Introducing Duke.

[Periscope]

Hi,

Introducing my little man Duke, or Dukie as we often call him.  Our friend’s saw him periscoping at their window last June – in the pouring rain.  They brought him inside and tried to find out if anyone was missing him but had no success.  Already having a toddler and a cat they were unable to take the little mite on.  I grew up with rabbits and have always adored them so we brought him home to live with us.  He spent the first few nights in the bathroom whilst I built a condo for him and our cat got accustom to his smell etc.  Our cat is a rescue cat, we think that she’s about 12 years old and she’s been very good about having a new member of the family.  Duke currently lives in our living room (taking up most of it) in a condo / pen combo.  His condo doors are always open and he uses it more as his sleeping / eating quarters and spends the majority of his time in the pen but does like to go in there to chill out.

We visited a specialist rabbit vet after he joined us to find out more about him (at this stage we weren’t even sure of the sex) and make sure that he was in good health.  The vet told us that Duke was a boy who was probably about 5 months old, which would make him around a year now, and was healthy.  We scheduled an appointment to have him neutered, making sure that there was sufficient time for him to settle in with us first.

 Duke’s favourite things to eat are: cilantro, timothy hay pellets (he goes nuts for these), timothy hay & apple twigs.  He also enjoys other things, but these are his favs.

For play he loves knocking down towers that we build for him, sometimes in a very jenga-like fashion, others like a bull in a china shop.  He also likes to run through his tunnel, jump on top of his castle, dig his phone book, throw his toys and play chase with Harriet our cat (through the fence separating them) they both seem to enjoy this and he goes to her to start the game.  I have also been doing a little clicker training with him, which is fun for us both!

He’s a curious little bunny who happily comes to us for strokes and will flop against my legs when I’m sat with him and nudge my leg/foot if I’m not paying him sufficient attention.  He enjoys kisses and will give them in return which is super cute!  He is not a fan of being picked up but he will let us hold his front paws off of the ground while giving him a stroke and he will lick us whilst we’re doing this,  we are working on being able to pick him up comfortably so it’s not too stressful for him when we need to.

It’s been fun watching him change from a little bunny to grown rabbit and we’re very happy that he’s come into our lives.  We are moving house soon and our goal is to have him free roaming -or close to that.  Right now where we live there’s just too many hazards but we are moving into a place that is smaller and will be a blank canvas so we are planning to bunny-proof before we move him in and then it’s just a matter of seeing how Duke and Harriet are with each other when there are no boundaries – although I think that we will still separate them while we are at work, for a start anyway.

Well, that’s my Dukie Boy, he’d like to say ‘What’s going on?’ to you all.

 

 

[Feathery]

Duke is absolutely adorable! He has a beauty spot like my bunny! =)

More pictures please! =P

[DUSTBUNNY-CLYDE]

SO CUTE!! WELCOME!!!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Big Welcome to you both! He’s a real beauty and sounds like lots of fun.

[Tina Daniels]

Duke is adorable.  I giggled a bit at the periscoping at the window.  

[Author]

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