The Chronicles of Mouse and Chalk

[mouse_chalk]

Well, hi everyone!

I must say, never ever had a blog anywhere before...so not really sure where to start with this! But I wanted a place to post some cute pictures of my bunnies, Mouse and Chalk, and wasn't really sure where to put them!

A little introduction first. They are 16 week old crossbreeds, and they are house bunnies. Originally when we got them they were going to be outdoor buns, but would have to stay indoors for their first winter. So we got a 3 storey wooden hutch, and put it in our living room, as a 'temporary measure'! Within about a week of having them, we decided that there was no way we could put them outside, as we just want to be able to watch them all the time, so now they are permenant indoor buns.

Anyway, after a few weeks of the hutch and woodshavings EVERYWHERE (I know they're bad for rabbits but couldn't find a suitablealternative at the time) and feeling bad that they didn't have enough space, we decided to custom-build them their own cage. So after much searching, we tracked down some wire storage grids and built them a MASSIVE 3-storey cage. Pics will be posted when it's clean enough to be seen!

They were spayed the other day, and apart from a little blip yesterday requiring some medication to get Chalk's gut going again, they seem to be recovering well...

Here are some pics!

This was taken a few days after we got them, when they were 8 weeks old:

Chalk getting up to mischief on our sofa...

And Mouse having a little nibble on some wicker...

So that's it! My first instalment on a blog...ever! I have just taken some extremely cute pictures of them both, so will upload a couple shortly...


Ps, sorry if these come out really big... I had some problems whereby I resized the pictures, then in the preview screen they came out big anyway... will try and fix for my next post!

 

[HoneyPot]

I love their names, and it totally suits them too! They are adorable. Mouse hasa pair of longears there... I think he might be a good sized bunny when he grows up.

Cute pictures!! Definately put more up! And welcome to the world of bunny slavery.


Nadia

 

[mouse_chalk]

Thanks Nadia!

Yeah, we've noticed that her ears seem to be growing faster than the rest of her! We did worry for a time that she might turn out to be a Flemmish... lol! :?

More cute pictures are on their way...soon as i work out how to not make them so big!

 

[mouse_chalk]

So! Here are the pictures, as promised.

They were sleeping on the top floor of their cage today (they have hidey holes and tunnels but they just love to sleep at the top!), and I noticed they'd moved, to sleep like this:

At first I thought that Chalk had just squashed Mouse to groom her or something, but they stayed like that for a good 20mins or so, when Mouse tried to move, dragging Chalk with her!:biggrin2:

This is Chalk popping up on the back of the sofa to say hi earlier:

And finally, here are pictures of their 'NIC' cage. I finished the 2 floors at the weekend, but our DIY shop cut the hardboard and linoleum the wrong sizes! :tantrum:So what we have on them at the moment is temporary, as it's too small. We had quite a few grids left over after, so I made a kind of stand for the bags of hay and litter, as the cheeky little buns like to chew holes in the bag and eat the hay through it!

And here's a little Mouse sat inside eating!

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

What a great space and such lucky beautiful buns! Thx for the pics. :biggrin2:

 

[mouse_chalk]

Thanks!

No, it's definately us who are the lucky ones! Idon't know how we ever managed without them lol! *soppy moment over*

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

I know what you mean. I LUV my Buns! :biggrin2:We can be as sappy as we like!

 

[mouse_chalk]

It's great isn't it?! That's why I love this site, much as my friends think they're cute etc, they don't really understand/care when I talk about them much...so now I can just go here and talk about them instead!

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

Yup...I don't think anyone understands but my Mama...:biggrin2:She talks about her dogs and i talk about my rabbits.

I love getting on here hearing the stories, seeing the pics and just sharing with people.

 

[TinysMom]

These two are so darned cute together...

Peg

 

[mouse_chalk]

Well, I think that the reason I've never had a blog anywhere before is sorted- I'm RUBBISH at keeping up with these things!

I have no real excuse except that Christmas and New Year etc was busier than I thought!

We went away Boxing Day to my partner's (Steve) mum's house, leaving my mum to come round and look after Mouse and Chalk. I wrote up a 4 page guide on what to feed them, how to clean them out, things to look out for, signs that they may be ill, etc etc, and we were only away for 36 hours!:shock: We were halfway up the motorway atone point whenI wanted toturn round and come back to look after them!(it's about a 5 hour drive to Middlesborough)Nevertheless she took care of them well, and even my Dad (who was horrified when we said we'd got rabbits and vowed that he'd never look after them while we were away) came round and fed them once!

So after all that was out of the way, Chalk then started sportingquite a badlimp in one of her back paws... :foreheadsmack:

I didn't post in the infirmary as we managed to get her into the vets straightaway. Might have been a bit hasty but it was the Friday before New Year's and I knew they'd be shut for the next 4 days, so better safe than sorry! Thankfully with a few doses of Metacam and a few days rest she recovered well- the vet said that he could only think it was a soft tissue injury, since no signs of broken bones etc and her spay wound was fine. PHEW!

Since then, we've been trying to make progress in litter training them- it got a bit ridiculous with the wee on the floor of their cage! We seemed to have made progress now, I thoroughly scrubbed the floor of their cage (they've never gone on the upper levels) with vinegar and their litter trays with the rabbit safe cage cleaner. Swept up the hay/wee/poo mess and put it in their litter tray and mixed it about a bit.Added hay at one end. Next day, no wee! :bunnydance: (Quite a few poo's though- they seem to do half of them in the box and half out!) Left the litter as it was, to keep the smell in, scrubbed the floor again.

Next day, NO WEE! :woohoo

The next day, it was my partner's turn to clean them out (he never does it quite right- and if I tell him he just gets the hump about me criticisng- MEN!), and thought he'd changed the litter, but he hadn't- next day I saw that they'd been digging the litter out and weeing over the edge of the tray. Changed litter, repeated scrubbing and NO WEE SINCE! That was on Friday!

So we've still got a way to go with the litter training as they poo on the floor quite a bit, but they seem to be weeing in the litter tray pretty consistently now. If they never stop the poo on the floor it wont be a major problem, as it's easily picked up, but would look neater when guests arrive, LOL!

Ok, I think that's about it for now, sorry this is a bit boring with all the writing and no pics, but I don't know how to upload them into a link without Steve doing it for me- and he's asleep! onder:Will be back tomorrow with some cute pictures- promise!

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Chalk is just so cute! Well, so is Mouse..... I just love them!

 

[mouse_chalk]

Aww thanks! I'll tell them how popular they are, although they might see it as licence to cause more mischief...?!

I can't believe how cute they are at times, I'll nudge Steve when we're sitting on the sofa and say 'Looook! Sooooo cute!' And it'll just be Mouse eating some hay, or Chalk lying down, and I think that Steve's just gonna say 'yeah, what's so special about that though?', but he always says 'Awww! So cute!'

 

[mouse_chalk]

Well, last night I promised pictures, and now here they are! So recent, they were taken earlier today...

Here's Chalk with their new favourite toy- a cardboard box!

Mouse- NOT eating the cow broom, of course

Mouse again 'My ears were just too heavy- I had to lie down!'

Also, here is another picture of their cage, now that the permanent flooring is down

We got new flooring for the shelvescut out of hardboard, cut to the right size this time! I then covered it with self adhesive lino tiles, cut to size. They love colder smoother surfaces so they're very happy with it! We've tried to put towels and cushions in there before and they get thrown out in disgust! :disgust:

Here's a close up, spot the bunnies if you can! Chalk is easy, but can you see Mouse?

More pics to follow shortly- real cute ones I promise, and you can see how much Mouse has grown :scared:

 

[mouse_chalk]

Here is another pic, of them with their other favourite new toy. It's a close up of Mouse, so she looks bigger anyway, but look how much bigger she is compared to Mouse! And they're only just under 5 months old! We're quite worried about how big she might turn out to be lol! :scared:

There you go!

Jen xx

 

[mouse_chalk]

Well, it's been quite a week here in our house. Both bunny-wise and otherwise!

Steve's had a horrible cold, and been feeling very sorry for himself (being a man, he think's he's dying lol! :rollseyes), and I've been feeling particularly under the weather too. I have a balance disorder called Labyrinthitis (no, I didn't make it up, honest!) and have been off work since July 2007 (barely still employed, expecting to be sacked any day now!). I basically get very dizzy spells, nausea, 'room spinning' and I fall over a LOT! This is the main reason we got Mouse and Chalk in the first place actually, as I would be home during the day at least for a little while to look out for them and let them out to play etc, and alsothey keep me company and relieve the boredom of having nothing to do and feeling rubbish all the time. They've cheered me up no end since we've had them and I hardly notice being bored anymore (sadly I still notice being ill though lol)!

But anyway, enough of the history, I'll get on with the recent news...

If you haven't seen the thread over in the main forum, we adopted2 rabbits this week, Barney and Snowy! You can read the thread, and the story behind us adopting them here (oooh, first time I've done one of those links!).

They seem to be settling in great, apart from the problem we've been having with Snowy having a LOT of excess cecals. She did a few more earlier today, so we're keeping a close eye on her. They didn't come out of their cage at all yesterday, apart from to have a little sniff around the door. But today, they suddenly got up and started running around the room! They were playing in the cardboard box, sniffing about, flopping on the floor together, and generally having a nice time. Obviously Mouse and Chalk were shut in their cage during this!

The set up we've got seems to be ok at the moment. Our downstairs is basically one long room, with a long narrow living room leading into a dining area, with the kitchen in the same room off to the right (kind of a backwards 'r' shape). Mouse and Chalks's cage is near the front window in the living room, and next to it we have the massive TV unit, bookcase etc. Barney and Snowy's cage is at the entrance to the dining room, the only place we could fit it in- we've had to move the table up against the patio doors-! So yesterday we put long strips of hardboard up against the entrance of the dining room, propped up by a table, and Mouse and Chalk could run around the whole living room. They sniffed the 'blockade' a bit but otherwise didn't seem too bothered. Barney and Snowy's cage was open so they could run around the dining room and kitchen if they wanted.

Today, as they were all asleep the cage doors were shut, and we took the blockade down (it's not easy stepping over it when you have no balance!), and opened Barney and Snowy's cage. They ran around the living room for a bit, and we moved the blockade up to the edge of Mouse and Chalk's cage, so they couldn't sniff each other through the bars too much. When Barney and Snowy went back in to sleep, we move the blockade BACK down the other end of the room and let Mouse and Chalk out! They played about ok, until they got to where Barney and Snowy had been playing, where they chased each other back to their cage Once they got in there though, they snuggled up together and were fine...

I'm not sure if it's because it's the first time they've been around a male bunny that they fight near them, or because Snowy hasn't been spayed, or just because there's new bunnies on the scene and they don't like it?

I don't exactly know how we're gonna go about introducing them to each other- I think we may leave it a few days or so until they're settled in, and try, but if it goes badly, wait until Snowy has been spayed (in the next few weeks or so) to try again. In an ideal world, the dream scenario would be all 4 buns bonded and able to live together happily ever after in one massive NIC cage :?, but I know that in reality that's either impossible or some way off! If we can't get to that, I'd like to get to the stage where they can play in the same room together under supervision and not fight etc. :?Not sure if that'll happen either! I'm quite worried about Mouse and Chalk fighting, but it doesn't seem to be anything too serious so far...

We've also noticed that Chalk has the beginnings of a sore hock on her back foot so have been keepinga close eye on her. I've put carpet tiles down in their cage and will get some fleece to cable tie to the shelves on the reccomendation of Bo B Bunny, thanks!

YIKES! What a week! :shock:

Gotta get some pics of Barney and Snowy to put up soon.... watch this space!:bunnydance:

*Edited to correct a typo!

 

[mouse_chalk]

Well I've got lots of pics to put up, but I can't figure out how to do it properly so will have to wait until Steve gets in from work to put them up There are some cute ones though, promise!

Everything has been going nicely here so far, Snowy and Chalk had an 'accidental' meeting whereby Chalk breached the barrier and they sniffed each other a bit, but at least there was no scrapping! We've decided that we probably will try and bond them all together- when 'SnowBarn' (as we affectionately like to call them) have settled in a bit more we'll introduce them all and see how it goes. Problem is we're running out of neutral territory to do it in- Chalk has now 'claimed' most of the upstairs as her own! :?We might do it on our bed with some towels down...

Kind of annoyed that I can't put pictures up, my blog seems to be mostly writing so far- I might try and have a go on my own! :shock:

 

[LuvaBun]

I love Mouse and Chalk, they are just so cute. really like their set up too .

Hmmm, waiting patiently for pics of Barney and Snowy

Jan

 

[mouse_chalk]

Aww thanks Jan, phew, it's nice to know people are reading this lol, and it's not just me rambling to myself!

They really are so cute, I don't think the pictures do them justice! Pics of 'SnowBarn' are currently being uploaded as we speak :biggrin2:

 

[mouse_chalk]

Right, some pics as promised!

Firstly, a few of Chalk (Mouse has been very elusive recently!)

'WHAT?! There's other BUNNIES over there! Traitor!'

'Whaddya mean, you can see me? I'm in the...oh, wait I'm not in the tunnel!'

Chalk discovering the mess that Mouse had made on returning from her play time:

And now some of our newest additions, Snowy and Barney

Barney, sleeping somewhere other than the litterbox :shock:

And some more material for the 'Washer Bunnies' thread :biggrin2:

Cutey pie Barn-barn! :hearts

And one of Snowy, unaware that a guarding Chalk is right behind her!

*Edit* I don't know why they're so small, sorry!:?