Fostering a 4 month old Lionhead - I need refreshers on young bunnies!!!

[doodlebugger]

She is a rescue, and they believe she is about 4 months old. She is very small, and we don't know anything other than she wasn't socialized with people or handled until she was rescued. She has been sitting in our vet's waiting area for a while, hoping to be adopted. We may end up adopting her....we are waiting to see if she is a good fit for us. We have had Flemish Giants, Mini Rexes, and a Mini Lop, but never a Lionhead. We currently have one Mini Rex and a Mini Lop (he was a rescue too) who are senior buns, not bonded.

It's been years since we had a bunny this young. The vet says to feed timothy hay, a small amount of greens (we use baby romaine), and we have the same pellets the vet was using. If I remember correctly, we should not give the bunny any fruit or sweet treats until they are at least 8 months old??? And, how many greens can they get at this age?? And it's my understanding that we can give unlimited pellets until they are 8 months old? Anything else I should remember about feeding at this age??? Can she have orchard grass and timothy hay, or should we stick to timothy hay?

Behavior wise - she is very scared of us, so we are trying to give her time to get used to her environment. But she is very inquisitive....looking around, smelling everything. I'm worried that she won't use the water bottle we have, but she did already eat a few greens. She smelled the pellets, but didn't really touch them, but she has been eating hay. She does really like to rip the newspaper we have on the floor though, and I wondered if that was anything to worry about??? Our mini rex does it for attention, but this little sweetheart doesn't seem to want attention. One other thing that we have never dealt with is a bun that just got spayed about four days ago, and today was the last day on pain meds.....would it hurt her to be handling her when we picked her up and put her in her cage or anything like that?? We don't plan on handling her for a few days, but we will be touching her and petting her.

Any other tips for this breed or for taking care of a young bunny is appreciated!!!

 

[stevesmum]

Maybe this is obvious but I think lionheads need way more grooming. Which for me would be a deterrent because as much as I love rabbits I absolutely hate brushing them. But if you don't mind that then go for it.

 

[Azerane]

Any sort of grass hay is fine to feed, orchard, timothy, oat, meadow etc. All are perfectly fine, though I would probably avoid oat with a lionhead because I imagine the larger seed heads would very easily get tangled in that fur!

It's generally recommended that unlimited pellets can be fed up to 6 months of age (except in large/giant breeds). However this does not suit all rabbits, some aren't able to regulate their pellet intake and simply gorge on pellets and ignore hay. Causing gut, tooth and weight problems. I would personally put 1/4 cup in a bowl in the morning, and another 1/4 cup in at night. That would be plenty.

Greens are another subjective matter. Depending on how they were raised, rabbits can have greens from a very young age, usually if the mother was regularly getting greens and the kits were nibbling on them as they were weaning. Kits that didn't have exposure to greens however may be more sensitive. Bandit at 4 months did not tolerate the introduction of greens and I had to wait another month before trying again. However some rabbits are fine eating greens from as young as 8 weeks of age. Just try one type in small amounts for a week and see how you go. If it's causing problems, stop and wait another month before trying again As you said, I would be avoiding fruits and other sweet treats.

You should be able to pick her up and handle her without touching the spay area, if you pick her up scooping under her rump with one hand, and supporting around her chest/front legs with the other hand, you should easily avoid touching the spay incision and be able to pick her up if need be. She will likely need grooming as mentioned and that can't be left too long with long hairs.

 

[doodlebugger]

Okay...so we have the food stuff down it seems, and we have been working with getting her socialized. She seems to be coming around, but we are having some behavioral issues - ripping paper, digging, and the occasional growling noise. What's even weirder is that sometimes she is doing a dead bunny flop, almost like a wild rabbit who is playing dead! She doesn't want us to mess with her, so she will flop, and then we leave to let her rest, and she gets up and is a crazy bun again!

I'm guessing first of all, we need some toys? Maybe she is bored??? She has tons of timothy hay, a clean cage, and unlimited pellets. We checked her spay area yesterday and texted the vet pictures, and everything is healing as it should.

I guess it's just been such a long time since we had a young bunny that we forgot how much energy they have!!! LOL

 

[Aki]

Digging, ripping paper, bunny flops... are all completely normal rabbit behaviors. She is likely to tone down the growling after the hormones are gone (a few weeks after the spay), but she could be really territorial. It happens. Anyway, she's a young teenager, so you're in for quite some time of her destroying things and being temperamental on occasion. Some rabbits like toys, a lot of them appear to be uninterested in them. How much time does she get out of her cage?
After a while, if you feel like she's really bored and that it's causing issues, bonding her with a neutered male is still the best cure - most rabbits are happier and live longer when bonded, and some rabbits really don't do well on their own. My Aki becomes a monster and a ball of nerves when she's alone - I've tried it when I first got her and when she was 4 years old, after her first husbunny died, but she's just not manageable on her own and she broke my heart with how agitated and unwell she looked everytime she was. She's almost 8 now, so chances are she will be able to spend the rest of her life with her current long-eared friend. On the other hand, I think my other rabbit could live alone with no major issues. I think you need to evaluate if your rabbit really has a problem with being alone (and if you want a second bunny), or if she's just being a teenager (they ARE really active and destructive - my youngest is 3 and a half so I've got a pretty calm bunny room now, but he ripped all the wallpaper of the walls just one year and a half ago ^^').

 

[doodlebugger]

I know bunny flops are normal, but the kind she is doing is like she is playing dead when we try to handle her! LOL She is acting like she is exhausted and laying down, but the minute she hears the cage door shut and sees us walk away, she gets up and starts chewing and digging again. If we go back over, she flops down again. This behavior is slowing down now, and she has been smelling and kissing us more lately (with one little love bite). We haven't been able to get her out of her cage because she had a spay recently, and our vet said not to let her run until she has been 10-14 days out from her spay which will be this week. The cage she has is twice as big as the one the rescue kept her in at the vet's office. That might be some of her issue, because at the vet's office, she was very timid and scared. Now she is like a crazy bunny because she has a ton of space, and probably is getting her energy back now that she is healing. We got her a tunnel by Oxbow, and she also got an Oxbow toy carrot (it's made from timothy hay and shaped like a carrot), and that helped for a few days, but now she is back to digging in her litter box and chewing the paper in all the corners of her cage. What is interesting is that once I turned off the lights for bedtime, she stopped nearly immediately. I wonder if they had a certain time that the lights went out at the vet's office (where she was living while waiting for adoption) and she knew that was her bedtime?

We are hoping by this week, after we get to take her out of her cage on a regular basis for playtime, that she will calm down. At this point, we aren't in a position to get another rabbit and bond her. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment period. We are fostering her, but are hoping to adopt her.

Thanks for all the advice and info!!!

 

[doodlebugger]

I'm back....not sure what to think. This little one has us scratching our heads! It's so true when they say that no rabbit is exactly alike! We have raised five bunnies, with only two still living. Both are senior buns, very set in their ways, sweet, calm, etc. We raised most of them from when they were little, but it's been years and none of them were ever as much of a handful as this one!! I don't know if it's the Lionhead breed, or if it's just her personality, but this foster bunny keeps us on our toes.

I wasn't sure if I should start a new thread. What I need help with now is ripping newspaper, digging up the entire litter box, and biting the bars of her cage. We let her out once daily as our schedule allows (which has been around 5-6 days a week), and once she wears herself out, she is fine for about half the day. When we aren't home, she completely demolishes her cage (literally we have to completely re-do her cage and litter box when we get back home). And when we are home, if she hasn't been out in the play area, she bites the bars of her cage, and even after giving her everything she could need or want, she will continue to do this!!! She is about five months, has been spayed, and has a giant cage. Any tips on what we can do to get her to stop doing these behaviors or is this something we have to ride out due to puberty? The only thing that calms her is greens....but our vet said to only give her about an ounce or so per day right now because of her size and age.

 

[stevesmum]

Hmm. The way I look at is, what if you arranged all the furniture in your living room just how you want it, and someone keeps coming back to rearrange it again. Think about leaving some things where she puts them, if it doesn't bother you too much. I had a bunny that would dig and try to throw his litter box around until I just stopped putting it back where I thought it should go. He stopped the behaviour. Well mostly. Other than that I would say that due to her young age she is acting normally. Give her lots of acceptable things to destroy. And maybe an old towel to dig and rearrange. As long as she isn't eating it of course.

 

[Hunny]

It might be different for larger breeds but I know smaller breeds mature a bit quicker. I have 5 dwarf lionheads and until 6 months they should unlimited pellets and timothy and orchard hay are both good but I would also add alfalfa until 6 months. Some people feed greens before 6 months but only do so in small amounts. I would hold off fruit until 6 months and then only as a treat. They are about 3lbs full grown so after 6 months slowly decrease pellets to 1/8th cup per day and eliminate alfalfa hay. Smaller breeds also need a bit more protein than the larger breed so just check the guaranteed analysis on your pellets!
For my lionheads I also give them a bit of BOSS for their fur! And they do require more grooming for sure! It definitely depends on the individual how much more but as she is living alone right now no other rabbits are grooming her so I would brush her every other day at least using a slicker comb.
Also monitor her butt area because some have a difficult time grooming there (esp. after spaying) so you may need to trim down the longer butt hairs if poo or pee gets stuck in her fur.

For behaviour 5 months is around terrible teenage stage for rabbits. They are super destructive and honestly little a**holes. Especially lionheads which can be a sassier breed haha! It will calm down with age especially since she is spayed! Some toys you can give her to help would be a dig box. A box filled with either shredded paper or kids play sand for her to dig in. Make sure its in a box with a lip like a cat litter box otherwise she will dig it right out of the box and onto the floor. A lot of buns who like digging also love tunnels! you can get a collapsible cat tunnel at the dollar store for a couple bucks! Put some hay in it and she will love that! As for chewing the bars one of my buns still does that for no reason so it could be a personality thing. Some things to try are providing larger things to chew on. A lot of rabbits prefer to chew on a piece of a large object over chewing on small chew toys. Some ideas are: a wicker basket, a medium-large cardboard box, or a log that is bunny safe wood! I get my buns birch, apple, or willow logs and wash them and bake them to make sure they are clean and parasite-free!
I'm not sure if you have the space but if you can attach a run to her cage using a dog pen or c&c panels she could get more exercise since you said she only gets out once a day 5 days a week. More exercise like that would definitely help those destructive tendencies as well!

 

[doodlebugger]

It might be different for larger breeds but I know smaller breeds mature a bit quicker. I have 5 dwarf lionheads and until 6 months they should unlimited pellets and timothy and orchard hay are both good but I would also add alfalfa until 6 months. Some people feed greens before 6 months but only do so in small amounts. I would hold off fruit until 6 months and then only as a treat. They are about 3lbs full grown so after 6 months slowly decrease pellets to 1/8th cup per day and eliminate alfalfa hay. Smaller breeds also need a bit more protein than the larger breed so just check the guaranteed analysis on your pellets!
For my lionheads I also give them a bit of BOSS for their fur! And they do require more grooming for sure! It definitely depends on the individual how much more but as she is living alone right now no other rabbits are grooming her so I would brush her every other day at least using a slicker comb.
Also monitor her butt area because some have a difficult time grooming there (esp. after spaying) so you may need to trim down the longer butt hairs if poo or pee gets stuck in her fur.

For behaviour 5 months is around terrible teenage stage for rabbits. They are super destructive and honestly little a**holes. Especially lionheads which can be a sassier breed haha! It will calm down with age especially since she is spayed! Some toys you can give her to help would be a dig box. A box filled with either shredded paper or kids play sand for her to dig in. Make sure its in a box with a lip like a cat litter box otherwise she will dig it right out of the box and onto the floor. A lot of buns who like digging also love tunnels! you can get a collapsible cat tunnel at the dollar store for a couple bucks! Put some hay in it and she will love that! As for chewing the bars one of my buns still does that for no reason so it could be a personality thing. Some things to try are providing larger things to chew on. A lot of rabbits prefer to chew on a piece of a large object over chewing on small chew toys. Some ideas are: a wicker basket, a medium-large cardboard box, or a log that is bunny safe wood! I get my buns birch, apple, or willow logs and wash them and bake them to make sure they are clean and parasite-free!
I'm not sure if you have the space but if you can attach a run to her cage using a dog pen or c&c panels she could get more exercise since you said she only gets out once a day 5 days a week. More exercise like that would definitely help those destructive tendencies as well!

She must be nearing the 6 months stage, or she could just be calming down now that she is adjusting to our household. Either way, she still occasionally chews on the bars, but I think it's an attention thing or like you said, her personality. She is a lot less destructive, but we have been giving her as much as we can to chew on, and that has helped. We had to get rid of her ceramic food bowl because she chewed it! We took the large size oxbow mats and put them against the two areas where she chews on the bars and that has helped! She is very spunky and as you said, sassier than any breed we have had before. Our Flemmies, Mini Rex, and Mini Lop were never as brave and spirited as she is! Just when you think you know all there is to know about bunnies.....she came along and I feel like we are learning from day 1 all over again! :laugh: