The troublesome twosome

[LakeCondo]

You are expecting a rabbit to behave like a person. So it may be best that you DO give them up to someone who understands rabbits or is willing to learn.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I can't remember is Kick fixed? Definitely sounds like teenage period of her bunny life. You may just have to give them their treats seperately, so Lara gets all of hers.

 

[ZRabbits]

When Dobby and Kreacher lived together, Dobby would do the same thing. Grab his treat and run to the other side of the crate. Wolf it down and then come and try to grab Kreacher's treat. It got so bad that Kreacher would then go after Dobby for stealing his treat.

I had to split them up and feed individually. No problems afterward. Dobby doesn't need to hide his food, and wolf it down and then go after Kreacher's. Kreacher has his own. Everyone is happy.

Dominance issues rear their ugly head at puberty. If Kick is not spayed, maybe doing so will help her loose some of that dominance over food and harmony will reign.

K

 

[geekgirl101]

Hmm, I think she is spayed, I should take them both to a vet for a health check at some point.

btw, Kick's been a real pest lately. If I point a finger at Lara and tell her to move or tell her not to do something she'll look at me and hang her head in submission and move out, or if I'm being gentle she'll just happily bop along unless she was having fun doing what she was doing and then she'd hang her head as if to say "awww, but I was enjoying myself " If I do the same to Kick she will be very determined to do what she wants to do, half the time stamping her feet at me in disapproval for getting assertive and using a broom handle to usher her out of corners or under shelves that she's gone and sat in as her way of saying "I'm staying right here and there's nothing you can do about it, so nyah!" even trying to bribe her out doesn't work half the time.

Kick's been much more explorative than usual, and has been getting a little destructive too that we had to move their rabbit cage right into the corner of the room to stop her from shredding the carpet to pieces at the corner. Last night she climbed up onto the antique fireplace and started to look up the chimney. I told her no several times and the first time she looked at me as if to say "who are you to tell me what to do?" and then started to look deeper into the chimney. Before I knew it she lept up the brickwork and suddenly vanished. I thought the way the fireplace worked was that it was a solid brick back that went all the way into the back of the chimney, but when I put my hand there realised it wasn't and that there was a gap... where Kick was trapped. I woke my husband in a panic and we tried to pull things out but the stone backing is very solid and several inches thick, there's no way we could move it. I tied a pen to some string and dropped it down the back to see how far down the hole went, fearing it went into the cellar and that she'd be trapped or worse injured or dead. Luckily it tapped at floor level, so the only thing now was to try and get her out. We were discussing what we might have to do, like call the housing association, call the fire brigade, we just didn't know what to do. After about 10 minutes suddenly her head popped out from behind the fireplace. I didn't know if she'd be big enough to climb out of it herself, but luckily she did, and then I had to chase her around the house with a damp towel to try and wipe off the soot and dust she may have picked up. She was not happy at all. I've now made a makeshift fireguard out of some leftover chicken wire so she can't climb into there again.

At the moment our friendship is very shaky. I now know how my mother felt when I was 14 years old.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Wow tht was pretty scary! I am glad things worked out and you didn't have to tear your fireplace apart.

 

[geekgirl101]

The little sod is lucky she didn't get made into a pie after that stunt. Her lively late night activities have been keeping me awake for 3 nights in a row, although last night she was unusually quiet and today she's been quiet too. She's not too into being petted by me now either. I guess she's both a little shaken and sulky.

 

[geekgirl101]

The rabbits are sorted for treats for the next month. Visited our local garden centre and bought them some Excel nature sticks that were going for a pound each, so they now have 2 packs of each flavour, 4 bags of meadow hay, 2 strawberry crunch sticks, a bag of Naturals herb garden, and a metal feeder ball to stuff in things like carrot slices, parsley, and whatever other fresh treats to offer them. They had fun pulling some fresh parsley out of it, I gave them a small carrot each with greens too today. Lara's got the hiccups, again.

Lara's looking a bit porky. I gave her back a little rub today even though she's not into petting, and noticed she's feeling rather chubby. Kick on the other hand feels a bit bony along her back, but I know she's eating well. Lara is much less active than Kick, she spends more time sprayed out and sleeping while Kick darts around doing bunny 500s. I've heard Lara snoring while sleeping at times too, have wondered if she was wheezing a few times. I think I need a vet to take a look at her.

In the meantime they've been utter little *******s. They've had a chomp at a mains cable to our living room lamp, they've ravaged a speaker cable, Kick's had a munch at the cable on one of the 4-ways in the living room, she destroyed a network cable to the xbox, Lara attempted at digging through the living room carpet, and the pair of them have tried eating everything that's wooden, and Kick pulled away all the blankets I put down for them to sleep on to the pillow underneath that I used to use when sleeping in the living room and then pee'd all over it. It's been utter mayhem.

 

[geekgirl101]

I ordered a rolling hay feeder the other day and a grass mat. The rolling feeder arrived first but the gaps were way too small so that's going back and I ordered another one with much wider gaps so they can get to the hay. The grass mat when it arrived took the rabbits a day to get used to the idea, but after that they've had so much fun scratching and tearing at it inside a box with some scrunched up newspaper. It's been both a great toy and treat for them, and they've been less interested in the carpet since. I hope the new rolling hay feeder arrives soon, the less mess I have to clean up the better since the hallway is constantly covered in hay, shredded cardboard, and rabbit droppings.

 

[LakeCondo]

I'm glad that the grass mat was a hit & hope that the new hay feeder will be as well.

 

[ZRabbits]

My boys love their mats. It makes a mess but they have a ball shredding them.

It did take them all a bit to figure it out, but once they did, game on.

Kreacher likes to lift his up and try to toss it. Dobby and Willard go to town digging at it and getting pieces to rip off, tug and chew.

Keeps them occupied and helps mental stimulation, along with exercise and strength.

Can't wait to hear how the new hay feeder works out.

Please keep us posted.

K

 

[geekgirl101]

Just waiting for it to arrive, should arrive within the next couple of days hopefully. But yeah, the grass mat is definitely proving to be a hit. Putting it in a cardboard box was definitely a good move considering how much fun Lara is having attacking it. If she's not eating or sleeping she's showing her wrath on the grass mat, hehe.

Kick on the other hand isn't much into it, maybe because Lara is dominating the only grass mat. I suppose I could order a 2nd one and put that in a different cardboard box. She seems to have more fun in tearing their cardboard hidey hole to pieces. It's now turned from a box to a tunnel where she hides in when she's feeling moody.

Speaking of moody Kick's been stamping her feet at me almost every day, and then minutes later she'll be sniffing at me and begging me for treats. I've been giving her dried cranberries for doing good things, like letting me stroke her or when she chews a wooden stick instead of the door frames. Seems to be working, she's given up on doors and tables and happily chewing sticks.

 

[geekgirl101]

We can't keep them no more. It's just not practical for us. They make so much noise and so much mess every day. The hallway carpet is so damaged it needs replacing, the wallpaper in the living room is gonna need repatching or replacing, the doors are going to need sanding and revarnishing, the speaker cables are gonna need replacing or patching up with insulating tape as are any other damaged cables.

We've given then so much and they've given us nothing but noise, mess, grief and hostility. We can't pet them because they hate our guts so we hardly ever see them. We feed them and they go and destroy things shortly afterwards. They wake us at all hours shredding boxes or scratching doors. Despite putting lots of rabbit toilets down they still aren't house trained at all, they'll pee or crap on the carpet away inches from the toilet and leave a whole mess on the floor which is a pain to constantly clean up. On top of that despite all the toys and accessories they have to keep mess to a minimum they just generate mess by kicking out sawdust and shredding boxes into bits.

My husband and me are totally stressed out. He thinks he has 100% rights to be stressed because he works and doesn't know what it's like for me at home with them so therefore I have no rights to be stressed out and we're having arguments about it.

On top of it all the costs in trying to provide for those rabbits just isn't bringing us any returns from them. We spent so much that we're broke, and they don't appreciate anything we give them.

It's been almost 4 months and while it's only a short time in a rabbits' life it's long enough for us to decide that enough is enough. I'm calling a rabbit sanctuary tomorrow. This is the end of their story.

 

[LakeCondo]

I hope they'll be going to a home that understands rabbits.

 

[geekgirl101]

Tony worked out a compromise this morning. Since the rabbits spend most of the time upstairs on the landing and the only reason they come downstairs is to poop and get into mischief he took the baby gate off the entrance to the front door and moved it to the top of the stairs. It's not a massively big area, but it's got a nice long running area that they can do their rabbit runs on, and it keeps mess confined to that area. He's gonna see how that works out, and if they can get used to being confined there and eventually grow out of their destructive behaviour we may let them have a chance at being around the rest of the house once more. They may get to stay with us after all, providing I make sure I keep the landing cleaned up.

 

[geekgirl101]

I never thought I'd still be owning the two little rascals, but the last time me and Tony talked about sending them to a sanctuary because of their behaviour we looked at them with puppy-dog eyes and they were aware we weren't happy and behaving good as gold. Tony had grown attached to them, and personally I was stressed by their lack of affection and their continuous destructive behaviour on the doors and carpet, but again part of me was attached to them.

It's been several months now and their destructive behaviour has tamed down a lot. They still scratch the back bedroom door for our attention if they want more food or water. I really wish they'd do something else for our attention, like ringing a little bell, something that doesn't require me having to sand over and revarnish before the landlord does her annual visits.

They were vaccinated last month. I wasn't there to see it happen but I heard amusing stories. Lara was in "don't kill me please" cringe mode so she was easy to vaccinate and had her tails trimmed. Kick on the other hand was fighting to escape, and even when the vet had her held down to the table by her neck she knew her back feet were free, so Tony had to hold her back feet down. He said there was lots of loud thumping from her, she was not happy.

They've happily lived on the landing now since we've set up a pair of baby gates to block access to the bedroom doors. We don't always let them roam the house as we noticed if they have too much freedom they decide to be too adventurous and begin gnawing things we don't want them to. If they want to be locked in, which they do at night, they'll scratch the back bedroom door and wait for us to go up and then both hop over to their pet blanket.

All in all we're all now trained. Rabbits tank us when they want food/water/locking in, and they no longer chew the carpet or furniture, unless they're in a testing mood.

We've ordered an outside hutch and rabbit run too, orders from the landlord. She isn't happy with the rabbits living on the landing, so since they're conditioned not to be destructive we're thinking of having them in the hutch when she does her visits and also when it's nice and dry weather so they can bask in the outdoors a little and treat it as a play house.

They no longer really hate us. Very rarely they ever thump their feet at us now. I think sometimes they have a bunny argument with each other and Kick gets moody and thumps her feet if we go near her while she's sulking. They let us pet them occassionally. Lara still cringes but she'll let me pet her sometimes. I wonder if she doesn't like the touch of human hands on her, a bit like some people don't like the feel of wool on their skin. I'm surprised she still cringes when I tickle her. She also still stretches out to inspect things but not as much as she used to. Slow building confidence in her.

We still need to repaper the wall where Lara chewed it last year. I've used a different excuse to the landlord to repaper the wall myself and she's agreed to it. She hasn't seen the damage to the wall that Lara did, we covered it up so she wouldn't go mental. She did go mental about the hall and landing carpet though. We have 6 weeks to replace it. Glad I had some money in savings for this. Does mean I'm going to have to condition them again once the new carpet is in so they don't go and chew it, same for the wallpaper once we redecorate the wall in the living room.

 

[geekgirl101]

Oh yeah, Tony tells me that they thump their feet if he gets up too many times in the night to use the bathroom. Their way of saying "wtf you keep waking us up for?!!!" XD

 

[agnesthelion]

Quite the journey you've had with these buns! I sure hope things are getting better and it sounds like they are

I do actually think rabbits are messy little beings they aren't low maintenance and require alot of attention. If you can provide that to them, I think the payoff in return is great.

I do have to ask, you say they "bug" you for water. Do they not have unlimited access to water? And do they have unlimited access to hay?

Just curious. Hope things are going well!

 

[LakeCondo]

I'm so glad things are going well.

 

[geekgirl101]

There's times when they drink the water as fast as we provide it. Often when I go upstairs they still have plenty of hay and water, but then I'll go downstairs and 5 mins later they're scratching the door upstairs for my attention and I'll find they've wolfed down all the hay and drank all the water. The two seem to go together, when they eat they drink loads afterwards. I've even had some days where I refill their water bowl, go to the toilet, and when I come out they've almost drank all the water already.

If me and Tony end up going out for a good portion of the day what we do is we overload their feeder with hay and put out 3 bowls of water. We'll come back and find they've still got half of the hay left over and 1.5 bowls of water, so we'll assume they're fine until 10 mins later we get the "service please" scratching from them, hay feeder and main water bowl empty.

 

[LakeCondo]

Can you tell if they're both heavy drinkers [no, not alcoholic, lol] or just one & have they always been this way? It sounds as though they just like attention & use hay & water as an excuse, but sudden heavy water consumption CAN be a sign of a kidney problem.