How to groom a rabbit at home
HOW TO GROOM YOUR RABBIT! Brushing Tips, Shedding Stages and Supplements
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so
hello buns and welcome back to cinnabun
sundaes a weekly video series where we
talk about all
things bunny i'm morgan cinnabun's bun
mom and today we are going to talk
all about how to survive bunny grooming
now i don't mean to seem dramatic when i
talk about surviving grooming but
let's be real a grooming session can be
a lot so i am going to share all of my
tips and tricks for like a normal
grooming session
and tips on what to do when your bunny
is going through a mult if you like this
video go ahead and give it a big thumbs
up for these tips
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an episode now before we go into
actually my tips about grooming i want
to kind of lay out the different types
of grooming that you're going to do with
your bunny throughout the year
because yes there are different types
bunnies are extremely complicated
creatures as
any bunny owner has learned so i'm going
to kind of break it out through your
bunny's lifetime so you can understand
when you should be doing certain types
of grooming
and when you should be like really
adding on to that so when a bunny is
born
they are born without fur but that fur
quickly comes in
and around eight weeks of age they have
their full baby coat that's grown
in now this baby coat is really really
soft really cute and it actually doesn't
shed
that much now depending on when your
bunny starts to age into their bunny
maturity they're gonna start to
transition from their baby coat
into their adult coat now this again can
happen anywhere from three months of age
to six seven eight it just kind of
depends on your bunny and
if they're a late bloomer early bloomer
whatever i'll insert some photos here of
cinnabun when she was going through this
now don't confuse this with a molt a
baby bunny losing their fur it is not
really a molt
the transition happens really slowly
there's less of a big shed of course you
need to be grooming them during this
time
but it's a much slower process much less
hairy if you will
and it kind of just happens seamlessly
you'll see that line on your bunnies for
changing but there's gonna be like not a
lot of like clumps of hair coming out
it's gonna feel like a pretty normal
shed
so once your bunny reaches their
adulthood they are gonna have their full
adult coat now this is the coat that
really starts to shed you're gonna find
hair
all over your clothes all over
everything that is your typical bunny
shedding and your bunny is shedding all
the time it's not a lot but like you're
gonna be finding those hairs around your
apartment but the thing that
bunny owners know all too well is a malt
now a molt
usually happens twice a year again it
can change bunny per bunny but really it
happens twice a year in the spring
and in the fall that's those big
seasonal transitions and a bunny molt
is when they lose all of their fur and
grow it all back so your bunny is not
going to go bald but they are going to
be shedding at a rapid
pace now this can last anywhere from two
weeks to two months but really the
average is about two to three weeks and
you are just going to be finding bunny
hair
everywhere literally everywhere it'll be
coming off in clumps you will not be
able to ignore when your bunny is
molting i keep saying this but it really
just depends on your bunny but for the
most part the typical bunny will start
on their nose and go all the way down
their back you're going to see that big
distinctive line
and fur is just going to be coming off
of your bunny in clumps
so now that we've kind of laid out the
different types of fur and the different
types of shedding throughout your
bunny's life
let's talk about grooming and when to
start grooming how often to do it
all of those things to get started you
are going to want a really good brush
now this is the brush that i have seen
everywhere and i really do think it is
the best bunny brush out there this is
the fur buster you can get it on amazon
actually i'll have it linked below in
our description
notice here that they have this like
it's almost like a rubber band
consistency it's like a rubber
and that helps grab the fur while the
teeth brush it out so it's sensitive for
your bunny's fur
but it really gets the job done so this
is my favorite brush to use for cinnabun
when i brush her i start by putting her
on a table on a high surface that way
she can't run away
squirm whatever she's kind of stuck in
one spot and it's easier just for me to
get it
over with when you're brushing you want
to be soft bunnies have really sensitive
skin so if you yank too hard you can
actually end up hurting your bunny's
skin
so be careful when you're brushing brush
all the way down into the fur
and letting that hair catch onto the
rubber without yanking you shouldn't be
yanking
fur off of your bunny again if they're
shedding it's just gonna naturally come
off i like to start just on cinnabon's
back that's where there's the most
surface area you'll brush all through
their back getting any of that fur
taking it out of the brush as you need
then you'll come up to their chest
under their tummy anywhere that there is
fur you need to be brushing even their
little heads in their little paws
you have a squirmy bunny you might have
to hold their chest
a little bit to keep them supported but
most of the time if you lift them up on
that higher surface and give them
something to chew on
it'll distract them enough to like let
them stay still enough for you to brush
them the more you can practice brushing
your bunny the more used to it they are
going to become
so don't be discouraged if your first
couple grooming sessions are kind of a
squirmy mess
the more that you normalize it for your
rabbit the more normal it will become in
the routine now i always reward cinnabon
when i'm done brushing her when i put
her on the ground i
immediately give her a treat so that she
knows that there's something good that
can come out of a good brushing
okay so how often and for how long
should you be grooming
in the baby phases i honestly don't
recommend grooming your bunny too much
when they're a baby just because they're
not shedding that much
and their fur is still growing so i
really groomed cinnabon really about
once every two weeks for like five to
ten minutes that was more really for her
to just get used to the process see what
it felt like but it wasn't super
necessary since she wasn't going through
a crazy shed now during their
normal adulthood life when they're not
in the molt i groom cinnabun about once
a week for about
15 minutes that's really all that she
needs and if you notice
in their poop if you find the poops that
are strung together with hair
that's a sign that they need a little
bit more grooming so you might want to
add on to that but my baseline is about
once a week for 15 minutes now during a
mold this is where the hard work comes
in
you need to brush your bunny every
single day that's right
every day there is going to be so much
fur coming off of your bunny
and it can take anywhere from 10 minutes
to an hour depending on how thorough you
are so i recommend just doing a 15
minute session
every single day with your molting bun
and it will be over before you know it
now that we've talked about how to groom
your bunny i want to add a few more
survival tips in just
how to make the molting and shedding
process go easier for your bun
so rabbits groom themselves they lick
themselves clean which means that
they're ingesting a lot of fur now
unlike cats who do the same thing
rabbits can't regurgitate so any fur
that goes into their body they have to
poop out
a lot of fur building up in your bunny's
tummy can actually lead to gut slow
downs and potentially lead to gi stasis
so it's really important that you
monitor their poop
monitor how often they're grooming
themselves and notice if you see
anything irregular going on and by
irregular i mean those poops that are
strung together with fur
it can sometimes be called a string of
pearls because it truly looks like
poop covered string of pearls i know
it's very gross i'm sorry but
if you're noticing a lot of these
strings of pearls in your bunny's poop
then that's a sign that you should brush
your bunny more because they're
ingesting more fur than usual it may not
seem like a big deal just a little bit
of extra fur in your bunny's tummy but
that stuff can clog
up very quickly so it's really important
that you do everything you can to groom
them keep that gut moving so that you
don't get those slowdowns now there's a
few extra supplements that you can give
your bunny especially during a molting
time that helps with that gut movement
and i'm gonna share those right now this
first one if you follow us on instagram
you've heard us talk about before it's
called laxatone now this is actually
made for cats it's a hairball remover
that removes exactly what it says the
hair balls in your animal's tummy so
it's made for cats but it is
bunny safe my vet is actually the one
who recommended this to me
now i will say there's a few ingredients
in this that i'm not obsessed with
specifically talking about molasses so i
don't love feeding this to cinnabon
every day this is more of something that
i will give her just a tiny bit about
two milliliters
once a week or once every other week it
aids your bunny's digestion it helps
break down that hair in their tummy so
while
i don't love the molasses in it i don't
love the fur
more so as long as you're giving just a
little bit of this again about once a
week
then you should be fine now i have
noticed that if cinnabon has a lot of
extra hairs in her poops i might give
her
more doses of it in a week just to kind
of clear up what's going on and i have
noticed it works so this is a good thing
just to have in your first aid kit
ready to go if you're just noticing a
lot of extra fur in your bunny's poop
this next one i have talked about on our
channel before and it's a digestive
biscuit from
oxbow i feed these every single morning
they're much more natural ingredients
going on in here so i feel fine giving
this to her daily
it has a lot of fiber in it so it keeps
her gut moving aka keeps her pooping
and it's just a really good thing to
keep whatever slowdowns could be
building up
moving right along this last thing is a
pretty big bag because i'm obsessed and
i buy a ton
it's timothy hey cubes it's really
exactly what it sounds like they're just
cubes of hay that you can give your
bunny as extra ways to encourage
hay eating i wouldn't replace these with
your normal hay just because since
they're condensed it doesn't give
all of the fiber that your hay would
however it's just an extra way one to
let them chew it's like a boredom
breaker and she'll actually really enjoy
eating it
but you're just getting more hay into
their tummy hay is the number one
source of fiber in your bunny's diet and
again fiber makes your bunny poop
so the more fiber and hay you can get
into their tummies the better
so i actually give cinnabon one of these
hay cubes every single day it's really
is just such a good boredom breaker and
it keeps her entertained
for hours and it doesn't hurt that it
really helps her tummy okay so those are
our tips i hope that this was useful to
you especially since molting season is
right around the corner so we have got
to be prepared please comment
down below if any of these tips helped
or if there's anything else that you
would like to add i would love to know
again if you're not subscribed go ahead
and do so we post videos every single
sunday and i would love to have you
along on our journey
so until next sunday we will see you
next week bye buns
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