The troublesome twosome

[Wabbitdad12]

With my buns, they always have hay, but sometimes I will see them happily chewing a phone book or gnawing on a cardboard box. Its almost like they get bored with the hay and decide to do something else, silly buns.

 

[geekgirl101]

Yeah, that could be what's up with mine. They have plenty of hay but they'll sometimes just decide they don't want hay and want the cardboard box that my new laptop arrived in.

Well today I bought some more dandelion and nettle roots and some rabbit pellets since they ate the last of it today. They were both sat outside the room with their food stored in it waiting for breakfast this morning. I bought some fairtrade pineapple chunks from the co-op and gave them a couple of pieces each as well as a packet of fresh basil. They have some watercress in the fridge waiting for tomorrow and a few more pieces of pineapple.

Kick's been giving me the cold shoulder despite her luxury treatment of fresh fruit, herbs, veggies, and healthy treats. I dunno what's up with her, she cringes or runs away when I go to pet her, she won't kiss me no more, it's like she's upset with me over something but I can't think what. Maybe I've raised my voice a bit too often for her jumping up onto the window ledge and knocking all the toys off it or chasing her out of rooms we're not sure are safe for rabbits to venture alone. She's quite happy to eat the treats I give her but when it comes to showing her affection she doesn't want to know. Wonder if she's hitting that age where rabbits hate everyone and sit in corners sulking while tearing off the wallpaper...

 

[Wabbitdad12]

A bun I rescued this summer would let me give her pets in the mornings. Now she will still take treats from me but when I try and pet her she runs to the back of her cage, so I feel you frustration.

 

[geekgirl101]

Well it's not so much frustration, more confusion. She's been well pampered along with Lara but both of them are just behaving nervous all the time or turning their backs on me.

 

[geekgirl101]

Today's lunch was a tropical fruit salad which I shared with the bunnies along with a packet of fresh coriander. They must think it's still christmas. /^.^\

 

[geekgirl101]

Yesterday I discovered our local greengrocer did huge bundles of herbs for dirt cheap. I bought a huge bundle of parsley and divided it into 2 and gave them one bundle last night and the rest this morning. While they were more than happy to be faced with an entire herb garden of parsley I think it's had some bad consequences. Since last night they haven't been behaving as normal, resting a lot and being generally grumpy. Today I noticed Kick was lay down sleeping with her hind legs raised high as if she was resting her stomach on the floor, Lara was also lay down in a similar position. They're just as grumpy as last night, and Lara appears to have developed the hiccups. I'm guessing that the amount of parsley was a bit much for them. I'll take it easy from now on and slowly ween them on it until it's not affecting them adversely. I guess the fresh carrot greens will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[geekgirl101]

Quick update on the bunnies, I bought some dried treats for next week - some dried dandelion and nettle roots and a bag of dried mixed herbs. I just checked on them now after arriving back home, Kick was hidden in the bathroom which is like a refridgerator and Lara was poking her nose out through the landing bars upstairs. Kick seemed quite pleased to see me and even let me pet her. Both of them still look a bit peaky but they both are now eating some fresh hay from the feeder so I'm not too worried knowing they haven't completely lost their appetite.

 

[geekgirl101]

Kick is suffering I think with mood swings. One minute she loves me the next she hates me, although the love bit seems to be whenever I bring her food. I thought she was approaching me to say hi, I went to pet her and she kept moving away until she hid in rabbit chapel mark 2. I decided to open the lid to see what was wrong with her and show her it was just me and nobody else and she bolted out and kicked her heels at the back of the box. I've done the same to her now, I grabbed a spanner, went upstairs to where she was looking at me with her back turned and one eye looking at me. I walked right past her, banged the skirting board with the spanner and turned my back to her completely. She looked a bit horrified that I dismissed her like that and came running to my feet and sniffed them. I think we've established a form of communication.

 

[geekgirl101]

Lara's being a real problem. She will not stop attacking door edges. I've given her boxes, dandelion roots, sticks, but she's insistent on grinding her teeth on the doors. I've chased her out of the room numerous times because I usually keep it ajar to let them in otherwise they scratch at the door to enter, but the moment it's open she's there chewing it. I can't keep this up, she'll have to go.

Kick is also being a nuisance. The pair of them have totally destroyed segments of the hall carpetting and keep pulling off the loose bottom peice and pulling the piling off it. It's turning into a ragged mess and our landlord is going to be furious when she next visits, if not about the carpet but about the walls in the living room where Lara's torn off huge pieces of wallpaper and eaten it. We are not allowed to redecorate this room at all. I'm going to have to discuss this with her about stripping that entire wall since the last tenants wrecked it by playing darts on it and attempt to recreate the same paint textures used in the rest of the room. With fresh wallpaper firmly stuck to the wall Lara will have a harder time trying to peel it off.

Right now they're making a huge noise destroying rabbit chapel mark 2 and trying to pull off the metal grill I made that's covering up the gaps in the baby gate.

 

[geekgirl101]

Can't eat an apple in peace where there's 2 rabbits around. It's like watching a school of fish jumping over each other trying to be the one on top.

 

[geekgirl101]

I think the new parsley I'm feeding them has been fertilized with LSD or something. I gave them a small amount last night and they took to it well, too well infact as they were doing their bunny 500s at 9.30pm in the living room. My husband has never seen them like this before so it surprised him.

This morning I gave them another small handful and they're like kids on a sugar rush. Kick's been jumping up and down the window ledge and getting stuck behind the hi-fi units while Lara's been chewing just about everything in sight, including the hallway carpet. I even bought them a new baby toy today and they've had a little play at it but at most they're not that interested in it.

I'm gonna end up with a sore throat and lost voice if I shout any more at them for chewing something they shouldn't.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Must be some really tasty stuff! I give my buns craisins just before I turn the light off in their room. Its like they've never have been fed before.

 

[geekgirl101]

What are craisins? I guess we don't get them here. I tried them on raisins but they don't like them, they prefer fresh stuff like carrots, carrot tops, apples, pears, grapes, melon, basil, mint, spinach and parsley. They turned their noses up at asparagus the other week. One thing I've noticed though is once they've had a treat they then misbehave afterwards. Today they tore a hole through the stairway carpet after being given a grape and a melon chunk, and they've been chewing the wooden stand in the bathroom which doesn't belong to us. I'm really not happy, our landlord will go ballistic. I fear we'll be evicted unless I contact them before they make a visit and agree to fix things up like sanding/varnishing the door edges, repapering the damaged area on the walls, and replacing the hall carpet. They need to be trained out of these habits first though, the yelling seems to work for the stuff we've caught them on.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

One company that makes them is Ocean Spray. Craisins are dried cranberrys, they also have blueberry, cherry and other fruit flavors. These and dried banana chips are their favorites.

 

[geekgirl101]

Oooh, dried cranberries! We get them here, I'll try them on those.

 

[LakeCondo]

My rabbit Honey loves to chew on things, no matter how much hay she has, so I'm glad she's in an xpen, so can't chew on everything. And she's a digger, too.

If you want another suggestion for a treat, Honey loves banana peel. I wash it before I eat the banana, she gets some of the peel, & the rest goes in the refrigerator for later.

 

[geekgirl101]

Oh, they like to dig into their cardboard boxes. Luckily they haven't taken to digging the carpet up yet. I'd hate to have to give them up if they start doing that though, it's hard enough keeping them from chewing furnishings they shouldn't, especially the ones that don't belong to us.

 

[geekgirl101]

The bunny behaviour has been changing over time I've noticed. Kick has become very dominating and possessive. If she has a toy or a treat she likes she'll take it away from Lara into a corner where she has it all to herself, or if Lara has it she'll rip it from her mouth and runs away with it. When I sit on the stairs and give them a grape each, Kick runs off with hers to another room while Lara sits by my feet eating hers, that is until Kick has greedily wolfed down her grape and then comes running up to Lara and trying to steal her grape from her mouth. I don't know what to do about this greedy and dominating behaviour.

They've got a new toy, it's supposed to be a hanging toy with wood blocks and carrot-encrusted mineral blocks, but they love to pull it around different rooms and gnawing at the mineral blocks. It's made a massive mess though.

 

[LakeCondo]

One rabbit is often dominant. It's just the way animals are. They don't understand democracy. So just let it go, unless one isn't getting enough food, or something serious.

And you can always get an xpen & put down a piece of linoleum over the carpet if you find their being free-range a problem. Shouldn't you stop even thinking about getting rid of them? In some ways it's like a couple who mentions divorce every time they argue.

 

[geekgirl101]

It's nothing compared to a couple who mention divorce every time they argue, unless the other person goes and tears things up, smashes all the plates, severs all the cables, and totally wrecks the house that they're only staying in.

Something is really wrong with Kick and I think she's entering her teen stage. She's being super destructive, super dominating, and is really testing my patience more than I can handle.