The troublesome twosome

[agnesthelion]

Wow, that does sound like alot of water. Could you provide them a water bottle in addition to the bowl? Water bottle might "slow down" their water consumption a bit.

But yes, do make sure there is not a health issue too.

Good luck!

 

[geekgirl101]

Lara is a little more porky than Kick since when Kick is given something she'll run off with it, while Lara stays where the food is so she ends up eating more. I've watched them eating and Lara virtually shovels food down her while Kick only eats what she can fit in her mouth. Lara eats almost endlessly too. She's the first one to reach the treats and hay while Kick aggressively pushes her way in to get some, and when Kick's had her fill she goes for the water while Lara just keeps on eating and eating, and the more she eats the more she drinks, until she gets hiccups from overeating. And when she sleeps she snores. We're a bit concerned that she's on the road to obesity if she doesn't slow down her eating. We've reduced the amount of treats they get to just herbs but she still scoffs more of them than Kick does.

We regularly inspect their cage when we clean it. Once they had calcium deposits in their urine and we discovered it was from the spinach so we greatly reduced the amount of spinach and carrot they were given. Since then their urine and droppings have been normal.

I think the thing is this flat can get fairly warm sometimes, and they are just drinking to cool down. When we let them roam free I noticed they pick areas where there's a bit of a draft from the cellar and they'll flake out and fall asleep in that area. They don't drink so much when they sleep down there, it's just days when they're kept upstairs that they both go on a heavy drinking spree.

Oh, I tried a bottle on them and they never used it. My husband said he watched them once make an attempt at trying to get water from it but nothing came out, so they gave up trying. That's when we replaced it with a water bowl.

 

[agnesthelion]

You should try frozen water bottles if they are hot. Bunnies love to lay up against them to get cool

 

[LakeCondo]

And if you have some ceramic serving platters you're not using, they stay cooler than room temp, see how they like laying in them. Honey loves the platters I bought her. On the hot days & keep one in the freezer & rotate them. Fans of course help too.

 

[geekgirl101]

Well, problem solved then if it is overheating. We bought an outdoor hutch and run for them to stay in during the warm seasons. They didn't like me picking them up and taking them to the hutch but once they were inside the enclosure they were too busy exploring the new surroundings and eating hay to be mad at me. They've now got so much hay, 5x more than what was in the indoor hutch. It's a huge hutch!

The garden has a lot of trees and bushes in it. We've tried to tie back the daylilies that were poking through the run, and just when I thought everything was looking well a couple of leaves from a nearby honeysuckle tree blew into the run and Kick ate them. I hope she'll be ok, I'll keep a lookout for her tomorrow and hope she doesn't get ill from eating them.

 

[geekgirl101]

The rabbits seem quite happy living outside, although with all this wet weather there's times they've let themselves get too cold and are shivvering while waiting for their breakfast.

We let them run loose every day and into the house. They've taken a liking to the bushes and daylilies in the back garden and are constantly keeping them well trimmed for us... a little too well trimmed on the daylilies.

Half the time Tony forgets to check all the doors upstairs before letting them free, and when we realise one rabbit is missing it can only mean one place she's gone... today I found her half-buried in the sack of bird seed munching her way to China. I grabbed hold of her and she tried to dig deeper in and gently tossed her out the room, still munching away on the mouthful of seed she hoovered up.

 

[LakeCondo]

I'm glad to hear things are going pretty well.

 

[geekgirl101]

My bunnies are becoming more and more human. They were lay out in front of the TV like 2 rabbit-shaped rugs. As soon as Tony put on Madagascar 3 they turned around to get a better view and were there throughout the movie right up to the credits, and then they left and went to their hutch waiting to be put in.

 

[agnesthelion]

Glad things are going better. Sounds like you are bonding better with them.

 

[geekgirl101]

Well... sort of. They both have their quirks and are picky about when they want to be friends with us.

Lara is still exceptionally nervous of human contact. She'll stretch her body out and very lightly touch a hand with her whiskers and then backs off. If I try to stroke her she'll run away or cringe despite me being gentle with her, but if there's food in the hand she'll quite happily eat out of the hand.

Kick on the other hand doesn't mind being stroked now and then, sometimes she just isn't in the mood and will run off. She always shakes her body after I stroke her though, so I think she actually doesn't like being stroked or loved like a puppy. Give her food though and she'll take it and run off with it, unless I move away first and then she'll stay until Lara shows up wanting it.

They're ok in my company, we've watched TV together. A few days ago I sat on the floor watching Watership Down with them. I lay back watching it, they were a bit warey of me lying down at first but then later they relaxed, so much that Kick just entirely flattened out on the floor. As long as she's comfy and not nervous then Lara will calm down, although Lara still remains cautious and watchful and will be the first to react if something disturbs her.

Bonfire night I got really worried they'd freak out with the sounds of explosions. The neighbours had a small firework display on the night before and they got a bit freaked out by it. I set up their indoor hutch on the landing with some fresh hay in it and put a litter box nearby incase they'd want to stay indoors for the night and feel safe. Despite my efforts they wanted to go outside to their hutch and were quite happy sitting out in the cold with fireworks going off in the background. I guess they got used to it.

They go to bed at 6.30pm every night now. They will wait outside or inside their run waiting for us to lock them in for the night, and by early noon they'll be sat by the entrance wanting to be let loose. They like the outdoors more than the indoors and just pop in to check on us now and then, but when the TV is on it's like movie night with the whole family.

 

[geekgirl101]

Wow, our local pet shop is stocking more stuff in for rabbits! They're now busy munching away on some fresh parsley from the grocers, a small piece of sharon fruit, and some dried harvest greens from the pet shop. I also bought them some snap n share treats which I'm sure they won't share some cammomile and marigold sticks which will probably last 10 mins if that, and some other kind of fruit and veg sticks they've just stocked which I've never seen before. I'm sure they'll love them all and wolf them down as fast as they go in their cage.

I already gave them a strawberry stick last night and they were trying to rip it out of my hands before I could fix it into their hutch. Kick literally jumped at it and tore a huge chunk off the top.

For the rest of the week there's more of that parsley, some fresh rosemary, celery, and they can have some of the parsnip I got for some dinner that I haven't quite planned what to cook them with yet.

 

[geekgirl101]

Well... they just LOVED those coated millet sticks I got from the pet shop, and pretty much every treat I bought them. They didn't like the rosemary though. They sort of played with it but weren't that interested with it. Same with the courgette, I left some chunks in the hutch and they were still there next morning. I offered them some asparagus today with a mixture of chopped celery, cucumber, watercress, fig and grape. They ignored the asparagus, so more for me tonight fried in butter, yum.

 

[geekgirl101]

The little £$£$%"$^"!!! We're in big trouble now. I was wondering why their toilets weren't being used so much and thought perhaps they were pooping on the plants, which would give them fertilizer at least. Went to get the xmas decorations out of a small dresser in the dining room and to my horror saw on the wooden floor in the corner a huge mound of rabbit droppings. The wood is stained a horrible dark brown and white colour. If our landlord sees that she'll kick us out for sure, not like they hadn't already caused enough damage as it is when they tore a massive chunk of wallpaper off the living room wall last year and wrecked the carpet in the hallway that we've had to replace ourselves, and chewed away at the wooden railings upstairs. I need a solution, I need to get that discolouration off the wood. Any suggestions?

 

[geekgirl101]

Tony left their hutch open last night...again. Only this time we didn't have the chicken wire around the gate to the neighbours. Got a knock on the door this morning by them informing us that our rabbits were in their garden! Well, I found Kick hunched up in a corner in our garden, she must've had her first close up encounter with the new kittens next door and got spooked by it, so I picked her up and dropped her into the kitchen. Lara was being a real bugger to behave. She was in our garden but was refusing to let me approach her and convince her to enter the kitchen herself or have me pick her up. In the end I got brutal with her. I grabbed her at her hips as she tried to run off, dragged her towards me and pinned her head down until she stopped struggling. Not the best way to grab a rabbit, I know. I picked her up and rather than try to stand up with her I shuffled on my knees to the kitchen and dropped her off.

Thought that was that and they were now safely away from the cats. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of the story. Kick must've managed to sneak out while I was trying to capture her sister and lept over the low fence Tony had erected around the bushes and dashed into the neighbours' garden, and found a way out of it. I literally emptied the cupboard under the stairs to see if she was hiding back there, used a torch and went on my hands and knees looking under and behind tables, fireplaces, and other furniture but she wasn't there. It's been almost 12 hours and she hasn't made an appearance. Lara is back in her hutch. We left pellets and a beetroot outside in case Kick should come back hungry.

It's a very bad situation. I think she's gone for good. I'm hoping she didn't have a first encounter with a dog or that would've ended tragically. Tomorrow going to post lost and found notes around the local newspaper shops and post office.

 

[geekgirl101]

B*gger me, she was hiding in the kitchen all this time! We think she went behind the chest freezer and hibernated under the engine. There's no signs of her having been there, no urine or droppings, although her botty was wet. She's now back in her hutch with Lara, who was really happy to see her and ran out to greet her when I opened the entrance to the run. Tony just put a mesh there now to stop her getting behind it in the future.

 

[JBun]

Lol, I bet that was a surprise! I'm glad she was ok and that you found her

 

[geekgirl101]

Here's some piccies I took recently...

Kick and Lara sleeping.

Playing today with their new hay-filled ball.

 

[geekgirl101]

Lol, I bet that was a surprise! I'm glad she was ok and that you found her

Yeah, it was quite a shock. I went to the kitchen to make a drink and I turned the lights on and there she was in the middle of the room, I almost freaked out lol.

 

[Chrisdoc]

THey are two cute bunnies, can´t believe they´re so naughty lol.

 

[geekgirl101]

They're getting into jumping onto the sofa now. Kick is regularly leaping up and crawling over me and today Lara has started to jump up. I've been giving them some new treats to try out, the Fenugreek Crunchies by Rosewood, and they adore them! I've started placing a regular order on Amazon also for the Excel nuggets, tried them on a new flavour yesterday - the one with oregano, and they were happily wolfing it down like no tomorrow. They really do love their pellets. ^^ Shame Amazon doesn't do a subscrption on the Rosewood treats since they love practically everything they make. They demolished that ball in the picture so I bought them a new one the other day. They weren't too bothered with it though when I put it on the ground, they were more interested in the new cookies I had in my hands.

They're now sat in their favourite spot by the fireplace watching the TV. Any minute I'll be hearing what sounds like a dying man taking his last breaths as Lara snores away. She makes quite a noise when sleeping! I thought perhaps she was a bit overweight but she's not much bigger than Kick.