Harvex' Blog

[CruiserMaiden]

So I got home today and Harvex got to try his first Craisin (sp?). I had bought them before but apparently Ken didn't know they were for the bunny and was eating them himself...

Ken did a good job taking care of him in my absence, though his idea of a 'clean' cage isn't quite the same as my idea of 'clean' cage. I have a strange feeling this will translate over to our future children? Oh well, at least he was well fed and treated (with yogurt drops because Dad was busy eating all Harv's craisins!) and his litter box was kept clean so he is pretty chilled out.

This weekend I got him a larger water bottle out of storage that I had, and I got a medium sized cat carrier for him to travel in. We are going out of town in a couple of weeks and he will be going to a friend of mine's house while we are gone and I needed a carrier to get him there. He doesn't particularly like riding in a cardboard box!

Anyway thats about it. I want to take pictures of him tomorrow so I will post them when I get the chance!

 

[hartleybun]

CruiserMaiden wrote:

Ken did a good job taking care of him in my absence, though his idea of a 'clean' cage isn't quite the same as my idea of 'clean' cage. I have a strange feeling this will translate over to our future children?

:nod

 

[CruiserMaiden]

So today Harv and I had a breakthrough!

After the human/rabbit mix up with the craisins, he just got his first one the other day. I offered it to him by hand and he refused it, so I put it in his bowl and it was gone later.

Up until now he has not been terribly responsive to my attempts to buy his affection with treats. He loves fresh veggies but I don't want to give him too many of those because he wasn't getting them in his old home. He likes yogurt drops etc. but wouldn't take them from my hand, I would have to put them in his bowl.

But the past couple of days I have stopped topping his bowl off with pellet/seed mix every day. He has been eating all the goodies out of the mix and leaving the pellets, so instead of dumping those out I'm just leaving them for him to brood over. (He of course has plenty of hay at his disposal...) Today I offered him a craisin from my hand and he went crazy for it! My guess is its because he isn't getting all those yummy seeds etc. from the mix?

Anyway I gave him a couple of craisins from my hand and now he has started running OUT of his igloo and to the door whenever I walk by, instead of IN to the igloo. Its a breakthrough for me anyway!

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

CruiserMaiden wrote:

But the past couple of days I have stopped topping his bowl off with pellet/seed mix every day. He has been eating all the goodies out of the mix and leaving the pellets, so instead of dumping those out I'm just leaving them for him to brood over. (He of course has plenty of hay at his disposal...) Today I offered him a craisin from my hand and he went crazy for it! My guess is its because he isn't getting all those yummy seeds etc. from the mix?

Anyway I gave him a couple of craisins from my hand and now he has started running OUT of his igloo and to the door whenever I walk by, instead of IN to the igloo. Its a breakthrough for me anyway!

You are trying to end the seed mix and just have pellets right? Just be careful of how many Craisin you give Harvex. He don't want him to have an upset tummy.

It does sound like he's starting to love you a bit more. It's so cute that comes out of his ingloo instead on going in.

Also we need more pictures of him. leaseplease:

 

[CruiserMaiden]

I have not been giving him that many craisins, only like 3 per day. He is completely obsessed with them though. He has decided that People=Craisins and acts accordingly. Its funny. I was going to take more pictures today but he wrecked his cage that I cleaned yesterday so picture time went to cleaning that back up... I will take some soon though.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

CruiserMaiden wrote:

I have not been giving him that many craisins, only like 3 per day. He is completely obsessed with them though.

Bunny crack!

 

[CruiserMaiden]

Yes, Ken and I have started referring to the craisins as "Bunny Crack". He's so funny with them!

We had to take Harv to the bunny sitter yesterday as we are heading down to Florida for the week. Yay - vacation! Of course now we hear there's a tropical storm where we're going...

I left VERY specific instructions for the sitter, mine and ken's phone numbers, the phone number, address and office hours of the vet and the emergency vet and took all his stuff over with him. I marked everything with his name, usage, feeding schedule, etc. as well as his own personalized care sheet - am I being too OCD? I'm still worried about him!

We're in Atlanta with my folks right now (drove here to stay last night) and are leaving to drive the rest of the way toFlorida here in a few minutes. Wish me luck with that tropical storm!

 

[Wabbitdad12]

CruiserMaiden wrote:

I left VERY specific instructions for the sitter, mine and ken's phone numbers, the phone number, address and office hours of the vet and the emergency vet and took all his stuff over with him. I marked everything with his name, usage, feeding schedule, etc. as well as his own personalized care sheet - am I being too OCD? I'm still worried about him!

Not at all. I think you have to whether the sitter is bunny experienced or not, each bun is different.

 

[CruiserMaiden]

The sitter has bunny experience but no Harvex experience until now... I've been very worried about him cause he's spoiled and I don't want him to get upset!

Here's what I did for the sitter- Igave her a care sheet telling her when and how much of everything he's used to, including food, fresh veggies, treats, litter box cleaning, cage cleaning and toy rotation, andall the numbers and addresses (and office hours) for me, the vet and theER vet. Iportioned out and packaged up how much food andveggieshe would need for the week plus three extra days, just in case.I measured out litter for his box into individual baggies with just enough for one litter change at a timeso she could just dump the box and then addone baggie of new litter. I sent him with a newbox of craisinsand a new full bag of hay. Then I took a sharpie and wrote his name and the purposeof each thing andamount to be givenon the packages.When I dropped him off I set up his cage andwent over the care sheet line by line, gave hermapquest directions from her house to the vet and ER vet,and showed her how to handle/feed/groom him the way he likes everything done.Then I had herput him in his cage and get him back out to show shecan pick him up the way he is comfortable with.I left his carry cage with a towel insideto wrap him in should she need to get him out of the house in a hurry for any reason.

I've called twice since Tuesday to check and see how he's doing (fine, by the way). I think I may have a problem or something... I'm in Florida and should be relaxing not worrying about my bunny who doesn'treally seem to care that I'm gone!!!

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

Ahh, I sorry to hear your away from your love Isn't it nice to hear that are missing you terribly and still have a good time with sitter. Sounds like you had everything set up perfectly.

 

[CruiserMaiden]

Well its good to hear at least yall don't think my sharpie attacks on all his stuff was nuts- Ken seemed to think I had lost my mind!



Now off to the beach!

 

[hartleybun]

way to go with your instructions for the bunsitter! i dogsit and always have to ask for the dog's routine. apparently im a mindreader - lol. it's nice to see someone who realy cares about their pet and doesnt assume the sitter is psychic. the more info the better imho

 

[CruiserMaiden]

So today was my last day in Florida. I got a bad sunburn, even on my feet! Yes, I was wearing sunscreen - oh well!

We drive home tomorrow and I get to go get Harvex on Wednesday. The sitter said she doesn't want to give him back and that he's been doing wonderfully!

I met another bunny slave here (a friend of my future step-mother in law, confusing enough?) who had never tried giving her bun craisins so I recommended them last night. She gave her some today and her bun went nuts too! Much fun.

Anyway that's about it. More info and maybe pictures once I get home and pick Harv back up!

 

[CruiserMaiden]

So I'm back from vacation and on to looking for more houses... we were under contract and set to close on one next week but found a massive mold infestation in the crawlspace at inspection so we are back to square one...

Harvex did great with the bunsitter! I will definitely let her keep him again whenever I go out of town. She said he was a real joy to keep!

I tried to take some new pics to upload while I had him out today but I am having some problems with photobucket, so I will post some tomorrow!

 

[CruiserMaiden]

Ok so here is a boring cage shot for yall wanting pictures. I had some great ones from when he was out playing the other day but a user error in uploading them to the computer and photobucket caused the camera card to become corrupted...

I will take more 'action' shots in a couple of weeks. I am headed down to Atlanta tonight to stay with my family and Harv's brothers for a week or two. Harv is staying home with Dad, who he seems to like better than me anyhow!

Anybody have any advice on how to stop him from eating his cage furniture? for some reason all of a sudden he started trying to EAT his igloo last night. I had to take it out because I was afraid he was going to get sick eating plastic! He's sad without it, and its been in his cage since from his first home, so I don't know what to do!