IA Newbie, Slave to Flemish Giant Roscoe

[Theresa]

Hi there!

I am a new BB member from Iowa, slave to a 4 month old Flemish Giant named Roscoe!  Our household consists of me, my husband, our 16 year old daughter, two canine furbabies (a lab/shep mix and a mini Aussie) and our latest family member, Roscoe.  Roscoe is already quite big, and has been with us about 2-1/2 weeks now.  I have some pics on my phone, and will post them a bit later and add a pic of him as my avatar – can’t right now, cuz I am at work and don’t have access to the pics at the moment.

Roscoe’s current home is an extra large wire dog crate in a corner of the living room.  It is truly huge and has enough room for a good-sized litter box and I put a shelf at one end for his lounging pleasure.  Roscoe is only confined in the crate during the day while we are at work and school and at night for sleepy time – mostly because he isn’t neutered yet and while doing very well with litter training (about 98%) he still leaving little marking pellets here and there.  I expect that to diminish next month when I’ve saved up enough to afford his neuter appointment.

Roscoe has the run of the house for about an hour in the morning while I am getting ready for work, and then pretty much runs loose from about 3 p.m. until bedtime around 11 p.m.  Eventually, I’d like to have him be free range, but I dunno if I trust my dog, Brego the lab mix.  Not because I think Brego will hurt him intentionally, but for two reasons – Brego seems to think that when Roscoe is binkying, that means he wants to wrestle doggy style.  And the other is that sometimes Brego (in true alpha fashion) feels he must control Roscoe’s movements – and he does this herding thing where he keeps bumping Roscoe in the butt with his nose and herding him back into his crate.  Beau, the mini Aussie, isn’t sure what to make of the bunny yet – though Roscoe seems to think he’s another bun and keeps trying to groom him, LOL – which is reasonable bunny thinking, because honestly, the mini Aussie and Roscoe are pretty much eye to eye size-wise.

I just worry that their interaction might get out of hand, so for now they are supervised 100%.  We may get to the point where we feel comfortable, we’ll see.

My plan is to move my home office to a spare bedroom corner, and turn my small office into a Bun Room, with multiple levels and run-round tunnels high up so Roscoe has plenty to keep him busy – and where he can lounge and look out the window if he wants to.  I’m going to have to enlist the aid of my husband to build it, though, because it needs to be big enough for a Flemish who likes to periscope and check things out.  From what I hear, his sire is about 15 pounds, which gives me an idea how sturdy the construction needs to be – and I’ll of course document the build with pics and probably start a thread in the habitat section.

Anyway, that’s probably more info than you wanted to know about Roscoe and our household!  I was a bun “owner” as a teenager, and you’ll notice I use the word “owner.”  I am ashamed to say that while I satisfied the basic needs of the buns I had back then, I certainly did not give them the quality of life they deserved.  I wish I had known then what I know now.  Things would have been so different.  But I am glad I found this site when researching prior to adoption of Roscoe, because now I am a proper bun slave, not an “owner.”

[IsabellaRobyn]

Haha welcome to bun slavery and BB !! Can’t wait to see some pics of Roscoe. What colour is he?

[Theresa]

Hi, Isabella!

Roscoe is kind of an odd combination, at least to me, not sure. His face and feet are black, and his body is black, but the tips of the hairs over his body is a light tan – so he kind of looks black with almost freckles all over, LOL.

I think the official Flemish color description is “steel” – and I guess can see why. The undercoat hair that seems to shed out, the little bit that I’ve cleaned up from around the carpet behind is cage, is a dark grey color.

I almost called him “zippy” short for Zip Code – because his ears are so big they should have their own zip code!

[bullrider76543]

LOL welcome to BB!, I have a Flemie named blue and he is a silly butt. He will be 8 months old in september and a healthy 14lbs! Hhis sire was 17 lbs and his mom was 19!! so I think that he will be about thier size too. if you have any flemie questions don’t hesitate to ask!!

[Hunny's Momma]

Hi Theresa & welcome! Nice to meet a fellow Flemmie mom! I have 2 myself… a 7 month old Fawn doe named Hunny, she’s pushing 10.5-11lbs & my baby BOY (vet tried telling me he was a “she” but his boy parts popped out so… ” :p Dr. Good! Told you he was a boy!!” Anyways, sorry… lol, like I was saying… I also have a 2.5 month old Black Steel buck named Ash who’s probably about 4-5lbs now. He’s also all ears, lol. Looking forward to future posts & PICS!

[Theresa]

Roscoe Pics as promised! Hopefully I can make this work…..

OK, have to resize the files, be right back.

 

[Theresa]

Ok, Let’s try this again. I love this pic cuz it really shows off Roscoe’s ears. I LOVE those ears!

 

 

[bullrider76543]

awww so cute!!!

[Theresa]

Finally! I figured out how to get the pics in my posts! Wow, I made that SO much more painful that it really needed to be.

Here is Roscoe chillin with me, watching The Haunted on Animal Planet.

 

 

[Theresa]

[Hunny's Momma]

Roscoe & Ash could be twins, lol. I can’t post pics right now but there is def a resemblance!

[Theresa]

Posted By Hunny’s Momma on 08/28/2012 05:56 PM

Roscoe & Ash could be twins, lol. I can’t post pics right now but there is def a resemblance!

 

So then he’s a typical color for a Flemie?  I honestly had nothing to compare him to, LOL. Can’t wait to see pics of Ash!

[Hunny's Momma]

Well they’re Black Steel… a true Steel has a white underside (belly, paws & tail) or so I have read.

[Hunny's Momma]

Here’s a couple recent pics of Ash… Roscoe’s fur looks a lil’ darker tho…

 

 

[bullrider76543]

I see that Ash is getting big!! and still beautiful lol so I thought I would show off my Blue LOL

[CinnabunMom]

Welcome to BB! Such a pretty Flemmie

[Theresa]

Posted By Hunny’s Momma on 08/28/2012 05:56 PM

Roscoe & Ash could be twins, lol. I can’t post pics right now but there is def a resemblance!

Ohmigosh, they DO look like twins!!!  I think they are pretty close in color match!

 

The girl I got Roscoe from said that typically it is desirable to breed a buck and a doe of the same color – but she was cleaning her fawn doe’s cage, and left it open for a bit to go get something, and came back to find her steel buck had broken out of his cage and was in with the doe.  It apparently doesn’t take very long for a lovely rabbit lady to be compromised, LOL. 

 

So she did say that he’s not a typical steel because of the accidental pairing of those two colors.  I honestly could care less – he’s just perfect to me the way he is!  He could be rainbow colored or hairless and I wouldn’t care! 

[Theresa]

Bullrider – Blue is awesome!  I’ve seen some of your posts about him elsewhere – he seems like quite the character!!!!

[Bumble Fly]

Welcome to BB! Roscoe is so so cute! I want to get a Flemmie now!

[bullrider76543]

LOL yea he is, he is our silly blue. he’ll do silly things like be laying under the coffee table and just suddenly binkey and knock it over LOL l learned not to put my drinks there any more lol. or he will do the bunny 500 and knock things over. he is a handfull LOL

[bunnyfriend]

Welcome to BB Flemish Giants are so cool. He’s handsome!

[abbybunnies82]

Hi! I am new to BB too! I am from Iowa as well! 

Hehe, I’m at school right now

[Author]

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