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alucinor posted:(more a pen than a cage). Of course I forgot to mention that--Milly has a 4x5 cage to herself now, and Andy has one of comparable size in the living room. We've built them up to three cubes high so they can't jump out--Andy is particularly ambitious and still tries to jump it periodically, but he really can't. Speaking of which...Andy just got home from his neuter, and I swear he knows that it's our fault that he has no balls now and he won't come near me. But he might also still be sedated out of his mind...
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Aug 28, 2009 23:21
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Ben just wanted to let everyone know that he has conquered the pile of hay: And Annie had to make sure she looked cute for the picture
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Aug 29, 2009 16:37
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Well I just rescued a little bunny this weekend--He's a gray Netherland Dwarf who was neglected pretty badly. His nails were overgrown by nearly an inch; he had a broken claw well into the quick, a broken toe, and was malnourished. I would upload one of the many pictures of him right away except the little bastard bit my camera adapter in half in the 5 minutes window he went unsupervised (what a little angel). I trimmed up his nails, cleaned up his toe, and got him stuffed with plenty of fruits, veggies, and hay, but it's going to be a long week for him. I'm still working on breaking him into the swing of being a full blown house bunny, but I'm also moving into my first house this Saturday. I'll post some pictures when I get things unpacked and track down a card reader. Also: I've decided to name him Kitty. Edit: Well a bleeding hand and two messes on my couch later we have had our first successful usage of the litter box. I've owned 9 rabbits prior to Kitty, but none of them have been free roam, so this is a learning experience for the both of us. Judging by his incessant chin rubbing and general rambunctiousness I'm guessing he hasn't been neutered, but the fate of his nuts are in his control. Kip fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Aug 31, 2009 |
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Aug 31, 2009 03:07
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Deceptor101 posted:Ben just wanted to let everyone know that he has conquered the pile of hay:  Portia is they hay conqueror in this house, nothing will keep her out of her piles.
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Aug 31, 2009 04:11
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Deceptor101 posted:Ben just wanted to let everyone know that he has conquered the pile of hay: I have those plastic things attached to the side of the pen to put hay in because otherwise Frith would spread it around the entire floor of his pen and make a gigantic mess. Silly Frith.
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Aug 31, 2009 05:33
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Deceptor101 posted:Cilantro is a great looking bun! Her bone structure and poses really remind me of Ben, do you know what breed she is? I've never known Ben's breed and I've always been curious. Thanks. Sorry to be so late on this, but I kept seeing it then getting distracted! My wife tried to do research on what type of bunny Cilantro is but couldn't really narrow it down to a specific breed. Your guess is as good as ours!
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Aug 31, 2009 10:19
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Pompom had his first outdoor adventure today thanks to a recently acquired roll of wire and some wonderful weather. At first he was a bit scared and tried to climb my back - clearly a superb hiding spot.  Then he had fun and cleaned himself a lot. Because the outdoors is dirty.  Click here for the full 758x579 image.  Click here for the full 655x569 image. And we shared a snack  Click here for the full 825x611 image.  Click here for the full 702x581 image. rushivywithglocks fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Sep 1, 2009 |
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Sep 1, 2009 02:33
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Images aren't loading for me  edit: loading now! Those are some crazy blue eyes. DS at Night fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Sep 1, 2009 |
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Sep 1, 2009 08:30
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My girlfriend and I have had a big issue lately with our bunny not eating his cecal pellets. He just poops them out and leaves them, I haven't seen him actually eat one in a long time. He ends up stepping all over them and smearing them around the cage, they smell really bad as well, and he's normally so clean and smell-free. He seems to be making regular poops normally, they look fine and are plentiful, and he's eating\drinking as usual. We've never had this problem with him ignoring the soft poops though, any tips? EDIT: He eats a rationed amount of pellets, unlimited hay, and carrot tops\cilantro\clover. This has pretty much always been his diet, but we've only had this problem recently and we've had him for over two years.
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Sep 1, 2009 09:04
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Relayer posted:carrot tops\cilantro\clover Are those the only veggies he ever gets? Clover is a legume which is high in calcium, and can lead to sludge buildup. If those are his only veggies, I'd increase the variety in his diet so every day he gets three different things from here. Try for no more than three duplicates per week. How old was he when you got him? Has he been to a vet recently? Was he evaluated as being overweight? In general they prefer to eat cecals right from the source rather than turning around and eating them off the floor, so many rabbits stop eating cecals once they get too fat to reach their butt easily.  Arthritis can also cause difficulty reaching the cecals; You might want to go back to the vet and have them do an Xray, since that can check for stones/sludge and also for joint degeneration that may indicate arthritis.
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Sep 1, 2009 15:13
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Does anyone have recommendations for water bottle brands? We've now used two of a specific Animal Farms bottle (this one), but the first one's seal eventually broke, and the second one just doesn't want to let much water out unless the bottle is completely topped off (i.e. once it gets even halfway empty, almost no water comes out.) I read somewhere, probably here, that open bowls are best, but our bun has this annoying/cute habit of "bowl flipping" he does with his food bowl...and keeps trying to do it with any water bowl we give him. Not gonna work unless we decide to install bunny plumbing complete with floor drain. There's a few other types of bottles, such as the smallish list here -- so I'm wondering if other brands or types (like the ones with the spout directly underneath instead of at an angle) might work better.
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Sep 1, 2009 18:14
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The glass bottles from Lixit are pricy, but nice. I've had one in continuous rotation since 1996 and it's only recently started dripping a little. Edit: it's the kind with a rubber cork like this rather than the kind with a plastic screw-on top. Have you tried a big ceramic crock? Like an 8" diameter? I've got some bigass rabbits and they can't budge it. Instead they throw their toys in it.
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Sep 1, 2009 18:26
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We use one of those clear crocks that locks to your enclosure, like so: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+17222&pcatid=17222 I would recommend it, definitely. We got it because of similar water-bowl-flipping issues, and it hasn't been a problem since. The only problem is that it really depends on what sort of cage/area you have for whether it can lock.
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Sep 1, 2009 18:47
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alucinor posted:How old was he when you got him? Has he been to a vet recently? Was he evaluated as being overweight? We adopted him from the MSPCA in Boston, they weren't sure of his exact age but had him listed as "young". He hasn't been to the vet since we had his nails clipped, but we've since begun doing that ourselves and he hasnt had any other obvious health problems. I don't think he's overweight, he looks exactly the same as he did when we got him (we took about a billion pictures) although only a vet could tell us for sure, so we'll have to make him an appointment. He does get veggies other than what I listed, namely romaine lettuce, broccoli, alfalfa sprouts, and some other things but he probably doesn't get enough variety in general. The clover is a once in a while thing cause he really flips out for it, so I keep it as a treat. Thanks much for the advice, it's greatly appreciated.
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Sep 1, 2009 19:03
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rushivywithglocks posted:Pompom had his first outdoor adventure today thanks to a recently acquired roll of wire and some wonderful weather. At first he was a bit scared and tried to climb my back - clearly a superb hiding spot. Adorbs! The first time I took Pixel-pon outside and a car drove by she scrambled up into my lap and wouldn't leave. Now she strains against her harness and loves to play tag.
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Sep 2, 2009 01:09
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For anyone who's interested, I just bought a 45lb box of 2nd cut Western Timothy from Kleenmama's hay barn and it is a magnificent batch. I had been hesitant about ordering again as the last one was sub par, but this batch was just finished cutting last wednesday so it's very fresh and my buns LOVE IT. So if you need hay, go order it here: http://www.kmshayloft.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=71&osCsid=62e88939f693ccc4e92029d7c2844747
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Sep 2, 2009 07:55
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Deceptor101 posted:Kleenmama KM is seriously the best drat hay. Try her bluegrass and/or orchardgrass too, if you want to mix it up a bit. I feed pretty much exclusively bluegrass except when she can't get it. alucinor fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Sep 2, 2009 |
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Sep 2, 2009 15:11
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Well the reason I'm raving so much right now is that my bunnies are actually quite picky about their hay, they don't like it too grassy, they really like the stemmier bits, and right now is the first time they've entirely finished a pile of hay, rather than just eat what they want. The bluegrass is pretty much all grass, so they never showed too much interest in it and it sat around until it was given to my gf's pigs. I'll try the orchard grass sometime though.
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Sep 3, 2009 19:08
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So, I'm trying to figure out if I should make/buy a pen for my French lop or build a big cube cage. For a larger bun, which one would be better? I really like the idea of a pen, but I like the different floors too. Also, I read on the house bunny website, that you should put some newspaper underneath the hay in a litter box. Can I use carefresh instead?
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Sep 3, 2009 23:16
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PumpkinPirate posted:pen vs cubes I would say that a pen is a better idea. First, finding cube grids with the proper openings is almost impossible right now. The manufacturers changed the box contents AGAIN so now there are now only 6 good grids and 17 bad ones in every box. The bad ones are almost unusable so it's a horrific waste of money. There's one or two manufacturers who make the good grids for retail fixtures rather than for bookshelves, and the rescue community is trying to get a permanent, stable, cheap supply of them, but it's not going very well at the moment. Pens are slightly more expensive ($50 as opposed to $15 each for 2-3 boxes of grids), but no assembly is required - you just whip it open and there you go. If you decide to expand, you can get a second pen and make a huge cage without the hassle of partly breaking down the carefully-constructed cage. I also like that I can use the pens as instant bunny proofing - I can open 3 joined pens and enclose a whole room for them to run in, while keeping them away from wires/furniture. And this also allows you to quickly enlarge and shrink the cage, which is perfect if space is tight - you could give them a whole room sized enclosure at night or when you're at work, and then when you're home, shrink it down to a 2x4. In all the buns I've owned and fostered, I think it's been almost universal that the larger rabbits rarely make as much use of vertical space as smaller rabbits do. Oh, they'll climb if they have good reason (escape, treats) but they ignore high vertical space as a play area if they have adequate horizontal space. I give my big guys milk crates and low boxes and it seems to be more than enough to fulfill their perching desires. I've never used newspaper. Some people use it because they want to get away with only a handful of litter and it absorbs the excess urine and gives the bunnies a better footing. I've had more luck just using adequate amounts of litter to cover the entire box. Other people claim it helps prevent urine scale from forming on the litterbox, but if you vinegar wipe it at every cleaning this doesn't happen regardless. So I think pure carefresh should be fine.
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Sep 4, 2009 14:49
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alucinor posted:but if you vinegar wipe it at every cleaning this doesn't happen regardless. Holy crap, I need to start doing this. I completely forgot about vinegar as a safe cleaning liquid. So the "good" grids are the ones with smaller openings, I take it? My buns are all quite big, so I've never had a problem with what I think are the normal grids. (Something like this) I still see these ones at Walmart and there aren't different sized ones in the package.
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Sep 4, 2009 16:37
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Bagleworm posted:Holy crap, I need to start doing this. I completely forgot about vinegar as a safe cleaning liquid. Yeah white vinegar is the bomb.  Many people dilute it 50/50 with water to reduce the odor. I use 100% in a spray bottle, then wipe with a damp paper towel, then dry. If you have old, stubborn stains you can alternate soaking and scrubbing it and EVERYTHING will eventually come off.The grids that are pictured on Amazon have 9 squares per side. Those are the old style and are PERFECT, safe for both pigs and buns. The new style have two kinds: 8 squares per side, and 5 squares per side. Here's a comparison of the three types (the old, and the two new ones):  (My hosting, original source). The 9x9 are perfectly safe for both pigs and rabbits. The 8x8 are not safe for pigs, there have been several incidents of them getting their heads caught in. The 5x5 are not safe for pigs OR rabbits because even the larger rabbits who can't get their entire bodies through may get a head in and not be easily able to get out, and could potentially snap their own neck trying to escape. If you are finding the old style grids at Walmart, game on! Stock up because you can sell them on the cavy-cage black market.  However, anyone considering buying grids does need to open the box and physically check before purchase. They've recently changed the packaging to show the new grid styles, but for a while after they made the switch they were still picturing the 9x9s on the boxes containing 5x5s. There are also some early boxes that had only 6 of the 5x5s, and they kept increasing the number of those till there's hardly any 8x8s at all. Ordering over the internet is even more of a crapshoot, you won't know until you get it home if what's pictured on the website is what's actually in the box.
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Sep 4, 2009 17:07
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alucinor posted:
I just wanted to start using hay in the litter box and thought maybe it wasn't enough to keep the stench at bay. If I use hay for the litter, do I need to have hay elsewhere? I am looking at a lot of the pictures, and they just have the litterbox with hay.
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Sep 4, 2009 18:43
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PumpkinPirate posted:I just wanted to start using hay in the litter box and thought maybe it wasn't enough to keep the stench at bay. If I use hay for the litter, do I need to have hay elsewhere? I am looking at a lot of the pictures, and they just have the litterbox with hay. I've tried hay-only and I wouldn't recommend it. It won't control the odor at all, and it's not at all absorbent, so if bunny steps in the hay she'll potentially get wet urine on her. If you're gung-ho on using hay instead of litter, you can certainly use newspaper under the hay, either folded sheets or shredded. I should clarify that "I never use newspaper" means "I've tried it and it's nearly useless so now I don't bother". It's barely one step up from using hay alone, but yes, it's an improvement if those are your only choices. If you'd like to reduce costs, I'd recommend wood stove pellets as litter. It's about $5 per 40lb bag. One bag does me 7 litterbox changes (and I have big litterboxes). It's highly absorbent, has a nice sawdust odor that helps control the smell of urine, and is heavy enough that it doesn't get kicked around as much as carefresh. With regards to the placement of hay, I do always recommend placing hay in a hanging manger above the litterbox as well as inside it. I used to just place hay in the box, but they seemed to waste a lot more of it when there wasn't a constant clean source above them. (They have their own inscrutable system for determining when hay is too dirty to eat. It sometimes seems to involve nanoseconds and molecular levels of contamination.) (Aside: That manger in the linked picture is $2 in the kitchen section of hardware stores, BTW, and it holds much more hay than mangers sold at pet stores. I also use these with larger bunnies and multiple-bun cages. It holds a pound or so of hay, easily, so they don't ever run out.) I also prefer to start out offering two litterboxes - one with hay and one without (unless you're using hay as a litter, in which case it would be one with a manger and one without). Some buns are funny about their litterboxes - some prefer to pee in one that they don't eat in, but also prefer to poop right where the hay is, for example. Using two boxes till you figure her out will head off any potential problems with using the floor instead.
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Sep 4, 2009 19:28
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Someone was talking about pens vs cubes earlier? I've got my bunnies set up in a temporary pen (we just moved and need to buy some flooring for their permanent cage) and the pen is fantastically easy to clean. You can just unlink it and vacuum/sweep it all out. It also allows me to step into the cage if I need to to spot-clean a mess (or brush a rabbit who doesn't want to be brushed.) It's easier to expand and move too. You just unlink it and fold it up. I can't keep it permanently because we just don't have room to provide an adequate-sized pen for three rabbits, so I'll be building their multi-level cage again. But if you have room for a pen it's definitely better.
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Sep 4, 2009 20:31
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alucinor posted:I've tried hay-only and I wouldn't recommend it. It won't control the odor at all, and it's not at all absorbent, so if bunny steps in the hay she'll potentially get wet urine on her. If you're gung-ho on using hay instead of litter, you can certainly use newspaper under the hay, either folded sheets or shredded. I should clarify that "I never use newspaper" means "I've tried it and it's nearly useless so now I don't bother". It's barely one step up from using hay alone, but yes, it's an improvement if those are your only choices. I used the stove pellets before and I didn't really care for it. I felt like it smelled worse than the Carefresh. I wanted to put hay as litter because I thought people did it to make it less messy. I have this stupid stupid manger from petsmart that is open on one side, and slanted on the other. My dogs keep eating the hay and it drives me nuts because on top of it being already messy, they track it all through my house. Maybe when I make my pen (I think that's what I'm going to go for), I'll just get a hay net, for horses, and put it in there lol. I'm also going to get a HUGE loving rubbermaid tub for her litter box because she pisses so much.
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Sep 4, 2009 20:52
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I just went and bought my buns new litter boxes: Frith needs a much deeper one so he stops digging all his poop onto the ground. And the ones I have are chewed on and pee-stained (I've been bad about vinegaring, I will be better this time). Yay new litter boxes! Now to clean the entire pen. 
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Sep 4, 2009 21:40
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Ok so my fiance and I made a sorta pen/cage for the bun. It is kind of small, but the great thng about the cube is that you can tear down, rebuild, make bigger, ect. This is what we have so far:   What do you think PI? Should I build up a little more so she has height since the area is lacking width.
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Sep 5, 2009 01:32
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I don't want to poo poo up the thread by asking questions for the 100th time. But my girlfriend just got two rabbits and I was looking to help her build a place for them to live. Some of the houses I've seen in here are amazing. If anyone would be so nice as help me with that I would greatly appreciate it. And don't worry, I'll post plenty of pictures. AIM is in my profile and my email is the same SN + Gmail.com.
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Sep 5, 2009 04:22
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PumpkinPirate posted:What do you think PI? Should I build up a little more so she has height since the area is lacking width. Floor area is really better than vertical space. Most of the buns I've seen don't even really bother with upper floors and when they do it's usually more of a chill out place and the whole reason for having a lot of space is so they can run. Also from my experience, HRS is pretty spot on about rectangle cages being more conducive to exercise. Then again if you're letting him run outside of the cage most of the day feel free to ignore this.
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Sep 6, 2009 02:53
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Hi everyone. I'm a newish bunny owner and I've got a question about my bun's poop. Lately it's been looking shinier, like it's wet, unlike when we first got him and it looked like little dry balls. Today I looked in his litterbox to find a few clumps of poo balls. Here is the poop in question: .JPG) I've been giving him oatmeal with his dinner because I'd read this helps to harden it up, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Is this something I should be worried about? His diet consists of: 1/2 cup veggies in the morning, and 1/2 cup at night. Veggies are usually things like celery, fennel, and some carrot, parsley, or whatever I may have on hand. I've been following the rabbit.org list, so he isn't getting anything he shouldn't be. I just picked him up some brussel sprouts, bok choy, and radishes (I read that I should feed him the tops, but is it okay for him to eat the rest?). 1/4 cup of pellets a day. He usually doesn't even finish these, but only picks out the little tasty parts. I was giving him some that his foster mom had given me, but just picked up some Carefresh Complete pellets. Unlimited timothy hay with little dried carrot bits. He got into a bag of alfalfa hay that I'd left out about a week ago, but I don't know if that has anything to do with this. He usually gets a little bit of fruit in his dinner, but I've been cutting this out since his poops started looking weird. Any help would be appreciated. His poopies are making me nervous. Here's some cute pictures to make up for the poop pictures....JPG) .JPG)
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Sep 6, 2009 03:03
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Megalodon posted:Hi everyone. I'm a newish bunny owner and I've got a question about my bun's poop. Lately it's been looking shinier, like it's wet, unlike when we first got him and it looked like little dry balls. Today I looked in his litterbox to find a few clumps of poo balls. Yeah I might would lay off the oatmeal. It might be best if you feed him primarily hay and some pellets for a while and slim down veggies, maybe something like parsley and cilantro and start off in smaller quantities and slowly move up. At least that's what our vet usually tells us when ours start having problems. I don't know anything about the brand of pellets you use but a lot of people here will tell you to go to Oxbow. I was really resistant to that for a long time but they do seem to genuinely be more nutritious and the buns definitely favor them over anything else. I would probably take him to the vet but I'll take mine in for anything since losing one to GI problems recently. edit: might consider getting all that carrot out of his diet too. They sell Timothy hay without the dried carrot bits in it.
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Sep 6, 2009 10:01
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GoodApollo posted:I don't know anything about the brand of pellets you use but a lot of people here will tell you to go to Oxbow. I was really resistant to that for a long time but they do seem to genuinely be more nutritious and the buns definitely favor them over anything else. I was resistant to switching over to Oxbow for a while too, mostly because I couldn't find it in any stores nearby, so I would have to order it online and I was paranoid about running out of food because a shipment didn't come quickly enough. But I finally did, and then shops nearby also started carrying it. Godewyn, who in the past has been picky about his food, loves Oxbow, and Eowyn's coat improved versus whatever the shelter had her on. I agree with getting the carrot out of the diet. At the very least, it's a lot of sugar which can make them fat.
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Sep 6, 2009 21:24
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I don't know if it's just the store near me, but I've found Oxbow hay and pellets at Petsmart lately
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Sep 7, 2009 16:05
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Trying to add some variety to his diet, I gave Sherbet some slices of eggplant yesterday. He took one bite, STARED at me, then turned around, hoisted his butt, and pissed all over them. I don't think he likes eggplant.
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Sep 7, 2009 16:30
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Levitate posted:I don't know if it's just the store near me, but I've found Oxbow hay and pellets at Petsmart lately The pellets have also showed up at my local Petsmart lately too. They didn't have hay (yet?) and the price on the pellets was quite a bit more than the small-chain pet/feed store that I go to. But it's good to know I have a backup in case of emergencies (i.e. my normal store is closed).
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Sep 7, 2009 20:22
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GoodApollo posted:Yeah I might would lay off the oatmeal. Definitely no oatmeal. It's too starchy, which leads to a bad environment for the native gut flora, leaving it open to colonization by unpleasant flora. Those poops look just like cecals to me. Is that the ONLY type of poop she's producing? If not, that's ok. Cecals are usually eaten right from the anus, but occasional missed ones aren't a problem. However, she needs to eat most of them to replenish her gut flora and get full nutritional value out of her food, so if she's consistently leaving them drop, she may be having some trouble reaching her butthole to eat them, and you may want to talk to a vet. With a longer-haired bunny it could be as simple as needing a butt-haircut. Edit: Makes you think twice about getting bunny-kisses don't it? alucinor fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Sep 8, 2009 |
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Sep 8, 2009 15:17
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That might just be the nastiest post I've ever read on this forum.
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Sep 8, 2009 17:28
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My buns conveniently leave their spare cecals on my lovely white (well, it was when I got it) semi-shag carpet. It's awesome.
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Sep 8, 2009 21:52
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alucinor posted:Edit: Makes you think twice about getting bunny-kisses don't it? Oh believe it when I say I can know within a second of kisses on my nose what Sprout has been up to right before it 
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Sep 9, 2009 14:42
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