Buster the lionhead bunny!

[JBun]

It sounds like Buster is curious and wants to get close and check her out, but he is too nervous to. So where better to get a good look at her, then from the top of his cage, haha.

Lots of hay is great for a new bunny, but she will need either pellets and/or veggies in her diet so that she is getting the proper nutrition. Is it that you have offered her pellets and she just isn't eating them, or you haven't started her on pellets yet? Which ever you do, it's good to introduce all new foods gradually, and one at a time. The exception is grass hay. That doesn't usually cause digestive upset with sudden introduction into the diet, unless it is a grain hay with grain in it. For the pellets, you just do it like when you are transitioning from one pellet to the other, except you don't have old pellets to transition off of.

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Oh yeah I forget sometimes to finish where I was going with a sentence. Well yeah I was like hmm what can I put on top of this? So temporarily I put a big piece of fiberglass up there so *IF* he gets up there he wont fall through.

I am finding out her approximate age soon but I think she is *about 6 months old. Her toenails are really tiny like a kittens and super sharp but she is real long and almost as heavy as Buster.

I did give her the teensiest taste of green leaf lettuce and she was reluctant but eventually ate it all. Then I cut up a baby carrot to kind of bribe Buster into not being mad at me and I gave her a sliver about half the size of my pinky nail...and she would NOT eat it. I also gave her a leaf of cilantro and after 5 minutes I gave it to Buster bc I decided that's probably too much for one day anyway.

 

[Katielovesleo3]

I gave her a big pinch of pellets last night. It doesn't look like she has ate any of them at all but I kept the bowl in her cage so if she decides to nibble on them then she can. I was thinking, maybe she doesn't want to eat them bc A) she is too full from eating all her hay or B) bc in FFA I *think* they feed them a high sugar diet, its that way for goats anyway so im not sure at all, that is my guess though lol.

Oh and I was thinking about the diamond holed gate again, I have two of them! So could I give her one and him one and then them do their mimicking???

 

[Chrisdoc]

I put cardboard on top of my cages to stop their legs from going through. They love it cos they can sit up there and chew on it at the same time lol.

Mine didn´t like carrot the first time I gave it to them but they will eat a little bit of it now, they like if coarsely grated :carrot Sometimes, they may not like things at first but I usually try them more than once anyway.

 

[JBun]

I would guess that she used to be fed an alfalfa based rabbit food, that you get at a feed store. So she's probably just not used to your kind, and may be being picky about it. You could try a tiny pinch of oats mixed in with them, since a lot of breeders will feed their rabbits a little bit of oats as a conditioning food. So it's something she would be used to and something most rabbits really love. It worked when I got my new girl rabbit and she went off her feed after being with me for a few days. I mixed a tiny bit of oats in with her pellets, and that was all it took. She LOVED oats. I wouldn't do more than a little pinch of them though.

 

[agnesthelion]

Buster sounds like he is acting fairly normal when a new bunny is brought home. Rabbits are territorial and opinionated sometimes so they just get uber curious about new family members

Unless you think either rabbit is distressed I wouldn't house them in seperate rooms. You want them bonded one day so they need to see each other and start getting used to their scents. They also need to see each other out and about exploring the same room (not together though of course, one caged and one free run) so neither one stakes claim over a certain area. Right now Buster knows it's his house so he especially needs to see Phoebe (is it Phoebe for sure...cute btw!) out in "his" area so he can slowly start excepting that she's gonna live there too.

Now, if either rabbit seems distressed or a accidental fight would break out that is when separation is recommended. Otherwise cage separately but not too close so they can bite through the cage.

As far as food I would encourage some pellet intake at this point. As Jenny said you can eliminate pellets eventually if you want but that takes quite a bit of veggie to supplement the difference and if there is a chance she is 6 months or still a baby now wouldn't be the time to do that and so she would need pellets in the meantime.

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Tomorrow I am getting the lady's phone number who is mother to the little girl who showed the rabbits so I will ask her what she fed, how old she is, and if she's a Himalayan or Californian. Then I can get her some food she will eat.

I will have to find a big piece of cardboard to put up there on top of Buster's cage.

I think I will name her Phoebe. It is the only name I can think of and I am pretty stuck on it lol.

So yall think that's a good idea to put her cage in the corner with the gate wrapped around it and then Busters little cage next to hers with some gate wrapped around it too? And yall don't think I should switch them each day right? Bc that's what one member said.

Pictures to come soon! BE READY FOR CUTE RED EYES!

 

[agnesthelion]

.....

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Okay, I will try to remember to start switching things around Friday or Saturday then.

In other news, today at church they had a big event, Muscle Car Sunday, they have a car show, motorcycle slow races, inflatables playgrounds for kids and they had a petting zoo. Well, at this petting zoo, thy had lots of goats, three sheep, two ducks, a very friendly rooster (one with the fluffy feet that Morgan was talkin bout not so long ago), a baby pot bellied pig, a llama, a camel and a fawn in another pen, and an angora rabbit that was literally running for its life!!! I didn't notice him for a while bc he was trying desperately to hide, but then some kids started running after him and he's just running around trying to escape these little heathens! His nose was wiggling 100 mph his eyes were huge and I could tell he was scared. So I kept grabbing the kids, yes I grabbed them, as said "hey don't chase the rabbit ok? They're scared bc they're prey animals, and he looks like he's about to have a heart attack and die" they just went right back to chasing him so I caught another boy and shortened my sentence, "hey stop chasing the rabbit or else he is going to have a heart attack as die!" And seriously...this little boy gave me the GO TO F#%^*ING HELL look! And so I said "well I'm sorry I gotta tell it like it is! I have rabbits so I know this"...yeah he walked off and looked at me again with Devil eyes... 0_o so I told the man who was holding the baby pot bellied pig that I was worrie about the angora and I thought he ought to hold the rabbit instead of the pig. And he was like "Angora?" Well turns out people just take turns *watching over* the petting zoo, so he didnt know the rabbits breed. But he did hold the rabbit while someone else held the pig (it was a tiny thing, like a baby loaf of bread!) but he only held him for 3 minutes (yeah I stayed there that long because Evelyn was grooming the sheep...like a monkey) and put him back down! Then a swarm of kids ran after him again and I went and told Leo and Poppy and my dad was like "well they don't care, they are replaceable objects to them" so I gave up and left.

Ok, now for pictures.
Here's one of her exploring the great unknown

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Notice the lengthiness, which makes me believe she's a himi

 

[Katielovesleo3]

She pooped. Then laid right next to it. She isn't the bright crayon in the box, good thing I named her after a ditzy blonde lol

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Flop leg!

 

[Katielovesleo3]

"Mmmm I loves hay!"

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Now she looks more like a ball

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

She is an adorable rabbit!

 

[Katielovesleo3]

Thank you! She is real pretty and she is pretty good at keeping her white coat looking white and shiny! She is a poopaholic though. And her poop/pee does not smell very good either I might add. It's not like "stinky", it just doesn't smell good. Or have no smell like Buster's.

So I did what Lisa said. I have Phoebe's cage in one corner with the gate wrapped around it so she can go in and out of her cage (she hasn't gone all the way out yet, but I arranged some boxes as stairs and she climbed up them and then went out and back in. Then the small cage is outside of it and Buster has free roam of the room (he is quite happy that way lol. He keeps flopping, this is the most flopping I've ever seen him do, so either I am awesome and he is happy I got him a friend, or maybe he is happy he is out roaming free after being caged up in "timeout" last night (my Buster bite is getting better). So I should start switching them in a week correct? (Phoebe have free roam and Buster be penned)

 

[Chrisdoc]

She´s absolutely gorgeous and I love her colouring. That´s good looking poop so she seems to be OK.

Houdini and Snowy flop a lot when they´re at other sides of the cage so that´s probably why Buster´s doing it for Phoebe, you might notice Phoebe doing it as well. They seem to be tolerating each other well so they just need to get used to each other´s presence and scents.

 

[agnesthelion]

. So I should start switching them in a week correct? (Phoebe have free roam and Buster be penned)

Neither bunny should have free roam and not the other. If Buster is out and she is not it could give him a sense of being the "winner" and that is not good. He could also stake claim over the free run area. Going a week before the next switch is too long. This needs to be a daily thing.

Agnes was free run before I got Archie so it was a change for her too but free run became only supervised play time with me there and they were both equal. So if Aggie was out for an hour, I'd sit there the whole time and then Archie would be out for an hour and I'd sit there the whole time. Then the rest of the time they were in their cages next to each other. It's alot of work and very tedious. To make sure they got adequate time out I did this a few times a day.

By switching I mean switching food bowls/toys etc and eventually you will want to switch cages. So each other will stay in each others cage.

Love the new pics of Phoebe she is a cute lil thang Her pee might smell worse because she is not spayed yet. Hopefully with her spay and as she gets used to Buster the pooping will get better. A new bunny addition sometimes brings out lots of pooping! Haha

 

[holtzchick]

I agree with keeping them in cages and having neither bun completely free roam as it does make one feel better than the other. The key with bonding is to treat them both completely equally, especially when you are petting and giving treats!

I would start switching cages after the first few weeks of them getting used to each others scent. Also, I would mirror their set ups as much as possible as that encourages them to eat together, drink together, lay together etc. so having their cages together length wise (so as long as they cannot bite each other through the bars is great!)

 

[whitelop]

She's such a pretty girl! I just had to do some catching up! She's so cute! I think she's a himi too.
She's a baby and they poop all over the place, she'll get the hang of the litter box soon enough.