I want to journal about house training my bunnies to keep my own record, and to help anyone who has, or knows someone who has outdoor bunnies, and is considering bringing them in. And – I like writing about my bunnies 🙂 I hadn’t planned on it this soon – but the flystrike in Morgana has brought it about. I don’t quite have the room I want, but I’ll have to make it work.
So – bringing them home from the vet – Morgana and Avalon are bonded and were in separate carriers for 24 hours, then Morgana was in a travel cage in Avalon’s x-pen for 12 hours. I wanted her open wounds to dry up before letting her out with him, and I didn’t want to keep them separate for too long. He has the tendency of chasing when something is “new” to him. Sure enough – 36 hours did it. He chased her, mounted her, she nipped him, but I got them calmed down.
They are now in the tiled utility room in an x-pen. He is energetic and wants to play and destroy. He is a little destructo-monster. He tipped over the litter boxes, chewed up the puppy pee pads, tossed over the food bowl, and put the pee pad pieces in the water bowl. She gets very stressed very quickly – in small spaces. So she was glad to be out of the travel cage – where she started chewing the towels on the floor, once the chasing had calmed down. So I took the chewed towel away. I don’t want to teach her that it is an acceptable chew toy. I gave them a cardboard box to play in, and their favorite tree leaves to eat, tree branches to chew, and they were happy.
While they were in the travel cages, they held their business waiting for their regular litter boxes. Eventually they each peed, but no poop. Day 2 – in the x-pen, still no poop. Without a smell check, it’s hard to tell a watered pee pad from their pee, because they eat a steady diet of grass, leaves, hay and only a small amount of pellets. Where my other pair of buns eat greens, hay, and pellets, and the greens make their pee dark. Eventually today they are pooping.
Avalon likes to be petted, and so does Morgana but she is skittish. When I got her, she was as wild as they get. Didn’t like people, turned her back to me, nipped me, wild little girl. Only when I figured out just how much space she needs, did she start to let me pet her on the head. Watching Avalon run up to me for petting, made her open up some more. But really – still skittish.
Giving her antibiotics by mouth is difficult. She fights it all the way,.
I need to charge my camera and get pictures of them 🙂