andie@cvl.UUCP (Diane Donaldson) (12/17/83)
Actually, it's very easy to housetrain them. As you say, he leaves his surprises in one spot. Just collect a few of them and put them in a shallow box with some newspapers. He'll get the idea real fast (took me about 2 days to housetrain mine).
hall@pyrite.DEC (MRO2-4/E33 DTN:231-6005) (10/04/85)
I had a chocolate dutch rabbit for about 10 years, I originally had the idea of housebreaking her and keeping her as a house pet but quickly changed my mind. There was no problem with the housebreaking, I trained her to go back in her cage (just as you would take a puppy out when he had an accident). She quickly caught on and I could let her out when I was around. The big problem that I had, and never could solve, was the furniture and wires that she thought she could chew on. She nibbled on the legs and corners of most of the furniture in my house! She was very lucky in that I discovered her in the act before she had chewed through the electric cord...The only thing I found that worked was to raise all the cords off the floor and sacrifice the furniture! This wasn't practical so she ended up being put in her cage most of the time (and being taken outside on a harness). I've known several friends who also had house-rabbits and they had the same problems (but didn't care about the woodwork or furniture). In terms of breeds of rabbits, my friends had a Netherland Dwarf rabbit and a Siamese color (breed??). The size of your house/apartment should determine what size rabbit you want. Mine was about 5 pounds, but a Checkered-Giant can weigh as much as 20 pounds (the size of a small dog). I would not recommend getting a breed that is bred for meat..I had a New Zealand (white) and she did not adjust at all to the indoors..I ended up giving her away. As an aside, we also have several dogs and cats and they all got along fine. The dogs were a hunting breed, but just treated the rabbit like one of the cats. Hope this information helps... Linda