Rabbit Resources

Rabbit Health and Biosecurity

• RHD2: What Rabbit Owners Need to Know (Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus Serotype 2)
• Instructions for Tattooing Rabbits

More Fact Sheets and Other Resources

• ARBA Rabbit Breed Profiles (49 breeds recognized by ARBA, 02/2018)
• Should I Take Rabbits as a 4-H Project?
• Rabbit Basics for the Beginner
• Recommended Fair Weights for Market Rabbits
• Rabbit Showmanship Fact Sheet
• Rabbit Behaviors and Postures

Project and Record Keeping

The Rabbit Project and Record Book (228) supports 4-H members who are taking breeding, market, and pet rabbit projects. The Rabbit Resource Handbook (228R) is a required supplement for all rabbit projects. Both books are available through local OSU Extension offices and online at extensionpubs.osu.edu. Ohio residents get the best price when they order and pick up their purchases through local Extension offices.

These online resources support your project experience this year:

• 2024 Rabbit Focus Questions (required) This includes content for the Topic of Interest, Medications Labels and Inserts, and Treatment Record Scenario. They're grouped together here because they change every year.
• Learning Activity Ideas (if needed)
• Extra pages from the Rabbit Project and Record Book (if needed for projects with multiple animals)
  • Project Animal Profile
  • My Animal's Cage
  • Growth Record
  • Treatment Record
  • Breeding Record
  • Show Ring Readiness
  • Miscellaneous Income
  • Miscellaneous Expenses

Looking for a few activities to jump start your rabbit project? Try these from Launching into the Next Millennium, 4-H Achieves Liftoff:
Parts of a Rabbit, Breeds of Rabbits, and Rabbit Vocabulary
activity pages | answer keys

Ohio State Fair Rabbit Information

• 2018 Project Enrollment for 4-H and FFA Members and Showing Animals at the Ohio State Fair

Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) Important Information

On January 1, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new regulations addressing on-farm antibiotic use in food-animal production must be implemented. The agency’s effort is aimed at eliminating the use of medically important (to human illness) antibiotics for growth promotion purposes in food-animal production and bringing therapeutic use in feed and water – to treat, control or prevent spe­cific disease – under additional veterinary oversight. Producers, veterinarians, feed mills and suppliers will all face new requirements. This affects everyone (including 4-H members as youth producers) keeping, owning, and/or raising food-producing animals. 

Please be aware that anything you may hear about the possibility of 4-H advisors being able to get a VFD for all of their club members is not accurate. Ohio 4-H members (parents/guardians) are the owners/caretakers of their livestock projects and will need to obtain any VFD they might need to properly care for their food-producing animals. To write a VFD, veterinarians must personally see the 4-H members’ animals, become acquainted with their care, and have done so recently enough (within the last six months) that they can make medical judgements. Veterinarians should not write a VFD for an entire club.

It is very important that 4-H members and their families establish a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) prior to January 1, 2017. Click on the link below to download the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) Fact Sheet for 4-H Youth Livestock Producers and Families, important to read and understand when taking Ohio 4-H food-producing animal projects, even if they are not intended for food production.

• Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) Fact Sheet for 4-H Youth Livestock Producers and Families