you see he's turning around he doesn't like that as much. But if he tolerates it the idea is just to do the best you can you'll get lots of hair out like that in a flea comb.

Amy: You can make candles. You can mix that with wax and make a hair candle.

Mary: You can stuff cushions with this stuff...

Amy: Oh yeah.

Mary: ...absolutely and knowing you, you probably do. This is my rabbit cushion!

Amy: There you go. Yeah the less hair they have to swallow the better because that can slow down their gut right?

Mary: Absolutely, absolutely, yup.

Amy: It's a two timer. Two way! Look at that, there.

Mary: And grooming on top of the tail is an important area because it's not easy for them to reach back there and you'll get out a good amount of hair.

Amy: Yeah especially if they're old or they're obese and they can't...that's why you don't want a fat rabbit is they can't really

[nakoma]

For the people that keep bringing this up...It's not that they don't like each other, I see it more of a clash in personalities. Like good friends who are simply opposites. One is calm, serious and professional while the other is spontaneous,  sunny and sometimes silly. x D

[SnowLeafWoods]

That's one tolerant bunny.  Lily acts like she's being murdered when I try to brush her.

[themollymelon]

I usually put my bunnies’ hair outside for the birds to collect and make nests of. :)

[ChrisUrsiny]

that is one of the most calmest rabbit i have ever seen, when i had my rabbit she hated being groomed 2x a year, spring and fall, the only way i was able to groom her, i had to give her treats when doing her bi-yearly grooming .

[SeabassFishbrains]

My bunny loves grooming time so much, he'll even turn around bit by bit on his own just to let me get all sides evenly ^-^ he always lets me deal with his eye sand too. The only times I've ever needed to do any kind of bathing for him was once when he fell asleep outside and a slug climbed onto him, I had to use a warm/damp wash cloth to get the slug slime off of him because he was too freaked out about it to do it himself properly and one when he scratched his eye and I needed to clean it up with a warm/wet washcloth again. Otherwise bunnies are very good at keeping themselves clean which is much appreciated by me :)

[taylorchappel]

Lol I use the furminator. But one thing that you guys did not mention was be extremely careful of the hip and rib bones. The brush can easily injure by going through the fur and hitting the bone.

[BinitheBunny]

I can groom my owner's hair (no joke!) what does it mean about me? ;)

[rainbowfallslps]

I have a cat and she legit feels and acts like a rabbit it freaks me out
Her nose even moves like a rabbit's ;-;

[angelbarf]

UGH seriously the worst time of my life is when my bunny is in his shedding periods. Hair in my mouth, hair on my floor, hair in my hair. ;_; I have to brush him like 20 times a day oh man. x.x

[undergroundalcoholsi]

I used to have a rabbit and every spring when he was shedding the local crows and magpies used to torture him, plucking hair off him. We had to try and keep him in, even though he wanted to be in the garden. We would just brush him and throw the hair outside for the birds.

[MidnightMuldoon]

My mini red Chainsaw LOVES getting brushed with the eyebrow brush. THANK YOU AMY!!!

[evelynosborne]

Omg I love you ladies. Thank you for being so informative and gentle with all the rabbits in your videos.

[JRenee]

I thought my rabbit was shedding but wow! He hasn't shed this much yet. I've never been able to just pull out tuffs of fur like this.

[MadameCatty]

My rabbits usually groom themselves. I just give them a hand when they shed really much or are sick/injured, wearing a cone or something. Or they got themselves really, really dirty.

[inkiidonut]

My heart dropped when she pulled out the first tuft out of nowherr

[FacadesEdge]

Thanks for the info! I have a Lava brush (lava rock shaped like a brush sold in the small pet section.) that removes the shedding fur off of my mini lop but I believe it mostly takes from the top layer. That flea comb looks like it does a much better job. I'll be buying one of those. :)

[leightonslittlehops]

Plucking is so much fun! You can needle felt with all the leftover fur :)

[woodstrider]

excellent video. I just got my  first rabbit. These videos are gonna be very helpful for us both.

[SlprBatr]

it's comfortable around them so it can relax.I have an american fuzzy lop.

[krrrruptidsoless]

So Brer Rabbit likes the Briar Patch because of the Thorns help him with relieving his shed hair