The Diaries of Merlin Puffsbottom and Naja Seraphina

[whiskylollipop]

Well, I think I can confidently say that Merlin and Sasha are definitely bonded now. It's been a month living together, and there have been no fights. Some chasing, but nothing serious. Merlin has come round to the idea and is actually quite happy to give Sasha head grooms these days. (Yay!) They cuddle a lot too, which is so nice to see. Sasha is quite independent, so I wouldn't say they're inseparable BFFs yet, but I'm happy with where we are. Funnily, Merlin's become "the Rosebun", following her around, always the timider one. We have a balcony and Merlin frequently stands anxiously at the border wanting to go out on it, you can just tell that he wants to, but he would never dare unless Sasha went out first. She also has him beat by a loooong shot on escapism, wire-chewing and making mama poke around under the couch for ages. Oh Merlywurls, he used to be my bold troublemaker. But Sasha is just a handful of devilry.

I ordered some locally-produced pellets the other day, 30% fibre and lots of nummy good stuff like dandelion and rosehip in them, only to have it roundly rejected by both bunnies! Sigh. I'm a bit concerned, actually. Sasha is normally picky with food but Merlin isn't, and he's also shown less enthusiasm towards his pellets and veggies recently. He is so thin - he has always been bony even during his piggy eats-everything days, but as long as he was eating healthy amounts I'd try not to worry. But if he's slowing down his food intake, how emaciated is he going to get? I'm trying to graduate and Merlin getting ill is the last thing I need right now. EAT MERLIN EAT.

 

[bunnyman666]

I have had to constantly try to get little Trix to gain weight since her last vet visit. She now gets Kale, Romaine Lettuce, and Corriander leaves along with her spoon full of oats. She's feeling a bit chunkier these days.

Hope Merlin eats a bit more.

 

[whiskylollipop]

Why is Merlin such a dick? He is living proof not to have kids because some people are just going to be huge jerkwads no matter how much love and discipline they're brought up with.

Exhibit A: Pellet feeding time. He and the Sheebs have a food plate in their cage, plenty big enough for two or more bun heads to fit in. He always, /always/ uses his paws to jerk the plate violently towards himself while moving a step backwards every 10 seconds or so, making Sasha follow the plate around the cage. And then he /on purpose/ eats starting at whichever end Sasha is eating from, so his head pushes hers out of the way and she can't get any food. Also, he hoovers. He keeps his head over the plate gobbling up 3-5 pellets at a time before lifting his head to chew. This means Sasha can't get at any food within reach for ages, and this often makes her give up after a few tries and go sit somewhere else, only coming to eat the leftovers when Merlin's done. Oddly, Merlin is perfectly fine sharing veggies and hay, but pellets make him possessive.

Exhibit B: Mummy and Sasha time. When I give him attention he shows me no love except allowing me to pet his back sometimes, but the moment I start spending time with Sasha, he will come galloping up out of nowhere and barrel straight into Sasha, growling, making her shoot out of the way. And then Merlin, satisfied, will just give me a disdainful look and pad off.

It's good that he's eating more enthusiastically these days, but I wish I had a tiny wooden paddle to give him a good old fashioned butt-whooping sometimes.

 

[JBun]

It's actually not uncommon for rabbits to feel possessive about their pellets. So you should be happy to know that Merlin is behaving like a totally normal rabbit It might be better to give them their pellets in separate dishes. Being possessive about the pellets could actually have the potential of leading to fights, so better to prevent this occurring in the first place.

The head butting Sasha is him saying he's the boss. Another RO member a while back had a similar issue, and it turned out her bossy boy bun was jealous of the pets the girl bun would get first. So this member started giving her boy bun lots of attention first instead and this seemed to have a big improvement on the situation. So I would say to fix this you need to give him attention first, but if he's not accepting of head rubs you may need to try something different. You could try following after him when he does this and hops away, and pick him up for pets. I'm sure he would hate this, which is kind of the point, so maybe he will associate harassing Sasha with having mandatory 'cuddle' time and decide it's not worth it. If that doesn't work, if Sasha likes cuddles I would just hold her and give her head rubs so that Merlin can't get to her.

 

[whiskylollipop]

Oh, I suppose you're right. I'm not worried about Sasha missing out on her share because I put an excess of pellets in their dish, around 1/3-1/2 cup, takes the two of them 3-4 hours to finish it as Sasha is a minimal pellet eater anyway (she much prefers veggies) and Merlin is boney so I'm happy for him to eat as much as he can fit in his belly. She is the most roll-with-the-punches little character, now that Merlin's off her hit-list nothing harshes her zen these days, so I don't feel she would fight him over pellets thankfully. She doesn't even try to push back when his big fat head edges her out of the pellet dish, just shrugs it off and patiently sits somewhere else until he's finished.

Neither bun likes being picked up. I guess forced cuddles would work as a deterrent to Merlin then, heh. For now I've been making do with giving Sasha attention when Merlin's off doing his bunny thing in some other part of the house, but I should really get on top of correcting his bratty behaviour!

 

[MILU]

How are the bunnies, is everything ok?

 

[whiskylollipop]

Hi guys!

So, as you may have guessed, life got busy and I haven't been on this site in ages. We've got a new family member, Titus the blue tongued skink. He is 7 months old and about 44cm/17in long. Here's a photo of him at around 4 months old.

Happily, Merlin and Sasha are still rocking on. Less happily, their latest shed has synced up and there's fur everywhere! It's especially hard with Sasheebies because she's fearless about escaping at any cost and simply won't stay still. She sheds much less often than Merlin does, maybe 3 times a year, but for a bunny with such short hair she still manages to poof out a unnecessarily mammoth amount of fur. Brushing and plucking her takes lots of chasing her around on the floor, as no table or box on earth can contain the mighty Sheebster.

Merlin, on the other hand, sheds like 400 times a year. It's more like a slight ebb-and-flowing perma-shed. We'd have a couple weeks at most of minimal shedding before it's poofing out of him in clouds again. But he's made peace with being groomed, we have a little routine when he's let out of the cage where he hangs around me for the first 5-10 minutes letting me brush, pluck, and ruffle him up before he decide he's done and zooms off to enjoy his playtime. I don't know if he does this because he appreciates help with the gargantuan task of keeping that impossible coat in check, or if he's just wussing out near mummy while he makes sure the coast is safe and clear of all other humans. (He is a big wuss. I'm the only human he's not deathly afraid of, and even then, he still jumps and runs half the time. To compensate for his blatant wussiness he sometimes growls and chases Sasha, which is just dumb because she can literally run circles around him.)

Anyway, constant fur up my nose aside, things are good! Updates to follow as they come, but we lead a boring life so it's pretty much the same always.

Hope everyone's doing bunderfully!!

 

[Azerane]

I love your Blue-tongue, he's got lovely colour.

Merlin sounds a lot like Bandit in terms of his shedding, it's quite frustrating to almost constantly have a shedding bunny but I suppose there's not much to be done about it except to keep on vacuuming I'm glad that both bunns are doing well

 

[pani]

I was wondering how you were all doing! Titus is super-cute, and Merls and Sashie sound wonderful as always. I'm with you in mini lop shedding hell. @____@

 

[whiskylollipop]

Nothing better than finding yourself in sitting by the bunny pen for 20 minutes twice a day, hand-feeding pellets ONE. BY. ONE. to two hungry hungry bunnies. Why am I in this special level of bun mum hell, you ask? Why don't you ask Merlin. He's decided to be a little ******* this week and dig/flick the pellets out of the bowl every single time I put them in. I fill up the bowl, I turn to go, and *scrabble scrabble scrabble* I whip back around to find pellets flying into the litterbox, landing in the water bowls, and pelting poor Sasha in her little pea face. A spray of pellet confetti going EVERYWHERE as Merlin tries valiantly to burrow out a new kingdom in his pellet bowl. Pellets that cost $30 per 2 kilo bag.

And the mess, oh the mess. Now, there is no pellet bowl. Now, twice a day, I have to hand-feed the bunnies. The pellets are so small and so many. But Merlin cannot be trusted with any more pellets than he can fit in his moufs at one time. Am I doomed to this for all eternity? Probably!

 

[Azerane]

Nothing better than finding yourself in sitting by the bunny pen for 20 minutes twice a day, hand-feeding pellets ONE. BY. ONE. to two hungry hungry bunnies. Why am I in this special level of bun mum hell, you ask? Why don't you ask Merlin. He's decided to be a little ******* this week and dig/flick the pellets out of the bowl every single time I put them in. I fill up the bowl, I turn to go, and *scrabble scrabble scrabble* I whip back around to find pellets flying into the litterbox, landing in the water bowls, and pelting poor Sasha in her little pea face. A spray of pellet confetti going EVERYWHERE as Merlin tries valiantly to burrow out a new kingdom in his pellet bowl. Pellets that cost $30 per 2 kilo bag.

And the mess, oh the mess. Now, there is no pellet bowl. Now, twice a day, I have to hand-feed the bunnies. The pellets are so small and so many. But Merlin cannot be trusted with any more pellets than he can fit in his moufs at one time. Am I doomed to this for all eternity? Probably!

You could try using a treat ball to feed the pellets. That way it requires some effort from them, you don't have to sit there and they only get a couple of pellets out at a time.

 

[pani]

Sometimes I just scatter the pellets around and let them search them out if they're being messy little stinkers. My partner likes to hide them under plastic cups.