Bunny's Bunny Blog

[RosyRabbits]

I decided to try out keeping a blog for my rabbit Bunny. To keep record of things, help other owners and get any tips anyone would like to offer me.

Bunny is our American Chinchilla rabbit my dad found roaming around near a highway last June. She was living off weeds and grass before we took her in. She was very thin when we took her in, you could feel her ribs easily when you touched her or picked her up. We think at that time she was under a year. We count the day we found her, June 26th 2011 as her birthday as we don't really know of her real age. She has peppered colored fur, gray, black an white and brown eyes and she has this turf of silvery or gray fur on the back of her head and white fur on her belly and the bottoms of her paws. Her name is due to me, my little sister and our parents not being able to agree on one name other then what we've been calling her while trying to come to an agreement on one.

Now she lives in a nice big cage with unlimited timothy hay and grass and a daily serving of veggies and a little fruit and some pellets. She's now at a healthy weight and has grown a lot since the day we found her, you can tell when she stands up to her full height she's really tall now. We also picked her up a little carrot shaped chew toy as a present for Christmas and my mom bought her a new burger shaped chew toy a few weeks back when we were stocking up on pet supplies.

For today's happenings she's mostly been lounging in the little dugout under the ledge in her cage and chewing on her toys. I washed and freshened up her water bottle. She also ate nearly the whole bowl of timothy hay so I had to refill that when I took her food bowl out to wash it and give her, her veggies. We picked up some vegetables she hadn't had in a while. On the menu for tonight's dinner is: Romaine Lettuce, Curly Parsley and Celery. For fruit I gave her a few raspberries and a piece of Bosoc pear. After that she focused on her food. As I type this she's chewing down another of the small sticks of celery I gave her.

When its time for bed she'll no doubt do that little flop thing she does every night where she suddenly flops onto her side or back with her belly exposed XD

I'll post pictures here soon of her.

 

[LakeCondo]

It sounds like things are going well. I have 2 suggestions, though.

You might want to get a larger container for her hay. I recommend a plastic [the kind you can cut with a knife or box cutter] box/bucket with a lid. Cut an opening approximately 6x6" at the right height for her to eat from. Put a rock or something heavy in the bottom & add hay. Rotate the hay as needed.

If you use a container such as a bucket, that tapers down, you can minimize the hay rotation by putting a piece of cardboard in the bucket about an inch below the bottom of the hay opening & place all hay on top of the cardboard.

One more thing: maybe those are short sticks of celery you're mentioning, but long celery strings can get stuck when swallowed, so celery chunks would be better.

 

[RosyRabbits]

Unfortunately I couldn't update the blog due to being really busy the other day. Nothing too big happened yesterday other then Bunny getting into one of her feisty moods. She was throwing her food bowl and toys all over and burying them. And when I went to take her bowl out she grabbed her bowl and went into her little dugout XD

I gave her some cilantro, romaine lettuce, and some carrot yesterday since it was Friday and she gets carrot once a week on Fridays.

As for today I did a total cleaning of her cage. I took her out after she put up a bit of a fight and scooped out all the bedding and poured vinegar into the corner where she uses the bathroom. I let the vinegar sit there for a few minutes while I played with her with one of her toys. After a while I cleaned off the vinegar with a paper towel and wiped down the rest of her cage and put fresh bedding in. I also freshened up her water and put some fresh hay in her cage. After that I left her to calm down after having to take her out of her little home. But later I let her out to have some play time. While I was holding her during this she decided to nibble on my arm and then started nibbling my little sister's arm when she picked her up.

Tonight's dinner for her was the last piece of pear we had, which means the next time she gets fruit it will be apple, watercress, romaine lettuce and celery which I cut into chunks after reading LakeCondo's response to my last post.

I don't think Bunny will be my last rabbit. I think I've found a pet that's perfect for me, and we've had many different pets in our house. My sister wants to get another rabbit so Bunny can have a friend to play with but I told her you just can't stick two rabbits together and expect them to get along. And if we got another rabbit and the new rabbit didn't get along with Bunny we'd have to get another cage so they could be kept apart. If we were to get more then one rabbit one day it would have to be a bonded pair or a pair of rabbits who already get along.

LakeCondo: Thanks for the advice but I can't get Bunny to eat her hay from hay racks. We've tried a few of different sized openings when we first started feeding her hay when we found a place that sold it. She would just knock it off the bars of the cage and then pull the top off. She likes eating her grass from the rack though. I usually cut her celery up into small sticks, like the kind you'd feed to a little kid. But I cut them into chunks when I fed her tonight like you recommended.

 

[LakeCondo]

What I suggested for hay has no bars & you can put a stone on the top to keep the lid on. To see how it works, start with a cardboard tissue box, enlarge the slot a bit, & push hay in. A box 2-3 times as big would be better, just cut a 6" square hole in it & fold the box top shut with hay inside.

 

[RosyRabbits]

I think from now on I'll post when something interesting happens with Bunny. Not a lot happens and I don't want to spam the forum or the blog with the same thing everyday. Plus it would get boring.

The other night Bunny did something she never did. Every night before I go to bed I spend a few minutes petting her, rubbing her cheeks, scratching under her chin and such. The other night when I started rubbing inbewteen her ears and rubbing behind her neck I noticed a light vibration coming from her as I rubbed her neck. Was she purring? I know rabbits grind their teeth quietly when they are really happy but I didn't see her mouth moving at all.

As for today's happenings Bunny spent some of the day digging out her little dugout under the ledge in her cage since I had to do another complete cleaning job. Right after I had just fully cleaned her cage she soiled the corner she uses for the bathroom so much from drinking so much water. She also started hoarding food like she did in the winter by burying it in the bedding. It was very humid with all the rain we've been getting even with opening the windows and using a fan as well as hot weather inbetween the rain. I serve her veggies wet everyday and give her fresh water too. I think its just the humidity making her drink so much. We need to get the new bracits put into the windows so we can put the A.C back in so it can be a little cooler in the room she's in.

She loves the fan though. I gave Bunny to my sister to watch while I was busy cleaning her cage. She ran up to my sister before running to the opposite side of her bed where the big fan was sitting on a chair in front of her bed and then just layed there enjoying the little breeze.

I used up the last of her bedding cleaning her cage so I'm going to have to go buy another package at the store before her cage needs another cleaning.

For her veggies tonight I gave her regular parsly, celantro, romaine lettuce and for fruit I gave her a small piece of pear and a small strawberry.

Right now she's sitting in her cage relaxing.

 

[LakeCondo]

Sounds good. She's enjoying life.

 

[Little_LongEared_Lover2931]

That is so great that you rescued the bunny. I have seen a rabbit that was let out of its yard and left to wander. How many wild rabbits run up to strangers and stand there?
Your rabbit sounds wonderful. I can't wait to hear more about Bunny

 

[RosyRabbits]

Well its time for another trip to the pet store. Because of the humidity Bunny's been drinking a lot and peeing a lot and that means heavily soiled bedding. So I have to buy more.

She got a new food today. I posted in the Nutrition and Behavior part of the forums asking about some foods I was worried about feeding Bunny. One of which was swiss chard, which I was told was fine for her to eat in limited amounts which is what we got for her today at our local produce store along with her other veggies.

We bought curly and regular parsley, cilantro, romaine lettuces and swiss chard and a new pear for her to try since her apple will be running out soon. A few days ago we bought her blueberries and snow peas. I'll know by tomorrow if she likes it if its gone from the bowel or if I manage to catch her eating it.

Today's menu for Bunny included Curly Parsley, Romaine Lettuce, Swiss Chard, an apple slice and a few blueberries.

I love the store we get her stuff. We can get a lot of veggies for under $10 and its a family owned little produce store. The only problem is that they don't allow for debt unless you spend a certain amount of money. And with how many people use debit these days its hurting their business a bit since people would rather spend that extra money at the super market across from them in order to use debit then buy something extra they don't need to use debit... if that makes any sense. The thing is, is that the super markets produce is often in terrible condition. I wouldn't even eat it myself.

And do I have a story for you guys.

Bunny as I said was a rabbit abandoned near a high way in a spot covered in weeds and junk. Just a few days ago my mom and dad went to the cemetery not to far from there to visit the grave of a family friend of ours. My parents spotted a brown rabbit hopping around. My folks weren't close enough to see if it was yet another abandoned rabbit or the odd possibility that its a wild rabbit. I say odd because rabbits aren't known to run wild where we live.

My dad wants to take the new rabbit in if we see it again and get a chance to get closer to it. But if anything I say we call animal control. It could cause problems.

Aside from Bunny's cage not being big enough for two rabbits there is the problems of what sex it is and will he or she get along with Bunny.

If its a male we defiantly can't take it in. We can't afford to get either spayed or neutered. If its a female we would have to worry about if Bunny and the new rabbit got along, and if it doesn't what would we do? Same goes for if the rabbits male as well.

Me, my younger sister and my dad will possibly get into an argument about it if we see the rabbit again and get close enough to see that new brown rabbit. Because my dad will argue to take the rabbit in regardless if me and my sister bring up the arguments I just mentioned.

I understand he wants to help but we won't be helping by possibly putting the brown rabbit and Bunny's health in danger if they don't get along and start fighting, or putting a male in and Bunny ends up pregnant and we have no room for baby rabbits nor any knowledge of how to take care of a rabbit in labor or her babies. We would be doing the rabbit a better by calling animal control so he or she can find a home that can take good care of her.

LakeCondo: Yup she defiantly is ^_^

Little_LongEared_Lover2931: Ugh people who do that sort of thing irritate me to no end. If you want to let your rabbit run around the yard and get some fresh air I understand but stay outside to keep an eye on him or her. A dog or cat can get the poor thing. And I would say no wild rabbit would do that unless it was a very young baby rabbit that has yet to learn to be afraid of humans. I look forward to telling you all more about Bunny, and eventually getting some pictures of her up ^_^

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Sounds like she is training you and your family to be good slaves. After a rough start, she deserves a pampered life.

 

[RosyRabbits]

So Bunny doesn't seem to be liking the chard I got her a few days back.

She's been trying to be a little sneak about it too. First time I gave it to her with the rest of her greens she ate everything but the chard. I gave her a day off it and then tried again...this time she took it out of the bowel and buried it under the bedding near the bowel. The thing is this doesn't completely mean she hates it, she did this before when we gave her raspberries the first time. We're just going to finish up the chard we have in the fridge and wait a while before giving it to her again.

She has a new green to try out today though. Me and my mom went out to pick something up at the store and saw clover sprouts in the produce section. I had seen them on the list of okay veggies to feed them and decided to get them and see if Bunny likes them. I just hope she doesn't react to them the way she did with the alfalfa sprouts. When we gave those the first time she went crazy, like a cat high on catnip. She was running all over and knocking her stuff over and couldn't sit still. I think it was the high amount of sugar in them, but I didn't give her a lot of them because of that. I washed the clover sprouts extra well to get all the seed shells out of the sprouts and picked out all the ones in the seed and pulled them off.

Today's menu for Bunny included radicchio, clover sprouts, curly parsley, and a slice of pear.

Tomorrow she'll be getting carrot since she gets that on Fridays.

Wabbitdad12: She's just getting the life she deserved. I still wonder who her original owner or owners were. She'll be with us almost a year now.

 

[RosyRabbits]

Well darn...

I finally got some pics of Bunny. Unfortunately I can't post them since I don't have a Photobucket account. I thought I would just be able to load and post the pictures here like a lot of other forums I belong to. And Photobucket the last time I was there and tried to make an account they were asking for personal information I wasn't comfortable giving. If anyone has other options I could use feel free to tell me.

So you might remember a while back I mentioned my parents possibly finding a second rabbit not to far from where we found Bunny around the same time last year. Thankfully my dad understood why we wouldn't be able to take the new rabbit in if we found it. But there seems to be no rabbit in the area. My dad went back down there and walked around and sat there for a few hours but there were no signs that a rabbit was anywhere. He didn't see the rabbit, there was no burrow and the "hole" my mom thought she saw in the tree the last time she and my dad were there was just a big dent on the bottom of the tree. No flattened grass or spot used for a "bathroom" either. So odds are it might have just been a squirrel or something. I think we'll be watching though.

My parents get the biggest kick out of me preparing her food everyday. My dad says its because I always put the veggies and the fruit in so neatly like some salad from a restaurant. So I like to make her meals look nice...

The other night my younger sister made Bunny's food since I was really tired. Now normally I give her only three veggies and some fruit, my sister gave her a little of everything and gave her a lot of fruit. Regular Parsley, Curly Parsley, Romaine Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Basil along with blueberries a strawberry and couple slices of apple. Thankfully the only thing she didn't give Bunny was carrot, she remembered I only give her that on Fridays once a week. I guess I should have stayed to watch her but she's seen me make Bunny's food plenty of times. I don't think it will hurt this one time. Bunny is very good with eating her other foods such as her timothy hay and she's not overweight. I told my sister what to do if she takes up the job for me another time.

And speaking of food she's gotten picky with her Mustard Greens. She ate them just fine when she got them for the first time a few months ago and now she won't touch them. I tried giving them to her off the stem, maybe that's the problem.

Today's menu included Curly Parsley, Basil and Mustard Greens and a strawberry and blueberries for fruit.

Also I woke up to a cute little scene today: Bunny laying on her back under the little ledge she uses as her little borrow, cleaning her face. She flops on her back and side a lot. A random times out of nowhere she'll just flop over. Before I found out this was normal behavior for a rabbit and she did it for the first time I ran to her in-closer thinking she was hurt or worse. But she just looked at me with this look of "What? I'm just laying here" on her face. I've also caught her a few times sleeping while cuddling her carrot shaped chew toy, she'll be laying on her side with one of her front paws around the toy. She usually springs up the second you get near her cage when she's sleeping, but sometimes she won't bother and will just continue laying there.

We had her out of her cage for some time out of her cage. She seemed more interested in watching me play Fallout 3. She just sat there watching the TV; it turns out she doesn't like Super Mutant Overlords, when one rounded a corner out of nowhere and attacked my player character she took off to the other side of the room. I can't blame her...I hate those things too, a pain in the neck to take down right along with the Feral Ghoul Reaver's.

I'm already thinking about her upcoming birthday, or what we consider her birthday since its the day we found her. I think I'll pick up some special veggies from the store and get her a new toy to play with for her birthday dinner and present. Its still not for a while but I like planning things out weeks before hand. I'd like to find her a new grass to try out. I've been trying to find Meadow Hay for her but so far its been a no go.

Current Bunny Activity: Laying down in her cage next to her little hanging toy filled with timothy hay.

 

[RosyRabbits]

Sort of a short blog about something that's popped up.

My younger sister just brought to my attention that on Bunny's rump her fur is turning a different color. The normal color of her coat is a peppered color of light gray, white and dark gray. But now there are little spots of solid dark gray fur on her backside. At first I thought it was just her rubbing against her water bottle and her fur getting wet. But the fur actually has just changed color. They look like little blotches of color as if someone dribbled ink on her backside.

I know rabbits fur can change color with the seasons but the worry wort in me wonders if this is still alright. Bunny isn't showing any of the obvious signs of being sick (Not eating, watery eyes, runny nose, loose stools, grainy urine, fatigue, moving strangely etc.) in fact as I type this she's happily munching away at her hay.

Has anyone else had their rabbit go through a similar change? I'm sure I'm just worrying over nothing but I'd rather be sure. I'd ask over at the infirmary section but this doesn't seem like something that requires posting there because odds are this really is nothing.

 

[ohbunnies]

RosyRabbits wrote:

Sort of a short blog about something that's popped up.

My younger sister just brought to my attention that on Bunny's rump her fur is turning a different color. The normal color of her coat is a peppered color of light gray, white and dark gray. But now there are little spots of solid dark gray fur on her backside. At first I thought it was just her rubbing against her water bottle and her fur getting wet. But the fur actually has just changed color. They look like little blotches of color as if someone dribbled ink on her backside.

I know rabbits fur can change color with the seasons but the worry wort in me wonders if this is still alright. Bunny isn't showing any of the obvious signs of being sick (Not eating, watery eyes, runny nose, loose stools, grainy urine, fatigue, moving strangely etc.) in fact as I type this she's happily munching away at her hay.

Has anyone else had their rabbit go through a similar change? I'm sure I'm just worrying over nothing but I'd rather be sure. I'd ask over at the infirmary section but this doesn't seem like something that requires posting there because odds are this really is nothing.

Yep. My Mini Rexes both went through drastic fur texture and color changes when they were molting. My male Mini Rex started out with really soft, fine longer light gray fur and now he's got short, softer, velvet-like gray fur. My female Mini Rex has all sorts of weird fur patterns. It happens, I wouldn't worry unless something does seem wrong- not eating, restlessness, not drinking, poop is weird, etc.

 

[RosyRabbits]

ohbunnies: Thanks I was pretty sure it was nothing. I was wondering if maybe she had been pulling her fur out or something without me noticing. But the darker fur has started blending in with the rest of her fur, before it was outlined in white. But know its blending in and you can hardly tell and it looks like the fur is going back to how it was.

Well its official Bunny has now been here a whole year. I went out and got her some special vegetables for that day. We got her a new toy too.

Its crazy that its been this long already. It feels like years are going fast since I turned 21, and now I'm 25.

The place I and my mom usually buy her vegetables along with other stores are being hit hard from the heat wave that's hitting where I am. A lot of the vegetables don't last as long and the fruit is going moldy really quickly. I don't have fruits or berries doing this, this fast unless its strawberries. I make sure she has her hay and grass along with her pellets but she always looks forward to her little salad everyday.

We've also made sure to keep the room where her cage is cool with the A.C and giving her fresh water regualry to make sure she doesn't get sick from the heat.

I went out and got new fresh vegetables and some raspberries and I'm keeping them as far back in the fridge as I can to keep them cool and fresh.

She was happy to get some fresh basil, mint and the last of the radicchio along with a slice of apple and some raspberries

Me and my parents saw something interesting the other day while looking out the window to cool off with the breeze coming through it. A girl we knew had a large light brown rabbit running around outside near the park across from our house. It wasn't on a lead or anything, and it was running into the street and I was worried that it would get hit by a car. I hope next time she puts it on a lead if she wants to take it out for a walk, a neighbor's little daughter's kitten got run over on that same street, I don't want to see another persons pet get hit again.