Rabbits...

Those cute and furry friends that we all love. If you've lived in the country you may have had a rabbit or wanted to have one, or maybe you've also eaten rabbit at some point and didn't realize it, maybe you were told it was chicken.... Luckily I have never eaten rabbit and don't want to.

Saturday, February 19

Why wouldn't I eat rabbit?

Well, looking for pictures of my old pet Luffy, who died recently, I found pictures of other pets I had. Growing up I have always been surrounded by pets, my parents love animals. We have had dogs, cats, fish, morrocoy, chickens, quail and rabbits.

So I grew up surrounded by animals. The rabbit was a pet, we never ate it, I'm not saying the other animals were for consumption, just the chickens and quail eggs.

I would not eat rabbit because I saw it as a pet since I was little and it was my friend, so out of sentiment I would not eat this animal, the same would be if I had had a pet pig, I would not eat pig meat or any other product derived from it, because I am very sentimental about these things.

How did the rabbit come into my life?

Well, this was a headache for my parents, according to my point of view. At that time I had lost my dog named Chiqui, who was a very cute and intelligent Belgian Shepherd. This dog grew up with me since I was a very little girl, so he was my faithful friend. Losing my pet due to an illness, I had become really sad.

Days went by and we went to an animal fair that was in my hometown. I don't really remember everything that was there, I know there was food, games, animals, fish exhibits and many attractive things, but what caught my attention were a lot of beautiful rabbits that were for sale.

My parents have been pet loving people, but they don't buy pets. We usually rescue pets or they arrive as a gift.

At the time I was very little and I had and still have a great love for animals, especially cats, dogs, rabbits, dolphins, penguins, etc, etc, etc. So seeing some beautiful rabbits and that they were for sale made me want one, but my parents said no, they were not going to buy a pet. I remember I was very insistent, but they kept saying no. Until...

A friend of my parents came to us and heard me asking and crying for a rabbit, so he decided to buy it for me, my parents were a little upset because they didn't have a really comfortable space in the house to take care of it, but I didn't care much about that, I was very happy because they gave me a rabbit.

I chose the smallest and whitest rabbit I saw, it was a small male rabbit, so I named him Chiqui, yes, like my old dog that had just died. The rabbit lessened the pain I felt for the loss of my dog.

Despite all the love I had for him, the rabbit lived a large part of his life locked up, as I grew older I realized this, but I was too attached to him to give him to anyone else. Actually the rabbit spent the day running around the yard and at night we kept him in a big cage that my father had made, so he wouldn't escape.

What did the rabbit feed on?

My parents are animal production engineers, so in their college years they learned about how to raise many animals, among those were rabbits, since at the university there was a large piece of land to have a rabbit farm. So my father knew a good way how to feed rabbits, not only with vegetables like carrots or lettuce, he also needed conejina, which is a prepared food for rabbits, guinea pigs, guinea pigs, hamsters. This feed has a combination of ground cereals, oil pastes, wheat, corn, dried grains, rice, barley, vegetable oil, etc, etc. This food is used to fatten the animals for consumption, but it also has a great caloric and energetic contribution, so it is important to give rabbits good amounts of rabbit food.

We never got to eat the rabbit, it was a pet and part of the family. He lived with us until he died. Chiqui died very old, compared to the average life span of a rabbit which is 9 years, he was with us for about 11 years.

Rabbits are really quiet, clean, intelligent, fluffy and funny animals. They are a great companion for whoever needs it, but their care is really important like any other animal, rabbits are not toys, they are animals that need attention, they can also suffer stress and have respiratory problems. The good thing about my parents is that they know a lot about animals and they do everything possible so that the pets are in good conditions and accompany us for many years, making their life extraordinary.

Curious fact: Rabbits' teeth do not stop growing during their life, so they have to be filed constantly, but if we do not know how to do this we should go to an expert, because if we do something wrong with their teeth and they break, the teeth are affected, and the rabbit will not be able to bite well. A broken tooth will not continue to grow and because of this fracture can cause some infection.

To favor the wear and tear of the teeth in rabbits it is good to give them enough hay and pieces of wood. It is also important that they have a good diet so that their health and the health of their teeth are in good condition.

Even though rabbits are very clean animals, the smell of their urine and feces is really strong, so if you want to have a rabbit you must have a good place to keep it, where it can jump, be happy, poop and pee where they can, you must also be very aware of them, because they are really delicate animals, there are many ways to know if the rabbit is cold, stressed or happy. So always investigate before having a pet, be it a dog, a cat or a rabbit, there are many breeds of dogs that are too demanding and need a lot of care, if you are a person who only wants a pet for company, you should investigate which one is the most suitable for you.

Not just because a pet is pretty you should have it, you should always be aware of its care, not only have it for its beauty, remember that it is a living being. I will make another article about rabbits, but I will publish it later, I hope you liked this article and that you have learned something, it is important to always learn something every day.

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See you in the next article!  

All content is original

All images were downloaded from the web

The links from where I got the information are shown below

https://cuyosmexico.foroactivo.com/t1645-la-conejina-es-buena

http://latinpet.com/como-tener-un-conejo-saludable/

Greetings from Venezuela