House Rabbit Community and Store
What are we about? Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules.
The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
- This topic has 6sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
-
Hi everyone! My husband and I are expecting our very first child together late next month. For the past three years, our bunny Willow has been like our child to us. She has free range of the house all day long and is only escorted into her cage at night when we sleep (we never pick her up). She’s very sweet, doesn’t bite only licks, but she gets pretty active sometimes with her binkies and bunny 500s! I’m not too worried about her freaking out from the baby crying as she’s very used to noises. She only hates the vacuum but she loves action movies and TV shows… So I’m thinking she’ll adjust to his crying within a few days.
Can anyone give me advice on how to introduce her to our newborn baby? I’m getting nervous about where she’ll be when our baby is on his swing or having tummy time! Also, for when he’s a little older and starts throwing food around, how do you make sure your bunny doesn’t eat it? We have an open floor plan and our bunny’s cage is right in the kitchen! I’m not too worried about simple vegetable purees and I know that our bunny has a stomach of steel (she’s taken advantage of my pregnancy brain this year and got both a piece of taffy and some gum!), but I’d still like advice on preventing any incidents.
Anyways, any bunny/newborn bonding stories and information would be very much appreciated to put my mind at ease.
Thank you! -
We have a 7 week old and the bunnies have done just fine so far. One of the bunnies thumps up a storm when little one gets particularly worked up, and the other has just enjoyed all the new toys around the house. Both do interpret burping as thumping on our part, though, and this gets them a little worked up, which is something I never anticipated. Otherwise, they’re doing great!
-
My daughter will be a year this month and one of my biggest concerns was how my bunnies would deal with the changes as they have always been (and still are) like my babies. My situation is a bit different. My two bunnies are older, around 8 and unbonded. They have their own room where they are in condos and they come out for separate run time 2x a day.
The only problem I dealt with while she was a newborn was the buns getting used to her crying. I honestly think I was more stressed about them being stressed than they actually were about the noise. They seemed a bit freaked out at first but everyone was fine.
Intros, happened pretty much as soon as she was home from the hospital. I laid Everly on the floor while the buns were out and they were able to investigate (and in Olivia’s case, chin her) on their own. I really wouldn’t be worried about a bun hurting a baby. More the other way around. But everyone was fine.
Now that she’s crawling, I’m super busy making sure she’s not too rough with the buns. She loves them but can be too enthusiastic about it. It’s so adorable though, she will give them treats and tries to give them hay through their condo bars. The bunny room is the first place she goes in the morning.
I would suggest that, if your bun doesn’t already, since she is free roam, has a quiet, baby free area your bun can go to relax and feel safe if the baby becomes too much for her. As for the food issue, I would keep bun out of the kitchen while baby is eating and until after you’ve swept up.
Super adorable pics, Ohbono
-
Thank you!!! This helped a bunch!!
I’ll definitely try to figure out a bunny only zone… She does have her maze and hangs out under our couch when she wants to get away so she at least does have a couple small locations right now. I definitely have worried about when our son is older wanting to pull on her ears or tail or poke at her eyes or something. Luckily from every time I clean the sleep out from the corner of Willow’s eyes, she’s developed a reflex to close her eyes once any fingers go near them!
I’m glad to know you introduced them straight away! I wanted to do the same and am happy to hear it’s safe
Thanks for the advice on the food too! We’ll probably just have to put up a gate during feeding time. She LOVES the kitchen so it’s the hardest room to keep her from. If we open the fridge, she comes running from anywhere in the house and begs. LOL
Your pictures are adorable
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.