Any helpful tips?

[Nicoleondynomite]

 Ok, so i have been looking for two flemish bunnies. We desided we wanted flemish because of their kind nature, and we love how big they are. Because of the texas heat absolutley NO ONE has any babies. at all. what so ever. So after many phone calls and emails i desided id just have to wait til christmas.  We traveled down to galveston island for business, and then yesterday had to begin the trip up to dallas for more business. We were ahead and had some time on our hands. So i was googling what to do, when i thought well i might as well search for a flemish breeder near here. Well you can imagine how excited i was when i saw an add for two little flemish bunnies just 30 minutes from us!!!! We went to look and spent probably an hour talking, and interacting. Oh man did we fall in love. My sister found a dark sandy flemish with a super sweet personality. The bunny i fell in love with is smaller, lighter in color but also sandy, and his ears flop to the left. I absolutly LOVE his little quirky ears. They are show quality, but were not sure if were going to enter them or not. 

Well anyway we will pick them up the 19 of october. We haven’t picked up any supplies yet. We are going to let them have free reign of the house, but i am going to get them a little pen for when their not supervised. I want to get some kind of a hidey thing to go into and sleep. Wasnt sure exactly what i should get though. Card board box, storage box, cat bed…? What kind of toys would they like? I am going to litter box train them so any litter recomendations? I want to be prepared and have all the suppllies. So any tips or recomendations would be appreciated!

[Elrohwen]

Congrats on your new babies!

You’ll need two setups, since most rabbits can’t live together until after they’re fixed and bonded. They will likely start fighting at a certain point and will need to be separated. For smaller rabbits we usually recommend 4’x4′ puppy exercise pens – for a flemmie this would eventually be too small, but it would be a good place to start. It would be best if they could have an entire room to themselves (once they’re bonded) to run around in at all times. Any pen you can buy will ultimately be too small for flemmies for any period of time.

For flemmies, even the largest cat sized litter boxes are usually too small. Some people have luck with under-bed storage containers (or another similarly low tupperware type container). For litter, many of us use wood stove pellets (or pelleted wood horse stall bedding, which might be easier to find in Texas). It’s very cheap and works really well. Pet store brands like Yesterday’s News and Carefresh are good, but the wood pellets work just as well and cost a fraction of the price.

Since they’ll get so large, I think a large hiding place is in order – cardboard boxes are a favorite. Some bunnies like cat or dog beds, but others just shred them or pee on them. I wouldn’t recommend getting something like that until they’re litter trained at least, and then get something cheap to see if they even use it.

Most bunnies don’t play with toys like a cat or dog would – the best toys are usually things they can chew, shred, or dig like cardboard boxes or phone books with the covers pulled off.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Congrats and welcome!!!

I’d have them in to a vet asap to sex them. Even with a great breeder sexing is hard, and often two females or two males have some very unexpected babies. Rabbits breed like-well rabbits. So they can do this very young and very prolifically. And to boot you want a good vet exam with any new pet, and to interview your vet regarding spay/neuter and to just discuss questions! So I would say get thee to a vet within a week or two of those two cuties coming home. Better that you have to split them up for a bit before the spay/neuter than you end up with babies (inbred since they’re siblings!) Since your waiting for a couple of weeks, you could start phoning vets to see who sees rabbits and interviewing them. http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html

They are going to need loads of food-so a tip would be to find a source for bales of hay. Pet store hay probably won’t cut it with two ten lb plus bunnies! So I’d start looking for a hay hookup and see where in the house/garage/shed etc you could store a large bale or two. Get some large litter boxes, and start bunnyproofing your home. Sure they’ll ignore the TV cord 100 times and then boom-they’ve chewed it. And you have repair bills and possibly a very injured bunny. So I’d start rabbit proofing right away https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/BunnyProofingYourHome/tabid/61/Default.aspx

Litter itself-you’ll want to go with a bunny safe litter-the paper litters are best-like yesterdays news, wood stove pellets, and care fresh Remember for litter training-small area. Too big and there is just no use. So I’d start them in one room of the house with several litter boxes or in a play pen with one litter box. Then expand once they know what they are doing. https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/LitterboxTraining/tabid/62/Default.aspx

I think you could look into small dog supplies for hidey houses and beds since they will be so big That will be fun Also plain old cardboard boxes are fabulous hidey houses and fun to create (cut windows, and doors). Toys are great, some will be ignored, other destroyed, and still others revered Many can be hand made, many cat/baby toys are very suitable and loved and sites like BB have toys that our bunnies have put to the test https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/ToyTest/tabid/65/Default.aspx

I can’t wait to see your pictures when you bring them home How excitng

[Nicoleondynomite]

Ok thanks for the tips! I will definitely start calling the vets. How much does the neuter/spay usually cost? I was thinking i would just do one or the other. Wich ever the vet recommends. We won’t have a problem with hay since were in texas and live on a huuuuuge ranch. The bunnies could even share timothy hay with the horses. (not together of corse) Well thanks again for the tips!!!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Cost definitely varies-by where you live and by the services they provide. IMHO I think you’d want pain medications, a cone (just in case, I used one successfully others don’t need one) pre surgery blood work, type of anestetic, one on one wake up etc. Grill ’em on what they do, have them break down cost.
My cousin paid 50$ for a neuter two provinces over, I pay almost 300$ just for an xray; so it depends on the clinic what they do and where you are. I’d say between 50-400$ is quite average, with boys of course being cheaper than gals as a spay is more intensive.

[Beka27]

A few thoughts I had while reading this thread:

First, they will both need to be spay/neutered before bonding. I would recommend you get them both done at the same time so once they are healed (in about a month) you can start bonding with no hesitation.

I’m not sure if one is going to be “yours” and one is going to be your “sister’s”, but once they are bonded, this is permanent. They cannot be split up. If your living situation ever changes where one or both of you is moving out, the rabbits will have to remain together. This is a conversation you want to have prior to bonding so there are no surprises or hurt feelings down the line. Separating bonded rabbits can cause them to become very depressed and can lead to loss of appetite, and a variety of health issues associated with that.

Prior to altering/bonding, you’ll want to have 2 puppy xpens. After they are bonded, those 2 pens can be combined to give them a larger “homebase” for when they are penned. The under-bed storage box is a great alternative to a traditional litterbox. They are going to need a lot of space.

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