Bandit: rabbity antics

[Chrisdoc]

They certainly are even though sometimes they drive us crazy. Couldn't be without mine

 

[Azerane]

And boy do they drive us crazy!! ullhair:

lol

 

[selbert]

I didn't realise how behind I was with your bunny blog! I'm so sorry to hear about your car and the VISA situation, it must be so frustrating with such a big set back. Pets sure do help the blow though! It certainly sounds like Bandit has been there for you. I don't think I would have coped with my partner moving to Singapore without those little munchkins keeping me busy with persistent mischief (and of course lots of cuddles hehe).
I hope you find a car soon, it's a job I certainly dislike.
:brownbunny

 

[Azerane]

Thank you. Have actually had a really rough few days recently, so stopped looking for cars for a few days because of it. But I suppose that's ok as it means there should be a few different ones up now to look at.

But yeah, definitely great having someone there to just pet/hug/vent to/cry on, who doesn't judge and just either sits there and sponges, licks me to death or climbs all over me. Best kind of love there is

 

[Azerane]

Some pictures from play time today (before he jumped/climbed out). lol. He was easy to catch and put back in. I knew it was going to happen, because he spent the first 20 minutes hopping around the edges and reaching up the sides and working out where the best place to escape was.

 

[Chrisdoc]

They are just the sneakiest lol. He looks lovely chilling out there

 

[Azerane]

Just cleaned out Bandit's litter tray for the first time in about 24 hours. I'm a little concerned because all his poops were smaller than usual and there didn't seem to be as many. He is shedding at the moment, so that may have something to do with it. Will keep a keen eye to see what's in there before I go to bed in 2 or 3 hours. Loaded him up with some fresh hay so he should get to munching a lot, he usually does once he gets a fresh pile of hay.

Will have to get on top of brushing him more, I forget how much fur comes off him on a daily basis when he sheds.

 

[Azerane]

Bandit seems fine, I had been worried about his poops but they seem completely fine again now. Just an overly worried bunny mummy He was quite the character today, I forgot to get him fresh hay shortly after work, and a little while later I sure heard about it, there was stuff crashing and banging all over the place, lol. As soon as I got his hay he was perfectly quiet. I suppose they have to make noise like that, since they can't meow or bark etc.

He's such a cute little guy though. I gave him some pellets as treats and when he heard the bag crinkling he got so excited and did all of his tricks perfectly!! Such a good boy

In unrelated info, I just watched the Valentine's Day episode of the Big Bang Theory, it was pretty cool Actually, I loved the previous ep with James Earl Jones in it, hilarious.

 

[JBun]

I know, mine start rattling their toys to let me know they are hungry

Usually what I will do if one of my buns is having several small poops(not just a few) is decrease pellets a little so that they will eat more hay to help their gut motility return to normal. Sometimes they need the extra fiber when they are shedding because of the fur slowing things down in there.

 

[Azerane]

How is Bandit not bald already?!!? The sheer amount of fur I have swept up over the last week is just astounding, and that's with brushing him regularly. Every time I brush him I get a tennis ball sized clump of fur off of him too. But I just keep finding giant balls of bunny fluff everywhere. It's insane Even when I had three cats growing up there was not this much fur!!!

He doesn't get that many pellets anyway, only a 1/4 cup every morning. So he eats a tonne of hay every day as it is. His poops seemed to have returned to normal. I'm thinking that because I didn't notice him shedding straight away that I may not have started brushing him soon enough, but now that I'm brushing him daily it seems to have stopped the change in poops. He just loves being brushed too, makes it so easy. I don't brush his belly though.

As a side note, I can't believe there's easter stuff all through the stores already. It's been there for weeks. I caved and bought a cadbury creme egg today. I couldn't help it, was at the register, waiting for all my groceries to get scanned through, and the creme eggs where just sitting there staring me in the face. Stupid product placement. lol.

 

[Azerane]

Right, so I bought Bandit new hay today. I found someone selling wheaten hay so I went to check it out today. The bales looked fantastic so I picked one up. I haven't bagged it yet so I haven't really seen inside the bale, but it looks really promising. I gave bandit a few stems to try and he loved them. They're much thicker than most of the oaten hay stems that I'm used to, so they'll be better for his teeth. There seems to be quite a few seed heads in there (always was with the oaten too) but they're much easier to see and separate than the oaten heads which don't strip off easily and blend in easier. So it should be a pretty simple process to remove them. I've never been so excited about bagging a bale of hay, lol. It was cheaper than what I usually pay too, but I'm wondering whether it might not be quite as compressed which could be why, will find out tomorrow I might even take some photos and compare the two.

I'm really over Bandit's shedding too, it's just not going away, haha. At least he loves being brushed and it's some nice bonding time for us. He has so much love <3

 

[Azerane]

Well, I did bag the hay and I did take comparison photos etc, but it was such an exhausting and drama-filled process that I haven't gotten around to uploading the photos yet. More on that another time

But guys... look!!! I donated some money to an online friend who had to get dental surgery for her bunny, and in return she drew me this awesome image of Bandit It's amazing and I love it so much, I think it really captures how cheeky he can be. I do have a version without the watermark, but didn't want to disrespect the artist by just posting that here. You can find the art posting here: http://the-hare.deviantart.com/art/Bunny-Bandit-434777145?id=1qt0mscnfro

Also, Bandit is STILL shedding *dies* I keep thinking it's nearing the end and then today it looks worse, lol. Hoping it's over soon or I'm going to have a hairball

 

[Aubrisita]

Wow, that is an awesome picture of Bandit!

 

[Chrisdoc]

What a fabulous picture of Bandit, really captures his personality. He is such a handsome boy anyway.

I loved it when I got my bale of hay but it was really difficult to bag and store as I don´t have much room. I am still using the last bags but gave quite a bit away to my friend who has chickens, rabbits, goats and god knows what else and he usually looks after the boys when I´m away. I use what´s left of it in Houdini´s digging box as he is my super hay eater, he loves it and spends ages in there just rooting around, digging and eating.

I adore Cadbury´s creme eggs, I have just finished my box of Heroes which have the twisted choccies in there which are mini cadbury´s creme eggs. I gave away the last of them to my friend as I don´t really like the fudge and eclairs and they´re his favourites.

Mine are shedding a lot less now, thank goodness, the hair is making me sneeze a lot. Bandy sheds madly all the time. I have a little rug in their enclosure which Bandy lies on, every Sunday you wouldn´t believe the amount of hair I brush off it. Some things you just have to live with :yeahthat:

 

[Azerane]

Thanks guys, it is a fantastic picture

The problem I had with my bale of hay, is that I initially decided to start bagging it while pulling off the wheat seed heads in the process (seemed like a good idea at the time) until an hour and a half later I'd only done one bag, lol. So I decided to do a second bag with seed heads removed, and then I got sick of it and just decided to dump the rest of the bale into bags and I could pull the seed heads off at the time when I got Bandit hay. So I get down to dividing the last two flakes in the bale and discover literally dozens of earwigs. I hate earwigs at the best of times, so this really didn't make my day. At this point the bale was still in the boot of my car on a tarp, so I bundled it up and pulled it out before deciding to salvage what hay I could off the top, shaking it thoroughly, before I sprayed around the edges of what was left and onto the bale with some insect surface spray. The earwigs were all trying to run off the edge of the tarp all at once so drastic measures were called for. So I sprayed it excessively, then bundled and tied the whole thing up and threw it in the trash. I would have just tipped it into the green bin (for garden waste/leaves/bunny poop etc) but it was already full. And I was not releasing that many earwigs outside my house, it was horrible. That was really the only downfall with the hay. It's beautiful in every other regard, perfectly clean, smells great, not dusty, no crappy little waste bits that I know Bandit won't eat, very green throughout and nice thick stems for superior teeth wear Also it was cheaper than what I usually pay for bales, just those earwigs... ugh.

Bandit is still going crazy with the shedding, when will it end?! ullhair: I've also just realised that the 24th will also be one year since I brought him home =3 So I'll have to take his picture and maybe give him treats or something. I did actually buy him a new toy today, but haven't given it to him yet, so perhaps I should wait until Monday. I have also been considering buying him a little fleece cat bed, the ones that are half or whole covered so it seems like a burrow. With cold weather approaching, the floor of the laundry can get pretty cold, so I want a way for him to stay cozy. They had some white leopard print ones at kmart for $9 that seemed they would be worth trying. And at $9, I really don't think I'd mind if he never used it

 

[JBun]

That's a great picture! How fun

I've had my own hay sorting adventures, and I know what a pain it is. I've had to spend hours sorting weeds out. I long for the day when I find bales that I can just take a handful and toss it in to the buns. The hay that I have now isn't too bad and only have to sift some of the dusty stuff. But earwigs.... Ugghh!!! I would be so tempted to toss the whole thing. HATE earwigs!!!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Yuk, I would definitely have thrown it away rather than sort through earwigs...gross.

I am still using the hay I bought ages ago. I do like it, Houdini loves the really long strands and spends ages now in his play box digging in his hay and eating it happily.....unfortunately sometimes peeing as well, the little devil.

 

[Aubrisita]

Ewww, I despise earwigs. I would have freaked out, lol.

Happy almost gotcha day Bandit.

 

[Azerane]

Thanks guys The hay episode was a little traumatising, lol. I originally found two earwigs while slowly sorting through, but two earwigs in an entire bale of hay wasn't really cause for alarm. Dozens was though

Unfortunately we didn't end up celebrating "Gotcha Day". I went out to sign for a second hand car and bring that home, which took way longer than expected because the dealer wasn't organised and didn't have the courtesy to ring and tell me to come a little later. Then when I got home, I spent until 9pm cleaning for an inspection the next day. However I have since given him his new toy which is a plush ball. He pretty much just ignores it, lol. He pushed it around a little bit, but probably only because it was in his way, haha. I spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning the inside and outside of my car respectively, so I got to set up the pen on the lawn and Bandit got to run around in there for several hours while I cleaned. He was so good because he didn't even try to jump out once. He must have eaten something funny though (maybe a fallen leaf from a tree) because later that day he was a bit quiet and a little gassy. I know the lawn isn't a problem, so I'll just have to make sure I rake it thoroughly before he next goes out there.

At one point though, I sat down in the pen with him, he raced right over, placed his paws on my leg and sniffed at me. Then because I was sitting with my legs crossed, he hopped into the middle of them and then made a flying leap for my shoulder!! He actually landed quite gracefully and I felt loved but used at the same time, haha. Because he clearly didn't leap into my arms for a cuddle. Though what his plan was I simply don't know, lol. Still, it was pretty cute.

Some phone images from Saturday. The second picture is what you get when there's a delay between pressing the button and the photo actually being taken

 

[Azerane]

Bandit was the cutest thing today (though I could probably say that any day). After I got home from work, I brought him out into the pen on the lawn, I took lots of photos so I will hopefully share those tomorrow after work. But anyway, Bandit has been escaping from the laundry lately, I must have changed something in my gate system because it's just not working properly. So today I was upstairs in the second bedroom, watching a show on the desktop from the bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see some dark movement just above the top of the end of the mattress. I lean forward to look, and Bandit just bolts. It's like, he knew he wasn't meant to be up there so he was scared and ran away, haha. I go after him, chase him out from under the bed in the master bedroom and he heads down the stairs. I never try to catch him at the top of the stairs or hurry after him because I don't want him to fall down them. So I have to wait until he's pretty much at the bottom before going down them.

So by the time I get downstairs, he's through the kitchen and heading for the lounge room. I manage to intercept him, but had to adjust my position before picking him up and he slips through my hands and dashes up the stairs again (two at a time I might add). Back upstairs I go to find him under my queen-size bed again. Fortunately, the bed is high enough that I'm able to fit under to pretty well. So there I am, wiggling my way over to him and then trying to pet/hold him still while I wiggle out enough to be able to pick him up. A bit of a funny sight I can imagine. I finally catch him, I bring him into the study with me to sit on the spare bed, and he hops around me a little bit before I position him against my leg and just give him lots of love and head rubs. He pretty much just melted against me, there was lots of teeth purring and it was adorable. It was nice to have some good cuddle time. After carrying him back downstairs, I went and got him some pellets as a reward, and boy is he always desperate for pellets like they're going to be his last meal ever! He's just the funniest little guy, I know he just wanted to be out of the laundry and exploring, but I like to pretend that he came upstairs to see me

I promise I will try to get those pictures up after work tomorrow, there's some great ones, and then some that are only half a rabbit because he 500's and binkies too fast