Grooming Your Bunny

Just like all rabbits, Lionheads are going to shed their fur, or molting as it is more commonly known. Your rabbit will need thicker fur during the winter months in order to ensure that they stay nice and warm. As they head into summer, they will start to lose this thicker fur to ensure that they do not overheat during the warmer months. During this period, Lionhead rabbit grooming is very important if you do not want your home to be full of the dead hair they loose.

When your Lionhead Rabbits are shedding, it is important that you groom them. This will serve multiple purposes:

• It will stop you finding hair around the home.
• Your rabbit will not get caught on furniture and other items, which could cause pain.
• Your rabbit is less-likely to ingest a fur-ball, which could actually cause death (albeit rarely).

I’ve been grooming your new bunny almost every day leading up to pick-up. Its mandatory with lionhead wool so I started a little every day to get him/her used to the process and now they should be accustomed to it.

Lionheads, or any bunny for that matter should never be bathed. Rabbits can go into shock when submerged into water which may result in death. Your rabbit shouldn’t have a foul odor if their maintenance is kept up ie; clean housing, litterbox, etc. Also rabbits do a great job at grooming themselves. However if you find that your bunny needs a bath we recommend you only wash that given area without submerging the entire rabbit. Otherwise a wipe works great! 

If you are looking for suggestions for grooming tools to help with rabbit shedding, then you will find that we have found a good selection of them.

• Furbustor 

Can be found on Amazon. This works wonders with getting good hold on bunny hair. Regular brushes will not work since bunny hair is so fine so the furbustor is a must!

• Q-tips

Household item. Useful for cleaning out scent glands. Scent glands are the small pockets near the anus. These collect bacteria and grime.

• Nail trimmers 

Can be found at any pet store. Nail trimmers are also a must. Rabbits nails need to be cut, if not it will cause a discomfort and can lead to severe conditions.

• Ear wipes

Can be found at Walmart or any pet store. Ear wipes will keep your rabbits ears clean which is vital to prevent ear infections 

Lionhead Rabbit nails should be trimmed every 4 – 6 weeks. Just snip the tips off. DO NOT go to short, you don’t want to hit the quick. Remember they have a quick (vein that feeds the nails) running through a certain portion of the nail. The amount that can be clipped off (and thus shortening them) depends on where the quick is.

It is worth noting that when your Lionheads are shedding, it is unlikely that they will want to be held. They tend to get a little bit feisty. This is because their skin is going to be incredibly sensitive. The best thing you can do when a rabbit is shedding is to not touch them. The only time that you should be touching them is if you are grooming them with a soft brush (they love this!). This does mean a week or two without cuddling up to your rabbit, but we are sure that this is going to be fine for you.