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Billy has his own routine of trying to nudge my hand out of the way before I've put his dish down. This can get messy but he's never bitten before. Not even when I have to wrestle him out of the way to put the dish down. Just loves to get to his food AS SOON AS HE CAN. Although having said that I have been bitten several times by my friend's rabbit while putting the food down. As I know she usually loves me to bits I don't take it personally although I do wish she'd cut it out. Nothing to be done about being dumb I guess v  v
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Nov 2, 2010 17:06
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Good to hear that it doesn't seem like an aggression issue from you seasoned rabbit owners.  He found out how to get up on our bed today. He loooooooves it.
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Nov 2, 2010 17:31
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AHHH! I love the white puff tail! Just like Bitsy! That is super cute. Just be careful because he might want to make it his bed and there's nothing worse than 10 little puddles of bunny pee and 50 little poop droppings in your bed. And once the habit starts, it's hard to break. When I go to feed mine they get so excited that they both get up on their hind legs and start walking around balancing standing up. They will walk in circles like that. It's funnier to see Paterson like that because if his ears flop back it puts him a bit off balance and he's retarded so he kind of falls over sometimes when he does it. Bitsy has gotten really good at the whole walk on hind legs though. Greed has taught her well. Also, I see a lot of cords on the ground. Are those getting put away soon? I had that same TV (except the buttons got chewed off of three remotes....) and the cord got chewed though by some suicidal rabbit who didn't die. Instead I got a new TV! But yeah, long story short, keep your cords off the ground / out of chewing distance. Because they will make it a mission to chew on them. I'm convinced that they all actually want to die. They try very hard to get around my bunny proofing and every time that they do I go crazy trying to figure out how they managed it. Or better yet, why they bothered??
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Nov 2, 2010 20:14
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get out posted:Good to hear that it doesn't seem like an aggression issue from you seasoned rabbit owners. I mean, they can be aggressive about stuff in general, but I think it's more like "I want my food I want my food gimme gimme gimme gimme" than it is angrily attacking you I always find it cute when they get so excited about food
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Nov 2, 2010 20:19
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luscious posted:And once the habit starts, it's hard to break. I once made the mistake of teaching one of my big bunnies to jump up on the bed for craisins. At 8pm, it was adorable. At 430am, I woke up shrieking as 10lbs of craisin-addicted rabbit landed on my back... not so adorable.
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Nov 2, 2010 20:30
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The cords were wrangled up the moment after I took the picture. I saw Marcus eyeing them up thinking "God drat, I want to eat those and then immediately die!". His time on our bed was short lived, thankfully. I don't think I'll let him make it a habit. What we've been doing is letting him out of his cage before we feed him so he's distracted. It seems to be working, but like owning/training any animal, this is going to require repetition and patience I'm sure.
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Nov 2, 2010 20:31
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I got my rabbit Michael from my high school animal science class. His cage conditions were terrible, and he was moody and irritable when I first brought him home 3 years ago. He really warmed up to my family quick though, and every morning that I opened his cage door, he would zoom out into the living room as fast as he could to explore.  He's about 5 years old now, and weighs about 3 pounds. I got him a friend about a year ago from a shelter. As far as I can tell, she's an angora/harlequin mixed mutt bunny. She's got a really cool mohawk. She's a lot less social than Mike is, and hardly ever comes to me for attention, but she bonded with Mike almost immediately when I got her, and they've been best buds since. I named her Grunty because whenever I get too close, she growls and runs off.  She's gotten a lot bigger since I got her, she's about 7 pounds now. I'm not sure how old she is.  He looks so fat here, but he's actually pretty slim. They get 1/4 of a cup of Oxbow pellets to share a day, and they don't always polish it off. They also get unlmited Timothy hay and fresh veggies every day. They're messy and kind of a pain sometimes, but I love them to death. Treecko fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Nov 2, 2010 |
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Nov 2, 2010 21:11
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alucinor posted:I once made the mistake of teaching one of my big bunnies to jump up on the bed for craisins. At 8pm, it was adorable. I've been woken up by a rabbit landing on my head before. Not fun  Only slightly more fun is being woken up by rabbit whiskers in your face and up your nose
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Nov 2, 2010 21:21
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Mayhem43 posted:
I'm glad that you got the bunny out of the science class. I hate hate hate even knowing that rabbits are kept as pets in schools. Between social atmosphere, cage conditions, diet and environment around them, it's hard to believe that any one of them is having fun or enjoying their life. Her markings are just beautiful and his are too. I love the dark spots around his eyes and her colours are to die for  Also, my bed used to be on the floor and the bunnies wouldn't have to work hard to get up on it. So they would come up on it, poke around, crawl all over me and then compulsively groom my eyes. I would wake up sometimes and Bitsy would be staring at me. Like she willed me to be awake. And Paterson would be tucked in beside my pillow or in some other weird spot that never made sense (like super tightly jammed between the mattress and the wall?
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Nov 2, 2010 22:09
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I was told that before she was dumped at a pet store, Bowser had been a classroom bunny for either a pre-school or kindergarten. I'm pretty sure that's why she was so loving fearless- after being cooped up in a cage surrounded by loud children, nothing could rattle her. She was also super good with kids.
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Nov 2, 2010 22:35
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Levitate posted:I've been woken up by a rabbit landing on my head before. Not fun Yeah Billy loves jumping on my head when I'm lying down. He also tries to hypnotize me into giving him treats. I got a loft bed now so up yours Billy.
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Nov 2, 2010 22:53
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Mayhem43 posted:I got my rabbit Michael from my high school animal science class. His cage conditions were terrible, and he was moody and irritable when I first brought him home 3 years ago. He really warmed up to my family quick though, and every morning that I opened his cage door, he would zoom out into the living room as fast as he could to explore. As much as I love austere, pretty buns -- and fat ones too -- I am coming to also love ones with crazy hair! There is something perhaps even more cute about buns with crazy hair since, for me anyway, it's not something expected to be the case for bunnies. It's surely that I'm simply ignorant about bunny breeds but I nevertheless find them so goofy looking (in a totally cute way)! 
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Nov 3, 2010 01:19
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Mayhem I am in love with your bunny Michael! In that last picture he looks like he's getting ready to box. They are both adorable!!!
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Nov 3, 2010 02:33
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Michael looks to be a Siamese. I love how they look like they're wearing eyeliner.Did That on Television posted:As much as I love austere, pretty buns -- and fat ones too -- I am coming to also love ones with crazy hair! There is something perhaps even more cute about buns with crazy hair since, for me anyway, it's not something expected to be the case for bunnies. It's surely that I'm simply ignorant about bunny breeds but I nevertheless find them so goofy looking (in a totally cute way)! I love the woolier rabbts too Angoras are the main group of long-furred rabbits. They're supposedly mellow because they're handled frequently for grooming.English angoras have fluffy faces, French angoras do not. I don't know much about the Jersey wooly, I think they have shorter face fluff. Lionheads are a newer "breed," they're really labradoodles of the lapine world. My rabbit it a failed show rabbit (English angora). Here he is at the vet:  When I first got him, his foster mother had been consistently grooming him like a show rabbit and he looked closer to this:  (Not my pic) But I try to keep him trimmed like this:  I hate trimming his face. I accidentally get a few of his whiskers every time.
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Nov 3, 2010 06:33
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Michael is actually a Dwarf Hoto. He was a show rabbit at one point actually, he has a tattoo in his ear and everything. He won best of his breed by default, he was the only one there. He's actually about a half pound too big for his breed standard. He's an adorable little guy though. He loves to throw things and make noise.    Forgive how messy the cage is, for awhile, I was between homes and my mother took care of my rabbits for a few months, these were taken on my weekly trip to clean and vacuum the cage. Now, they have the whole pantry to themselves, and I can just open or shut the door to keep them in place. It's a lot easier and nicer to clean.
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Nov 3, 2010 07:45
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Haha oh those are some great pics. Making noise and throwing poo poo around, the bunny way!Did That on Television posted:As much as I love austere, pretty buns -- and fat ones too -- I am coming to also love ones with crazy hair! There is something perhaps even more cute about buns with crazy hair since, for me anyway, it's not something expected to be the case for bunnies. It's surely that I'm simply ignorant about bunny breeds but I nevertheless find them so goofy looking (in a totally cute way)! Crazy hair you say
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Nov 3, 2010 12:42
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Mayhem43 posted:Michael is actually a Dwarf Hoto. He was a show rabbit at one point actually, he has a tattoo in his ear and everything. He won best of his breed by default, he was the only one there. He's actually about a half pound too big for his breed standard. Whoops! I was way off mark. I googled Dwarf hotot and nearly died:  
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Nov 3, 2010 15:20
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This page is exploding
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Nov 3, 2010 16:23
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luscious posted:This page is exploding Shock and d'awwwwwwww.
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Nov 3, 2010 16:46
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So I walked into the room today, and Camille was head first into my tea. She got so pissed when I took her cup away. I figured there wasn't anything too bad in a cup of caffene free, sugar free tea, especially for an animal known for stealing drinks of alcohol. (Pepper will cut you for a sip of wine. Of course, she never gets any.) A quick Googling later revealed: http://www.rabbit.org/health/liver.html Apparently green tea helps with a bunny's liver. I called my vet, and they're curious too, so they were going to look into it and call me back. Opinions? Camille's so enamored with my tea that it would be neat if it were true.
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Nov 15, 2010 22:37
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Bean posted:So I walked into the room today, and Camille was head first into my tea. She got so pissed when I took her cup away. Interesting. Out of curiosity, was there licorice root in the tea you were drinking? Bowser used to go apeshit for licorice.
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Nov 15, 2010 23:41
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So I'm pretty sure my rabbit is determined to not be a dwarf. She has been going through these phases where every few days she'll decide she'd rather sit in her cage and eat than come out and run around. She'll spend hours eating, drinking, and sleeping while her door is open. Everytime she has a day like this I swear she grows a half inch. I think she'll need a bigger cage, or one of those modular-cube pens, if she gets any larger. She's about 4 or 5 months old now, and I'm pretty sure she's hit puberty full swing, she kind of smells like onions now. She has taken to marking things (like my sweater) with little dribbles of pee. I was worried she had a bladder infection at first, but she seems to do it intentionally; also, she doesn't struggle while peeing and there's no decrease in output. I try to catch her and stop her, but she's so fast about it. She has picked a couple of spots to pee in where I can't put litter boxes, right behind where the door hinges on the wall. She uses her other litter boxes, she just thinks she needs more. I do have some fantastic urine remover, but it's hard to get her to stop using those spots. Yesterday I started a campaign of rewarding her whenever she uses the boxes. I'm going to wait just a little longer on getting her spayed, since I heard it's good to wait until ~6 months, so they're full grown. Does anyone know if that's true, would it be okay to do it now, at 4 or 5 months? I still love her sassy personality. When it's just her and me, sometimes she'll let me pet her for upwards of 10 minutes. She does lick me, on occasion, but she still nibbles me nearly as often. I'm pretty sure she knows when I don't want her doing something, since she plays games where she nibbles something bad, gets yelled at and runs away, does it again, then goes over and chews on her wood while staring at me. She's gotten really great at going back in her cage, so she gets way more out of cage time, since now I don't mind letting her out when I only have an hour. I have a box of raisins that I shake while calling her, and she usually comes running straight for the cage. I put the box in her cage and she takes a minute to decide to jump in, then waits for her treat (since she can't reach the raisins in the bottom of the box). It's really adorable, she's so smart. :3 I was trying to train her to jump on my couch and my ottoman for tiny pieces of dried fruit, so she'd be in range for petting. I think I've managed to get her to associate those pieces of furniture with fruit, but now she's taken to leaving poos on our couch (I caught her before she could pee) and trying to eat the bitter-yuck-coated leather ottoman. I think she actually enjoys the bitter yuck, she's managed to take a couple of bites out of the thing  She loves chasing my cats around, and even tries to get up onto my desk to follow them when they want to be left alone. One of my cats has been invading her cage to drink all of her water- I don't know how to get him to stop, and I'm sure it bothers her. I also don't know how to get the cats to stop using her litter boxes. Cat pee and yesterday's news are not a good combination, it smells awful. dopaMEAN fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Nov 17, 2010 |
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Nov 17, 2010 21:33
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dopaMEAN posted:I'm going to wait just a little longer on getting her spayed, since I heard it's good to wait until ~6 months, so they're full grown. Does anyone know if that's true, would it be okay to do it now, at 4 or 5 months? This often has to do with waiting till they obtain the body weight necessary for an easy surgery, so if she's a big girl, you don't need to wait. Go ahead and schedule a quick vet visit just to check that she's ready; the vet will tell you if he's comfortable doing it at her weight, or if he needs her to grow a little more.
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Nov 17, 2010 22:04
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This isn't going to be meant as an attack on how you care for her. I think that you need to figure out how to keep some things bunny and some things cats and not mix the two. I know that you're trying but I would step it up a little bit. My rabbits' cage is their safe haven. Unless I need to get them out to give them medicine or something similar to that, I never even put my hands in their cage. Not even to give them a treat. Always through the bars or held at the entrance. It is their space. Because you have cats going in there, she might feel like she has lost her territory and needs to assert herself by marking. I don't really have any suggestions about the cage problem except move her cage to a room that the cats don't go in or always find a way to supervise. I ended up having to lock the cats at my parents house out of my room when I lived there. I never let them in or it was always supervised. I think that definitely made the bunnies feel safer, even though they could obviously smell the 4 cats that lived in the house (their litterbox was on the same floor, as well.) If you find a way to be able to keep everyone separate I think she might calm down and not be as moody. She might feel like she needs to hold up the fort and is staying in there? I'm sure that you will be able to find a way Bitsy had a UTI and would pee in places. I thought that she was marking and felt really bad about it. I would make a trip to the vet just to make sure everything is okay and to make an appointment for a spay if she's big enough. Good luck
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Nov 17, 2010 22:27
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luscious posted:T Unless I need to get them out to give them medicine or something similar to that, I never even put my hands in their cage. Not even to give them a treat. Always through the bars or held at the entrance. It is their space. Because you have cats going in there, she might feel like she has lost her territory and needs to assert herself by marking. I don't really have any suggestions about the cage problem except move her cage to a room that the cats don't go in or always find a way to supervise. This is exactly what I'm concerned about. The only time my hand goes in her cage is to give her treats when she gets put away. I don't want the cat going into her cage, but I also want to leave her cage open so she has a safe haven and food and water. Sometimes I let her out for several hours at a time, and she goes in and out quite a bit. I could try to build some kind of maze to keep him from going in. The cat that's getting into her cage is a huge Maine coon, so it might be possible. The only reason I think it's marking is because she does it fairly infrequently and it seems targeted, but I guess I should take her to the vet to be sure (and to find out about the spay). Thanks for the advice. Edit: We're going to the vet on Friday. dopaMEAN fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Nov 17, 2010 |
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Nov 17, 2010 22:55
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+1 for giving rabbits their own space. When we're unable to supervise, we keep the rabbits and the cat in two separate rooms, and our cat is never allowed in their main play pen. As for disciplining cats, spray bottles with water work wonders. When we first got our cat, she would try to (not very often) chase our smallest bunny (the larger one would head butt her so she was scared of him). We'd spray her with water and I swear she thought that the bunny was the one spraying her, she'd eventually get scared of he bunny whenever she came around. Now it's settled down to a mutual respect, they all drink out of the same water fountain (sometimes at the same time ), our cat even eats the bunnies' hay with them (she's a weirdo). Even though they seem to be comfortable/respectful of each other, we still never let our guard down. I'm sure they can coexist together peacefully (and they do), but one should never forget that, in the wild, cats are predators and bunnies are prey, so never assume that they'll be fine together if left unattended.
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Nov 17, 2010 23:13
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GrAviTy84 posted:I'm sure they can coexist together peacefully (and they do), but one should never forget that, in the wild, cats are predators and bunnies are prey, so never assume that they'll be fine together if left unattended. I should probably be more on guard about this. My rabbit has a good relationship with my Maine coon, where she chases him and presents herself for head licks, and he'll usually give her one lick before running off. If he's on a chair or desk and she's trying to get at him he will bat at her though (he does have softpaws on). She chases my other cat a little too, but that cat chases her just as often. Usually they just ignore each other. I want to get a spray bottle for the cat that chases, though it definitely seems like the rabbit solicits it- she runs at the cat then leads it on a chase.
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Nov 17, 2010 23:18
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Hello, PI. I have a sorta gross question. I foster rabbits for a local non-profit, and I just took in a pair who had been stuck in a 12x24 cage their whole lives. They're gradually getting more comfortable with people, and after letting them adjust and stabilizing their diet for a few days, I went to trim their claws and clean their glands today. They're both male, but one of them appears to um...have only one testicle. Like, there's just withered sac skin on the other side. I'm not sure if it's undescended or something, I'll take them to the vet soon anyway, I'm just curious if this is a huge issue or a common problem or something.
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Nov 18, 2010 06:30
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Glasgow posted:Hello, PI. I have a sorta gross question. I foster rabbits for a local non-profit, and I just took in a pair who had been stuck in a 12x24 cage their whole lives. They're gradually getting more comfortable with people, and after letting them adjust and stabilizing their diet for a few days, I went to trim their claws and clean their glands today. They're both male, but one of them appears to um...have only one testicle. Like, there's just withered sac skin on the other side. I'm not sure if it's undescended or something, I'll take them to the vet soon anyway, I'm just curious if this is a huge issue or a common problem or something. I don't know the answer to your question but it makes me very sad that two rabbits who have been stuck in a cage like that. I can only imagine how long it is going to take them to adjust to being 'normal' and I can only hope that they will have happy and healthy lives. When someone tells me they have a rabbit, I'm always worried that they are doing it all wrong. It makes me really depressed that worry is my first emotion - not happiness
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Nov 18, 2010 10:24
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luscious posted:I don't know the answer to your question but it makes me very sad that two rabbits who have been stuck in a cage like that. I can only imagine how long it is going to take them to adjust to being 'normal' and I can only hope that they will have happy and healthy lives. Apparently the family got them when they were babies and put them in that cage together, and now they're grown, not neutered, and aggressive toward each other, so the family was just going to let them "free." They were turned over to me in that cage, which turned out to be one of those wire-bottom monstrosities with a removable tray underneath. I've separated them into bigger cages away from each other, and given them litter boxes that they seem to be figuring out. There was a bag of stuff that came with them, including both carefresh and aspen (ok...,) alfalfa hay (wth,) no pellets at all, and nothing approximating a toy (sigh.) They were a little scratchy at first, but not at all bitey and generally sweet, but are obviously not used to being handled. When I picked Rusty up yesterday to groom him he clung to me for dear life, attempting to hide under my chin and burrow into my clothes. 
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Nov 18, 2010 16:13
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luscious posted:When someone tells me they have a rabbit, I'm always worried that they are doing it all wrong. It makes me really depressed that worry is my first emotion - not happiness At least I'm not the only one. Glasgow, that's not uncommon, but it's more likely that he's just sucked it up or something when you were looking. Your vet will be able to tell for sure. Although, we had a vet at a local shelter who neutered two rabbits and missed one testicle in each.  We actually had to have them re-neutered.
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Nov 18, 2010 16:15
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luscious posted:When someone tells me they have a rabbit, I'm always worried that they are doing it all wrong. It makes me really depressed that worry is my first emotion - not happiness My wife has fussed at pet store workers for the deplorable conditions they had their for sale buns in. And I've fussed at my cousin who insists on buying rabbits she can't keep with her, as she lives in a dorm.
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Nov 18, 2010 16:51
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pseudonordic posted:My wife has fussed at pet store workers for the deplorable conditions they had their for sale buns in. And I've fussed at my cousin who insists on buying rabbits she can't keep with her, as she lives in a dorm. What does she do? Buy them and then rehome them? That's insane!
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Nov 18, 2010 17:38
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dopaMEAN posted:What does she do? Buy them and then rehome them? That's insane! I've seen this. Friend of a friend of a friend who serially had a rabbit, a chinchilla, another rabbit, a puppy, a ferret, and two kittens in her dorm room. In the space of one school year. She'd get busted, give them away to friends or to the shelter, then get another pet as soon as she could.
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Nov 18, 2010 18:02
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dopaMEAN posted:What does she do? Buy them and then rehome them? That's insane! SO far it's just one rabbit and she's left it with her boyfriend. But her latest hare-brained  scheme involved selling some football tickets to get $300 to buy a few bunnies. No idea where they were going to end up. My cousin is just crazy.
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Nov 18, 2010 18:13
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luscious posted:When someone tells me they have a rabbit, I'm always worried that they are doing it all wrong. It makes me really depressed that worry is my first emotion - not happiness Hard to gently caress up too much with a cat.
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Nov 18, 2010 18:24
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alucinor posted:At least I'm not the only one. Yeah, I'm to understand from various sources that ~*~in the wild~*~ rabbits like to fight by attacking each other's nads (  ), so they can retract them post-haste.
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Nov 18, 2010 19:22
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Rodent Mortician posted:Yeah, I'm to understand from various sources that ~*~in the wild~*~ rabbits like to fight by attacking each other's nads ( drat weird-rear end rabbits. Sounds like something they'd do. I didn't realize some rabbits could sleep with their eyes open until I had a foster that did. Creepy.
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Nov 18, 2010 19:43
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Glasgow posted:drat weird-rear end rabbits. Sounds like something they'd do. I didn't realize some rabbits could sleep with their eyes open until I had a foster that did. Creepy. Some rabbits don't? Haha, it must be all the hawks flying around our apartment. Gotta keep their eyes on them.
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Nov 18, 2010 19:47
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Kerfuffle posted:This is me with every animal I've read about in PI now except maybe cats. Yeah, I feel this way a lot too... when I see someone walking a dog sometimes I species profile. I always worry that an 'aggressive breed' will have an owner that beats it or abuses it somehow. I also get pissed off when people don't have dogs that are properly trained as it is hard work but with consistency training should be fine. Also fish. Is it in a big enough bowl, is there a filter. I think I accidentally abused fish when I was younger because the petstore didn't properly inform me and I made no attempt to inform myself. I feel bad about that, still. People mentioning declawed cats and not neutering / spaying their pets. Essentially, live long and solitary lives, most of the population, since you aren't ready for pets or children.
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Nov 18, 2010 19:54
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