Time for my once monthly blog update! The bunnies are all doing well.
Poor Skyler had another run in with Rory and in the 2 seconds that there was only a NIC barrier between them, Rory managed to chomp him on the face- right opposite from his scar from the last time they met! This bite isn't as bad but is actually more noticeable, it will be interesting to see if it scars too. I'm sure it hurt, but Skyler is enjoying approximately twice the amount of bunny treats plus extra hugs and kisses because I feel so guilty over him being bitten! Then a few days before that, I decided to introduce Skyler and Phoebe Mae. Their meeting was very short and took place on the bed upstairs where they never go. It involved sniffing, then him trying to hump her, then her going AWWW HECK NO! and fighting back. I was ready to separate them so they only fought for a couple seconds, but there were clumps of black fur all over the bed and poor Skybes was thrown to the floor by the tiny 14 week old Phoebe Mae! On the one hand I feel sorry for Skyler and hope they can still bond after she's been spayed, and on the other I'm a little proud of Phoebe for not letting anyone push her around :biggrin2: Skyler needed lots of kisses after that fiasco and has a small scab on his chin from where she bit him- she apparently went for the jugular :shock:
Rory is a happy boy. He's been extra lovey with me lately, it's so cute! There's something about my Rory that just makes me melt. Nothing has really changed in his life in the past month. I gave him some cooked acorn squash tonight to see if he'd like it, he completely shunned it. So far, the ONLY foods he hasn't gone wild over are in the squash family- pumpkin, zucchini and acorn! He refuses to try any of them. I did however find out that he looooves mandarin oranges and can practically fit a whole section in his mouth at once. The other night a bit of juice from his orange section dribbled on the couch and he kept going to lick that spot periodically over the next hour!
Phoebe Mae is my little princess. She's growing so well! She's becoming such a beautiful, long legged bunny. She looks so graceful. Her fur is interesting... it's not rexy, but it's silkier than Holland Lop fur. She's very nice to pet and will stop and lie down on the floor if I go over to her when she's running around. She's very athletic, smart, curious and loving and fits in so well here! Paul suggested we change her name to Billie since she climbs all over EVERYTHING like a billy goat. She's getting better about digging and biting at our clothes. As I type this, she's lying next to me being petted. She's also starting to get a tiny dewlap, it is ADORABLE! Hard to capture in pictures, but it's there. I decided to remove the barrier from around Rory's cage a few days ago to see how he and Phoebe Mae would act- I didn't have the barrier up when Tallulah was here and Rory eventually got over trying to eat her through the cage bars. If you'll recall, Tallulah loved him even though he hated her, and would spend a lot of time sitting outside his cage. Eventually he got used to her and stopped getting mad at her, he'd usually ignore her and would sometimes groom himself at the same time as her or flop down near her. Here's a picture of Tallulah and Rory:
So I hoped Phoebe Mae and Rory would be like Tallulah and Rory were, but it didn't work out. At first Phoebe was very curious about Rory and kept running up to sniff him through the bars, but when he acted aggressively towards her (growling and lunging), she got mad and started to growl and lunge at HIM with her little tail so high in the air I could see her phantom doot marking! Needless to say, the barrier was quickly put back up.
November 14th was Tallulah's 1st birthday. We celebrated even though she's gone. I bought a chocolate eclair and a tiny fruit tart from the bakery for Paul and I, and the bunnies got a baby banana. We all thoroughly enjoyed our treats. I miss Tallulah like crazy, Phoebe Mae is the only thing that's lessened the pain for me. She's my sassy little angel girl.
Here's Skyler enjoying the birthday banana, you can see the first scar Rory gave him... he now has another one on the other side of his face :cry2
In other pet news, we got a new cockatiel! Poor Arthur was quite distraught over Luca's death in October (they were together for 6 years), but I was having quite a hard time finding another cockatiel. A couple days after Halloween we were at Petco and saw they had a new cockatiel in the cockatiel cage (we'd tried to meet the other tiels but they were not remotely tame), a tiny, cute little Lutino with black stuff on it's face. They told us she was injured and at the vet's for a couple weeks recovering, and was on sale for 50% off. I asked to hold it and much to my surprise, this bird would actually sit on my finger and let me scratch it's head without biting! We took Baby Bird home, immediately introduced her to Arthur and it was love at first sight. We never even set up the cage we bought for Baby Bird because Arthur made it clear he wanted her with HIM. They're so happy together, it's adorable. Baby Bird quickly learned how to step up and I clipped her wings and toe nails, and got a blood sample to send off for a DNA sex test. She still isn't really sure what to make of Paul and I, but it can be slow going with cockatiels and she's so sweet and darling. We're trying to think up a name for her, we had named her Harley because we thought she was a boy but the DNA test results I got the other day say otherwise!
Also, I got a new camera- the Canon Digital Rebel XSi
inkbouce: Paul got it for me for Christmas, but our friend accidentally spilled the beans so he gave it to me early! I ordered a book about how to use it and a nice camera bag, hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be taking gorgeous pictures of the bunnies and birdies to share :dancingorig:
On to the pictures! I have a lot since I haven't posted any in a long time.
Bunnies outside back at the beginning of October:
Phoebe celebrating autumn:
NOM NOM
TONGUE!
The only way I could get her to stay still for pictures was by petting her (the other bunnies are easily plied with food), so she looks rather flat and sleepy:
Paul loving on Phoebe Mae:
Phoebe Mae tonight... these were all taken with the new camera, they don't look as amazing as some people's pictures because they were taken on auto and I know nothing about the camera yet! You can see her dewlap-let :biggrin2:
Again, I had to pet her to get her to stay still for the pictures so she looks flat and sleepy.
Cockatiels! The ones on the couch were taken with the old camera, the others were taken with the new camera.
New Baby Bird:
Fu Manchu birdy:
in her bird diaper:
You can see that Arthur has groomed most of the black stuff off her face! It was dried on medicine that got dirty.
Birdies no like the flash.
I think that's everything! Stay tuned for my next update, which will hopefully be before Christmas :bunny18
