First time bunny owner <3

[LuckyAmi]

Hello! :3 I'm Ami. I'm a huge animal lover. I've grown up with all kinds of animals in my house. My parents were always rescuing lost and abandoned pets and I grew up loving all of them. For the last 10 years I had several ferrets, and now I only have an italian greyhound, Ginger. Out of all the animals I've had in my life, I never had a bunny. I have always enjoyed watching wild rabbits playing in the yard, but for some reason I never thought about owning one.

That changed in early July 2015. I went out in to my back yard to check on my garden, when I caught movement near my raspberry bushes. I went over to investigate, when a tiny little black bunny comes walking out from under the bush, walking right up to greet me. He was very calm and mellow, slowly wandering around my little garden. I was immediately alarmed because I could tell he was not a wild cotton tail (that much I know about rabbits at least!) and that he must be a lost pet. The little guy was only about the size of my hand, and I was very concerned for his saftey because there are lots of hawks in my neighborhood, plus neighbors on all sides of me have big dogs that would make quick work of this tiny little guy... especially since he didn't seem too scared to run away from any stranger danger. There was no way I could just leave him outside to find for himself. He would not be able to make it for long. I scooped him up. He didn't even seem to care that I had picked him up. He was completely chill in my hand. He didn't appear sick and there were no signs of injuries... he was alert, but just super laid back. I know ZERO about bunnies, so I don't know if that is a normal bunny trait or not... but I was surprised at how calm he was.

I checked around the neighborhood, but nobody had lost a rabbit. With nobody to claim him, there was no way I was just going to stick him back in the yard to be somethings dinner. Like I said, I didn't know much about rabbits- how much it cost to keep them, how to care for them, what they needed.... But I felt bad for the little guy. I decided to take him in and give him the best home that I could. I had a cage left over from when I had ferrets, and I bought a pet rabbit book right away so I could learn how to care for him and what he would need.

I named him Lucky.

Lucky has been with me about a month now. I work from home, with an office in my master bedroom. I keep his cage in there, and after rabbit proofing the room, I let him out to free roam in that room (as long as I am also home to supervise). I'm still learning about the rabbit world, but I have had so much fun getting to know him so far. I was worried at first, that maybe he wouldn't be happy living inside the house with Ginger and I, but he seems to be happy. He is always doing the bunny flop over on his side or on his back, or stretching out as far as he can when he lays down. Every day we seem to bond a little bit more. He licks me and comes out when I call him. And two times now, when Ginger and I were taking a nap, Lucky has gotten in bed to lay down with us and nap too. He and Ginger get a long. Ginger is happy to have a buddy finally and just the other day, Lucky tried to play with Ginger by digging on her paw trying to drag it to him.

I've tried to find out what kind of rabbit Lucky is, but I can't tell. :/ He's blackish- grayish, I guess...? With a little bit of light gray hairs mixed in all over...? With a light gray tummy, under part of the tail and feet. He has a tiny bit of brown on his shoulders and back. He isn't a lop or a long haired type. I don't think he is a dwarf, he seems to have big ears.

 

[stevesmum]

What a great rescue story. I love him welcome to the wonderful world of rabbit friendship!

 

[BlazeBunnies]

your bunny is adorable and i too agree that that is a wonderful rescue story you never truly know what love is until you are loved by a rabbit :bunnyhug:

 

[MiniLopMad]

How sweet Welcome! It's wonderful that you rescued him and have him the chance at life he deserves

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Very cute little guy. The color is called Tort and he looks like a mix. I'm not surprised no one claimed him as someone near you probably turned him out--that's how we got most of ours too--all rescues. We knew where 1 of them came from and the former owners "lied like a rug". Rabbits do much better indoors and will live to 10 or longer, but in the wild they'll only make it to 4. You'll need to get him neutered as he will be a much better companion and will avoid the cancer that is so common in intact bunnies.:goodluck

 

[Lokin4AReason]

laid back isn't the word, he is a chilled bun ( esp. in the last photo ) ...

welcome to the board =)

if you have any question(s), post it up for US and We ll take it from there ( as in helping out ) =0)

 

[Ivythelionhead]

Awe he's adorable, lucky is lucky to have found you, your doing an amazing job

 

[LuckyAmi]

Thank you for all the warm welcomes!

Ah... a Tort color... I never thought of that before. I knew of that color on other animals but it never occurred to me that that was Lucky's color. I had a feeling he might be a mix as well. I've looked around so many bunny breed websites and haven't been able to find something just like him. I'm a pretty curious person, so I'll probably keep looking or keep asking people what they think he is.

 

[minimoomin]

To me he looks like a Flemish giant mix &#128522;
Welcome to the forum

 

[JBun]

By the size of those ears, I agree that you may have a flemish mix on your hands. If so, you could end up with quite a big boy.

I'm not surprised you found him near your raspberry bushes. My rabbits love to eat mine

He certainly seems quite content and happy in his new home. So glad he found a home with you.

 

[LuckyAmi]

flemish is one of the breed choices I had narrowed it down to in my attempts to ID him on my own. :O Those are rather large bunnies!! I will have to get a bigger cage down the line. Thankfully he doesn't spend too much time in the cage. Only when I'm not home and when we go to bed.

If he is flemish... he's going to be bigger then my dog. :O

 

[LuckyAmi]

Lucky is indeed a boy bun! In early Dec he went to be spayed or neuter and when he was checked by the vet, it was pretty obvious (even from across a room) that he was a boy. Lucky is about 7 months old now, give or take a month.

He has been doing very well here. He and Ginger chill in bed with each other all the time, as well as play together. I've even seen him go up to Ginger, and lay his head down in front of her, asking to be groomed. Unfortunately, Ginger doesn't understand this, and just presses her cheek or nose to his forehead instead.

As my bunny knowledge has grown, I've been trying to give him more mentally stimulating fun. I just made him a dig box out of a big plastic container filled to the top with crumpled phonebook pages, and mixed in hay and pellets hidden in there. He really seems to like "foraging" for his food and he is always hoping in the box to dig or go all the way under the papers. I've had a hard time finding toys that he would like for more then 2 seconds, so I figured it is time to just start putting some things together myself.

Lucky is still a very sweet and friendly bunny. Very laid back. He has never acted aggressive. He has become a pretty big snuggle bunny, coming to sit next to Ginger and I in the morning and in the evening, wanting a big grooming session and to flop over next to us.

I have found out what color his fur is. Or at least what I believe it to be.... I believe it is called Steel grey and the little bits of brownish that I mentioned previously, it is apparently called rust. So Lucky is steel grey with rust.

Still not positive on what kind of breed he is. Since I have never been around bunnies (in person i mean), and never owned one, I don't have size / build/ weight of a previous bunny to be able to compare him to. Is he big / small/ normal for an average bunny? I was thinking that he is possibly flemish giant (mix?) like several people in this thread have suggested, but I'm still not sure... I watch flemish giant videos on youtube, and those bunnies are a lot younger then Lucky but seem to be much bigger... though, it is hard to tell from videos and photos without references.

I have some newer pics from Dec- Feb I would like to post, and hopefully I can get your feed back on what breed do you think he is, now that he is a little bit older. Is it possible to be small if you have some flemish giant in you? Haha XD

I tried to dig up photos that have some sort of item you can use as a reference. Several are with Ginger, who is a small italian greyhound height comes up to about my knees, she weights about 12-15 pounds. Don't know how much Lucky weights)

 

[LuckyAmi]

Oh! I was just looking at the "what breed is my rabbit?" search thing on here, and while I still couldn't pin it down exactly, I did run across something that caught my eye....

In the Large Rabbit section, there is a bunny called the Champagne D'Argent. Lucky is a darker grey then that bunny, but he does have some of that light grey on him. The main thing I noticed was the black little butterfly-looking patch over the nose.... it seemed very familar. I examined a couple of close ups of Lucky's face. His fur is darker, but there... on his nose... is it the butterfly patch?

Could he possibly be a Champagne D'Argent flemish giant mix? Is that even a thing?

What do you think?

 

[Azerane]

I think it's probably most likely that he's a flemish or mix of. Steel colours are common in the flemish breed. In terms of the darker nose, I don't know. The butterfly marking isn't exclusive to Champanges but it could be a throwback to something that he may be mixed with. And you are correct that he is big for an average bunny Bandit weighed 7 pounds and everyone thought he was big because most people are used to seeing the dwarf breeds If your dog weighs 12-15 pounds I'd say there's a good chance lucky isn't far behind, he may even be about 12 pounds as he's bulkier than she is.

He is absolutely gorgeous though, I think it's wonderful that Lucky and Ginger are the best of friends

 

[LuckyAmi]

Thank you!

And what is really great about Ginger and Lucky being friends, is that Ginger doesn't have any other animal friends, because she gets too shy. The one dog she isn't shy around, my parents (regular) greyhound, hates her and doesn't ever play with her. Ginger is really friendly (as long as you aren't a bird invading her backyard) and would love to have play buddies, but she turns in to shy dog... so when Lucky came around, I think since he started out pretty tiny, it gave her a chance to get to know him, in a comfortable place to her... so no shy dog. I'm so glad she has a friend now.... Although sometimes she will take hay or carrot out of his mouth and eat lit. -.-

I know it's not just me who says he's big, too... His carrier (which is way too small now) has a cage top, so you can see him through it. When I took him to the vet in Dec, I was early, so I sat down in the chair by the hallway entrance. You had to walk past us to get to examining rooms and other back parts of the vet office. A total of 7 people (3 of them were other people with pets, the rest were people who worked at the vet office) walked by us, looked down at Lucky, stopped, and ALL of them said the exact same thing... "That's a HUGE bunny!!" XD I got such a kick out of that! Maybe it's the same thing like you were saying... maybe they are just used to a bunch of dwarf bunnies?