Hi I'm Lily R.I.P. Fluffy

[lilylop]

Nancy McClelland wrote:

:inlove:Need to use a fine mesh on the outside of a larger mesh screening and make sure all the doors overlap and close down tightly.

yep that is exactly what we have done Got his water bottle and food bowl today. I need to ask the lady I am getting the bun from what she uses for bedding and the loo side of things so I can get them organised for when we pick him up.



Hi Dave thanks for the welcome. Its a fantastic site and everyone seems very friendly. I have been doing alot of reading on the site seeing as the is my first bun. it has helped alot!!! So a big thank you to everyone

 

[lilylop]

Just got back from Bunnings with a punnet of parsley, corianda & bazil seedlings that I have re-potted into bigger pots so we will always have fresh veg for the little guy. I also got pak choi seeds and what I thought was Bok Choi but I have now realised once looking at the pack that they were both packets of pak choi! :XOh well I can always go out and get some others. I just thought it would be cheaper to grow my own and that way I know they are definatly pesticide/chemical free.

Can anyone else suggest some easy to grow herbs & veg that can grow in pots? I haven't got the greenest finger in the world and with 45+ degree days it needs to be fairly hardy.

 

[LakeCondo]

I think I'd go easy on the cabbage relatives; pak choi & bok choi. Dandelion & plantain are common weeds in the US, so if they grow in Australia, transplant some to where you want them & use the leaves as rabbit food. And I've found fennel easy to grow. The whole plant is edible--bulb, stems, flowers, seeds. I grab & eat a sprig of it every now & then when I'm working in the garden.

 

[lapaki]

I usually name animals after their personality, so I'd wait to get to know him better before deciding on a name.

My bun is named, Zoom-zoom (aka Zoomer) because he loves to run. In the mid morning and early evening he's a white, furry bullet shooting around my house.

My friend, Kristine's bun is named, Chewy, because he chews on everything. Although I call him Gozer the Destructor, because "Chewy" doesn't quite convey the destructive power of that bun.

After telling you about Chewy, it's probably not the best time to bring this up, but have you considered letting him live inside your house with the family?

My bun was very trainable, and is now well behaved enough that I let him roam freely in my home unsupervised. He's litter box trained, and he really loves the freedom. I've noticed a definite increase in "Binky" activity since he's had this freedom.

When I go to bed at night, I turn off the lights and say, "Good night, Zoomer, see you in the morning!" Shortly after that he'll come zooming into the bedroom and hop up on the bed. After some head scritches and/or cheek rubs he'll lay down and go to sleep next to me.

Even if you don't want to let him out full time, you could get a large cage or an exercise pen to keep him contained when you don't want to supervise him. Indoor buns are much happier!

Look for vets in your area that know about rabbits, many do not. Contact a rabbit club or animal rescue shelter in your area for advice if you have trouble finding a vet.

It sounds like he's found a home with a loving family. Good luck with your new companion, and let us know when you finally decide on a name. Oh, and more pictures would be nice too. He's really cute!

Here's to scritches wherever you have itches, Zoom-zoom (and Tim)

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

Aww so cute! I absolutly love the bunny-looks very similar to my Charlie when I first got her!

I'd take it easy on all the veggies to start-little bunnies have a very sensitive stomach and diet changes should be made slowly.

 

[lilylop]

lapaki wrote:

I usually name animals after their personality, so I'd wait to get to know him better before deciding on a name.

My bun is named, Zoom-zoom (aka Zoomer) because he loves to run. In the mid morning and early evening he's a white, furry bullet shooting around my house.

My friend, Kristine's bun is named, Chewy, because he chews on everything. Although I call him Gozer the Destructor, because "Chewy" doesn't quite convey the destructive power of that bun.

After telling you about Chewy, it's probably not the best time to bring this up, but have you considered letting him live inside your house with the family?

My bun was very trainable, and is now well behaved enough that I let him roam freely in my home unsupervised. He's litter box trained, and he really loves the freedom. I've noticed a definite increase in "Binky" activity since he's had this freedom.

When I go to bed at night, I turn off the lights and say, "Good night, Zoomer, see you in the morning!" Shortly after that he'll come zooming into the bedroom and hop up on the bed. After some head scritches and/or cheek rubs he'll lay down and go to sleep next to me.

Even if you don't want to let him out full time, you could get a large cage or an exercise pen to keep him contained when you don't want to supervise him. Indoor buns are much happier!

Look for vets in your area that know about rabbits, many do not. Contact a rabbit club or animal rescue shelter in your area for advice if you have trouble finding a vet.

It sounds like he's found a home with a loving family. Good luck with your new companion, and let us know when you finally decide on a name. Oh, and more pictures would be nice too. He's really cute!

Here's to scritches wherever you have itches, Zoom-zoom (and Tim)

Hi and thanks for the welcome

Zoom Zoom sounds like a great little character!!

The reason he won't be a full time inside bunny is 1. we don't have the space for a cage inside 2. I have 3 fish tanks running at the moment and I can't afford to have the power cords chewed I have some big money in those tanks!!! LOL 3. I'm not really sure the other half would agree to it. ( I know the daughter would)

Where I am we only have a choice of 2 vets any others are more than 2 hours drive away there is no animal rescue shelters here either and to be honest I think the closest would be Sydney 6-7 hours away. No real rabbit club around here that I know of I think one comes around every few years for the local show but thats about it. If you haven't worked out by now that I am pretty isolated from the bigger citys the place where I live only has 24,000 ppl so things are limited. I have always had to travel for my fish (I mean to buy) them all of my purchases have come from over 5 hours away. I have even gone to the local vet when my fish had hex called him and said I am 99.99% sure my fish has hex he had no idea what I was talking about so I expalined it and he did some research and got back to me in an hour said I knew what I was talking about and gave me a script. So I am confident that the vet shouldn't be an issue (country vets adapt) LOL. I couldn't even find a forum with quite a few members in Australia that's why I am here. :biggrin:I am having trouble finding stuff that members from other countries call certain things but I am sure I will get there in the end..... :shock:

Oh and trust me I will put up plenty of pics once we actually get hime this Saturday :biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2:I can't wait... Currenty the lizards are living in his house but they are getting kicked out cos it wasn't their home to begin with

 

[lilylop]

Bunnylova4eva wrote:

Aww so cute! I absolutly love the bunny-looks very similar to my Charlie when I first got her!

I'd take it easy on all the veggies to start-little bunnies have a very sensitive stomach and diet changes should be made slowly.

Thank you I find him very cute also!!!

Yes very slowly on ababy bun or so I have read.. I am growing the herbs/ vegmore so that I will have a nice crop growing for when it needs to be harvested. They are only seedlings now so it will take at least 8 to 12 weeks before I can harvest form them any way :biggrin2:

 

[lilylop]

Well we picked the little cutie up a day early :biggrin:We hadn't actually told our daughter where we were going even though it's an hours drive there. We turned up and showed her to him and she was awwwwww.... Oh a little girl lets go and play with her LOL.. but as soon as we left she was holding him in his box and trying to think of names. She has come up with "Fluffy" so I have called him "Buttfluff"

He is absolutly adorable and the people we got them off were amazing people! We had never met them before, they were just so friendly! Our kids played in the cubby house while we talked rabbits. Their dog almost came home with us though, I think the other half fell in love instantly :shock: LOL

When we got him home we had to let him run around the house for a bit as we had to move our 2 bearded dragons who were having a holiday in his cage. He hopped around the house happily is it what you call chining? He found a nice little hidy hole behind the fish tank and that was blocked off very quickly. I can't believe how quite he is a expected to hear a little thump when he hops but nothing! (please remember I have never kept a rabbit before LOL)

He happily lets me pet him and pick him up, whilst sitting next to the hutch gave him a piece of corrianda and he ate it straight out of my hand :woohoo he is currently hoping around checking out his new cage hasn't explored the second story yet but I am sure he will in due time.

The lady I got him off said he is pretty well toilet trained which is a bonus but he does make mistakes some times.. I can handle that. She also gave me a weeks worth of food and tips and advise and if I even need anything or run into trouble I can call her.

Sorry for long post but I'm excited:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

 

[lapaki]

Chinning (rubbing their chins on a surface) is a scent marking behavior. Fortunately we humans can't smell the scent, and it's awfully cute to watch.

Usually litter box trained rabbits will occasionally leave a stray poop here and there. That's a territory marking behavior, or sometimes they'll drop one when startled. Their poop is hard, dry and doesn't stink (unlike Cat or Dog poo), so it's easy to clean up with a dust pan and whisk broom, or a hand held vacuum (dust buster). Heck, I just pick em up and toss them into the litter box with my hand (although I can certainly understand why some people might not want to do that).

Peeing outside the litter box should be a rare occurrence once they are litter trained. If it happens, it's likely another territory marking behavior. Getting a bunn fixed should lessen, or even stop that behavior.

Yes, they are quite stealthy. The Zoomer makes almost no noise at all, even when he's impersonating a furry bullet. When you have a free rooming house rabbit you really need to look where you're walking, or sitting. My friend Kris was visiting the other day and as she went to sit on the couch she saw Zoom-zoom in the kitchen eating hay. She started to sit and I said, watch out! She turned and found the Zoomer on the couch right behind her. She looked back and forth from the kitchen to the couch and said, "Holy crap! He was in the kitchen a second ago!"

Yup, that's the Zoomer for ya. He's a little white stealth missile!

And yes, they will find a way into any space, even spaces that look way too small for them to fit. So if your house hasn't been bunny proofed, you need to keep a close eye on him whenever he's out of his hutch. They are fast, silent, and obsessively curious.

Rabbits can make noise, although most rarely do. The most common sound is a grunt. They will usually do that when they are either extremely excited, like when you are taking too long to open a bag of treats, or when they are upset, like when you are trying to chase them out of that place they were not supposed to go, but managed to find a way in.

There are exceptions, though. Kristine's bunny, Chewy grunts all the time. He grunts for just about any reason. He grunts when you put food in his bowl, then when he finds out it's only rabbit pellets, he'll grunt at you for not giving him the good stuff (treats). He grunts when you pick him up, he grunts when you put him down, he grunts when you start petting him, and grunts again when you stop. Grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt, grunt. He is, by far, the most vocal bunny I have ever met.

I heard Zoom-zoom growl, once. We were visiting Kris at her house, and she has an 18lb Fox Terrier named, Cricket, that was bouncing around the Zoomer trying to lick him. Well it didn't take long before he'd had enough of that. He stood up, made a sharp growling sound (higher pitched, and longer than a grunt) then whacked the dog on the nose with his front paws. The dog was startled and jumped back, then Zoom-zoom lunged at her, and she took off running, with the Zoomer hot on her heals. It was hilarious watching a 4.5lb bunny terrorizing a Terrier that was 4 times his size. He probably could have caught her, too, except that Kris has ceramic tile floors and his little furry feet couldn't get any traction.

Keeping a rabbit is quite an adventure.

I'm glad to hear your bunny feels comfortable in your home and his new hutch. Often rabbits are frightened of new surroundings and take a while to adjust. Your bunny sounds like Zoomer. He's not afraid of new surroundings. New places to him are adventures. New territory to explore, and new ways to get into trouble. LOL!

Enjoy your new companion, and... post more pics!

 

[lilylop]

Well we had him inside again last night and as he was doing his bunny 500's he was also thumping his foot he did it about 8 times it was soooo cute. My guess is that he was happy that is why he was doing it. I really don't think it was an unhappy thump as no one was touching him or annoying him.

This morning we let him in again for about 2 hours he has taken an extreme obsission with the TV cabinet so we have had to plug all the holes in it so he can't get into it. He is very determined to get in there though lol. He was running around and even binkying today which was great to see seeing as he has only been with us for 2 days :biggrin2: My other half thinks he is drifting not binkying ( a bit to much fast and furious me thinks lol)
He has also decided that xmas presents are great to chew on.
I put a treat of a very thin slice of apple on my lap and he came running over and sniffed all around me untill he found it snapped it up and ran off with it then came back to see if I had any more then gave me lots of licks and a little nibble on my finger :shock: I don't mind the licking its kind of cute but nibbling? I will try and get some more pics of him when we let him back in later on this after noon and post them

 

[lapaki]

As far as I know, thumping is a sign of fear, pain, or some other upsetting emotion in rabbits. I've never known one to thump for any other reason than being very upset.

From what you have said it's hard to imagine what he found so upsetting, but then again, we don't think like a bunny. Could have been that you took him out of his nice, safe pen and brought him into a big, unfamiliar environment. If it's that, it will pass as he gets more "in" time and explores more. Could have been something he smelled or heard (they can hear and smell things we inferior humans cannot). Could have been something you thought was very mundane, but your bunny interpreted it differently. Zoomer used to get upset when I heated something in the toaster oven. I think the glow of the heating elements and the smell of something burning made him think there was a fire. He eventually got used to it and now it doesn't bother him.

Rabbits like to know everything about their environment. It's that prey thing again. That's why they will obsess about getting into every little place. They want to know if it's someplace a predator might be hiding, or if it would be a good place for them to hide from a predator. If you block off the area, sometimes the obsession will pass, and sometimes it will get worse and they will get really fixated on getting in there.

The nibbling and licking was probably because your fingers still smelled and tasted like apple. If you want to discourage the nibbling, just shout "ouch!" and shake or rub your hand like it hurts (whether it does or not). Most animals seem to understand a pain response, and if they are fond of you they will stop doing whatever it is that caused that response.

Licking and nibbling could also be a grooming action. It's a sign of bonding and affection. If he's doing it to your hair or clothes it almost certainly is (either that, or you recently spilled something yummy on yourself).

Rabbits will "drift" on a slippery surface. If you don't have carpet, it might have been drifting. Zoomer does that at Kris' house on her ceramic tile floors. He'll come flying around a corner with his little rear end sliding out and his back feet scrambling furiously. If he was hopping while flipping around, then it was definitely a Binky.

And yes, please post some pics.

Aloha, Tim

 

[MarisaAndToby]

Just as an addition:

Toby will thump when he's under my bed and I'm not moving or doing anything near him, so I do think it's possible that they thump when excited or really who knows what emotion they're feeling. I don't think it's a negative emotion however. He thumps during his bunny 500's and binky sessions too. Often he will thump right before he jumps onto my bed.

 

[lilylop]

lapaki wrote:

As far as I know, thumping is a sign of fear, pain, or some other upsetting emotion in rabbits. I've never known one to thump for any other reason than being very upset.

From what you have said it's hard to imagine what he found so upsetting, but then again, we don't think like a bunny. Could have been that you took him out of his nice, safe pen and brought him into a big, unfamiliar environment. If it's that, it will pass as he gets more "in" time and explores more. Could have been something he smelled or heard (they can hear and smell things we inferior humans cannot). Could have been something you thought was very mundane, but your bunny interpreted it differently. Zoomer used to get upset when I heated something in the toaster oven. I think the glow of the heating elements and the smell of something burning made him think there was a fire. He eventually got used to it and now it doesn't bother him.

Rabbits like to know everything about their environment. It's that prey thing again. That's why they will obsess about getting into every little place. They want to know if it's someplace a predator might be hiding, or if it would be a good place for them to hide from a predator. If you block off the area, sometimes the obsession will pass, and sometimes it will get worse and they will get really fixated on getting in there.

The nibbling and licking was probably because your fingers still smelled and tasted like apple. If you want to discourage the nibbling, just shout "ouch!" and shake or rub your hand like it hurts (whether it does or not). Most animals seem to understand a pain response, and if they are fond of you they will stop doing whatever it is that caused that response.

Licking and nibbling could also be a grooming action. It's a sign of bonding and affection. If he's doing it to your hair or clothes it almost certainly is (either that, or you recently spilled something yummy on yourself).

Rabbits will "drift" on a slippery surface. If you don't have carpet, it might have been drifting. Zoomer does that at Kris' house on her ceramic tile floors. He'll come flying around a corner with his little rear end sliding out and his back feet scrambling furiously. If he was hopping while flipping around, then it was definitely a Binky.

And yes, please post some pics.

Aloha, Tim

He definatley did seem afraid he was doing bunny 500's inbetween and binky's aswell. I think the binkying has to be the most cutest thing I have ever seen!!!

Andy the other half likes to think that he is drifting as he loves his cars but it was definate binkying as we only have carpet where he is allowed.

The nibbling was def cos I smelt of the apple, but I get kisses from him every night after I give him scratches he constantly licks my hand arm toes what ever bit of skin he can get to, Andy even managed to get kisses on the lips!! I am so jealous!! (maybe I should eat some corrianda) haha
Lily is really in love with him which is a bonus but even if that fades my love for him wont he is a part of this family now :biggrin2:

I will post some pics in a min just waiting for them to upload as I speak :biggrin:

 

[lilylop]

well here are some pic's as promised :biggrin2:

Birth Certificate

Hutch building time

Watching him on the first day

Outside hutch all set up

Inside hidy hole

Lily and fluffy

Cutie pie

nom nom nom

Scratches ahhhhh scratches

One more just cos he is cute!!

 

[MarisaAndToby]

Oh my gosh your bun is adorable, I may have missed it in a post but did you decide on a name?

Also your daughter is adorable as well, beautiful girl! Congratulations. Also extremely jealous that your grass is green in December

 

[lilylop]

MarisaAndToby wrote:

Oh my gosh your bun is adorable, I may have missed it in a post but did you decide on a name?

Also your daughter is adorable as well, beautiful girl! Congratulations. Also extremely jealous that your grass is green in December

Thank you yes Lily decided on a name "Fluffy" so he is now known by many names fluffybutt, fuzzybutt, fluffball, fluff.

She is beautiful (well most of the time) you can't see in that pic but she is missing her 2 front teeth and looks like a vampire. LOL

I'm in australia we are just hitting summer Christmas day is meant to be a balmy 37 degrees which works out to be roughly 98.6 Fahrenheit. Where I live it gets as hot as 45-47 degrees which is 116.6 Fahrenheit. It looked alot lusher in winter!

 

[MiniLopHop]

wow! How can you keep a bunny cool in that kind of weather? That is just shockingly hot. I think I would die. How humid does it get there?

Fluffy is so cute :inlove:

 

[LakeCondo]

I agree with all the comments about Fluffy, your daughter, & the heat. I know that low humidity makes it a little less bad, but I'm like a rabbit about temps; 80`F is plenty for me. even at 30% humidity. I hope his hutch is in the shade during most daylight hours.

 

[MarisaAndToby]

We get extremely humid heat here, when it hits 30 in the summer it's just awful.

Unfortunately we get humid cold too, so that makes it absolutely brutal too, however we've had a very very mild winter so far. I think the coldest it's been is -25 and that was only for a couple of days.

 

[lilylop]

The hutch is in shade until about 4pm but we bring him in at 3:30.
Yes the heat is unbelieveable!!!!! Thankfully it is a dry heat basically no humidity! we have been in drought for the last 10 years with severe water cuts no watering your garden unless is is with a hose, no sprinklers no hosing your pathways, no washing your car ect ect. Our winter temps go as low as -7 degrees to as I said 45-47 in summer.