My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

[Imbrium]

no clue where to get bluegrass or bermuda, so they haven't tried either. I'm really not too worried about them getting some alfalfa, especially at only 7 mos... I'll probably run it past my vet next time they're in for a check-up, which will be in may or something if no one gets sick before then.

 

[JBun]

You have to get a picture of Ellie lounging on her rice pack! It just sounds too cute, her hopping up there and snuggling down on it For the toilet paper rolls, try cutting little one inch rings from them. My bunnies like to play with those better than a big roll. I think it's cause they are easier to chew on and toss around.

I used to use water dishes, but they were always getting dirty all the time too. I think the poop gets in there sometimes, by them just running around and kicking it up, but they will also put one in there purposely, to mark that water as their's. Yuck! I've seen them do it with their food dishes too, but that's not quite as gross. I only use water bottles now with all my rabbits but Baby and Zeus. Zeus gets a dish cause I have to give him supplements because of his previous digestive problems, and Baby gets one cause she never learned how to drink out of a bottle as a bunny. She has no idea what to do with one, I tried. I just made sure that all my bottles have a really good water flow. Some bottles have a really pitiful trickle of water. When I was doing water dishes for the babies, I would take the dishes out to give them time drinking with a water bottle. I didn't want to risk them forgeting how to use one and have another rabbit that has no clue how to use one. I usually did it during the day for about 8 hours. Long enough to give them a chance to drink from it, and also I could keep an eye on them to make sure they were drinking from it. You may want to try it so Ellie doesn't lose any bottle drinking skills that she has.

I'm glad little Ellie is putting some weight on! I would hold onto your coastal hay. If she won't eat it now, when she grows up and can't have alfalfa anymore, she may eat it better then. It will still be good. Just aways put a little in there with her other hay, and eventually she may decide to try it. She's probably never had it before, so is reluctant to try it. Lol, that's too funny about her being freaked out about your cat, but not enough to stop eating. I'll bet she gets used to your other animals soon enough.

I'm with you on the cold whether. I don't like it at all as I pretty much freeze all winter long. Can't wait for summer!

Yeah, Roo is a poofie little fuzzball. I would love if he stayed a little fuzzy when grown up, but he probably won't He is a hotot. It's a variation called sport that will occasionally pop up in a litter because of the dutch and english spotted genes. He's getting big too! He's already double what he was one month ago. Our little babies grow up so fast!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Morgan, glad to see you like my weather and it is lovely over here, I've also visited Italy and Morocco, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany but not Ireland, the one place I must visit soon as I am part Irish.

But, I've only been to the states once as my brother married a lady from Houston and I went there for the wedding. It's so different, awesome as you say and sooooo big, god driving over there was something else as well.

Hay is such a difficult things with buns. You'd think they'd just be grateful to get any kind but why are they so picky about what they eat. I have so much trouble over here but my friend went to Gibraltar today so I'm hoping he managed to get some of the hay they like...fingers crossed :wink

I tried mine also with a water bowl but ended it with it full of hay and poops and just got fed up having to change it all the time.

 

[whitelop]

Morgan, glad to see you like my weather and it is lovely over here, I've also visited Italy and Morocco, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany but not Ireland, the one place I must visit soon as I am part Irish

My great grand father was from Belgium. Thats amazing for you to have been to all those places. My great great grandmother and father were from Ireland. I would love to visit all those places. How beautiful they must be.

 

[whitelop]

Well Ellie peed on my tonight! lol I saw sitting on the couch with her in my lap, she was eating her pellets kind of and exploring my lap, I was petting her. Then I felt this warmth and I was like ... "ugh you peed on me!" My husband laughed SO hard. haha. Thank god she's little and there is only a little pee!

I let her down in the kitchen floor to run around. SHE DID LIKE 5 BINKIES! I wasn't sure thats what she was doing at first, but she did it again and I KNEW it was a binky! She's a little spastic, so it looks weird for a binky, but thats what it is! She would do a binky then go straight into a 500 and run around! It was adorable. I tried to get a picture but the damn shutter delay kept missing it. haha.

Well, she does like coastal hay! BUT she will ONLY eat it out of Foo's hay box. I took her box out to the barn and filled it with hay so I wouldn't have to keep walking out there for hay. She wouldn't really eat it this afternoon, but tonight she was eating it out of Foo's hay box. She got into the box a few times and ate the hay out of it. But then I put her back into her cage and put some coastal in there and she ate it from her cage. I think she just needs to see it come from Foo's hay box and then she'll eat it. Great, she has like a hay crutch. lmao. But I'm glad she eats it! That way I won't have to rehome my bale of coastal hay. lol
I took some pictures of her in the box. She is so much bigger now than she was when the first time I took pictures of her in the box. She is just so much bigger now than she was when I first got her.

She seems to have put a little weight on. I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm looking for when I'm looking for her weight gain. I can feel her spine but her belly is full and fat. She's like a little round ball. She doesn't feel super boney or anything, but I can still feel her bones. Is that normal? With Foo, she was a tiny bit underweight, even the vet said so. She weighed 5 lbs even at the vet's office. I could feel her spine, but she was always on the boney side, but her belly was always round. The only time she was ever FAT was right after I had my son and she never got out of her cage and ate a lot of pellets and carrots. I was really tired and she didn't get the attention she needed, but that changed like two months after having him, once I got used to having a baby. My schedule came together into what it was before she passed. Anyway, what should I be looking for with Elvira and her weight? She has had 1/4 cup of pellets to day, and her usual hay. This is day two of 1/4 cup of pellets, I'll give her a little bit more tomorrow, I just don't want to do it too fast. I'm so scared of stomach issues. Probably a little to scared because she's never had an issue, but she's so little!

Anyway, after all that rambling on and on, here are the pictures of her!

^this one makes me think of a prairie dog. lol

^yes, those are my Christmas ornament pj pants.

^rump and ears. lol Look how pretty her fur is! And that is a toilet paper roll ring, just as a size comparison.

^she was saying "I want THAT one!" and I love her little white foot in this one.

^She couldn't be bothered to get her butt ALL the way in the box! lol How silly she is.

 

[JBun]

She's such a doll I love that picture of her standing, reaching into the hay bin, sooo cute! She looks nice and plump in the pictures. Her rump looks well rounded and not boney at all. Ways to feel if a rabbit is too skinny, is to feel along the sides of the spine. You are going to feel the spine itself, but you should have nice rounded flesh along the sides of it, and the ribs should have a layer of flesh and shouldn't feel boney at all.

Roo used to pee on me too, when he was younger. He's gotten much better, and even hardly pees on the towels anymore, that I put down on the couch for him, when he's sitting with me. Ellie will get better as she gets older.

I love watching bunnies binky. They are a bit awkward but they just look so happy doing it, it's so cute to watch too. Ellie seems like such a happy girl! I'm so glad you were the one that got her, cause she has a great home and will always be loved and well cared for

 

[Chrisdoc]

Morgan she is just so adorable and look at that butt...she looks fine sizewise to me and if she's eating well, that's the main thing. I think sometimes we obsess because of other things. You're keeping your eye on her all the time and she has no food or poop issues and certainly no pee issues lol.

I think it's funny the first time they pee on you as you only realise as you get that warm feeling as it goes through your clothes. I think the funniest things that happened to me with pee was when Houdini sprayed me. He did it from one sofa to the other and hit me right across from my shoulder across my face and to the other side. I sure was mad with him but amazed at his marksmanship. If a bunnies never sprayed you like that, you never realise how bad that trait is and it did completely disappear when he was neutered.

I just love all the photos but the one where she's got her head in the hay tray is cute and that white sock is such a lovely mark. Isn't it great that she only knew Foo a while but wants to use her stuff. I actually love that kind of thing. I gave my dog's special bowl to Poppy who I'm looking after now and every time I see it, it reminds me of her in a really good way. I think that's how you should look at little Ellie using Foo's tray, it's like a big sister passing something to little sister.

I hope you get a photo of her binkying, I love them doing that, it does make me smile and laugh. I have the same problem with my phone camera, the shutter delay means I miss nearly everything. When I eventually got home yesterday and let the boys out, they were all binkying like crazy around the living room and it was just great to watch. Means they'd been in the enclosure too long as well. :adorable:

She's a little darling and

 

[whitelop]

She's such a doll I love that picture of her standing, reaching into the hay bin, sooo cute! She looks nice and plump in the pictures. Her rump looks well rounded and not boney at all. Ways to feel if a rabbit is too skinny, is to feel along the sides of the spine. You are going to feel the spine itself, but you should have nice rounded flesh along the sides of it, and the ribs should have a layer of flesh and shouldn't feel boney at all.

Roo used to pee on me too, when he was younger. He's gotten much better, and even hardly pees on the towels anymore, that I put down on the couch for him, when he's sitting with me. Ellie will get better as she gets older.

I love watching bunnies binky. They are a bit awkward but they just look so happy doing it, it's so cute to watch too. Ellie seems like such a happy girl! I'm so glad you were the one that got her, cause she has a great home and will always be loved and well cared for

Well, then she's not skinny! haha. I'm just a little paranoid then. I can feel the top of her spine, but her ribs feel well coated. lol AND she is growing so that tells me she is getting enough food. lol. I'm still going to give her more pellets, but she doesn't eat all her pellets at once. It takes her a few hours to eat all of them, is that okay? Should I still up them to like 1/2 a cup or so?

I don't mind she peed on me, it was a little funny. I think she is a happy girl too, I really hope she is. I'll admit, I still feel a little weird with her and there have been several times when I catch myself wanting to call her Foo and then I have to stop and take a deep breath. And basically yell out Elvira to remind myself that her name is Elvira. Its a little sad, but I guess it happens.

Her binky was pretty funny. She's such a little spaz, I don't think she has control of everything yet! She will still fall over if she shakes her head or if she periscopes too tall or something, she falls right over.

I feel like I have SO many questions with her! I am just NOT used to having a baby bunny! Her diet is the most concerning part of it. I let her out for like 10-30 minutes at a time to run around, on and off through out the day. I like to sit with her to make sure she doesn't get too scared of the other animals. So I think she is getting enough exercise and her cage is still huge for her, she can run around it! lol But I hand feed her her pellets more often than not, at least the first little bit of the pellets. She'll eat about 1/2 of the 1/4 cup from my hand and she doesn't want them anymore, so she goes exploring and then she goes back into her cage. Thats pretty much the routine. haha.

 

[whitelop]

I think it's funny the first time they pee on you as you only realise as you get that warm feeling as it goes through your clothes. I think the funniest things that happened to me with pee was when Houdini sprayed me. He did it from one sofa to the other and hit me right across from my shoulder across my face and to the other side. I sure was mad with him but amazed at his marksmanship. If a bunnies never sprayed you like that, you never realise how bad that trait is and it did completely disappear when he was neutered.

I'll be honest, that made me laugh SO hard! hahaha. That is terrible, but SO funny! I would be so mad, but like you I would have also been impressed with his marksmanship. That is just too good. I'm going to tell my husband and he'll probably laugh too. Not in a mean way of course, but its just so funny. Rabbits are crazy.
If it makes you feel any better Chris,(this is gross haha) Not too long ago I was mad at my husband, he was acting like a butthead and he had me hold his dinner plate so he could get something from the kitchen, our cat got on the couch and I let her eat a little food off his plate. Then shooed her away before he got back. hahahahahah. Thats terrible, but he was being a jerk. I'm not really sure why I just shared that. I thought it was freaking hilarious, maybe you guys won't but ... oh well. (by the way, we don't have a kitchen/dining room table, so we have to eat in the living room like animals!) hahaha.

ullhair:thats me on a constant basis, thats how I feel. lmao

 

[whitelop]

PS. I miss Lisa. :missyou

 

[JBun]

Haha, your poor husband! I guess it's not any worse than letting our pets kiss us after they've been eating their poop or licking their behinds. It's just better to not let yourself even think about it too much.

Yeah, it's pretty funny when they are trying to work out the balance thing, and don't quite get it. I like when they are grooming and trying to reach around and overestimate how far to go, and roll right on over. Then they pop up looking around like ' whoa, what just happened!', and making sure no one saw

I think Ellie's diet sounds pretty good, and she's obviously staying healthy and doing well. I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep an eye on the poops and you're doing ok. You could keep increasing pellets a little more. Maybe add just a pinch more of pellets each day. That's actually good that she is spacing out how fast she eats her pellets. Much better than scarfing them all down at once.

I used to do the same thing with Baby when I got her, and after Dash died. It's mostly just because it's a habit. It was even harder for me to remember what to call Baby cause my niece that was living with us at the time, thought all bunnies were called Dash, so she would keep calling Baby Dash too.

Edit: Maybe Lisa will decide to come back after she's had a bit of a break.

 

[Chrisdoc]

I agree with Jenny, how many times have our animals licked us and we´re really not sure where they´ve been before; that´s what having animals does to you but I did belly laugh at you letting the cat eat your husband´s food if he´s been mean....hope he doesn´t find out. :wink

Calling your pets by someone elses name is bad enough but I was at my friend´s house (the one whose dog I am sitting) and she called her current man by her dead ex husband´s name...that is a bit weird.

Just back from my friend´s house and I had a lovely time. I have to download photos I took as we had a bbq outside and it was lovely...we even had a visit from Santa. I´ll post them on my blog tomorrow and tell you all about it.

Bunnies enjoying a very large apple branch with all the leaves....they are so happy. :thankyou:

 

[Imbrium]

Well Ellie peed on my tonight! lol I saw sitting on the couch with her in my lap, she was eating her pellets kind of and exploring my lap, I was petting her. Then I felt this warmth and I was like ... "ugh you peed on me!" My husband laughed SO hard. haha. Thank god she's little and there is only a little pee!

I let her down in the kitchen floor to run around. SHE DID LIKE 5 BINKIES! I wasn't sure thats what she was doing at first, but she did it again and I KNEW it was a binky! She's a little spastic, so it looks weird for a binky, but thats what it is! She would do a binky then go straight into a 500 and run around! It was adorable. I tried to get a picture but the damn shutter delay kept missing it. haha.

She seems to have put a little weight on. I'll be honest, I don't really know what I'm looking for when I'm looking for her weight gain. I can feel her spine but her belly is full and fat. She's like a little round ball. She doesn't feel super boney or anything, but I can still feel her bones. Is that normal?

lol... my bunnies have never peed on me, thankfully... but Hurricane did pee on my butt when we were in the tent the other night! ><

I've been eagerly awaiting Ellie's first binky! it's SO awesome when you see a tiny little baby do their very first binky! I had to wait a long time for Gazzles, then Nala finally taught her how.

it's normal to be able to feel the bones in a healthy rabbit... some breeds more than others, it seems (I can't feel Nala's spine very much even though she's very slender... probably because she's quite muscular... but Gazzle's is easy to feel even though she's on the chubby side). as long as you're feeling some "padding" around the bones and she's got the cute, round little tummy, she's fine

 

[whitelop]

I could always feel Foo's spine and hips, she always had a fat belly, but she was so boney! lol

I got the Sherwood pellets today. The mail lady chose the good day to drop them off, when my attack rooster wasn't out roaming free; they were actually cooped up today. lol
Anyway, she likes the Sherwood more than the kaytee and she won't eat the kaytee now! I sat with her on the couch this afternoon like normal, with her 1/2 of her 1/4 cup of pellets, about 15-20 of them were Sherwood. It was about 1/4-1/2 a teaspoon. I was hand feeding her pellets like usual, I would give her a kaytee then a Sherwood. Once she got two Sherwood pellets, she wouldn't take anymore kaytee pellets! haha. I would try to sneak them to her and she would spit them out!
How picky! But I guess she figured out what she likes. I hope she'll still eat the kaytee pellets until I get them fully switched over to Sherwood. Thankfully, I wasn't feeding her that many kaytee pellets anyway! 1/4 cup isn't much at all.

As for her binkying! I was SO excited last night. hahaha. How funny it was to see her do it! I can't wait until she flops out! I want to see a tiny DBF so bad, that is going to be adorable! Hopefully I'll be able to get a picture of it. lol

Oh for the people with uppy eared buns, do they put them back while they're sleeping? I'm not entirely sure what it looks like when Ellie sleeps. haha. She always seems to be awake. So I saw her just a bit ago, in her hay box in the bunloaf position and her ears pressed back against her back almost. I couldn't tell from where I was if her nose was twitching and she looked pretty comfy, so I didn't want to disturb her to see if she was actually asleep. lol Do they sleep with their ears back?
Foo slept with her ears almost over her eyes, lol. She would bring her ears forward and block her eyes a little bit. Like she didn't want to be disturbed. hahaha. Foo also slept through most anything, Ellie on the other hand, won't sleep through anything she's so curious and unsure of our house still.

Ohhh. Whenever I go in to love on Ellie and she's laying in her box she'll come out to greet me. She ALWAYS stretches and yawns! I've never seen anything so cute in my life. I swear, I thought that yawns were adorable on ALL bunnies, but if you haven't seen a BABY bunny yawn, then you just haven't lived! Its the best thing ever. I love to wake her up sometimes, because I know she's stretch and yawn. Its so great!

 

[Imbrium]

wow, I'm impressed. mine borderline hated the sherwood at first, took me like a month to get them to eat them well. that's great that she loves the healthy stuff

I can't wait for her first DBF - be sure to snap a pic if you can!

Nala puts her ears back sometimes, I guess, but not always. she's probably doing most of her sleeping with her eyes open since she's still getting used to the new space.

and yes, baby yawns are the BEST!

 

[whitelop]

Yeah I'm pretty sure she sleeps with her eyes open for the most part. I startle her frequently, just being in the kitchen so it makes me think shes sleeping when I don't realize. lol You know how after you startle them they get this look like "wtf? What happened?" Then they look around and lay back down. lmao thats what she does.

I have to cover her cage completely at night because it gets so cold in the kitchen. There are a few gaps in the sheet, so some her bars are still open so she has ventilation. But I can't sleep when I know shes in there possibly REALLY cold. I want to bring her in to sleep in bed with me, because she's so tiny. I don't, but its crossed my mind. Hahaha. My husband probably would not be happy to find a rabbit in bed with us, on top of two sometimes three cats. lol They all sleep on my side, I'm always covered in cat.

 

[whitelop]

Elvira is on the couch with me right now and I have her little measuring cup of food out for her. Its got the Sherwood mixed into the kaytee, not much Sherwood. But she is eating around the Kaytee and picking out JUST the Sherwood! After I hand fed her this afternoon, I put her pellets in her bowl in her cage and she ate them throughout the day, but it took her a while to eat the kaytee! All the Sherwood was gone pretty fast, which is okay I guess. But I'm a little worried that she's eating the new food too fast. I'm not putting that many in her food but when she eats only the Sherwood first, is that okay? Her poops look totally normal and perfect. (she was just licking the hell out of my pants. lol they're spandex and it felt really weird!)

Is it okay that she's eating the Sherwood like that? Ugghhh, I hate being such a worrier. But I don't know why I worry so, her poop looks great!

 

[JBun]

Jennifer's right, you are lucky! I'm still transitioning feed, mine will still have sherwood pellets leftover when it's time to feed again. And they get sooo excited knowing they get more of their old crappy pellets. Geez, junk food junkies! I only have my two big bunnies transitioned over all the way, and they gobble them up fine, now, but it was the same when I was transitioning them too. Ellie's just a little angel, that's all there is to it

Ooh, ooh, I looove bunny yawns too! They totally melt my heart, but I even like it when my grown up buns do it. Baby ones are definitely the cutest though. Doesn't it just make you want to snatch them up and snuggle them right then?

The times that I've noticed my buns ears laid back are when they are totally relaxed, when they are pissed and in fight mode, when they are freaked and in 'I'm hiding really close to the ground so you can't see me' mode, and when they are a little cold and in their bunloaf to conserve heat.

 

[whitelop]

Jenny, we must have been posting at the same time. lol

I'm really glad she likes the Sherwood. Oh, I have to tell y'all about my husband today. We were on our way to get some dog food. I feed my dog a good food, that is CRAZY EXPENSIVE. He is naturally very thin and lean, so I have to get food that is SUPER good to make sure he keeps weight on. So I pay $45 for 30 lbs of food. As we were on the way to the feed store we passed our mail lady, so I was jumping for joy hoping my Sherwood was going to be there when I got home. My husband was like, "how much food did you get?" I said 12 lbs, he was like "how much did that cost?" I told him $26 and some change. He was like "omg! WHAT?! You spent that much of RABBIT food?!" I told him he was sitting next to me when I ordered it, I paid for it with HIS card and told him how much it was! He just looked at me and mumbled under his breath about having to buy rabbit, chicken, dog and cat feed. I laughed so hard at him. He's oblivious to everything. lmao

So she could have her ears down for any reason at all. lol I wasn't sure. I'm going to say they were probably back because she was cold and sleepy. hahaha.

 

[Imbrium]

Jennifer's right, you are lucky! I'm still transitioning feed, mine will still have sherwood pellets leftover when it's time to feed again. And they get sooo excited knowing they get more of their old crappy pellets. Geez, junk food junkies!

that's *exactly* how my girls were when I first started feeding them sherwood - they'd pick out all the old pellets first.

as for Ellie, if her poops are normal then she's fine with the amount of sherwood you're giving her