Red-Eyed American Rabbit

by Susan
(USA)

When we were kids a cat attacked a bunny so my Dad brought her in and we gave her medical care, took her to the vet, however the shock of the attack killed her.

The only reason we could get a vet to see her was because my Dad was good friends with a veterinarian.

He even did surgery on our hamster Goldie who developed a huge rapidly growing tumor and she lived another year. Us kids were so upset when the bunny died, my Dad took us out and got us a pet bunny.

So in 1967 we got an American Red Eyed Bunny. We named her Snowfire. She was skittish and never liked being handled much even as a young bunny. My grandmother knew a lot about bunnies having raised them for food in the depression, so she built her a hutch our of plywood and small gauged chicken wire.

It was a very nice hutch. She had a place for her privacy with hay and then the wire part to have her dropping drop down into a tray. She like to be petted, just not held. As with most pets my Mom took over her care. Snowfire lived with us for over 17 years before she died. She was incredibly healthy. She was never sick a day in her life and one day she had died overnight.

We fed her standard pellets,with occasional greens, and she had a salt lick in her cage. Occasionally she would gnaw on the wood cage and my Mom would replace those parts. Thinking back her teeth were probably getting too long.

Back then veterinary care was not common for rabbits. My Mom couldn't believe it. She never dreamed a rabbit could last that long. Even though she grumbled about caring for her occasionally since us 4 kids weren't, she actually loved her. She was sad when she died. We all were. She was such a fixture in our family for so long.

Rabbits can be incredibly long lived.

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