It is perfectly normal for your rabbit’s feet to get dirty and yellowish every once in a while. However, it is important that you clean them often to keep them in good shape. This article will explain how to clean your rabbit’s yellow feet, as well as the causes.
Why are my rabbit’s feet yellow?
Yellowish feet can appear from their feet interacting with dirt, substrates, or even urine. Urine will result in their fur being stained and may involve more intensive cleaning.
There are several different methods that you can choose from, and we’ll be discussing those in length in this article. Note that you should not bathe your rabbit unless you truly cannot remove the stains with any other method.
Bathing should be avoided as it is fairly uncomfortable for rabbits to be soaked in water. Dry bath alternatives, like the ones we’ll discuss in this article, should always be the preferred options.
Also, your rabbit might have orange feet if they are peeing orange.
How to Clean Yellow Rabbit Feet
The two best way to clean yellow rabbit’s feet is with a moist towel. If that doesn’t work, you can use cornstarch flour.
Using a Moist Towel
This is the easiest and most obvious way to clean your rabbit’s feet. If you get a moist towel, you should be able to remove most of the dirt and color from their feet.
To do this, just slightly wet a towel. It should not be soaking wet, but it should also not be too dry. Damp is what you should aim for. You should also make the water lukewarm. It shouldn’t be too hot or else you can hurt your rabbit.
However, it also shouldn’t be too cold as it won’t be as effective at removing dirt and debris. Lukewarm is a good temperature to loosen the dirt while still keeping your rabbit comfortable.
When you go to clean your rabbit’s feet, take an extra dry towel and put it on your lap. This way, you will avoid getting your own clothes wet. Next, pick up your rabbit and place them in your lap. If your rabbit is familiar with being held and comfortable with your touch, this will be much easier.
To keep your rabbit okay with being handled, make sure to handle them often. You should be handling and petting your rabbit in between feet cleanings to make sure that they stay comfortable. Once your rabbit is in your lap, use a lukewarm and moist towel to gently wipe away any visible dirt and debris.
Once you’ve cleared it all away, clean the towel. Then you should go over it again to get any more dirt that wasn’t obvious the first time.
After the yellow color is removed from your rabbit’s feet, use the dry towel to dry them.
Using Cornstarch Flour
If your rabbit’s feet have some stubborn yellow stains on them, you can go a step further than just using water. These yellow stains are likely from urine, and you should try to use cornstarch powder to draw out the stains.
You should repeat some of the steps from the previous suggestion. Put a dry towel over your lap so that you do not get any cornstarch or water on your clothing. Pull your rabbit into your lap and place them on its back so its feet are facing up toward you.
Then you should gently rub some cornstarch powder into their feet. You should massage each paw for a few minutes at least to ensure that all of the cornstarch powder is absorbed into the fur. This will produce the most effective results.
After that, you should pet the fur until all of the corn starch has come out. You can use a comb if you want to speed up the process and get more cornstarch out.
Try to vacuum up the leftover corn starch so that your rabbit does not accidentally ingest it or get too much on their skin as this could irritate. You should notice that the yellow stains have lightened significantly.
It’s important to clean your rabbit’s yellow feet as soon as possible before it spreads to the rest of their bunny. It is common for rabbits to scratch their ears with their feet, so it can easily cause their ears to become yellow. To learn more, check out my guide on how often should you clean your rabbit’s ears.
How to prevent your rabbit from getting yellow feet?
The best way to prevent your rabbit’s feet from getting yellow is to frequently replace their substrate. It is important to always have a dry layer of substrate in your rabbit’s enclosure.
If this doesn’t help, you should try to get a substrate that is more absorbent. You might also want to consider the type of floor for your enclosure.
Final Thoughts
If you are noticing that your rabbit’s feet are yellowish in color and you want to restore them back to their usual shade, there are several different cleaning methods that you should take.
You should avoid bathing them if possible and instead opt for a dry-staining option like the ones we have discussed in this article. Either using a wet washcloth or rubbing in cornstarch are both good ideas for removing dirt, debris, and stains from your rabbit’s feet.
If your rabbit starts to lose hair, it might have pododermatitis, also known as sore hocks.
It is important to ensure that your rabbit is comfortable throughout the cleaning process, so take it slow if you need to.