My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

[whitelop]

Oh Missy, you know I love Monty so! Her big ears melt my heart!
Ellie has big ears, but NOTHING like Monty's. I guess her ear shaking is a happy thing! That makes me feel better. I did look in her ears last night and they're fine, lol.
I can hear Ellie's ears smack together when she shakes her head too, but I couldn't imagine what it sounds like when Monty does it. Probably like a helicopter taking off! hahahaha. I'm really glad you get to go home to her and I hope you had a nice time away. But like my mom always says "its so nice to go somewhere, but its so great to come home". Which is always true for me, so I can get back to my animals! ahaha. Give Monty a big hug!

Chris, I'm glad the boys are doing better today. They're just used to you being there and now you aren't there all the time, but they'll get used to it. My animals would be getting a little nutty too!

Jennifer, I WISH I had a xanax most of the time. hahaha. I bet my husband wishes I had one too. The reason he ignores me all the time is probably because he can't stand to hear me ramble on anymore. lmao. Oh well, I cook his meals so he stays. He is like a stray cat, feed it and it never leaves. Not that I want him to leave, but men are like cats. lmao. Did your girls ever get used to the Sherwood, they eat them well right?

It takes Ellie a LONG time to eat the Sherwood, but she does finally eat them. After she eats them is when I refill her bowl with the pellet mix. I haven't really been measuring the old to new ratio, I just eyeball things and I can normally get a measurement pretty spot on by eye. But I think we're still at more Kaytee than Sherwood, but not by much. We're probably pretty close to 50/50 now. Its a little fast I guess, but her poops have been so good still. Not a soft on in the bunch! hahaha. I did see one soft poop in her hay box, but upon closer inspection it was an uneaten cecal that had been smushed. I saw all the little parts, like grapes. I got really worried before I knew what it was, then I was okay, lol. She'll eat the Sherwood and she'll like it! If she doesn't, oh well. She'll eat it because she's hungry and because that will be the only thing she'll have to eat other than hay! She's such a good hay eater though, so its okay.

 

[Chrisdoc]

It made me laugh thinking of Ellie's ears slapping together when she shakes her head, at least you'll know where she is.

Just realised I've repeated myself on my blog so if you're getting a sense of deja vu, it's cos my memories shot these days, I'm turning into my mother arrrghhhhh ullhair:
You're so right, it's nice to be away but it's great to get home. I know just how that feels right now. I think when I get back, it'll be just lovely sleeping in my own bed again and seeing the boys last thing at night and first thing in the morning. I really miss that when they come to say hello when I open the living room door. :missyou

Ellie sounds as though she's doing fine with her food and it's good if she's a steady eater. I found the cecals fascinating the first time I saw them. Yeah, they do look like bunches of grapes, how weird is that. I am now fascinated when I see them eating them, you can always tell by their posture, how can they tell the difference between a normal one and a cecal before it comes out and know to eat it...as you can see, I have too much time on my hands at my friend's house :laugh:

 

[Imbrium]

I've always wondered how they knew a cecal was coming too, lol

I guess I probably took 2-3 weeks to transition my girls over to sherwood from the breeder's pellets... it took a month (including the transition time) for them to dive into the sherwood the way they had the old pellets. like you, I waited to put more pellets in the bowl until they had eaten all the sherwood they left in the bottom. now they gobble them down like mad.

 

[whitelop]

I watched Foo eat cecals and I never understood how she knew either. hahaha.

Hopefully she'll start liking the Sherwood the way she liked them last week! The brat! lol I'm sure she'll come around to them, but jeez.

Here are some pictures of my living room. This is what my son has been doing all day. Surprisingly enough, this room was clean and his toys that are in here were organized before he got up this morning. His main priority today has been to bring everything in his room into the living room and put it on the floor. I just stepped on a small car barefoot and let out a slew of cuss words, those suckers hurt! I do not look forward to Legos. The train table in the picture, will be going into his room thankfully. I just have to hot glue the train tracks down to the table tonight after he goes to bed. Ughh.

Oh and that red truck with the yellow bed, thats Tonka Chuck. He is the scariest toy I've ever seen other than dancing and singing Mickey Mouse(I hate that thing and my son is terrified) But Tonka Chuck, drives by himself. He will randomly start to do wheelies and drive around the room. I read too much Stephen King when I was a teenager, so I'm having some Christine flashbacks. I refuse to turn it on.

 

[Chrisdoc]

I did laugh at Tonka Chuck. I hope it doesn't come to find you at night.

He's just like any other kid, he has to play with all his toys at the same time. It's actually unusual now to see kids with real toys as most of them are sitting with their face staring down at some screen with the fingers going at 100 miles an hour. It looks as though he's got loads of things which we all had years ago...good for you.

Still laughing about the cecals.....how do they know...I'm fascinated haha.

 

[whitelop]

My son doesn't have many technologically advanced toys. We buy a lot of wooden toys because they last forever and they're quite. We also have a lot of books, so I read to him all the time. I hate seeing kids with hand-held game devices and cell phones. It really bothers me, because thats not what kids should be about. Kids are supposed to make messes and play outside. My kid, just makes messes. The only issue I have with it, is stepping on those little toys that really hurt or slipping on a block or something. I pulled a muscle slipping on a block, lmao.
I am scared of Tonka Chuck, he's a little to smart for his own good. haha.



Well I just took apart Foo's dog kennel. I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be. I was really dreading doing it, but its taking up prime real estate in my kitchen. I think all the sentiment falls on the cage that Elvira is in. Foo got that cage when she was 8 months old and too big for her other one, she lived in it from then until Elvira came. The only sad thing about the kennel cage is that its the last cage that Foo was ever in. But thats okay. I just know I'll never be able to get rid of the cage that Ellie is in. When she moves out of it, it will go into the shed and stay there forever. lol
I thought Ellie was going to have a nervous break down though. She was running back and forth in her cage as I was cutting zip ties. She went nuts when I folded it up. I hope she's okay when I let her out of her cage later! It was kind of like her extra safe place, she was still 'out' but not really 'out'. haha. I think she'll be okay. It will force her to explore more.

Hopefully tonight I can work on making the cardboard castle for Ellie. I have enough cardboard I think. I snagged a few things from Christmas. My son's train table had this really nice big flat piece of plain cardboard, I snatched that thing up real quick! Can you use hot glue on rabbit cardboard? I'm going to make another thread to ask and get opinions. I'll post pictures if I make it, but don't hold your breath because I may not!
:dutch

 

[Chrisdoc]

Can't wait to see your handiwork, it might push me into make something similar as I have loads of cardboard in my spare room. Don't even know what hot glue is ???

Love seeing your little lad with so many real toys. I also hate seeing youngsters especially the under 5's with mobile phones and tablets and sitting playing games on them all the time.

I love seeing kids read or being read to by their parents or other adults. I love reading and my mum used to read to me when I was little and I always got books in my Christmas stocking even do now. I think kids have such fantastic imaginations that books help them to develop this over the years.

I'm glad you're finding yourself able to move a little bit further on from Foo. It's always sad when we day goodbye to one of our beloved pets and it is hard to let go of those things that remind you of them. My boys have inherited one of Brandy's (my little dog who died 7 years ago) blankets. I love seeing them playing with it and snuggling up in it..brings back memories in a nice way and I'm sure that seeing Ellie using Foo's things will bring a smile to your face many times.:bunnyheart

 

[holtzchick]

I feel like I've missed so much of this blog because everyone following posts on it quite regularly.

Our son appears to have had a great christmas a little unfortunate about you stepping on the toys though. I read about Elvira ear shaking, phoenix does that too when she's happy instead of binkying (btw gotta love on the picture of Monty)

I'm glad ou were able to put foos dog crate away with ease as I said it does get easier. Looking forward to more updates

Oh and I guess hot glue is safe to use as long as she doesn't chew or eat it

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

I feel like I missed so much of it too.

 

[holtzchick]

LOL just read my typo... He's not our son, he's all yours

 

[whitelop]

LMAO Michelle, I laughed SO hard. I saw it, but I didn't want to say anything! I didn't want to call you out on it, lol. I'm still laughing really hard.
You can have him if you want him! He's so messy, I'm having a hard time with him lately. hahaha. There are so many toys, like an unbelievable amount of toys.

 

[whitelop]

I took the Sherwood pellets out of their box and put them in gallon bags. I'm going to put them in the dark cabinet, I hope I don't need to refrigerate them, I'm a little limited on fridge space! lol I made the box into an out of cage litter box for her. With pine pellets and hay. She's used it! haha. She likes to eat 'different' hay, which is the same hay just in a different space. That makes it special hay. lol
I'm about to go in and rearrange Ellie's cage and convert her hay box into her litter box. I'm not happy about it, but I think it will be less confusing for her.
She has been out for several hours now and she has been so good! She hasn't chewed on anything or done anything bad. She has pooped in the floor, but thats to be expected. lol

She still hasn't finished her Sherwood pellets from this morning! That brat! She's been eating hay and she will go get like one pellet at a time. lol She's a loon. But there is still a lot of pellets in there. I don't think I waited until the bowl was empty this morning when I fed her, so its like last nights Sherwood mixed with this morning's Sherwood. I don't really want to feed her anymore, since she's not eating these. I'm just going to wait until they're all gone and then I'll refill. She WILL eat these damn pellets! I didn't just pay all this money for her to be a picky little monster!

Oh if anyone needs storage totes, my husband got some from walmart today. He got two 30 gallon one for like $8 and then an 18 gallon one for $5. Thats a pretty good deal, since those things are crazy expensive most of the time. We're probably going to get some more, we can't pass up a good deal and then you can never have too many storage bins!

I'll take some pictures of Ellie later and post them. I think she's grown since yesterday. Her fur is pretty soft and puffy. She looks like a little puff ball, lol. Dutchies aren't puffy as adults are they? Do they molt all the baby fur out and become smooth?

 

[JBun]

I think dutch fur is smooth, unless she's not pure dutch, then there's a possibility for a fuzzy dutch. I love it when the babies are all poofie Roo still is too. Eventually his fur will smooth out as he gets older.

I know, we all have these picky brats that won't eat their 'veggies', the sherwood pellets, such a pain. I think you'll be ok with the ziplocks not in the fridge. If you have a cooler part of your house then that might help to store them there. I've had to decrease the sherwood pellets that I was trying to transition Zeus onto. I've been very very slowly introducing them into his diet, like over the last month he was only up to 1/8 cup a day. But over the last week it seemed like at times the way he was laying down, looked like he was feeling uncomfortable. Then last night I was pretty sure that he didn't seem well. He was still pooping and eating, but after he ate, his posture when he layed down, was tense, then he went back into his corner and sat there and even squinted like something hurt. I cut him back to only a pinch of the pellets to see if he is still acting that way, if he is I'll eliminate the sherwood and see if he keeps acting that way to make sure that it is those pellets causing the problem. Oh well. So much for trying to get him back on pellets again. I guess his GI just can't tolerate them anymore. I may have to end up doing the same for Toby. His poops just seem to be getting worse. I'll see if getting him onto the sherwood makes any difference, if not I suppose I'll try a hay and veggie only diet for him as well. Haha, I feel like I'm having to turn into a rabbit specialist having all these rabbits with health problems.

Wow, I can't believ Ellie didn't chew on anything. Good girl I let Roo out and after a little while he started going after the carpet, bad boy!

Storage bins, duct tape, and zip ties are all essentials! I have all my rabbit stuff stored in bins.

 

[whitelop]

Oh no! I hope Zeus is okay! From what you described, he sounds a little uncomfortable. I can picture it. Awww, poor baby. Is it the carbs and sugar in the pellets that effect them so? Like people with celiac disease, who can't have gluten?
What kind of veggies can they have? I've heard cilantro is good for tummy issues and when Foo would get gassy, I would give her simethicone and only wet cilantro. I would offer that for a while, until it looked like she was feeling better. She couldn't eat turnip greens, kale or collard greens. All the foods that typically make buns gassy made her gassy. She was such a stereotype.
Foo did really well on a no pellet diet. Her teeth looked fantastic. I attribute that to all the hay she ate. lol
I hope Zeus feels better and I hope Toby's poop doesn't get any worse. Poor babies. I'm so glad they're in your care, they're in very capable hands.

I have a storage bin filled with all my animal stuffs right by the front door. It is my emergency kit in case there is a fire or something, that way if I can get all my animals out I'll have something to feed and water them with. My dad wanted me to move it away from the door and out of our entry way, but I told him hell no! It was my emergency animal kit! lol I've got everything in there. Hell, its even got chicken feed in it, even though they aren't in the house. If I were to lose all their feed, I have a spare 8 lb bag for their back up. lol

I think Ellie didn't chew anything, because theres nothing in there to chew. I taped up the fridge cord so she can't get it. The only thing to chew would be our wash hamper. But the kitchen is hardwood and its pretty well bunny proofed. Foo never chewed on anything, even when we had carpet she never showed an interest in carpet or anything other than a phone charger. I hope Ellie is the same way. When I put her on the couch, she didn't chew on the blanket or the couch or anything like that. lol She's a good baby I think, I hope she stays that way.

 

[JBun]

Lol, you're awesome Morgan!!! I love it how you don't let anyone push you around. It's your house, and if that's where you want to keep your animals emergency kit, then that's where it's going to be! That emergency kit is a good idea. I've got one for me, and I've thought about what I'd do for my rabbits if something were to happen, but I haven't gotten around to putting anything together yet. I guess I probably should.

Thank you Morgan, that is really nice of you to say. Zeus is doing fine. I think it was just a little tummy upset, not enough to stop him eating or anything. With the sherwood pellets it would have to be the seed oils they put in the feed cause they don't add grain or sugar to theirs. I imagine they use whole seeds in the food, so it may be the carbs from the seeds causing the problem. He does get cilantro every day, and he's ok with lettuce too. I totally avoid any veggies that could cause gas. He's just so sensitive. Toby's doing fine too. I just worry about his poops getting so big. I really don't like having sick rabbits, but having to go through it has helped me learn a lot more about rabbit health, and what to do when they are sick or injured. I guess those would be the good things about all this.

That would be really nice if Ellie turns out to be a non chewer. It's kind of a pain to have a rabbit that is constantly wanting to destroy things. Baby is like the chewing queen. I constantly have to keep an eye on her as she enjoys destroying everything! Zeus on the other hand, is the model rabbit. He has impeccable litter box habits and doesn't chew on things. The down side is that he also won't chew his chew sticks and he's not a good hay eater, so i may have to end up getting his teeth done one day.

I bet Ellie loved being out so long today. I can't wait for new pictures. I just love to see your little fluffball

 

[whitelop]

I'm really pissed at myself right now! I just hit the backspace button and went back and made everything I had written disappear! AHH. Okay here we go again.

Here is the beginning of Ellie's new cardboard castle. The thing on the left is from a lamp that I just bought. It will stay the way it is, she likes to get on top of it as is.

These are my cave drawings, depicting my plans for the castle part of the castle compound. lol
The top drawing is three of the sides, without the door. The middle drawing is the side with the door. The bottom drawing is the above view of the roof. I have a piece of cardboard that I'm going to attach and put a hole in so she can get in and out. I'm going to put the roof piece a few inches above the top of the toilet paper rolls, to make a little window and vent thing. So she'll be able to look out, she likes to periscope.

The size of the drawings probably won't be the size of the actual castle. Its a little big in the drawing. I have a lot of paper rolls, but I don't think I have that many! haha.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve my designs, feel free to share. I'm open to constructive criticism.

 

[whitelop]

Here are some pictures of Ellie tonight. There are a lot of them, so hold on to your breeches.
This is her new 'out of cage' litter box.

I was trying to cover the hole in the seam of my pants(that you'll see in the next picture, lol) she wanted to nip my pants and the string.

lol. there's the hole. And YES, I am wearing satin spandex pants. lmao Its happening.

On top of her new house thing.

Bunny butt!

She wanted the pellet in my hand. But she won't periscope for it. She periscopes ALL the time, she just sits on her back feet all the time but she will not do it for treats! brat.

Her ears are really big! They look kind of big in the pictures and they're pretty big in life too. Are Dutch ears supposed to be big? I know she isn't show quality or anything, but could she be a mix? I don't really care, I love her big ears. I guess I'll have to wait until she's older to know for sure. But is there any way at all she could be larger breed mixed with a dutch? (I sort of hope she is. haha. I always wanted a giant bunny!)

 

[JBun]

Ok, I keep doing that backspace thing too and it's flippin' driving me insane! On the old forum, if you did something like that, you could get back to the page you were typing on and what you had been typing would still be there. I really miss that! You make one little mistake with this new software and it's just gone, into oblivion. So frustrating! Then I sit there thinking 'do I really want to type that all over again'. I'll usually just skip half of what I had typed out before.

Awwww, that is just the cutest little fluffy bunny bottom She really has put on weight! She looks so nice and plump. She's just so adorable! I love seeing her cute little face, and that lamp thing is perfect! It already looks like a little castle Haha, Ellie is just trying to clean you up by getting rid of any loose strings. My bunnies will try to nip little stray strings off me too, including my hair. If I lay down when Libby and Roo are playing, Libby will come up and start trimming my hair for me, lol. She also has 'cleaned' Roo's wiskers right off him! Poor little guy just has stubs left. She'll hop up to him and he'll lower his head so she'll groom him, and she'll grab a hold of his wisker and 'snip', and he jerks back cause I think she really pulls on it. All he wants is a little lovin'!

Bunnies definitely can be stubborn about things, but pretty soon you'll be able to use real treats, and I bet you she'll periscope for those

 

[whitelop]

This is the last thing I swear! And I'm going to bed! haha. I've been blog crazy today, I don't know whats wrong with me. Its been an over share day today I guess.
ANYWAY!
In the last like 5 minutes, Ellie has decided that I'm just the bee's knee's! I just went into the kitchen to get some food and she is following me everywhere, I actually just skidded her across the floor because she was under my feet. (I always shuffle in the kitchen when she is out, because Foo was always under my feet too)
Every time I stop walking she will periscope and look up at me. I'm a little shocked but it makes me feel good! I wonder what her sudden change was. Hmmm...rabbits. onder:

 

[JBun]

She definitely wants something! Food or snuggles. I would say snuggles