Sam, the half wild mother-in-laws wabbit!

[NZminilops]

I'm getting a bit concerned about the MIL'srabbit, he's gone very wild and wont let anyone catch him but his bumend is getting really daggy. I managed to yank of some of the old furthat was clumping around his tail but it still looks pretty bad to me.I can't even see which part is his tail anyway! It took me almost onhour 0f sitting very still on the lawn behind a bush before he forgot Iwas there and walked past. I tried to grab him but he's too quick.

I tried to get some pictures of him but he's very wary and skittish soit was tricky. Any tips for catching him? He's free range and has beenfor more than a year and refuses to come inside.

As you can see by the pics he has quite longish soft fur, we are not sure what breed he is but he has fur like my lops.

Is that plant he's eating look rabbit safe? I have no idea what it is.

 

[Haley]

Sam looks like he's been to the bunny buffet!lol. I remember you telling me before how they overfeed him withtreats. It shows

I know youve said before that theyre a bit difficult to talk to, but itwould probably be so much better for Sam (and for those trying to catchhim) if he at least was confined to a smaller area..have you spoke tothem about just building an enclosed run? It would probably be safer aswell.

Im not sure about the plant. Maybe if you post something in theinfirmary someone will see it and know what it is. Once we know what itis, theres a list in the resource center of plants that are dangerousto bunnies.

As far as catching him, maybe they could start making a certain noisewhen they give him treats, and make him take it out of their hand. Thatway he will associate good things with this noise and you can use it inthe furture to get his attention.

Arent they afraid that he will get sickor something and it will go undetected if hes so wild?

 

[Spring]

I'm not sure. I don't recognize any of those plants.

Don't know how it would work in a wide open space, but you could trywhat I've done before to catch Pebbles when she escaped from her pen. Iwould get infront of her and face her. I would sort of cower down andbend my knees a bit with my hands up and to the side. I'd keep my eyeson her and slowly walk towards her. When I got close enough to touchher, I would put my hand on her neck over her ears and thenjust pick her up. Just don't chase him, it will just make the situationworse.

 

[blackdutch]

For catching him, I'd get little tiny picketfences, and create a big enclosed area around the rabbit. Make surethere's food and water INSIDE the box. Whenever you havetime, make the "box" smaller. Then keep going smaller and smaller untilit's workable (small enough for you to trap him in a corner and catchhim.)

Or, just get two or three quick people, get him trapped in a corner somewhere, save time, and catch him.

 

[JimD]

I know of a couple of members that need to use a long handled crabbing net to catch their buns.
Even then, they're good at biting through the net to escape.

jim

 

[NZminilops]

He's a fat wee thing isn't he! The food he'seating right now (which has no info on the bag in regards to protein.fiber or fat etc) is half pellets and the rest peanuts, sunflowerseeds, banana chips and corn kernals. He gets free fed that. I washorrified that after all I have told her about how to feed Sam that shewent out and bought this. Her reasoning was that it was the mostexpensive stuff at the petshop so it must be good. Argh! I have toldher over and over again that food from our pet stores is no good, Ieven bought her a big bag of the same sort of food mine eat and shechucked it out because he "didn't like it". Well of course he didn't,he's so spoilt and used to junk food and she only tried giving it tohim once or twice. You should see the cat too! I'll attach a pic. Thecat and rabbit really like eachother.

I'm worried about her not being able to catch him, but she isn'tworried. This is why my first mini (holland) lop died at their place. Ihad to live there for a year and got Ben, they liked him so they gotSam. They bonded right away and grew up together and were neuteredaround the same time. Then my partner and I found our own place and Itook Ben with me and he was miserable, and Sam was miserable. Theirhouse is very quiet and mine is on a main road. Ben got depressed andlost interest in life and food so I tried taking him back to see Samand he just perked up so much. They were so joyfull to see eachotherand she wouldn't give me Sam to take home so I struggled with thedecision to leave Ben there. All seemed to be going well and I stillbought all of Bens food etc but one evening he didn't seem right andthey didn't bother to tell me. They couldn't get to him as he was underthe deck. The next day he was dead.

I'm starting to think that she sees Sam as a bit of a fashion odity tohave in her garden (which is very lush and beautiful). Although shedoesn't earn much she has no hesitation in spending a lot of money onhim and she does seem to care about him in a funny sort of way. Shethinks that caging any animal is cruel, and I kind of agree that afterall this time Sam would HATE to be caged. They shut him in the doublegarage once for a day and he was throwing himself at the walls androlling his eyes wanting to get out. I think she just needs to tame hima bit and actually spend time with him trying to touch him etc so hegets used to it. And have some sort of cage for him to go into, that hecame come and go into as he pleases but can be trapped in there ifneeded.

I think for christmas I'll get some things for the rabbit like food andhay.Oh did I mention he doesn't get hay? And I'll steal the other foodand chuck it away, lol!

 

[Spring]

Well, to put it frankly, your mil is killing Samwith kindness. Obesity can shorten a rabbits life drasticallyand it causes health problems. And with that junk waste, Iwouldn't even call it rabbit food, he's probably not getting enoughfiber in his diet whichcould lead to GI trouble. Try printingout some information about obesity etc. for your MIL to read? Thisseems to be a good site about obesity, I just quickly skimmed throughit.

http://www.rabbitsinthehouse.org/newsletter/obesity.pdf



Also, I found this on the HRS website about trying to catch a rabbit.It's mostly what you have already been doing, but you could read up onit for more tips if you like.

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/rescue.html

 

[NZminilops]

Thanks for the help and the links .

I've emailed her copies of all the good info on here and sent her linksbut it's getting to the point where I think she either A) can't readand has just been pretending to for her entire lifetime, B)she's just going to do what she wants regardless of what I say, C)she's just being dumb. And because we are in little ol' New Zealand shereasons that the rules over there don't apply to rabbits over here.Pfft! She also reasons that rabbits would eat plenty of fruit from theground in nature. I pointed out that I don't think bananas grow veryoften in the wild in England where our domestic bunnies originated from!

Sam eats plenty of long grass that she lets grow in a patch for him, heprobably gets some fiber from that. It also really doesn't help thatwhen she apopted another rabbit from the spca, for all of a week may Iadd, the pamphlet they gave her reccomended getting a high pricedpelleted feed from the pet store. Now she waves it in my face everytime I open my mouth to talk about Sams food.

I'm seriously going to steal her rabbit food and replace it withsomething better, it's either do that or steal Sam and I don't want tostart a family fued. Is there anywhere that I can find pictures ofrotten rabbit teeth or ill bunnies from too much banans etc? I want toprint some pictures off to scare her and make her see what she could bedoing to Sam.

 

[Spring]

I'm not sure, but I don't think rabbits teethrot from too much sugar (maybe though)? I think it's more of a dangerfor obesity, and upsetting the rabbits digestion. Just because the foodis expensive, doesn't mean it good. They could sell garbage priced high(which to a rabbits health, what the food is) it doesn't mean it'sgood.

Also another thing with those kind of blend pellets is rabbits usuallyjust pick out the good stuff and leave the rabbit pellets. Corn can bevery dangerous as rabbits cannot digest it well.

I'll keep looking, but I cannot find any pictures.

Here is a site about GI statis though, which could very likely happen to Sam.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

I'll keep looking though

 

[Haley]

I forgot to tell you before, but if you getdesperate to catch him..a fishing (minnow) net will work. The minnownets are the ones with the long handle.

I really dont recommend it unless its absolutely necessary (just because of the amount of stress it causes) but it works.

When Mr. Tumnus was loose in the wild, this is how we caught him. Wehad set out tons of live traps, but he was too smart to go in. We hadto chase him down and net him...but I was so scared he would have aheart attack.

It works though if the bunny gets under a deck or something..you can just net them and flip it over and slowly bring them out.

 

[NZminilops]

Thank you for all the great help, and forreading my long posts. I went out to stock up on cat food today as weare getting a kitten in December and I got Sam a half bale of hay andsome better food, the mil wasn't home so I left it on the back deckwith an xmas card and feeding instructions. She keeps her rabbit foodoutside in a little bin thing thing so I grabbed it.

:embarrassed: There wasn't much left so she shouldn't mind. And if she does, too bad!

Gosh I feel naughty now, I hope she is pleased and not upset.

 

[Haley]

haha..she is gonna be so mad at you!

If she is okay with switching food, make sure she knows to do it gradually

 

[Spring]

Well, it's for Sam's own good! I don't know whyshe doesn't just realize what your saying and start listening . Hehe,I'm dying to know how she'll react. In the end, you helped littleSammy, that's for sure!

 

[NZminilops]

She only had about two cupfulls left anyway andshe'd go off to buy another brand or type like she always does. In thenote I left her I told her to go slow with them, and give him heaps ofhay. She will either be really mad or really happy, I hope it's thelatter! :shock:

Once she sees the better pricing of the food I got she will hopefullybe happy as it costs half as much as what she was getting before -actually probably more like 1.3 of the cost.

 

[Haley]

I think you need to find a picture of what anormal rabbit of his breed looks like, and then compare it to sams picHe's such a Jabba. lol

What does her vet say about his weight?

 

[NZminilops]

I'm not exactly sure what he breed is so thatmakes it a bit tricky. I did see the sire from a distance who was smalland brown but was doing a dead bunny flop at the time so impossible totell what he was from that distance. The breeder did not know which doewas the mother - this rabbit came from a petting zoo type place whichhad large pens filled with baby rabbits and guinea pigs of all sizesand ages. I would hazard a guess that he is an NZ/British type minilopcross, as he has the body type, sort of the head shape, the fur, andhis ears aren't perfectly errect all the time.

He was only ever slightly larger than my very small mini lop, untilrecently. He's only been to the vet once to get neutered and that wouldhave been more than a year ago now. The vets in this area are notrabbit savy so probably wouldn't care.

I just knew he was fat, thanks for saying it! The mil just sayshe's fluffy! He's a ball of blubber , and for a while there he had areally big dewlap but it's gone away some with the approx of summer.

 

[NZminilops]

Sorry to post twice in a row in my own thread,but this is what Sam used to look like at around 6-7 months old. Helooked good here I think, and the other rabbit was Ben who was about 3pounds in weight.

You can see Sam is fluffy but he has shape to his body here, his tailis clearly visable and he looks perky and athletic. He doesn't have afat ruffle over his bum or in front of his back legs. This was when Iused to live there and they both ate the food I bought for Ben.

 

[JadeIcing]

Does she interact with him at all?

 

[NZminilops]

No, only to feed him! He and the cat are very close though and often walk around the garden together and sunbathe on the deck.

 

[JadeIcing]

Ok that makes sense.