New rabbit owner

[Eve84]

Sometimes but not very often. His ears are very often upright but I get more and more hopeful that his ears will still flop / drop :0)

 

[Eve84]

His ears normally look like that but I think his ears look too long to be upright ears

 

[Butterscotch]

I'm sorry if this has already been said and I missed it but you will want to get your female spayed eventually so that she doesn't develop cancer later in life.

 

[Eve84]

Hi Butterscotch,
I’m not sure if I want to get her sprayed. It’s a severe operation and has an big impact for her to cut her open fully.
In Germany the statistics are not 80% for her to get cancer if u don’t spray her.

I might get her pregnant once or twice next year to even lower her risk for getting cancer. But only when I know the breeder is taking the rest of her baby’s apart from one back. And we would keep a fourth bunny for us.
Eve

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

View attachment 45468

His ears normally look like that but I think his ears look too long to be upright ears

Aww
They still look pretty loppy to me though! He might have aeroplane ears

 

[Eve84]

Only the roof is missing and will probably only be finished next weekend :-0

 

[Eve84]

Ahh no I forgot something - the frames which will go in front of the wire with Plexiglas for bad weather and wind is still missing.

 

[Eve84]

 

[Preitler]

Hi Butterscotch,
I’m not sure if I want to get her sprayed. It’s a severe operation and has an big impact for her to cut her open fully.
In Germany the statistics are not 80% for her to get cancer if u don’t spray her.

I might get her pregnant once or twice next year to even lower her risk for getting cancer. But only when I know the breeder is taking the rest of her baby’s apart from one back. And we would keep a fourth bunny for us.
Eve

The statics aren't 80% anywhere, no matter what age gets cited. Obviously, during the last 1 or 2 decades there was much activism in the US about getting pets spayed (not so much just rabbits, it was aimed primarily at cats and dogs), and during the past 10 years it really had an effect on pet numbers in shelters, but some arguments got repeated over and over, and exaggerated beyond any credibility on the way. Lots of propaganda by well meaning people, but anyone who has to do with rabbits for some time sees that those numbers are pretty much made up - my guess is more like 30% in their lifetime, which is still a very good reason to spay. Risk of the operation is somewhere around 2%, depending on the vet.

That getting them pregnant to reduce their risk is a myth too, there's no evidence that there is any connection. Not a good reason for breeding, unless you've got a solid plan about what to do with the offspring.

There are good reasons to spay, like it puts an end to false pregnancies, their litter habits and hormonal behaviour - which can be interpreted as "destructive" by their owners - gets a lot better. That has a few drawbacks too, like less activity that can promote things like obesity or bladder sludge if not taken into account. But over all, I'm much happier with my spayed free roam indoor girl than I was when I had my Black Fury indoors for 8 months, she pretty much destroyed my appartment - and is a very active, happy, 8yo outdoor bunny now.

Ah, question: Where did you get that square wire, and what is it called? I'm building a hutch and that looks good, guess we have the same shops here.

 

[Eve84]

 

[Eve84]

Hi [emoji112],
The wire we used is 19 mm wide and 1.43 mm thick and is coated with zinc that it won’t corrode. It is also welded in each corner.

Feuerverzinkter, punktverschweisster, Voilieredraht kein Kaninchendraht!

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

View attachment 45540View attachment 45541

Awww it’s nice and big for them

 

[Eve84]

[ATTACH=full]45542[/ATTACH]

 

[Eve84]

 

[Blue eyes]

Ah, question: Where did you get that square wire, and what is it called? I'm building a hutch and that looks good, guess we have the same shops here.

In the US it is known as hardware cloth or galvanized mesh.

 

[Eve84]

Hmm... I don’t know what hardware cloth is but I now galvanised mesh. Galvanised mesh is ok if it doesn’t get wet but if it does get wet it will rust fairly quickly. So you will need to find something which is covered in zinc or hot zinc dipped.

 

[Blue eyes]

The hardware cloth and the galvanised mesh I see are all double coated with zinc.
https://www.homedepot.com/s/hardware%20cloth?NCNI-5

 

[Eve84]

 

[Eve84]

Hi [emoji112],
This is gonna be the first night for our three rabbits [emoji235] to stay the night outside as well as staying in their little hutch. They will be able to choose now as I don’t close the walk in enclosure for them from now on.

We haven’t made the frames yet to protect them again rain and wind coming in but I temporary put a foil on the outside where the wire is to have a similar effect until we built the frames probably next weekend.

Uhh [emoji51] I’m a little bit scared but it should all be fine
Eve

 

[Blue eyes]

I bet they are going to love having the option to go where they want, when they want!