Some questions about my rabbits!

[sparklyyy]

Hi everyone, I'm relatively new here.Quick intro: My name is Erin, I'm 20 years-old, I live in thePhiladelphia suburbs and am a junior majoring in Film and Media Arts atTemple University. I have two rabbits (Misty, 7 years-old,not too positive about the breed, and Zeke, 8 months-old,Agouti-colored Mini Lop). Here they are:

I have a few questions with which I'm sure you rabbit experts here will be able to give me some help.

Misty-related questions:

1. Can anyone give me some suggestions about which breed she maybe? I was told that she's a dwarf rabbit, but her ears seemvery large and her markings are very much like those of an EnglishSpot. She has some black spots on her back and the signature"racing striple." Edited to add: She's somewhere in betweenfive and six pounds.

2. She's gotten very crabby in her old age. Nothing haschanged, but in the past year, she seems very agitated. Shedoesn't have a cage; she has free run in the basement in a huge runthat my family and I built her. She used to love wheneveranyone went inside the run to play with her. Now, wheneveranyone walks down into the basement, she races to the far end of therun and thumps her feet! She won't even stand to bepet! Any ideas?

Zeke-related questions:

1. Whenever Zeke runs next to me, he makes a series of quick, low buzzing sounds. What does this mean?

2. He acts like a puppy, sometimes! He loves to lick peopleall over! Whenever anyone lays down in front of him, even ifthe person is someone he's only just met, he will lick his or herface. It's really cute. He's licked my hand acouple of times but he mostly likes to lick all over my face, even myeyelids and lips (weird!). Does anyone else have rabbits thatlick like this? Misty has never licked anyone and I had adwarf rabbit named Chloe (whom unfortunately passed away three yearsago at five years of age) and she never licked, either.

Thanks, looking forward to meeting members and your responses!

Erin

 

[Spring]

Welcome Erin! Very cute rabbits!

Here's the best I can do for Misty:

1) I don't think she's a dwarf as they usually have round heads andsmall stubby ears. She looks sort of like an English spot but I can betshe's maybe a mix of breeds. Just a questno, is she spayed?

2) I haven't heard about rabbits getting crabby when they are olderjsut heard of a few cats that mellow out in their old ages. All I cansuggest is to maybe bring a book or soemthing down there and spen sometime and maybe when your sitting there she might come up for attention.Pebbles (my lionhead) always comes up to crawl all over me when I'mlying on the rgund but if I'm standing she stays on the other side ofthe room. She might feel threatened?

Zeke

1) My rabbit does these grunty sound when she comes up to me from the cage. Someone said it's just saying that they love you.

2) If I put my face in Pepsi's cage she will like my forhead for hours,she also licks my eyelids and eyebrows when I close my eyes too. Theyare just showing their affection.

I guess some rabbits are just lickers and others show their affection differnt. Sorry to hear about Chloe

 

[sparklyyy]

Hi Spring, thank you for your feedback!

Misty is not spayed. I got her when I was 13 years-old andwas then not as aware about the importance of having pets fixed as I amnow. I brought her to the vet recently and he gave her a fullexam. He said that she's in perfect health and showed no signof tumors. I asked him about having her spayed and he saidthat surgery would be risky at this point because of her age (sevenyears!) and advised against it. I will take your advice andspend more time down there just sitting with a book or something so shecan warm up to peoples' presences again. I don't know whatsparked her anxiety in the first place because it's not like anyroutines were changed. Hmmm...

Erin

 

[cheryl]

well im not sure whats going on with misty,butthe buzzing noise zeke makes my pippi boy does the same thing,when hecomes running to me he sounds like a little buzzing bee,most timesilike tocall him my little bumble bee,im not surewhy he does this either but i love it when he does it anyway,it is socute



anyway misty and zeke are absolutely adorable



cheryl

 

[Spring]

I was just wondering because there's a hugething about uterine cancer, yet I've only heard a few storeis ofpeoples experience with it. I've heard more about elderly rabbitshaving no problems then actual problems. I'm not putting down spayingit just makes me wonder. Glad she's healthy and in good health in herold ages .

Spending more time with her might help. She might just need a bit ofspace. Try to make a routine of going down there. Hoepfully she gets tothe point of climbing up on your lap for agood pet. The keyis patience and not to force her into anything she doesn't want to do. Hope everything goes well with it! I'm not sure if rabbits can justchange like that but hopefully she can ebcome friendlier with a littletime and patience.

 

[sparklyyy]

Thanks again! Cheryl, that's cute about "bumble bee"! Maybe I should call Zeke that, too.

Ooh, something I forgot to add: Misty, like I said, started to getcrabby within the last year. However, she became even moreunfriendly after a particular event: Sometimes I would pick her up andcarry her upstairs to my bedroom to play.RightwhenI got Zeke, before I took him to my apartment on campus,I had him in a cage in my bedroom. I let Misty run around myroom while Zeke was in the corner of my room in his cage. Shewent by the cage a couple of times and thumped her feet. Ididn't think that she would feel angry or threatened if he were in hiscage. He, on the other hand, just sat there and didnothing. I brought her back downstairs to her run because Ididn't want her (or Zeke) to be uncomfortable. I didn't thinkmuch of it because nothing major happened beyond her hopping by hiscage a couple of times. This was two months ago.Sigh! It seems like she becomes more and more unfriendly andunaccepting of things as she gets older.She used tolove to be held, even.

The only thing that's changed about her physically is that the hair onher ears has started to thin a little bit. The vet checked onthis and he said it probably has to do with her age.

Erin

 

[naturestee]

Looks like you've already found why Misty's abit cranky. Even if Zeke was in a cage, she felt like he wasinvading her territory. I could also see her getting crankyif she was getting a bit of arthritis. Did the vet sayanything about that? It's not uncommon.

It looks like Misty is a mixed breed- there are several others on theforum that look a lot like her. I think they'readorable. They have markings like English Spots but not asexact (because nobody was breeding for specific types) and a normalshaped body, where English Spots have a longer, leaner body than theaverage rabbit. A lot of the mixed breeds in my area looklike that but with brown markings. Not to mention thatMisty's over twice the size of my dwarfs, and 2 lbs heavier than mydwarf hotot who doesn't have a dwarf gene.

The buzzing is a love/happy sound. Loki makes it when he'shopping to me for petting or to his girlfriend Mocha. Heoinks pretty loud when he does his love dance for Mocha, too.:bunnyheart

My buns sometimes lick me a little. Mocha did a lot when shewas a baby, but I think it slowed down a lot when she hit puberty.

 

[sparklyyy]

Interesting -- thanks! Loki "oinks"?! That's so funny! I wonder what that sounds like!

All of my rabbits have had stressful situations before (car rides, vetvisit, etc.), and would always recoup within the hour. That'swhy I can't understand how she'd still be so affected by seeing Zeke --in a cage -- in my room (not near her usual territory) two months afterthe fact. That's not what set off the crabbiness,anyway. She was already headed down that road and I thoughtthat Zeke could have exacerbated the situation. Arthritis,hm. I didn't even think about that because she's stillhopping around and certainly thumping! I'll do someresearch. Thank you!

Erin

PS: So would I classify Misty as an English Spot Mix?

 

[Spring]

How is Misty and Zeke?

I'm not sure with Misty seeing Zeke could have triggered her to be abit weary of you but I don't think it's the main source of her being abit out of character. Rabbits respond different to different situationsso you can never be sure. Maybe she smells Zeke on you? Do you go downthere after you've been with Zeke? I'm not really sure.

She could be having arthritis, sometimes rabbits get cranky if they arein any discomfort. Hopefully she's just going through a phase!

You could probably classify her english spot cross.