What's in it for rabbit breeders?

Seeing the many rabbits up for sale on the local buy/sell directory got me thinking about the rabbit breeders. I am curious as to what motivates rabbit breeders out there to keep breeding rabbits. It's not like they're making much money with rabbits selling for $20 or so in pet stores. I'd imagine there are probably so much work involved in breeding rabbits. And if they really love the rabbits, as many would tell you, how can they be selling them to strangers? From my experience in fostering Coconut, it was difficult to let her go even knowing she's going to a rescue approved family with their insane background check. So for the breeders to be selling so many babies to people like they do, I highly doubt any of them really love their rabbit at all. It's like telling people you love your kids even though you're selling them to a sweat-shop. Just wondering.

The medical use of pineapple for rabbits

I did a lot of research about hairball in rabbits after Poppy passed away last year. One of such work is this article which I sent to a local rabbit rescue. After sitting in my harddrive for over a year, I saw it again today and thought I might share this with the rest of the world in hope that somebody will find this useful. So here it is attached below.

The medical use of pineapple for rabbits

There are many myths circulating around the internet regarding the health benefit of pineapple for rabbits, especially for hairballs. So I did some research of my own using medical journals and trustworthy sources.

It seems that bromelain, the actual enzyme in question, is most abundant in the stem of the pineapple, the center part that we throw away. Fresh pineapple are best as the enzyme can be denatured once frozen or processed.

Although there are no definitive evidence that bromelain intake helps with hairball or GI stasis in rabbits, there are other positive results. They are summarized below.

From the study of [1], it seems that bromelain is good for diarrhoea. The effect is that it will reduce intestinal fluid secretion, which is the real cause of death from diarrhoea as patients literally excrete out all their nutrients and water.

From [2] and [3], these could be the direction to extrapolate that bromelain helps with hairball. They suggest that bromelain has mucolytic and digestive properties. So it’ll dilate the mucus coating of the GI tract as well as helping to breakdown proteins. The Ontario Rabbit Education web site [4] implies that the mucus is the source of the obstruction as it’s like adding gel with hair. However, if the hairball is big enough to obstruct motility on its own, then reducing the mucus coating would have the adverse effect of removing a protective layer of the GI tract and could pose other health issues as the it grinds with the hair. The risk is location dependent as thickness of the GI tract decreases further along. So the use of bromelain during GI blockage is risky and not advised.

Lastly, [5] concludes that bromelain acts as an agent to complement tumour therapy because of its metastasis efficacy. And they also suggest that it accelerate wound healing.

These attributes of bromelain apply to human and other pets as well. In summary, eat some pineapple if your rabbit have diarrhoea, receiving tumour therapy, or wounded. And be careful of feeding your rabbit pineapple during GI blockage.

References:

[1] T.L. Mynott, et al., Bromelain prevents secretion caused by Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli enterotoxins in rabbit ileum in vitro, Gastroenterology, 1997.

[2] A. Bernkop-Schnürch, et al., The Use of Auxiliary Agents to Improve the Mucosal Uptake of Peptides, Medicinal Chemistry Reviews-Online, 1994.

[3] G. S. Kelly, Bromelain: A Literature Review and Discussion of its Therapeutic Applications, Alernative Medicine Review, 1996.

[4] http://www.ontariorabbits.org/health/healthinfo8.htm

[5] H.R. Maurer, Bromelain: biochemistry, pharmacology and medical use, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2001.

[6] K. Suzuku, et al., Experimental study of the effects of bromelain on the sputum consistency in rabbits, Nippon Yakurigaku Zasshi, 1983

stretched out Sterling

Sterling checking out what's for dinner.

Coconut has been adopted!

Coconut has finally been adopted last week after being fostered by me for 11 months! She has gone on with a nice lady that will give her free run of her house. From what I've heard, Coconut has settled down nicely and is already warming up well to her new family. The lady said Coconut is "near perfect". Coconut has come a long way since I fostered her. She was found as a stray and I suspected she didn't have a good life before. She used to be easily startled and scared of everything. Over the time she's been with me, it's very obvious that she has gradually learned to trust, and actually love, human and feel comfortable in her home. The above picture is the last photo I took of her. She sits beside/below me every morning and evening while I'm at my desk. She would dance around me or lick my feet sometimes. She is grooming herself in the picture. Although I will miss her company, I am very happy that Coconut has found a good home.

Coconut excitedly eating a pear

Sterling jumping on bed

If you watch the first few seconds carefully, you can see Sterling jumping high and running around happily!

Invasion of the orange sphere!

 
I left a ball outside of Coconut's favourite box/hideout for her to play. She was obviously intimidated by it and I thought I'll leave it there for her to work things out. When I came back in a few minutes, I saw the ball has taken over her spot and she's too afraid to go back in. The ball must have drifted in and she moved away (she was napping there, where the ball is now). Poor girl is hiding from the ball as you can see from the picture. 

Fitting in

 
Sterling is settling in nicely. I just witnessed his first binky last night. I've never seen a small rabbit binky. Also, he has claimed a corner on my bed and sleeps there with me. He knows when I'm going to bed and would run around on my bed then spend a few minutes grooming before laying down. He does that routine every night. His litter habbits haven't been perfect, but he's been very good this week. I'm hoping he'll keep it that way. During the day, he likes to climb up high and nap on this box you see in the picture.