Why should you never bathe a rabbit?
Rule #1 of bunny ownership: never bathe a rabbit.
It is definitely not recommended, and bunny-people have been known to get quite angry when unsuspecting people mention that they bathe their rabbits.
What is Poopy-bum?
Poopy bum is when the poop is soft and it sticks to your bunnies butt in a huge clump. If it stays there it can cause irritation and soreness. It can even cause flystrike.
Some rabbit people think that it is related to the rabbit being overweight, the rabbit cannot eat their caecotrophs and leave it on their bottoms to dry. Others think its because of the amount of sugar in the rabbit’s diet. The third range of people think that it is because of both reasons.
This is a condition chart from Oxbow to help rate how overweight your rabbit is.
Looking at it, I would say that Buttons is a #4, maybe even a #5. He is overweight! Oh, no.
Buttons is not an active rabbit. He doesn’t run around a lot. He is very lazy and has taken to eating.
I will have to help him lose weight slowly.
When can you bathe a bunny?
However, there are instances that you must bathe a bunny. One of those instances is when they have poopy-bum.
Buttons is one of those exceptions. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that Buttons has a tummy problem where he gets poopy bum. I have manipulated his diet so much now that he only gets poopy bum less than once a month. I still can’t figure out what is causing it, but I am prepared for it.
Experts think it’s strange that he only gets it once a month, like clockwork. Especially when he is on the same diet every day.
Dealing with Buttons’ Poopy-bum
I often put him in the laundry and use warm water with a cut-up towel to carefully wash his bum, but that doesn’t get everything off. He still has lumps and clumps that are stuck fast.
He hates having his bum washed and lets me know by nipping me or jumping up onto me just to get away. But he and I both know that it has to happen whether he likes it or not.
That’s all before I decided to take a leap of faith and actually bathe him. I had read on the internet that people use a rabbit safe shampoo in warm water to help massage the clumps from the hair. I was at the stage that he really needed that process just to keep him maintained. It was a flip of a coin:
Do I bathe him or do I keep washing him?
I took a leap of faith and grabbed my big blue container, put a towel in the bottom, added hot water to warm the towel up and then added cold water from the hose. I made sure that the water was comfortably warm. The water was about 15cm high. I then put him in the water.
It is recommended that you only put the back-end of the rabbit in the water, when you give them a bath. Never put the whole rabbit in the water.
I did exactly that. I only had his butt in the water. He didn’t like it and wanted to climb out. He jumped up onto my chest and crawled up under my chin. I had no choice but to put all of his four legs into the water.
That’s when I started carefully rubbing the warm water over his body he settled down and started to enjoy it. He really liked it.
I took it slowly letting him get used to the idea. In this time it started to loosen the mess on his back end. I ran my hands over his body and let him know that this process is alright.
I carefully poured the warm water over his back, letting him have time to think about it.
Small Animal Shampoo
I had researched how to safely bathe bunnies online, and they said to get a rabbit safe pet shampoo. I went to the pet store and they only had this shampoo, an expensive tiny bottle of organic ingredients. I thought that because its ingredients were natural it would be better for his skin. The last thing I wanted was for him to get flakey skin because I couldn’t wash it off properly.
I tipped a little bit on my hand, about the size of a 5c coin, rubbed my hands together and then ran them over his back end, gently massaging his butt. I was amazed how much it took off. It worked much better than just using water.
I made sure I did it really gently and that I didn’t pull or move any parts of his body. I just carefully massaged his bum. I was amazed at how much stuff it removed. It is really good shampoo.
Once the water was dirty, we cleaned the container and re-filled it with warm water. That way I could rinse off any excess shampoo. He was as fresh as a daisy. Even his back feet no longer had yellow stains on the bottoms.
Have someone there to help
TIP: If you’re like me and must wash your rabbit – but have never done it before – have someone there to help.
Making sure Buttons was dry
I wrapped him in a towel and dried him. He loves a good burrito. I then brushed him with the glove, and he started to groom himself. He was alright, he was happy.
After he was dry, I put him back in the outdoor pen with Nova – it was a warm day and I knew he would dry pretty quickly. He ran straight up to her and told her about his ordeal.
TIP:Don’t let a wet bunny get cold, they will get sick. You can gently blow dry your bunny while brushing it to make sure it doesn’t get cold.
I kept an eye on his behaviour, but he toileted normally and didn’t seem to have any issues.
It was a success!
