I’m not especially new to rabbits, though not exactly a pro at caring for them either. I’ve recently gotten a new baby (my second generation, I suppose) and have been quite shocked by the changes in information since I last bothered to really look. My poor older rabbits were missing out on a lot of kale meals, it seems. Who knew you could give it every day? Not me, that’s for sure.
Recently I lost one of my older rabbits at just shy of 7 years. I decided to get a new rabbit to maybe keep my older girl company but was kind of shocked by the lack of older rabbits looking for homes. I’m not sure if I was looking in the wrong spots or what, but the local shelters didn’t have any and the classifieds I checked didn’t have any. So, faced with a sea of baby rabbits I just gave up after I saw an ad for mini rexes. I figured, may as well try, if it doesn’t work out he’ll have a home with me either way. Worst comes to worse I can always keep on looking for an older bun that needs a home going forward.
So I now have an eight week old chinchilla mini rex. After going to my first ever visit (and probably last) to a rabbit breeder. He showed me to his shed, which smelled to high heaven. Made me see all of his show quality rabbits, talked down to me when I told him my current rabbit was a mixed breed, made me ‘promise’ to never feed my new rabbit ‘junk’ like carrots and lettuce (okay buddy). And of course, promised to be there for me if I had any questions or concerns.
Upon arriving home I noticed my new rabbit was making some concerning squeak(snort?)-breathing noises (I’m really not sure how to describe it, not quite wheezing or anything, but just, weird?) so I of course sent the breeder a message just to let him know. I under no circumstances was expecting anything more than a reply basically saying it was probably from the stress of the move, (which I assume it was since after I got him set up in his quarantine cage he hasn’t made it again) the guy completely ignored me. So, yeah, I don’t have high hopes of ever dealing with him again.
Now I just have to learn how to take care of young rabbits all over again! And keep an eye out for any potential URI problems, here’s hoping that doesn’t come back to haunt me.
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