Rabbit

Comfortable quarters for laboratory rabbits

Valuable recommendations for rabbit-adequate housing and handling conditions. The traditional standard-sized single cages currently used for housing rabbits are inadequate to satisfy the animals' behavioral and physiological needs. Group housing arrangements, preferably in well-structured floor pens with straw bedding and...

Year Published: 1997Animal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Gunn-Dore, D. 1997. Comfortable quarters for laboratory rabbits. In: Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals, Eighth Edition. Reinhardt, V. (ed), 46-54. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Group housing for male New Zealand White rabbits

Establishing a group of 5 castrated male rabbits resulted in all but one rabbit suffering some kind of minor injury during a major conflict on day 6. Housing the two older animals together as a pair and the three younger...

Year Published: 1997Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Raje, S. S., Stewart, K. L. 1997. Group housing for male New Zealand White rabbits. Lab Animal 26(4), 36-37.

Behavioural effects of environmental enrichment for individually caged rabbits

Hay was more effective than grass-cubes, sticks, and a box [rat cage] in reducing behavioral disorders and giving individually housed male rabbits something to do. The hay was placed in empty water bottles to make it a more lengthy task...

Year Published: 1997Animal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Lidfors, L. 1997. Behavioural effects of environmental enrichment for individually caged rabbits. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 52, 157-169.

An immunological assessment of group-housed rabbits

Laboratory rabbits kept in barren 'traditional' cages tend to develop stereotypic behaviours and bone deformation. We have used an alternative regime, housing adult does as groups of four or five in floor pens (2.5-3 sq.m) supplied with hiding places and...

Year Published: 1997Animal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Turner, R. J., Held, S. D. E., Hirst, J. E. et al. 1997. An immunological assessment of group-housed rabbits. Laboratory Animals 31, 362-372.

Apparent psychogenic polydipsia and secondary polyuria in laboratory-housed New Zealand White rabbits

Three single-caged rabbits with psychogenic polydipsia [excessive drinking without apparent physiological reason] were given toys for cage enrichment, and the abnormal behavior decreased in all three cases.

Year Published: 1998Animal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Potter, M. P., Borkowski, G. L. 1998. Apparent psychogenic polydipsia and secondary polyuria in laboratory-housed New Zealand White rabbits. Contemporary Topics in Laboratory Animal Science 37, 87-89.

The effect of hay on the behaviour of caged rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

When hay was available [placed on top of cage], the [single-caged] rabbits ... performed significantly less bar gnawing and excessive grooming and were less restless. This suggests that rabbits kept in cages where hay is available are less stressed than...

Year Published: 1999Animal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Berthelsen, H., Hansen, L. T. 1999. The effect of hay on the behaviour of caged rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Animal Welfare 8, 149-157.

The Laboratory Rabbit

Description of rabbit-adequate floor pen housing and cage housing systems and species-adequate handling. Behavioural work that the author has carried out has shown a significant improvement in the quality of life for group housed animals, even those regarded as subordinate,...

Year Published: 1999Topics: Handling, Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Batchelor, G. R. 1999. The Laboratory Rabbit. In: The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory Animals Seventh Edition. Poole, T. , English, P. (eds), 395-408. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK.

Managing the environmental enrichment program for nonhuman primates and domestic farm animals housed at the National Institutes of Health

The management of the animal enrichment program within the National Institutes of health is described. Nonhuman primates are housed in isosexual pairs and groups whenever possible.

Year Published: 1998Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Cattle, Chicken, Equine, Goat, Nonhuman Primate, Other Animal, Pig, Rabbit, Sheep

Citation: Watson, L. M., Weed, J. L. 1998. Managing the environmental enrichment program for nonhuman primates and domestic farm animals housed at the National Institutes of Health. American Journal of Primatology 45, 211-212 (Abstract).

Wire balls as enrichment for individually caged rabbits

The results presented here suggest that wire balls are a simple, cheap and effective enrichment technique for single-housed rabbits . However, over a three week test period the rabbit's interest in the ball declined slightly but not significantly.

Year Published: 1999Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Gunn-Dore, D. 1999. Wire balls as enrichment for individually caged rabbits. Animal Technology 50, 162-163.

Socialization of the laboratory rabbit in a commercial production/maturation environment

The defined socialization and enrichment protocol proved to be successful in reducing the incidence of behaviorally unusable .. rabbits to 0.5%.

Year Published: 1999Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rabbit

Citation: Ferry, L., Fetter, B. 1999. Socialization of the laboratory rabbit in a commercial production/maturation environment. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science [AALAS] Meeting Official Program, 35 (Abstract).