By Anya McCutcheon
HALDIMAND — This year’s Haldimand 4-H Rabbit club was a really fun club. It was great to see so many returning members who I have become friends with, as well as some new faces! We had a total of six meetings and at each meeting we learned something new about rabbit care in general, and about our own rabbits specifically.
We had Dr. Jen Thompson from the Dunnville Vet Clinic speak to us about rabbit illnesses and what are good and bad plants for rabbits to eat. I learned that iceberg lettuce is NOT healthy for my rabbit!
We were able to bring our own rabbits along to several of our meetings so that we could learn how to show them for our Achievement Day at the Caledonia Fair. There are a lot of steps to remember when presenting your rabbit to the judge for showmanship! And it is important for both your rabbit and for you to have had lots of practice doing this. I have been practising with my rabbit at home as well to try and be prepared.
As part of our club, we also participated in the Judging Night, where we placed and gave reasons on several classes. We were able to do some practice judging at our meetings before hand as well. We learned how to place and give oral reasons for a class.
We played trivia games to test our knowledge about rabbits and learned about different breeds of rabbits, including how some were bred for show and others for meat production. We learned about correct conformation and the different rabbit body shapes. We learned how to wash our rabbits and we talked a lot about how to care for our rabbits.
Did you know that when a rabbit is twitching its nose, it means it is smelling? Rabbits should always be smelling. If a rabbit is not twitching its nose, it might be a sign that there is something wrong with it! Also, when a rabbit is very happy, they do “binkies” – an acrobatic rabbit jump for joy, where they jump up and twist their body in the air!
My favourite part of rabbit club is talking with everyone about their rabbits and seeing all the different variety of rabbit types.
The final rabbit club meeting was held on August 18, 2025. We started the meeting by saying the 4-H pledge and the secretary read the minutes from the last meeting.
Next, we were divided into two groups and our leaders read off trivia questions about rabbits. If someone on your team answered the question correctly first, your team got a point. The questions were all about things we have learned about our rabbits and some new things as well. This was a really fun activity because both teams were very competitive! I was surprised by how much everyone has learned about rabbits and their care.
After the trivia game we paused for a snack and then we got our rabbits out to work on our rabbit showmanship skills. We will be putting what we have learned about showing our rabbits to the test at Achievement Day soon! Finally, our leaders showed us how to wash a rabbit. When we show our rabbits, it’s important that they are clean, and our leaders went over how to do this properly. I didn’t know before this meeting that I would be able to wash my rabbit, but now that I know how to do it, I will be able to try it at home.
Our meeting was adjourned and everyone helped to clean up.
Our club will be wrapping up at our Achievement Day on Saturday, September 27 at the Caledonia Fair! Our rabbits would love to meet you and our members would be happy to answer any of your rabbit questions. See you there!
