New bun!

[megan_ann]

Hi, my name is Megan. I got a new bunny this Sunday… her name is Kizuna and she’s 3 months old. I am a sophomore in college and me and my roommate got her. Neither of us goes out much and we don’t party or play loud music… our room is a very quiet, peaceful environment, which is probably good for the bun. We actually bought her from the pet store, though I REALLY wanted one from the Humane Society personally, seeing as we could have given a homeless bunny a home AND it would already be spayed/neutered. But my roommate fell in love with the one at the pet store and wouldn’t even hear of getting another one. @_@ Ah well. What’s done is done, though I REALLY don’t know how we’re going to get the money to spay her, considering I’m fronting all the costs right now and my roommate isn’t paying me back till next semester (hence why I wanted one from the Humane Society!!!!).

My first question is about her trip home from the pet store… I live in Hawaii and we had to walk her home from the pet store on Sunday and it was VERY hot and VERY humid… it was about a 20 minute walk. She SEEMS okay though… she’s been romping around. So if she’s acting fine now 4 days later does that mean she’s probably okay? She will NEVER be subjected to that again.. we keep her in an air-conditioned room all the time… we keep it at 75 degrees (even while we’re gone) but it actually feels quite cold… perhaps because with the AC there’s no humidity? Would this be a safe temperature to keep the bun at? I’m just trying so hard to be a good guardian for the sweetheart!!!!

Now, she currently has pine shavings, which I now know are a no-no, so I’m going to run out this weekend and buy something else. I also didn’t realize you only put bedding in their litter box and not the whole cage…. so now I have some litter in one corner she seemed to pee in the most and newspaper lining the rest. She’s been having a blast shredding the newspaper… IT’S SO CUTE!!!! This weekend I can go out and buy her a litterbox to put in her cage and a larger one for her play area. I also have to get her alfalfa because I got timothy hay and didn’t know growing buns are supposed to have alfalfa instead.

I’ve started her out in the bathroom to play around.. at least an hour a day, watching her. It’s small and easy to control her and the only non-carpeted area we have. I gave her lots of toys to chew on but she seemed to find the wall much more appealing. I had to keep saying “No!” when she did that. But ah well what’ll you do? Kids are kids.

Now should I move her whole cage into the bathroom when having her play in there, or is moving her water and hay dish in there sufficient?

I’m sorry for all the comments and questions! I’m just really trying to be a good guardian for her. I can’t wait till she’s potty-trained and I can give her the freedom to roam around our room when we’re home! And I’ve been trying to figure out what kinds of toys she likes to keep her entertained while I’m at school and she’s in her cage…

This is all so fun though! She’s such a darling! I’ve only ever had guinea pigs before (3 to date) but I REALLY love guinea pigs and rabbits… they’re so darling.

Here’s a picture of Kizuna:

[Monkeybun]

She’s adorable! Moving just the food and water dishes to the bathroom should be good, might want to invest in a cardboard box too, for her to hide in. Bunnies love boxes My Monkeybun loves her paper bag filled with shredded paper, its her favorite toy. Was cheap too 75 should be ok for her, anything over 80 can get toasty for them in their fur coats.

Welcome to BB

[jerseygirl]

Welcome! I can see why your roomie couldn’t go past her – she looks so cool with those markings ans blue eyes! Does the name Mizuna have a meaning?
You can give her both the timothy and alfalfa hay, it’ll be good for her to get onto the grass hay now anyway & it’ll make it easier to transistion her onto it full time when she’s older. I hope you can find a vet that’s not as far away as the petshop was. Perhaps a carry cage might be in order. Actually, I used either a box or wicker basket for vet visits for a good while.

Anyway, she’s gorgeous! Nice to have you here on the forums. Ask as many questions as you like.

[luvmybunny]

Welcome to BB! Kizuna is beautiful! Good toys are TP/PT tubes filled with hay and kitty toys like jingle balls. They are not expensive either! And as Monkeybun said, boxes! Bunnies just love boxes to dig, chew, and sleep in! Binkybunny has great toys/chews also! As for litter training, hay in the litter box is a good tool! Good luck with her, you sound like you are on the right track!

[Barbie]

She’s gorgeous! Good luck! This website is great, you’ll find tons of information on here!   And you can make tons of “toys” for free from toilet paper roles, cardboard boxes, phone books etc. =)

I think it’s great that you and you’re roommate are both on board with ahving a bunny! One word of warning… this may never happen, but you do need to consider who gets the bun when you guys graduate or move into different apartments. Especially if you’re not parting on good terms, you both need to have agreed to a plan for Mizuna and who will take her. Since you’re splitting costs it won’t be as easy as just having the person who pays for her expenses takes her.

I’m in college as well, and last year I had a huge falling out with my best friend and roommate. It’s too big a mess to get into, but basically she did some really horrible things to me and was making me miserable because she didn’t like me having a boyfriend – less time for me to devote to her. I actually had to move out half way though the school year because my grades were suffering. Needless to say, we don’t talk any more. This may never happen to you two, but it’s possible, so I’d recommend that you have a candid conversation with your roommate about who gets the bun if something like that happens or even just when you two move into separate places after college or whenever – with good care (which it sounds like she’s being very well cared for!) rabbits can live 7+ years! It would actually be good to write out a “contract” of some sort so your agreement is clear to both of you, and months/years from now you can look back on it to clarify anything. Also, make sure you have a plan for taking care of the rabbit over breaks between semesters/quarters when you go home to visit family or on vacation.

[megan_ann]

Did I accidentally type Mizuna? Haha now several people have thought her name is Mizuna. She’s Kizuna. Actually, her full name is Kizuna Hoku-lele. Kizuna is Japanese for bond or tie (like a bond of friendship) and Hoku-lele is Hawaiian for shooting star.It took us two days to come up with a cute name we both liked.

We HAVE discussed about what to do with the rabbit over breaks and graduation. We actually discussed it before we bought her. We’re not sure about this winter break yet, but she is only going to be gone for winter break for 2 weeks so we just have to find someone to watch her for that time. As for the summer, she is going to be here and is taking her over the summer. We’re also estimating a monthly cost of about 40 dollars for her, because I have a meal plan at the cafeteria and can smuggle vegetables out of there for her, so we don’t have to pay for vegetables at all.

Next year, as of now, we tentatively plan to room together again. I will only be here in the fall though, and am then studying abroad in the spring. Then she is graduating and I’ll have one year left. But she is doing JET (teaching English in Japan) and wants to take Kizuna with her. But there’s still the possibility I would take her the next year instead… because just one year after her I’m doing JET!!! Neither one of us plans to move back to the states, so either way ONE of us is going to import her to Japan. Apparently it’s not too difficult and she will probably only need to be in quarantine for a day max because Hawaii is the only rabies-free state in the US, which makes moving animals very easy… they don’t really need to quarantine them much. If my roommate ends up being the one to take Kizuna, it will just become her bunny, because although I will be in Japan the very next year and could take her, I think it would be too stressful for her to be switching homes like that. I’d rather give her up and know she’s in a good stable home. So yeah… we’ve definitely given this a lot of thought… we don’t just want to toss her after graduation! She’s just like a child of ours and it’s our responsibility to take care of her, or we wouldn’t have gotten her in the first place. I hate people who get pets and then don’t give them any attention! That’s not fair to the animal!!!

Wow I’m ranting now. I’m sorry. Anyway, I took Kizuna in the bathroom again today… she was so cute. I brought in an egg carton and big box for her to sit on, and a towel I have decided to make her towel for her, along with her food and water. I sat on the floor and watched her for a while and talked to her and then did some homework. I handled her for about 10-15 minutes but mostly just pet her a little and let her explore the bathroom. She explored a lot and kept coming over to sniff me. She got right up in my face and her whiskers tickled my face. She certainly seems affectionate, considering we just got her 5 days ago! She even started licking my finger a little and giving me the affectionate bunny nips. It kind of hurt so I jerked my finger back, but I made sure not to scold her because I know she was just showing her affection. What’s a good way to show her I appreciate her affection but don’t want her nibbling quite so hard?

She certainly seems docile considering she’s only 3 months old! She did plenty of exploring but also spent quite a bit of time stretched out on her towel with her front paws in front of her. It was quite cute. And she’s finally learned to jump into her cage! I’m so proud! I have a bottom-opening cage door so I just take the whole top off and let her jump out, so I don’t have to worry about her hurting her foot on the door. She both jumped out of her cage and also back in when we were done playing. I’m so proud of her!

Okay, I’m done ranting now. I’m just so excited.

Oh, I did have one more question about the water! My suitemate (who is a big animal lover and thinks Kizuna is adorable) has like 20 fish in her room and told me that tap water has trace amounts of chlorine in it that would kill fish so she has to put something in the water to break it up before she puts it in her fish tank… now I drink this water all the time and it certainly hasn’t killed ME yet, but bunnies are a lot more fragile than people I’m assuming so I thought I’d ask… is it okay to just give her tap water? Also, she currently has both a water bowl (though it’s plastic so I’d like to get a new one soon) AND a water bottle in her cage, because when I take her out to play she has to drink from the bowl because I have nothing to hook the bottle onto), but would it be okay to just leave the bottle in her cage and save the bowl for playtime? I’ve witnessed her drinking out of both (sometimes right after one another!) so she doesn’t seem to have a particular preference or anything.

Okay, I’m done ranting so here are a few more cute pictures that my roommate took:

 

[Barbie]

Oh my gosh she is so cute! looks kinda like a puppy dog in a couple of them. Anyway, it’s great to hear that you guys have already talked about that and made a plan for her!

And yeah… sorry, I read Mizuna somewhere or maybe misread it… i did look up the word Mizuna and apparently its a type of vegetable, so I thought it was possible! =)

[MarkBun]

[jerseygirl]

Oops!  It was me…I posted “Mizuna”.  Sorry about that. It’s a type of lettuce – no wonder it sounded familiar. Kizuna has a lovely meaning.

[Author]

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