The Bunhalla Bunnies 2010

[Dragonrain]

Aw that's sad. The Pet Company a town over from my town (in NJ, not NY) never has lionheads, or at least none that I've ever seen.

But like I said I do try to avoid stores like that. I refuse to buy anything from them, and they just make me upset. One time I went into Pet Company and they had a rabbit in a glass enclosure that was clearly having a seizure. I was in tears and convinced the manager to let me have the rabbit, but she passed away on the way to the vets.

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh that's terrible! I like to see all the different animals, but then I get sad because of their condition and the fact that they're being sold without all the background checks we do at the Humane Society. I can't buy stuff from those stores too and I try to avoid them.

 

[kirbyultra]

I absolutely never buy anything from pet stores that sell bunnies since learning more about this stuff. I've seen Pet Company with bunnies in glass enclosures too which looked very ill. It is very upsetting and sad. :cry2

 

[Dragonrain]

Yeah it's very sad - I don't buy from pet stores that sell any animals at all. I get pretty much all of my pet supplies online. A few things like rabbit litter I just get at our local grocery store.

 

[Myia09]

I try too, but sometimes it is hard, like I did go to petsmart the other day. But I really stay away from them and only go to mom and pop places, or order online. It's always so sad

 

[Dragonrain]

I wish I could find a good mom & pop type place around me. All the stores I found that are relativity close are all pretty bad. When I use to live in MA, there was this awesome pet store that only sold supplies that I use to shop at. The only animal in the store was a huge flemish giant mix who lived there - she was rescued by the store owner and they let her run around this huge fenced off area of the store.

So I've been looking on Craigslist a lot lately for two reasons. One because I'm passively looking for a part time job, and two because my brother has asked me to help find him a ball python. He has the set up all ready and just needs to find a snake - either a rehome/rescue or maybe a nice morph if we can find one that doesn't cost too too much.

But where I was going with on that - it never ceases to amaze me how many people are trying to get rid of their pets on there. Makes me sad. A lot of rabbits have been listed lately, and in my area a lot of people have started listing reptiles, esp. large pythons for some reason. And of course so many dogs - I wish I could take in every one of them!

This morning I sent an email to someone looking for a new home for 3 rabbits, to direct her to some of the shelters in the area who might be able to help. Last week I was this / / close to taking in an engima leopard gecko that the breeder listed for free because they where moving, but someone else got to her house before me. I hope it got a good home.

 

[Myia09]

Wow, yeah I would jump all over a free enigma. But you never know if it has circling problems.

 

[Dragonrain]

Yeah. Well the breeder said he was healthy and didn't have any problems. She said she was moving and had tried to sell it for months with no one interested, and needed to get it into a new home before she moved.

Honestly I was really just thinking of taking it in and then rehoming it, since I have the space and supplies already to care for it it wouldn't have been a big deal to keep it here until I found someone interested. I don't know what kind of a home it got since she just gave it away for free to someone on craigslist. Hopefully it lucked out and got a good home.

We had to talk to the landlord yesterday because our door bell is broken. He brought his dog up to our apartment to play with Kit for awhile and was asking when we're going to get Kit a brother lol. You gotta love landlords who actually encourage you to get more pets - I was so afraid when we where looking for apartments that we wouldn't be able to get one that was okay with all the animals I wanted to have.

He asked us why we're so quite too- told us that he never hears us, which is good because I was afraid that with Kit barking occasionally and the bunnies running around like crazy that maybe we where being too loud.

 

[Dragonrain]

I still don't feel comfortable keeping Barnaby and Ziggy together when I'm not around to supervise. So I still don't have my trio back, although the boys do well together during play time for the most part. And Berry gets along with both boys.

I feel bad for Barnaby not having a friend. I decided that I'm going to change the cage/room around a bit. Berry and Ziggy are going to get the cage, and a "yard" around it, which is going to just be the Xpen. Barnaby isn't going to have a cage, just free range of the room. I think he'll like that. Plus he'll always be able to see Ziggy and Berry through the pen bars. For at least a few hours a day, Barnaby can hang out in the cage/pen while the hollands run around the room.

I still have hopes of getting my trio back someday!

Tomorrow I'm going to clean the room really really well and set it up the new way. Hopefully it works out okay.

 

[Dragonrain]

Nothing new with the bunnies - I didn't change their room set up around yet.

Actually I'm trying to keep things calm and quite in that room because by the looks of Aurora, she could be laying her eggs any day now. I'm going to set the incubator up today just so it's ready. Oh yeah, the lizard tanks are in the bunny room now so I guess it's more of a "pet room", even though the bunnies still take up most of the space.

I'm so excited about the eggs, although I'm trying not to get my hopes up to much in case she lays bad eggs like she did last year.

She shedded last night so I'm hoping it's her prelay shed - in the past it's always taken her around 3 days to lay her eggs after her last shed, so I'm hoping they'll be here in the next couple of days.

 

[Myia09]

I wish I had set my incubator up early, I was fluctaiong 3 degrees..doesn't sound like much but it is!

I am excited for you! Its been 2 week incubation for me..they look perfectly healthy..firm and what not. I just don't know if I can do the 4-6 more weeks My BB female is gravid too..maybe Aurora and her will lay the same time!

 

[tonyshuman]

Are these the lizards that will be a different gender depending on the temperature of incubation?

 

[Myia09]

Yeah. 81 for females, 85 will give you mixed, 89 will give you males. I want females, but the darn thing would fluctuate up to 83 the first 2 days.

It is also harmful to the geckos to fluctate..it can lead to deforminites.

 

[tonyshuman]

That is so cool. I'm studying hormones in grad school and some of the methods other species have for determining gender are so bizarre. I can see how temp fluctuation would be a problem!

 

[Dragonrain]

No eggs yet, as of the last time I checked which was late last night. I'm really trying hard not to bother her to much, I don't want to stress her. I'm anxious though!

Got the incubator all set up last night, so it's all ready for when she does lay them. I'm going to be incubating for females as well.

I had to take Kit to the vet this morning for his 1 year booster shots. I wanted to get it done at 1 year, and now will switch to a limited vaccine schedule for him. He was amazing at the vets - he's such a good boy, and even played with the vet AFTER the vet took his temp. and gave him the shot. What a good sport. The vet and techs all said he looks amazing and that I'm doing a great job with him, which made me proud. I feel bad though, because now it's pretty oveous that he's not feeling good from the shot and his leg where they gave him it is very sore. I know he'll feel better soon, but I hate seeing any of my animals not feeling good.

 

[Dragonrain]

Kit is back to normal today. He had a pretty rough day yesterday but was fine this morning. Oveously he has no hard feelings towards the vets. I took him back there with me this morning to drop off his stool sample and he was so excited, playing with all the techs in the waiting room.

I think I might be coming down with something myself now. Either that or my allergies are just really acting up today, I can't tell.

I keep finding ants in the apartment and it's driving me nuts. It's crazy, we live on the 3rd floor! It's not like crazy numbers of them or anything but still. Yesterday there were some in the kitchen around the dogs dish and then more in the bunny room. So I spent a lot of time cleaning/vaccumming/mopping the whole house hopping to keep the ants at bay. I don't know what I'm going to do if they keep coming back even with the place this clean. With so many pets, I don't really want to use traps or anything.

All the pets are doing well. Chris is having some problems at work though. I feel bad because he just got finished telling me yesterday morning how he didn't mind going to work because he was enjoying the project he was working on, then the bosses completely messed things up and really upset Chris. I mean really upset - he wanted to quit. He's probably going to start putting his resume out again and seeing if he can find a new job. He's pretty talented, I don't think it will be that hard for him to find something better - somewhere where they show him a little more respect and probably somewhere with a nicer paycheck too.

Haha like how I write an update about Chris after I state that my pets are doing well? He's my pet human! :biggrin:

 

[Dragonrain]

Kit's vet called me this morning to tell me that his stool sample from his checkup the other day came back positive for roundworms :yuck:yuck:yuck:grumpy:

Edit to add: Kit's stool sample, not the vets! :rofl:

I can never take him to the vet and just pay for his checkup, it's always something else added on top of that. Last year his poop came back positive for giardia, this year round worms - even though his monthly heartworm pills are suppose to take care of roundworms too, and he wasn't showing any symptoms of having them.

Now I need to find out if rabbits can carry roundworms as well, and see if I should be getting them tested.

I don't think I'm going to tell Chris about all this - he'll just be grossed out about the worms and probably upset that I had to spend more money at the vet.

 

[Dragonrain]

I spent just about alll day today hanging out/working in the bunny room.

All three of my little monsters where molting all at once last month and the amount of fur in that room was crazy. Since they all seem to be done shedding, for now, I really went crazy cleaning the room. I moved their cage to clean under and behind it, replaced the fleece cage guards since they where so covered in fur, vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed down the cage...I don't think the room has been this clean for a long time!

I'm still keeping the dog out of their room and trying to keep their little coco puffs off the floor (a task in itself!) after the roundworm stuff. :yuck I don't think the rabbits have it, but I'm getting meds from the vet tomorrow to worm them just in case.

The bunnies where so funny while I was in the room cleaning. They kept taking turns running up to me, jumping on me and getting in my way - it was like a game to them. I was surprised they where so playful because it was so hot today! My thermometer in the window went up to 90* and the gecko tanks where staying around 87* without their heating pads turned on.

I think the rabbits appreciated the cleaning I did. After I was done I left the window open for them and had a fan going in there, and they where all relaxing flopped over in their clean cage, even though they could have hung out in the room. I think they like being in the cage more when it's hot because of the hight it's at, they can probably feel the breeze better from the upper cage levels.

Aurora looks like she's going to explode. I thought for sure she was going to lay her eggs last night, but she didn't. I'm expecting her too any day now!

I'll get some new bunny pictures tomorrow, now that their room is nice and clean (well, we'll see if it still is by tomorrow anyways).

 

[kirbyultra]

Bunny room work is so tiring but satisfying after you're done. I'm sure the buns appreciated it!

LOL - dogs and their love of the "puffs"...

 

[Dragonrain]

Yes very tiring! I was so uncomfortable the whole time, in the hot weather covered in hay and bunny fur - my allergies where driving me crazy. But it was worth it because the bunnies seem happy.

I have pictures but I have to wait for the camera battery to finish charging.

I'm so proud of Kit! Last night, at Chris' insistence, we decided to letting Kit sleep outside of his crate last night. We keep him in his crate usually as night and when we both leave the house. We tried before, a few months ago, letting him sleep outside his crate, but he was loud and kept me up all night and got into some trouble. Well anyways we tried again last night and he was wonderful! He was quiet until 9am, didn't have any accidents, and didn't get into anything while we where asleep! I'm hoping he's starting to behave better and it wasn't just because he was to hot to do much. Anyways, we're going to let him sleep outside his crate everynight unless he starts acting up and hopefully eventually he won't need his crate anymore at all.