Hello fellow Bunny lovers!

[JakeSulley<3]

Hello everybody!

My name is Nylorac and I finally got a bunny! I’ve been wanting a small animal for a very long time. And after long, hard, perserverance,  I finally got a little dwarf bunny! His name is Sulley (After Jake Sulley from Avatar, not Monsters inc.) He’s white and grey and he’s 11 weeks old. I got him just a few days ago and love him to pieces. I got him from a friend and he’s a little love bug! I still can’t believe my mom had said yes, (I don’t think she does either) but I’m glad she did! 

Here’s a pic of him: http://tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo…h4l5k2TGxc

He looks bigger in the picture than he really is. He’s a little on the skinny side, I blame that on the car ride (He went on a 6 hour car drive down from my friends house.) So what do you guys think of the new addition to my family?

[MooBunnay]

Welcome to BinkyBunny! Jake is adorable! At 11 weeks old its not surprising that he is still so teeny, I love that stage when they are just little fluff-balls. What kind of food are you feeding him? He can probably have alfalfa based pellets for a few more months, or alfalfa hay if you are concerned about him gaining some weight. Once he is at 6 months though, it is time to start transitioning him to a timothy based pellet and a grass hay, like timothy hay.

If you have any questions about being a new bunny owner, feel free to post them, and also look around the website, there is a lot of information, especially in the “Bunny Info” section.

[Barbie]

Welcome! He’s so adorable!

[Monkeybun]

Oh my what a cutie! Welcome to both of you Feel free to post tons of pics of that little guy, so we can all be smitten!

[Elrohwen]

Welcome! He’s beautiful! I love his coloring.

[JakeSulley<3]

Thank you everyone! I don’t quite know what type of food he’s getting, i think it’s timothy, but i’m not sure. I just found out that my local feed store carries Oxbow pellets, so that’s what i’ll prob get him, i’ll see about alfalfa pellets. For hay, my mom gets a timothy and alfalfa mix for our horses, so i was just planning on feeding that to him. it’s mostly Timothy with a little bit of alfalfa.

[MarkBun]

Since he is young, you can feed him a little more alfalfa. YOu will want to ween him off of it though around 6 months.

[Sarita]

He’s beautiful. I thought you named him after Sulley Sullenberger – he’s on of my heroes! His color looks like a Harlequin rabbit.

[Lintini]

Welcome!! He is so cute!! I love Avatar!!! Great name You will love it here!

[Beka27]

 

He’s so cute!  Does he have lionhead in him?  It looks like he has a mane.

[JakeSulley<3]

Haha, Thanks for putting the picture up, how did you do that? I think he does have some lionhead in him, he’s got some long hair around his neck. And one of his brothers had a bigger lionhead than he does. I’ve got a question, will he stay this cute and fluffy when he’s older? Or will he (still being cute) have smoother hair?

[Beka27]

I am not the right person to ask about how his fur will turn out… I’ve never had the pleasure of having a lionhead. I think with some of them they shed out the softer, fluffier baby fur and the mane changes, but I don’t know for sure.

To add your pic into the forum I clicked on your link… right clicked on the pic, copied the location address. On Binkybunny, I clicked on the picture icon, pasted the address URL, and resized the image to be no wider than 400…

[JakeSulley<3]

cool, thanks for the info!

[Monkeybun]

He’s adorable! *snugglesnuggle* He’s so adorable I had to mention it twice in this thread hehe

[RabbitPam]

Welcome to you and Sulley! I love, love, love gray and white bunnies.

What’s fun with bunnies is that you often don’t know 100% about their parents, or the way the mix will turn out. So after several months, over the course of years, they change and change again. Some bunnies coloring completely changes, too. (I used to have a gray and white named Spockie, and he got darker when he was older, until we all started commenting that our memories were failing because we swore he was light gray as a baby.)

His mane and softness will shift with each shed, but he will ALWAYS be cute.

[JakeSulley<3]

I got some new pics of Sulley, he’s really photogenic!

[Monkeybun]

Eeeeeee floof! *snugglesnuggle*

[Barbie]

He is so cute!!! In the second picture, is there another bunny or cat or something in the background? Or is that just the tree/shrub trunk?

[vaderslave]

barbie, looks like a dog, one with a feathery tail lol

he’s so cute and little and babyish can’t wait to see how he looks when he grows up!

[JakeSulley<3]

Barbie, he’s my dog. lol he wants my bunny but he knows i won’t let him lol He’s a german sheperd/golden retriever mix.
vaderslave, I can’t wait to see what he looks like either! He’s soo cute and lovable. He’ll let anybody hold him!

[Elrohwen]

He’s so adorable 🙂 His coloring is probably my fav bunny coloring.

He definitely looks like a lionhead. Sometimes lionheads go through their first molt and lose their manes. Sometimes they keep them. So it’ll be a surprise 😉

[lashkay]

Welcome & Congratulations that your mom gave you the go-ahead to get a bunny.  And congratulations on getting such a loveable one!  You are very fortunate that he lets anybody hold him.  Make sure everyone who does respects him as you do when they’re holding him so he always stays this sweet and innocent and you will have a rare treasure bunny!  Have fun with him & keep the pics coming.

[JakeSulley<3]

I hope he keeps his mane! But i’ll love him even if he doesn’t
Thank you lashkay! He’s a great boy. He loves to snuggle up against my neck when i carry him. He’s a little scared about the initial pick up, but once he’s in my hands, he calms down just fine. The people who hold him only hold him for a few minutes and they hold him close to them, so he feels secure.
I have a question, How do you keep him from pooping while out of the cage? He doesn’t poop while i’m holding him, but as soon as i put him down even if it’s just for a second, he poops. Anybody have any idea how to stop this, or is this something that i just have to deal with?
right now he’s living in a small dog crate. I’m going to be making his cage by the end of this week, just waiting for the rest of the materials to come in. It’s gonna be a C&C cage. 2×3 grids, one level with a little 2nd level. we’re living in a travel trailer at our barn right now, so my mom won’t let me make it any bigger. but he’ll get plenty of time out of the cage. my question is: will he be able to get out of it? or do i have to make it 2 grids tall?
Thank you for all your help!

[lashkay]

He’ll probably keep his mane, their little manes are adorable and stick out like fringe when they tuck their heads to groom themselves, have you noticed? As to the poops, my advice would be to nip it in the bud right now by seeing which corner of his crate he urinates in, then placing a nice roomy corner plastic litterbox that he can grow into, in that corner, with a handful or so of carefresh litter. If he pees in both corners, which he might, put another hi-backed litterbox with carefresh in the other corner as well. In time, he’ll probably choose one or the other as his toilet. Then get ANOTHER huge -for him – corner litterbox and fill it with your mom’s nice clean hay and put that in the opposite corner at the other end of the crate where his food and water dishes are so he will distinguish between his haybox and his litterbox and keep the hay clean. My Buddie, who is also a lionhead, is very happy with this setup.

However, I know other members will tell you it’s better to just put hay in his toilet box, which also, I’m given to understand can work. Buddie’s setup works for us but particularly in a smaller crate you may be limited on space so may have to choose just one litterbox for his crate temporarily. That should work if you just put it in the corner Sulley chooses to pee in. When you’re making up his cage, and you have more room to work with, you might want to try Buddie’s setup. Have fun!

[lashkay]

P.S. I meant to add this, after you pick him up if he usually poops when you put him down, I would put him down in his litterbox so he ‘goes to it’ right away. Also place all his outside of the box poops in the litterbox and if he pees outside the litterbox, wipe up the urine with a little piece of paper towel and when it is soaked, set it in his litterbox on top of the carefresh. If you do this continually while he makes mistakes and choose the corner he pees in, to place his litterbox, he should get the message rather quickly and start doing what you want him to do about his toilet habits. Keep scooping up the poops and putting them in the litterbox and praise him Good Sulley! when he poops and pees in his litterbox. You’ll know when because they lift their rump and their body goes into ‘eliminating’ mode. You might even want to entice him to his litterbox with a small treat like a small sprig of parsley. Best wishes with your little Sulley!

[Elrohwen]

It’s possible he’s marking his territory. How old is he? The older he gets, if he remains unneutered, he’ll feel even more of a need to mark things as “his”.

For now, I would try limiting his space. Maybe just let him out of his cage into a smallish area, not a whole room, and see how he does. Every time he poops, pick it up and put it back in his litter box. If you keep cleaning up after him, he should hopefully realize that his poos go in the box. Then, gradually, you can give him more room to run around as he gets the idea.

eta: What kind of litter box does he have? He needs a nice cat litter box, not a corner box. Plenty of buns have turned their litter training around just by having an appropriately sized box and those corner ones are almost universally too small.

[JakeSulley<3]

Thanks you guys, i’ve seen some pretty big corner litter boxes, don’t have one yet, I’m waiting till i make the cage. He’s 11 weeks old.
I’ve got one more, silly, question. I saw pine cone chewies at the store and they looked like real pine cones. Are pine cones alright for them? I’ve got ALOT of pine trees where I am and thought he might like them.

[Monkeybun]

Pine cones are fine, as long as they haven’t been sprayed with pesticides, and are completely dry and bug free. Monkey enjoys nibbling on hers now and then

[Elrohwen]

Posted By JakeSulley<3 on 01/11/2010 03:07 PM
Thanks you guys, i’ve seen some pretty big corner litter boxes, don’t have one yet, I’m waiting till i make the cage. He’s 11 weeks old.
I’ve got one more, silly, question. I saw pine cone chewies at the store and they looked like real pine cones. Are pine cones alright for them? I’ve got ALOT of pine trees where I am and thought he might like them.

 

Pine cones make a nice toy as long as they’re clean and free of bugs!

Can I suggest getting a cat litter box and avoiding the corner ones? They’re really never big enough and often bunnies with corner boxes have litter training issues. Plus the cat ones are cheaper

[lashkay]

I hadn’t been aware that large enough corner litterboxes pose issues in litter training. But Elrohwen has been around this forum longer than I, I believe, and I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Thanks, Elrohwen. There are some good hi-backed litter boxes that I’m sure would work equally well. But I would caution you to do yourself a favor and choose a litterbox that has a nice high back, so the urine doesn’t squirt over the back. If you get a kitty box that is so-contained you will save yourself some aggravation from the start.

[jerseygirl]

On corner litter boxes, I think we tend to caution people about them because so many get them when they set up only to find the bun won’t use it. Buddys seems a good size for him and well, he’s a champ.

On pinecones – ditto. It’ll be good if you can source your own. You have to be wary of what pet stores offer sometimes. Some members have recommended boiling collected pinecones then baking in a slow oven until completly dried out. I admit I’ve given mine small very dry pinecones before without the prep. If I was to offer them often – I would prep them properly now that I know.

[lashkay]

Thanks, Jerseygirl, what a nice compliment!  Your little buns near your bunaholic declaration look like champs in their own right.  It takes one to know one, they say However, to me who lives with him, he seems like a little Jimmy Cagney more and more each day- all attitude!  But he licked me tonight for the first time, on my leg as I was entering his pen to clean his litterbox and his little tongue felt like heaven. 

For some reason I can’t remember, the corner boxes have been the only thing I gave to Buddie and it was either use the corner one or go dirty.  And thank the Lord, he chooses to go a lot cleaner than he could.  So far. Knock on wood.  I did have a cat box for Lash, my first bunny, in her cage and she was fine with that.    But I made the mistake of not spaying her and she sprayed.  Oddly enough, I liked her spray on my pillow. I knew it meant she wanted to possess me and I took it as a compliment.  Just washed it out.

[Monkeybun]

Both of mine have normal sized cat boxes.. they both like munching on hay when in their boxes and monkey is just soo little that she cant reach into many kinds of hay racks, so there has to be lots of hay room in her box

[JakeSulley<3]

Thank you, you guys! You are so helpful! The cage i’m building, may not be big enough for a cat litter box. I’ll see though, but I’ll definitly try to use the litter box instead.
How do you know how dry a pine cone is? And why do they have to be dried out completely?
I also have a question about neutering. Why is it important? I know for females it is, but what about males? I don’t think my mom would believe me if I told her I needed to neuter him.
Thanks again!

[MarkBun]

If the pinecone isn’t covered in sap, it’s dry enough. Basically, if you can break one of the pieces in half and it’s not sticky, you should be good.

As for neutering. When hormones hit, the rabbits can become little terrors – spraying and marking areas, aggressive behavior, etc. Now some male bunnies can live their entire lives in tact and be very sweet however if he starts to begin to become a punk, neutering will help that.

Too bad you can’t do that to all male species, eh?

[Monkeybun]

Neutering helps lower aggression, stops them from spraying (which is icky) and makes your bun happier. It isn’t any fun having the urge to mate 24/7 and not being allowed to do so.

[MarkBun]

Posted By Monkeybun on 01/12/2010 12:29 PM
Neutering helps lower aggression, stops them from spraying (which is icky) and makes your bun happier. It isn’t any fun having the urge to mate 24/7 and not being allowed to do so.

 

Tell me about it…

[Monkeybun]

Awww do you need to get neutered MarkBun?

[MooBunnay]

Poor Markbun – we’ll all raise some money to send you to the vet

[Beka27]

Posted By JakeSulley<3 on 01/12/2010 06:15 AM
Thank you, you guys! You are so helpful! The cage i’m building, may not be big enough for a cat litter box. I’ll see though, but I’ll definitly try to use the litter box instead.

If the cage is not going to be big enough for a cat litterbox, I’m afraid the cage will not be big enough for the bunny.  How large are you planning on making the cage?  Are you doing it with levels?  What materials are you using?

[Elrohwen]

How big is your bun? For a small bun (<4lbs) I think a litter box that is 14"x14" is the smallest you should go and bigger is better (14"x20" would be great). I agree with Beka that if you can't fit a box that size in the cage, the cage isn't big enough!

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