The troublesome twosome

[geekgirl101]

I went to hoover up and the hoover was in the gaming room where I have their food and bedding hidden out of sight, and no sooner did I turn my back when Kick snuck in behind me, found the food bag, and had her nuzzle stuck in it eating the food! I ushered her away with difficulty, and as I pushed her out the way Lara ran in and started eating out the bag. >.< I grabbed a small handful of the pellets that fell to the floor, gently moved them out with my feet while dragging the hoover behind me, and offered them the pellets once they were out. Amazingly Lara was the one who approached me and ate out of my hand! I think she's finally starting to recover from her trauma.

 

[geekgirl101]

The baby gate arrived! And just to show how useless it was Kick squeezed with ease through the bars and did her toilet on the welcome mat. >.>

 

[geekgirl101]

Several cuts and scratches later I attached some chicken wire to the gate. I'm hoping they can't get their heads locked into it trying to get through.

 

[geekgirl101]

Everything seems to be working out fine at the moment. The bunnies are happy, Lara is still nervous but when there's treats to be had she doesn't mind the occassional tickle and doesn't race away from being mauled a little, although she still doesn't like being handled and will eventually back off if there's no more food around. Kick is on and off with me, if I do something she doesn't like she kicks her back feet at me and rushes off. A handful of spinach and half a grape later and she's friends once more.

Cleaning the home is a regular chore now, as is cleaning their cage. Rabbit pee + british hay really smells rancid after a day. They haven't tried leaping over the baby gate yet so now that area is poopie-free once again and we can safely go in and out of the house without fear of a rabbit escape.

I'm keeping regular supply of fresh things for them to nibble on. They love British Cox apples, they like both red and green grapes although I think they prefer red, and they're fond of fresh basil and fresh spinach. They don't like the fresh carrot as much, although I tried a bit myself and it was bitter like nail varnish remover so I threw them out. I think they were just either a bad batch or had been in soil laced with pesticides.

Lara sometimes tries to sleep in a corner of the living room behind a chair and sometimes Kick joins her. While I don't mind them being there while I'm around I don't like the idea of them being there all night as I noticed a chilly draft coming from the floor boards in that corner and worry they'll get ill from the drafts. I try to usher them upstairs at night to where I put a fluffy blanket to sleep on until I wash their pet bed after they saturated it with rabbit piddle.

Tony says every morning when he gets up for work they are sat by the food bowl looking at him like starving pups. We bought a new type of rabbit food for junior rabbits that looks a bit like rabbit droppings, and they love it better than the other stuff.

Lara let me give her a bunny kiss today, although she was very very nervous and kept backing away and bobbing her head up and down.

 

[geekgirl101]

I'm so not happy with Kick. I bought some fresh carrots from the superstore yesterday with their greens still intact and both Kick and Lara have been eager to wolf them down, and then Kick later goes into the living room where my laptop is and severed the mouse cord. Now I have to resort to the trackpad, which I hate. >.< I'm not giving her any more treats or pets for doing this.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I know how you feel, one of my buns snipped the power cord to my laptop before I could even react.

To protect wires, cables etc, some people use plastic tubing that is used in cars to bundle wiring.

Tony says every morning when he gets up for work they are sat by the food bowl looking at him like starving pups.

I thought this was funny, bunny's are good con artists.

When I put my buns to bed I give them a treat and when they hear the craisin or banana chip container opening they all go crazy and try to bust out of their cages. They always act like they have never had a treat before.

 

[geekgirl101]

She didn't deserve it but I gave Kick and Lara a blackberry today, they were on offer at the supermarket so I thought why not. Kick had no problems putting her paws on my lap and eating it out of my hand, Lara however needed a little convincing it was food so I gave it a little twist to squeeze out some juice. Once she realised it was food she then was quite happy to eat it by herself, however I had to lift Kick away and block her way to Lara's snack as she was about to stick her head under her chin and steal it.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

geekgirl101 wrote:

She didn't deserve it but I gave Kick and Lara a blackberry today,

When I first read this I was thinking they got a phone?:? Then it dawned on me that they got a sweet treat! :headsmack

 

[geekgirl101]

Yeah, they've taken a liking to blackberries now, which is cheaper than the grapes hehe. They've been right little sods today though so no treats except a handful of spinach. They were both exploring in the living room, Kick was constantly getting behind the hifi unit and bouncing on the cables while Lara was munching on the legs of our TV stand and almost had her teeth around the TV cable. I couldn't take it anymore, I ushered them outside of the room and promptly shut the door. They don't like me now but I'd rather they didn't like me and kept away from the cable salad than trying to eat the cable salad and turning into fried rabbits.

 

[geekgirl101]

Bought a new hay tunnel yesterday and they've already taken it down to the cardboard. Got them a rabbit tent too, although I bought the wrong size so I'll have to take it back on Monday and see if they have a larger one. Also bought a huge bag of timothy hay with dandelion and marigold, although they've taken no notice of it and have been fully focussed on stripping the hay tunnel bare.

Woke up this morning to find them both sat infront of their food bowl pining for their pellets. Lara's a bit more relaxed this morning, she didn't dart into the cage when I put the food bowl down. Infact she was almost eating out of the bowl before I put it down. She's letting me pet her a little bit, although she still flinches and stiffens up and she'll move off if she's not happy with being mauled.

Gave their pet bed a wash after they made it into a urinal. Lara's not used to the bed since it's been in the wash pile for a few days, so she's been precariously avoiding it and sniffing it from a distance with her body outstretched and her back leg to the side ready to bolt it. No matter how much I try to reassure her it's not a purple carnivorous monster that's gonna eat her she's still nervous of approaching it, despite Kick jumping in and out of it like a bouncy castle.

 

[geekgirl101]

Went to the garden centre this morning, was intending to find a rubber or plastic bin for making compost but they didn't have anything like that. We did find an entire animal section though with more rabbit stuff. Tony bought some grass tubes that look like cigars and I got hold of some cage disinfectant. Tony presented one of the cigars to Kick and Lara, Kick doesn't seem too impressed with it but Lara once she got the idea it was edible has been munching away at it non-stop. Finally, a treat that Kick won't try and steal from Lara when she's mid-eating.

 

[geekgirl101]

Lara's in trouble. Her destructive behaviour has resulted in both rabbits being barred from the living room. She's taken to attacking the wallpaper despite having over a dozen toys to chew on. We can't have her doing that in this room, it's the only room we've been told not to redecorate. I'm not sure what I can do to solve her destructive behaviour but I'm half tempted to either return her to the pet shop or drop her off at a rabbit sanctuary.

 

[geekgirl101]

I've found a way to block the wall temporarily with a foldable laptop table that never gets used. She now just chews her cardboard tunnel and pieces of cardboard in the living room, which I don't mind.

I rearranged the furniture in the living room too so that there's not so much a dark corner to hide in and built a little rabbit hole out of a cardboard box for them to hide in. They only went in it once but don't seem too interested in the idea. Because of the rearrangements Lara's been nervously exploring the changes. That in turn has resulted in us having more contact with her that she's no longer too scared to be approached. She still gets a little stiff when I stroke her and sometimes she'll back off if she's really not into being petted. When she does let me pet her I try and give her a treat.

I've been down with a cold. This is unusual for me as I don't usually suffer with colds. It's lasted 2 weeks so far and all the coughing and sneezing has given me aching ribs and a real nasty headache. I haven't cleaned up because I've been so ill and the bunnies aren't happy with their quarters being so smelly. It's gonna be hell cleaning that because I know what bunny urine smells like after 2 days.

I'm slowing down on the amount of spinach I'm giving them after I read that it was high in calcium and noticed that in some areas where they urinate that it's leaving a chalky deposit. While I know parsley and basil are good for them they are terribly expensive to buy daily as they can both easily eat an entire plant in a day and if they don't eat all of it after a couple of days the plants die for some reason. I'll be hunting around for some alternative veggies for them this weekend that they can happily munch on that isn't high in calcium and buy some cranberry juice to spike their water with if they keep producing calcium in their urine.

We found another mouse which I've been using on my laptop for a few days... that was until the other night when I fell asleep and the door was slightly ajar and woke up next morning to find the mouse unresponsive. A quick inspection and I discovered the cord had been viciously mutilated. >.< Bad bunnies!

 

[geekgirl101]

RIP rabbit chapel, you were a good little hidey hole but after vicious tearing and being used as a bunny bog you collapsed into a mushy heap.

Today I put the rabbit harness on Lara and took her for a little wander into our back yard, I was hoping the new surroundings might've helped her to focus on something other than chewing. She was very reluctant to go outside like a scared pup. When she was finally outside I watched her carefully like a hawk, making sure her harness fit on properly and that her paws weren't getting caught up in it or that it didn't fall off. Most importantly I had to watch her by the ivy plants. Personally I'd tear them all down, but it's not our garden. Unfortunately she got a little tangled under a big bush and while I was trying to untangle the leash she swiftly picked up a young ivy branch and began nibbling. I raced over to her, pulled the ivy away, and picked her up to see if there was any ivy hanging out of her mouth, luckily there wasn't any but I think she might've ingested a small amount from a young shoot. I'm worried, I'm hoping the tiny amount she may have ingested will just give her a mild tummy upset and nothing more. I'll be keeping a watchful eye on her, any signs that are not normal and she's going straight to a vet.

Right now Lara hates me for dressing her up in a bunny harness and picking her up so much.

 

[geekgirl101]

I got some piccies!

Kick saying "hi" to the camera.

Lara having a good munch at the cardboard.

(From left to right) Lara and Kick inspecting my feet, Kick thinks I got food for her.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I hope you are feeling better now. There was something similar going around here, the cold that took weeks to get over. I definitely feel for you.

Great pictures of your sweet bunny's.

 

[geekgirl101]

Lara's looking healthy. She had her tummy pressed to the floor a little yesterday, no surprise there, but her appetite is far from off. I bought some yummy dandelion and thistle roots from the nearby pet shop and her and Kick just love them. Kick seems to like them more than Lara.

Despite a little scary experience with the great outdoors and being picked up Lara's been ok with me, still a little nervous at times but I think she's getting used to me petting her every time I go past.

 

[geekgirl101]

It's a good thing I've been testing out the bunnies with cardboard cutouts of what would cost me lots of money from the pet shops. So far they've turned every dog-house box and bed into a toilet, giving me more washing to do of the blankets that are saturated in rabbit pee. Their official pet bed I bought online just before we got the bunnies had been completely saturated in rabbit pee, coated in poopies, and had the embroidering chewed off, so it went straight to the bin. I made them a larger cardboard bed with lots of padding in it to see if they get the idea it's a sleeping area, but they prefer to either sleep on the carpet either in a corner of the living room or on the landing.

Today bought them some fresh carrots and gave them a couple of carrot medallions with the carrot greens, they didn't last long. They've been getting other treats throughout the week such as dried and fresh herbs and dandelion roots. I've avoided all the christmas-themed treats as they contain stuff like millet and seeds in them, last I heard these were bad on a rabbits' digestive tract. They're quite happy with all the other fresh fruit, herbs and veggies I've been giving them and the herb cigars. They're eating more healthily than I am.

It's a bit of a love-hate relationship with both of them at the moment. They try my temper when they come in the living room at 5am while I'm still playing away on my laptop and start chewing the table legs of our TV stand or leaping up onto the window ledge and tugging at the xmas tree. They ate half a christmas card already, luckily it was one from the lib dem party so we're not too upset at that. They've attacked the carpet by the door leading to the room with all their hay and treats so we've had to cover it over temporarily with a side panel from one of our unused PCs until we buy some ceramic tiles. We keep rotating their toys to fool them into thinking they're getting something new to try and discourage nibbling of furnishings and boxes. They've eaten an entire cardboard box despite being given a healthy diet of lots of fresh and dried food and piles and piles of hay. They still give us the "I haven't been fed" look every morning after being given a bowl of pellets, and they'll even do it while there is still food in there!

Kick's been grooming me a lot lately. I think she's hinting to me that I need to take a bath.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I wish I could find a market in my area that leaves the greens on carrots.

My rabbits love to destroy phone books and cardboard boxes. I cut a hole in a box big enough for them to get in and a couple of small "windows". Then they redecorate and widen the openings as they please. I also give them bank and credit card statements to chew up for me.

 

[geekgirl101]

Oooh, that's a clever idea there Wabbitdad12! I'll give them my statements so they don't end up in the wrong hands.

Well from what I read the persistant chewing and eating of cardboard is down to the lack of hay that they look for an alternative source of roughage. They will still chew on cardboard if it's around to break down their teeth. We've increased the amount of hay they're given now to try and avoid being woken up at all hours to the persistant gnawing of cardboard boxes.