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My situation is more like I can't really afford a bunny right now. My roommate's grand parents own the duplex we live in. We got a brand new toilet because it was running and they couldn't fix it after 2 tries. I will have bunnies in the next 3 years though.
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Jan 29, 2010 09:23
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Somehow, Bear managed to hop his gate today and made his way onto Gil's side of the pen. They obviously fought, and Gil obviously won. There were chunks of Bear fur all over the place. When I got home, Gil was on the bottom of the cage eating and Bear was curled up on the top floor of the bunny condo looking horrified. Fortunately, Bear is a lionhead and has a ton of extra hair due to the recent cold, so he wasn't badly injured. He does have one bite on his back, but it isn't large and so I put some Neosporin on it and it otherwise looks fine. Honestly, as much as I hate to see my boy get his rear end kicked, I'm relieved to find that their scuffle didn't result in any serious injury. I imagine this will only make the bonding process that much harder, as they don't really have any dominance issues. Bear is very submissive and Gil seems to love taking advantage of this. Poor Bear.  Oh, and just to clarify, both are neutered and have been for awhile. Gil has always been the dominant one, and when I first got him, was extremely aggressive towards me. He's now the biggest sweetheart ever but can't stand Bear. He reacts to Bear in the way that chick in Family Matters reacts to Steve Urkel. He's just clingy and annoying and so he treats him like poo poo. I worry that I'll never fix this. The only advice I can find is to do the whole car ride thing, but I really don't think a ride in the car is going to be enough to keep Gil from being a big bunny-jerk.
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Jan 30, 2010 04:34
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Megalodon posted:Somehow, Bear managed to hop his gate today and made his way onto Gil's side of the pen. They obviously fought, and Gil obviously won. There were chunks of Bear fur all over the place. When I got home, Gil was on the bottom of the cage eating and Bear was curled up on the top floor of the bunny condo looking horrified. Well, to be honest the fact that they broke it up themselves is possibly a good thing. Stuff like this happened all the time with mine and initially, it did set us back. Mine occasionally still get into fights if there's not enough food or we're out of town for several days but they're over it very quickly. Bear is going to have to accept that Gil is dominant and figure out how to handle him from there. It can take awhile, but don't give up yet!
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Jan 30, 2010 19:48
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Neither of my rabbits have a drat clue who is dominant. They'll sit there and shove their heads under the other bun's chin, and then vice versa, for hours at a time. Most of the time the losing bun will give about 5-6 licks then rocket their face into the other one to get the same. It only breaks up when one has had enough and just hops off. They get along at least though, and do cuddle together.
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Feb 1, 2010 23:02
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Fenarisk posted:Neither of my rabbits have a drat clue who is dominant. They'll sit there and shove their heads under the other bun's chin, and then vice versa, for hours at a time. Most of the time the losing bun will give about 5-6 licks then rocket their face into the other one to get the same. It only breaks up when one has had enough and just hops off. video please.
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Feb 2, 2010 22:04
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Neu posted:video please. I'll see if I can get my fiance's camera this weekend. They do this on a daily basis so it won't be hard to find, especially if we give them papaya first.
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Feb 4, 2010 02:58
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Megalodon posted:Gil has always been the dominant one, and when I first got him, was extremely aggressive towards me. He's now the biggest sweetheart ever Now aren't you glad you gave it another month? 
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Feb 4, 2010 10:59
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Megalodon posted:Oh, and just to clarify, both are neutered and have been for awhile. Gil has always been the dominant one, and when I first got him, was extremely aggressive towards me. He's now the biggest sweetheart ever but can't stand Bear. He reacts to Bear in the way that chick in Family Matters reacts to Steve Urkel. He's just clingy and annoying and so he treats him like poo poo. I worry that I'll never fix this. The only advice I can find is to do the whole car ride thing, but I really don't think a ride in the car is going to be enough to keep Gil from being a big bunny-jerk. Best of luck with bonding! Mine still aren't bonded and it drives me crazy. I'm also terrified every time mine get into a fight, even though at this point they're just minor tussles.
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Feb 4, 2010 16:48
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Hi guys, been a while! Busy few months for us. We picked up a sickly bun and nursed him back to health, decided we were too financially unstable to keep the buns around so we boarded one with a relative and tried to rehome the other until one day about 3 weeks ago when we decided things weren't so bad and we couldn't stand the thought of either of them ending up back in the situation we rescued them from. Currently trying bonding again, which did not go so well before we decided to split them up. Amazingly when we got Milly back home they seemed REALLY excited to see each other and would spend a lot of time near each other (through bars, that is). Sadly putting them together was just as useless as ever. It tends to go well at first, lots of cuddle-bugging, followed by a hump session by miss Milly. Andy usually takes it, and they cuddle some more. And then... she humps some more, and more and more, and he takes it and takes it until he decides that's enough and... yeah, end of that. It just seems a bit strange to me, because they're both more or less accepting their roles. Milly just won't relent on the humping, it really confuses me as to why she think she has to keep doing it.
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Feb 10, 2010 04:09
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GoodApollo posted:it really confuses me as to why she think she has to keep doing it.  In fact, rabbit-butt humping transcends species barriers. Here's my lab assistant / new kitten offering scientific proof that a bun's buns are irresistible:  OK, so it was more of a "*glomp* I SHALL LEECK YOU" than a hump, but still. And thankfully that was the first and last time. Seriouspost: good luck with the bonding. We count ourselves lucky when the above two are content to sniff or ignore one another instead of chasing/being chased. ugh.
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Feb 10, 2010 05:58
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bitprophet posted:The other rabbit's butt ain't exactly gonna hump itself, now is it? It's true, though, our rabbit frequently humps one of our cats. It's... weird.
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Feb 10, 2010 18:40
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Protip: Rabbits really, really don't like earthquakes, even small ones. I woke up to it this morning (I'm about a 30 minute drive from the epicenter), thinking a plow just hit a curb or something but realized it was a bit more shaky. Suddenly I hear this scrambling outside my door and go out to find the rabbits just freaking the gently caress out sprinting every which way together. Once it stopped they looked as scared as ever and sat huddling up behind the futon. I sat down to pet them and the two of them raced to me and buried their heads under my butt/leg, still breathing hard and apparently using me as cover should anything fall or attack them. Poor buns
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Feb 10, 2010 19:34
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Where are they saying the epicenter is? I am a super light sleeper and have 2 very skittish pets, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary last night. However, friends of mine who live very close by are claiming they felt it. I am skeptical.
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Feb 10, 2010 20:34
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Melicious posted:Where are they saying the epicenter is? I am a super light sleeper and have 2 very skittish pets, but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary last night. However, friends of mine who live very close by are claiming they felt it. I am skeptical. Sycamore, Illinois, I believe. Honestly at first I figured it really was just a snow plot until the more pronounced rumbling happened. It's funny because my buns happy hop when it thunderstorms. IT'S LIKE THEY KNOW
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Feb 11, 2010 01:30
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Regarding bonding and bonded bunnies, I know someone who has a rescued litter of babies that they are hand raising because the mother was eating their feet off! Ack! Anyway, they are being bottle fed and living in a house with kids, dogs, the works. We are considering adopting one, or two, after they are weaned are a bit older and able to handle the stress of a move. I've been doing lots of bunny homework, reading here, the local House Rabbit Society page and visiting lots of bunnies in shelters and at adoption events. Love them, but we are such an active household with dogs, a cat, and a toddler, that I've been not encouraged that we would ever find a bunny that would enjoy living here. And the House Rabbit Society won't even look at us because we have dogs and my child is young - 16 months. I think maybe though, babies that have been around dogs and kids since birth and are being handled so much might just be ok. And she is willing to adopt to us because she knows me through rescue and that I'm not an idiot and won't let my dogs or kid bother or torture a bunny. We initially were going to just try one, but after all we've seen, think that two seem to be happier together - so, my real question is - is it ok, or better to get siblings and will they bond automatically or is it better to just get one baby? Perhaps later introduce a friend? I don't mind just having one, I also don't mind having two. I just want a happy rabbit. We will, of course, be altering whatever we get - but would it matter if you have a same sex pair or opposite? Or am I on crack and this really just isn't a bunny home because of the dogs? They are trained, and all geriatric, but still can be intense. And successfully live with birds, and have been around rats, baby kittens being bottlefed and all sorts of stuff.
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Feb 15, 2010 04:54
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Thing with dogs is, it only has to go wrong once. There's still that bit of hunting instinct that comes out occasionally, or maybe it can be a bit of playfulness that a rabbit sees as threatening behaviour. Personally I'd say it's a terrible idea to get rabbits if you have dogs.
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Feb 15, 2010 11:37
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Just get a herding dog that will herd the rabbits around the house out of instinct instead of attacking them  An old g/f of mine had a rabbit when she lived with her parents, and they had an Australian Sheppard who loved that rabbit. Years after the rabbit died, you could go "Cassie, where's the bunny!" and she would start running around looking for it (which was kind of sad) (and I'm joking about the whole herding behavior thing, though it's probably a better idea than trying to introduce a bunny and a terrier type)
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Feb 15, 2010 19:27
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We have 2 bunnies + 1 cat. Whenever we let the bunnies out they keep jumping into the cat's littler box, which is a) bad for their respiratory system and b) kicks cat litter loving everywhere and c) upsets the cat. Is there any way to persuade them to keep off? We don't have a huge apartment so just keeping everything in different rooms isn't really possible (we have a bathroom-connected largish storage room where everyone's litter areas are)
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Feb 15, 2010 21:01
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Mr. Wynand posted:We have 2 bunnies + 1 cat. Whenever we let the bunnies out they keep jumping into the cat's littler box, which is a) bad for their respiratory system and b) kicks cat litter loving everywhere and c) upsets the cat. Top-opening litter boxes are accessible to cats but would not provide easy access for a bunny. They're usually not much more than a regular deep Rubbermaid bin with a hole in the lid, so rather than buying one from a pet store I would recommend picking up a bin and cutting the hole yourself - just make sure you file the edges so kitty doesn't get scratched up.
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Feb 15, 2010 21:20
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Fenarisk posted:Protip: Rabbits really, really don't like earthquakes, even small ones. Perhaps it's just california bunnehs, or maybe that it wasn't really that big of a quake, but we had one here (inland LA) a few days ago and neither the buns or our new cat were freaked out. O/T btw we got a new cat!  She's a 2 year old Russian Blue and her given name from the rescue is "Pepper," although we might change it. Other names in the running right now are Arwen (LOTR) and Ashelia (FFXII). Goes with the geekiness of our two buns' names, Godewyn and Eowyn. We've been introducing her to the buns slowly, and so far no adverse reactions, although Eowyn flipped out a little bit the first time, but she's been getting better. Started out with the cat in a carrier, in their play area, then last night, justFaye wrapped her in a towel and held her just outside the play area for a few minutes.
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Feb 15, 2010 21:22
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Mr. Wynand posted:We have 2 bunnies + 1 cat. Whenever we let the bunnies out they keep jumping into the cat's littler box, which is a) bad for their respiratory system and b) kicks cat litter loving everywhere and c) upsets the cat. We put up a child gate in the room where the catboxes are... the cats can jump over it, the bunny can't. If there's any way you can isolate the box like that, it'd work. You could even put one of those open top pen things around the catboxes or something. Top-entry litterboxes also work pretty well, though my bunny still hopped in there occasionally. It DOES prevent kicking the litter outside of the box, though. The other issue with it is that not all cats are okay with top-entry boxes, so there's that. Melicious fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Feb 15, 2010 |
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Feb 15, 2010 21:23
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RazorBunny posted:Top-opening litter boxes are accessible to cats but would not provide easy access for a bunny. They're usually not much more than a regular deep Rubbermaid bin with a hole in the lid, so rather than buying one from a pet store I would recommend picking up a bin and cutting the hole yourself - just make sure you file the edges so kitty doesn't get scratched up. Wow I never seen such a cat littlerbox - do cats actually use it? I wouldn't be so sure about rabbits not getting in anyway - they can hop pretty drat far when they decided they absolutely need to go up somewhere (luckily mine prefer the ground... i'm sure they'd love nothing more but to build a tunnel system under the living room and just live there for ever)
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Feb 15, 2010 21:26
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May I please have fresh bunny pictures then?
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Feb 16, 2010 01:03
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Ashling posted:May I please have fresh bunny pictures then? This is what I see when I look down from my computer chair: 
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Feb 16, 2010 02:33
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Ashling posted:Regarding bonding and bonded bunnies, I know someone who has a rescued litter of babies that they are hand raising because the mother was eating their feet off! Ack! Anyway, they are being bottle fed and living in a house with kids, dogs, the works. We are considering adopting one, or two, after they are weaned are a bit older and able to handle the stress of a move. I think this could work but the rabbits would need to be in a part of the house where the dogs either don't go or don't go without supervision. If your dogs are very well trained with low prey drive you could try it, but never leave the two alone unsupervised. I would get two from the same litter and have them fixed as soon as a vet will allow. I feel like maybe same sex litter mates would be easier because they can be fixed on the same schedule; females are fixed later than males and you wouldn't want an accidental inbred pregnancy. When the buns are maybe in the 3 month range, maybe you could foster two to see if it's going to work. That way if the poo poo hits the fan you can give them back still. I'd hate to see you adopt two and then have to give them up. Also, I'm sure you now this by now having other animals and a toddler but NEVER leave small children and buns together. The kid can accidentally really injure the rabbit or get severely bitten if the bun feels cornered.
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Feb 16, 2010 04:03
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Yes, they'd be in a secure area, and I'd never let the baby alone with a bunny. Bunny teeth hurt! And toddlers are mind numbingly stupid. Ok, not stupid, just totally lacking in any sort of self control or finesse. I probably won't do it, which makes me sad, but my husband is thinking more and more it will just add stress to the house. And he's right, but I tend to think it will all be rosy and we'll cuddle together, but the reality would be locking dogs up to play with bunny and I don't want to have a neglected bunny that can't romp around the house. The dogs are well trained, but accidents happen. And I know the girls would be fine, one has played with bunnies before and been really good, but the boys would kill them given a chance. Maybe I'm just having baby critter fever, which I think we will solve by fostering kittens this spring. Save some little lives, have some babies around that you can give back when they are weaned! That'll be fun, and something I know I can keep safe. They live with cats, have always lived with cats, and for some reason that works. Bunnies, I'm just asking too much I think. Oh well. Keep the pics coming! I looove the black bun!
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Feb 16, 2010 06:23
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Just sticking my head in to say we got a second order of Kleen Mama's 3rd cut timothy and this poo poo is amazing. It's also our third order and we're definitely going to be Kleen Mama customers for a while. It ships slow and the shipping fees seem ungodly, but when you factor in the cost of the bulk hay + shipping per pound, it's still cheaper than store-bought hay and better quality. And on top of it, the bun loves it!
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Feb 20, 2010 15:12
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A behavior question -- Camille doesn't seem to be interested in being petted. Sometimes I can talk her into laying down for a petting if she's sleepy, but otherwise it's a pretty big no go. I've never met a rabbit who doesn't appreciate a good long stroke on the nose before. I suspect, but can't actually prove, that she was somehow separated from her mother early, does that have anything to do with it?
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Feb 20, 2010 19:46
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We ordered a ton of 2nd cut timothy and bluegrass from Kleen Mama just a few weeks ago and it arrived. So far the bunnies love it! It arrived faster than I expected and is definitely cheaper than buying hay at the store. She sent a sample of the 3rd cut timothy and buns definitely enjoyed it, so I might order some of that next time if it's available.
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Feb 20, 2010 22:42
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Aaaaand just when we think life is good, Cilantro stops eating her dinner. Crap.
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Feb 21, 2010 01:32
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Check how warm her ears are?
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Feb 21, 2010 04:06
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DS at Night posted:Check how warm her ears are? She was normal temperature. We had an incident like this previously and the vet gave us a bottle of metoclopramide in case she had issues again. We gave her 1 mL (recommended dose) and put out fresh green and changed her litter box. We came back from the movies and she'd pooped a few times and eaten the food we left out. She also just ate a half serving of greens and some hay. I think we caught it early enough. She's going to see the doc Monday anyway as a follow up to the December stasis incident. Edit: Woke up to a litter box full of poops and a hungry bunny! Yay! Post hay-romp style 
pseudonordic fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Feb 21, 2010 |
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Feb 21, 2010 06:20
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GrAviTy84 posted:O/T btw we got a new cat! Please let me know how it goes! We just got a cat, and we're keeping the bunny and the cat separated for now. Last night, our rabbit smelled the cat on me and began charging me, angrily, and biting, absolutely flipping out. I went and washed off, but it doesn't bode well. We left the box the cat traveled in out in the living room, and the bunny sniffed it - he was less upset at that point, and stomped with his tail all tense but didn't grunt or charge. Still, everything points to "this is going to take a looooong time". Sigh. We e-mailed the vet to ask about the most gentle way to handle it given the rabbit's first reaction, but any advice would be appreciated.
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Feb 21, 2010 15:17
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pseudonordic posted:She was normal temperature. We had an incident like this previously and the vet gave us a bottle of metoclopramide in case she had issues again. We gave her 1 mL (recommended dose) and put out fresh green and changed her litter box. We came back from the movies and she'd pooped a few times and eaten the food we left out. She also just ate a half serving of greens and some hay. I think we caught it early enough. She has such a beautiful coat, she looks a lot like Portia minus being a lop but Portia's coat isn't that shiny 
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Feb 21, 2010 20:00
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StrangersInTheNight posted:Please let me know how it goes! We just got a cat, and we're keeping the bunny and the cat separated for now. Last night, our rabbit smelled the cat on me and began charging me, angrily, and biting, absolutely flipping out. I went and washed off, but it doesn't bode well. We left the box the cat traveled in out in the living room, and the bunny sniffed it - he was less upset at that point, and stomped with his tail all tense but didn't grunt or charge. Still, everything points to "this is going to take a looooong time". Sigh. We e-mailed the vet to ask about the most gentle way to handle it given the rabbit's first reaction, but any advice would be appreciated. We have since progressed pretty well. I held the cat inside the rabbit's play area so they could come up and smell her. The cat didn't react at all (aside from watching them occasionally), Godewyn didn't seem to particularly care, and Eowyn was really quite curious and didn't seem to freak much when the cat wasn't moving around. Then we tried letting the cat free in the rabbit play area (with intense supervision, of course). The cat is curious about the rabbits, and she's stalked a couple of times but never got the chance to pounce because if she got close we'd spray her with a water bottle. The water absolutely freaks her out and I think she thinks it comes from Eowyn, because she's really quite afraid of Eowyn at this point. The only big sign of aggression from the cat so far has been when she was on the couch and Eowyn went charging up there and I think the cat was startled and she took a swipe at Eowyn before we were able to step in. Fortunately she has those plastic claw covers on so she couldn't do any damage. Both of the rabbits are pretty curious about the cat if she's lying down in the play area and will come up to investigate, but so far nobody has charged or bitten. The cat gets freaked out by them just sniffing her though and will leave the play area. Eowyn and the cat have stare downs through the fence, but neither demonstrates any obvious aggression. All in all I think it is going well, but it's going to take a while to get them all fully socialized. Really can't rush these sort of things. I recommend introducing the scent of each party to the other as much as possible before doing face-to-face socialization. Perhaps you could put the rabbits elsewhere and let the cat explore whatever rabbit space they will be sharing in the future to smell everything and leave his/her own scent, so then the rabbit will smell it once returning to the area (with the cat somewhere else).
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Feb 21, 2010 22:21
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Bunway Airlines posted:She has such a beautiful coat, she looks a lot like Portia minus being a lop but Portia's coat isn't that shiny We think her beautiful coat is what was probably the problem last night. She's shedding like crazy, so she might have had a small furball tummyache. Pondering getting a Furminator, but she hates the normal brush so I dunno how she'd react to a new tool.
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Feb 21, 2010 23:41
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pseudonordic posted:We think her beautiful coat is what was probably the problem last night. She's shedding like crazy, so she might have had a small furball tummyache. Pondering getting a Furminator, but she hates the normal brush so I dunno how she'd react to a new tool. Ah yeah mine are shedding like hell right now as well. I refuse to clean the house until they're done. Mine aren't huge on brushing but it's for their own good so I just kinda hold them down and do it.
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Feb 22, 2010 01:24
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Bunway Airlines posted:Ah yeah mine are shedding like hell right now as well. I refuse to clean the house until they're done. Mine aren't huge on brushing but it's for their own good so I just kinda hold them down and do it. I take a lint roller to my buns. They hate it but half a roll of sticky paper later they've finally stopped spraying fur everywhere. For the time being.
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Feb 22, 2010 03:21
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I try to disguise it as a vigorous petting, making sure I "pet" the loose hair out of his fur, and trying to inconspicuously get rid of whatever comes out. Doesn't work quite as well for loose hair on his butt of course... Anybody would be suspicious of somebody trying to pet their posterior all the time.
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Feb 22, 2010 12:07
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Oh umm hey! I've never, ever owned a rabbit before and neither has my roommates.. but we got one yesterday! My roommate has been doing a lot of research on breeds and talked to a couple breeders before deciding on a flemish giant. Her name is Coco and she's crazy adorable. Roommate with bunny  
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Feb 22, 2010 15:45
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