This goes hand-in-hand with understanding your rabbit's behavior. Another big problem facing owners of rabbits, and, as a matter of fact, owners of most species, is that they don't understand what the species needs.
It is foolish and selfish to think that your rabbit has the same needs as a human. Quite frankly, it's downright stupid. Rabbits are rabbits. They should be treated like rabbits. Just like dogs should be treated like dogs, and cats should be treated like cats. Yes, we can love them like we would love our own child. That's perfectly fine. What I'm saying is you need to provide for their needs as a species. They aren't humans, so should not be provided with what a human would want and need.
Here's an analogy for you. It's your friend's birthday, and you want to buy them a present. You're really into collecting model trains, but your friend is really into cooking. You wouldn't get them a model train just because that's what you like, not what THEY like. Instead, you could get your friend a cookbook, because even though that isn't what YOU would want, it would make your FRIEND happy.
The same concept applies to rabbits. Just because YOU see a cage as a prison doesn't mean a rabbit sees it as a prison. A rabbit sees a cage as their home, just like a dog loves their crate, a bear loves their cave, and a human loves their house. Just because you don't want to live in a cage doesn't mean your rabbit doesn't want to.
Another example is when people try to spice up their rabbit's diet because they think their rabbit should have lots of variety to prevent them from getting bored. Rabbits by nature aren't scavengers or omnivores. In the wild, rabbits eat a simple diet, and they don't get bored of it because evolution has selected for rabbits that are content eating the available diet. Humans have a different evolutionary past, in which we scavenged for all sorts of foods. Therefore, WE would probably get bored having the same diet every day. But that doesn't mean your rabbit will.
Yes, we love our rabbits as if they were little humans. But just because we LOVE them like humans doesn't mean we should TREAT them like humans. Case closed.
It is foolish and selfish to think that your rabbit has the same needs as a human. Quite frankly, it's downright stupid. Rabbits are rabbits. They should be treated like rabbits. Just like dogs should be treated like dogs, and cats should be treated like cats. Yes, we can love them like we would love our own child. That's perfectly fine. What I'm saying is you need to provide for their needs as a species. They aren't humans, so should not be provided with what a human would want and need.
Here's an analogy for you. It's your friend's birthday, and you want to buy them a present. You're really into collecting model trains, but your friend is really into cooking. You wouldn't get them a model train just because that's what you like, not what THEY like. Instead, you could get your friend a cookbook, because even though that isn't what YOU would want, it would make your FRIEND happy.
The same concept applies to rabbits. Just because YOU see a cage as a prison doesn't mean a rabbit sees it as a prison. A rabbit sees a cage as their home, just like a dog loves their crate, a bear loves their cave, and a human loves their house. Just because you don't want to live in a cage doesn't mean your rabbit doesn't want to.
Another example is when people try to spice up their rabbit's diet because they think their rabbit should have lots of variety to prevent them from getting bored. Rabbits by nature aren't scavengers or omnivores. In the wild, rabbits eat a simple diet, and they don't get bored of it because evolution has selected for rabbits that are content eating the available diet. Humans have a different evolutionary past, in which we scavenged for all sorts of foods. Therefore, WE would probably get bored having the same diet every day. But that doesn't mean your rabbit will.
Yes, we love our rabbits as if they were little humans. But just because we LOVE them like humans doesn't mean we should TREAT them like humans. Case closed.