December Chat

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Hi, just dropping by to wish everyone Merry Christmas! 😀

My hands are slowly getting better, and I can do a little embroidery again ^_^ I made 3 Christmas cards this year, featuring Breintje, Molly and Owen in a very silent night. It’s a fictional scene for now: the tree is still upright as we speak. No guarantees about the future… 😉

 

Our little binksters are a little over 3 months old now, and they have so much energy! Why walk somewhere when you can run like your tail is on fire? It’s fun to see all the activity, but I go to bed properly tired every night. Bas likes to tell me that I look like a young mother. There’s so much cleanup to do and they need a lot of supervision because they do really crazy stuff. Think you have the place bunny-proofed? Get 2 teenage bunnies and they’ll bunny-prove you wrong! 😆 🙄

Molly has become a lot more confident since her big brother was put in a separate hutch. We think that she must have been the runt of the litter because she’s so tiny and so shy. She’ll affectionately lick everyone and everything, but she gets confused when you try to pet her. She’s finally allowing us to gently pet her in her hutch, but only if she’s sitting firmly. Still, she always tries to give back more than she gets, it’s very cute but a bit sad.

For now she won’t have to deal with a dominating bigger brother, they’ll be reintroduced in late January once his hormones have died down. We’re trying to get her confidence up by giving her plenty of attention and interaction, and who knows how she’ll turn out 🙂

Molly is very photogenic:

And she seems to stay very very smol:

 

Owen grew up really quickly to become a very big and strong boy. Quite clearly a boy, yep… at 11 weeks already! As his hormones went wild, he became very wild and noisy. He was constantly trying to break out of his hutch, taking the bars in his mouth and banging the top half of the hutch up and down. We had to buy him a new hutch that doesn’t rattle so loudly, because he kept us and the upstairs neighbours awake for a weekend.

When he was playing outisde he was either trying to break into Molly’s hutch or circling her hutch. He had it so bad: grunting, honking, spreading droppings and thumping in frustration. We called our vet clinic, but the assistant told us that they won’t neuter rabbits under 6 months. She didn’t give any explanation and didn’t care that dwarfs mature far earlier than most breeds. We decided to get the opinion of other vets in our area because we didn’t want this for another 3 months.

We found another clinic which was quite nearby, and Owen was scheduled for a pre-op exam and a neuter in his 13th week. We were interested in switching clinics, until I found out that their vet is an alternative vet as well who uses some questionable therapies. They didn’t show this info on their website, but it came up in the search engine when I searched for the clinic’s address. Other searches confirmed that he’s still practising. This is not a good thing to find out on the evening before the operation, when you can’t cancel anymore 😯

Owen’s neuter went fine, but we won’t be back there. It was scary that the clinic didn’t inform people about his activities, so people can at least make an informed decision. Owen is calming down now, and only did one love dance on the third day after his neuter. His litterbox habits are a lot better now, and we’re looking forward to reintroducing him to his sister.

I forgot who said it here on the forum, but you were right: Owen DID darken to a cinnamon colour as he grew older! 🙂 That was unexpected: even the breeder thought that these bunnies didn’t have the right colouring, but Owen got his cinnamon mask when he got his puberty. Molly remained light brown with a little dark spot on her nose. We sent photos and a thank you letter to the breeder, I hope that the pictures will help him too. Owen also developed a very round snoot, with huge round cheeks.

He’s a little adventurer too and loves to climb:

Owen and Molly are clearly relatives of Breintje: Owen has his colouring and Molly has his size and shape! I thought that it would confuse me or make me sad to have a cinnamon rabbit again, but it doesn’t. Maybe that’s because they have different personalities, and because they’re 2 of them. I still miss Breintje a lot, but it isn’t getting in the way of bonding with Owen and Molly. I’m so happy that we have new bunnies now, even if they came to us way sooner than expected ^_^

 

[DanaNM]

They are soooo stinking cute! What a lovely update, and I love the embroidery you did!

And you are so right about that young bunny energy! I was super spoiled by Bun Jovi, Myra, and Bonnie… they never got into trouble or tried to destroy anything. Then I brought home young Cooper, and oh man! I had forgotten what it was like having a young male bunny! That’s great his neuter went well, I would have been freaked out by that info about the vet as well.

I also relate to what you said about them looking like Breintje but it not making you sad. One of the reasons I was immediately drawn to Cooper was that he looked so much like my Bertha, but had the personality of both Bertha and Bunston combined. Bertha’s outgoing nature and love for people, with Bunston’s high energy and trouble-maker streak. At first when I was trying to bond my 4 into a quad it was really weird seeing Cooper with Bun Jovi (who was bonded to Bertha after Bunston passed away). I also laugh because Bertha was a huge bunny and a huge personality, so it is only fitting that after she passed away I ended up with 3 more rabbits! It’s actually coming up on 2 years after her death (she died Christmas Eve 2019)… it’s weird to have had so many life changes without her.

Cooper loves climbing on things, Bunston did too! I actually have a pic of Bunston sitting on his old cage, coincidentally the same one you have!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

Ellie, wonderful pictures! So beautiful they are! And I love the embroidery! I’ve been in a crocheting frenzy these last few days, trying to finish some homemade Christmas gifts. I mostly make socks, everybody needs socks this time of year.

I’m glad you could get Owen neutered. I don’t think there’s a 6 months-policy around here for boy rabbits, it’s obviously different with girls. To wait until 6 months seems long for a rabbit who is so obviously sexually mature. I remeber how crazy Bam got before he got neutered, I was honestly afraid he’d stress himself into a heart attack.

 

 

[DanaNM]

Yeah a 6 month wait for neutering would be so hard if they were already acting hormonal! (currently having flashbacks to getting sprayed in the face by un-neutered buns at the shelter, LOL)

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

@DanaNM: Nice! Bunston was so photogenic, he looks so stylish in that pic! Cooper sounds like a real showstealer ^_^ It’s indeed weird if you lived with a very strong-minded rabbit, sometimes I still think: “Should do this quickly now, Breintje doesn’t like the sound… Oh…”. He really was the owner in this household and no mistake. It’s why the hole that he left was so big: he pretty much dictated my daily planning and how things were run.

And yes, waiting until he was 6 months old would’ve been terrible. The noise, the poo everywhere, the frantic circling and hooting. The hormones and frustration can also make them aggressive, and you don’t want bad behaviour patterns to set in. As soon as they start acting up and the testes have dropped, it’s time for a trip to the vet.

Also: yuck, poor you! It’s the downside of being utterly irresistible to rabbits 😉

 

@Bam: Thank you! Yes, we’re so happy with our gorgeous little bunnies. If all accidents looked like this, the world would be a paradise… When we drove back home after we picked them up we just sat in the car grinning from ear to ear and sighing. Our family felt complete again. A week later I was sweeping, and Molly sat down in the dustpan and wouldn’t budge. Then I thought: “Ah, normal service is resuming…”.

Real homemade socks are always a really welcome gift 🙂 They’re so much warmer than store-bought socks, and you can customise for foot size and colours. I’ve never heard of crocheting socks before, I should look it up sometimes. At the moment I’m mostly knitting because it’s easier on my wrists. One of Bas’ nieces gifted me a ball of yarn in a crazy colour pattern, and a friend of mine fell in love with it. She’s a nurse and loves to dress in bright colours, her patients love it too.

Yes, I still can’t figure out why they just kept saying “6 months” like a broken record. Owen got so worked up that he got on everyone’s nerves, probably on his own as well. Constantly hooting, huffing and thumping, the scrabble of frantic feet on the carpet and rattling the hutch bars for hours.

Let’s just say that I now know why so many bunnies are given up when they reach puberty, if people didn’t prepare themselves for this it’s a nasty surprise. Your cute little 8 week old baby can be a demented little sex offender within 4 weeks. This comic describes it rather well: https://regardingcomic.tumblr.com/post/647099749073387520 That comic is so relatable in every way ^_^

 

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