Greetings! New rabbit owner here!

[WadeF]

Hello everyone! My name is Wade, I'm 37 and the father of two boys (9 & 7) who are very excited to now have a pet rabbit. My oldest son has been wanting a rabbit for some time now, and he has always specified he wanted a Rex rabbit. So the other day we were at my wife's cousin's for a graduation party. They mentioned they had a rabbit, so my boys went in to check it out. The next thing I know they are looking to get rid of the rabbit and offered it to us, free of charge, with the cage and everything. I originally said no, but after I felt how soft the rabbit was I gave in. It turns out it appears to be a mini rex rabbit! Just what my son wanted. I tried weighing it and it's some where between 3 and 4 pounds.

Now, whenever we get a new pet I have to go online and research, research, and research some more. This rabbit was living in a wire bottomed cage. I assumed right off the bat this probably wasn't ideal, as we have pet rats and they don't like wire bottom cages either. So our free rabbit turned into an expensive rabbit as I went out and bought it a new cage which is filled with Carefresh bedding. He seems much happier already. The poor guy would spend almost the whole time sitting in his plastic litter pan when he lived in the wire cage. Now he stretches out to rest and doesn't seem interested in sitting in his litter pan anymore! He also now has access to unlimited hay, something I don't think he had before. He also had 3 ticks which I removed, and his nails were pretty long, which I trimmed partially and will trim some more in a week. Hopefully everyone approves of what I've done for this rabbit so far.

I'm gradually switching him from the Kay-tee rabbit pellets they were feeding him to Oxbow adult rabbit pellets. He is also getting fresh veggies, mainly romaine lettuce with a little fresh basil and mint from my garden.

So we think he's a mini rex, but we're not exactly sure of the color. We though Castor, but I think I've ruled that out. I'm leaning towards Tortise now. He has a grey belly, rich brown / orange top side, dark nose, ears. Here are a few pictures, I'll try to get some better ones soon. We've only had him for less than 30 hours.

 

[wendymac]

Hello and welcome to the forum!! I can't help you with the coloring (just figuring out the terms for lop colors) but he's cute!!! And, from what I can see in the pictures, he looks quite happy with you guys. Congrats on your new addition!

 

[WadeF]

wendymac wrote:

Hello and welcome to the forum!! I can't help you with the coloring (just figuring out the terms for lop colors) but he's cute!!! And, from what I can see in the pictures, he looks quite happy with you guys. Congrats on your new addition!

Thank you! I should have mentioned you can see his old cage in the bottom photo, his new one in the top. My wife insisted we get him a harness and leash, and a carrier. We want to make sure he gets out in the yard to get some exercise, but we want to make sure he doesn't run off or get too far away with stray cats, hawks, and other things around that we don't want coming after our new pet.

 

[littl3red]

He's beautiful! His eyes are so pretty. :hearts: Is he litter trained at all? I don't know if it's a problem with short haired rabbits, but when I had my whole cage filled with bedding, my Teddy would get it in her fur and track it all over my room, kick it out of the cage, it was a mess. So I switched to just having towels in the cage floor, it's a lot cleaner.

 

[WadeF]

I don't think he's litter trained, but we may try to get him using the litter pan instead of the entire cage. Any tips? So far he hasn't tracked out any bedding. The Carefresh is pretty nice stuff and doesn't seem to stick to him.

 

[littl3red]

Usually they just pick a corner and pee there, and you put a litter box underneath them. That's the way it was with my rabbit. There's articles about litter training on the internet that you may find helpful. Also, depending on how old he is, neutering can help a lot. My rabbit marks her territory with droppings, and I got her spayed recently, but I think it may be too late. She's already an adult, and the behavior is deep-rooted in her bunny brain. But it was only a week ago since she got spayed, so I'm still hoping. ray: But the droppings don't bother me much, they're not that hard to clean up. As long as she pees in her litter box, I'm fine.

 

[cwolfec]

What a beautiful bun! You'll definitely find lots of good information in this forum. And lots of support from fellow rabbit lovers

He's clearly content,.. I'm impressed he let you put him on a leash!

After he gets acclimated to his house, you might want to put the Carefresh bedding just in his litter box, and maybe newspaper or a fleece blanket on the bottom of the cage. That works for my buns. Is he neutered? If not, it may take a bit longer to get him trained, but stick with it! Oh! Also put some hay in the litter box!

 

[woahlookitsme]

Welcome to the Forums! You are right about his breed and color. He is known as a Black Tort Mini Rex. Adorable!

 

[WadeF]

woahlookitsme wrote:

Welcome to the Forums! You are right about his breed and color. He is known as a Black Tort Mini Rex. Adorable!

Thanks for the ID! Also I forgot to mention he has a number 40 tattooed in his left ear. He supposedly was purchased from a fair in Allentown, PA about 3-4 years ago. Since then he's had at least 2 different owners. So I have no idea what this guy has been through, but he seems pretty mellow when we hold him, etc.

 

[agnesthelion]

He is just so handsome...congrats on your new rabbit!

I think you have made some great changes for him so far. I do have to second trying to litter train him and removing the care fresh out of the whole cage. That is a mess! I have baby blankets on the bottom of ours for Agnes.

I litter trained her like PP said above. Put a litterbox in the corner she picked and voila....trained

Welcome to the forum and looking forward to hearing more from you!

 

[MyBabyHasPaws]

He's GORGEOUS! What did you all name him?

I have a mini-rex too, i just love this breed of rabbit!

Welcome to RO!

 

[WadeF]

My wife and kids came up with Mr. Fluffington. I was hoping for less of a mouthful, but it will have to do.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Very cute Tort (black) mini Rex--don't ya just love their fur and tiny little whiskers. Good thing to get him off wire as Rex's can get sore hocks very easy--our two have wood and carpet to lay on and a corner litter box full of kiln dried pine. Not a fan of his name though. The ear tattoo means he was shown at sometime in his life.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Welcometo Rabbits Online, my name is Dave and I am a moderator on the forum. So if I can be of any help please let me know. This is a terrific website for rabbits and their slaves, not only is it very active but also friendly. I am so glad you’re here and I know you will enjoy it.

Hopefuly, your bunny will never get sick,if you everhave a sick bunny, please post in The Infirmary and include your rabbit's age, breed and health history as well diet and output details leading up to the problem.

Here are somelinks I thought you might find interesting:

*For reference the Library section

*To brag or tell everyone about the antics of your bunny or just to talk about your day here is where to start a Bunny Blog, you can also look back at it later and remember when you had a life before your bunny.

*Now all the bunny’s like talk to each other when we mere slaves aren’t around in the Bunny Chat is the spot to be.

*The House Rabbit Society has a lot of good information on what veggies are safe for bunny’s, etc.

*Here is a link to learn what your furry master is trying to say to you How to Understand Your Bunny's Language

The Let Your Hare Down section is for anything non-bunny related.

Here is a link tothat will help you and your bunny to connect, How to Bond with Your Bunny.

Now every forum has rules and ours can be found with this link Rabbits Online Forum Rules. This gives guidelines on what is acceptable, what is not and how we hope everyone will treat each other.

Everyone on this forum loves to see pictures of each other’s bunnies. So if you would like to post a picture this link will help you do that, Upload Photo's to Photo Gallery. Then in the post, you click on the "G" in the tool bar to insert your photo. Many people also use Photobucket. You just copy the img file and paste it into the post.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions and I am glad you have joined rabbits online; I look forward to seeing you around.

 

[melbaby80]

really cute with the harness on! welcome

 

[HEM]

Welcome and congrats
You sure have a cutie
We give our Dilly Oxbow pellets and timothy hay. You can also get a variety of Oxbow "treats" as well.

 

[WadeF]

Thanks for all the welcomes! We have now had Mr. Fluffington for just over a week. He does very well when we let him out of his cage. He rarely leaves behind a #2 here and there and has been doing the majority of #1 in the litter pan inside his cage! He also has no fear of our two cats, and our cats don't seem to have a problem with him.

I decided to order the Super Pets Giant Rabbit cage, it's 47x24x24 which will give him a lot more space when he's restricted to his cage. We might try an X-pen type of thing some time, but right now I'm not sure where we would set it up. I'm going to try not using the Carefresh bedding in the new cage, just some in the litter pan. I ordered a couple grass mats to put in the new cage, and we'll try some dish cloths. Hopefully dish cloths are safe? If not, feel free to recommend better alternatives.

Also, here is a little video of Mr. Fluffington.

[ame]http://youtu.be/xSDoETRVCyI[/ame]

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Very cute little guy! We used to get carpet samples from the local flooring store as they work very well as long as you don't have a chewer. Also, we use kiln dried pine from walmart for bedding in the litter box.