New Bunny and His Habitat we created

[BUNNYFOOFOO823]

My husband recently bought me a dwarf rex, we named him Frederik Monet (after my favorite character in Little Women and my favorite painter).

So we set up his cage like so, with grass on the bottom it was fresh grass with no pesticides etc… for obvious reasons.

He seems to be having a blast nibbling on his dry orchard hay and the flowers from the grass, we also set up a plastic bin with dry organic paper shavings in it for him to lay in.

I’d like your opinion on our set up.

Please reply or email me at marilucflores@bellsouth.net

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[Beka27]

welcome here! i’m not sure about the grass as flooring. i’ve never seen or heard of people doing this, so i can’t really comment. do you have plans to try and littertrain him? if so, i’m thinking this would cause more of a problem. usually, you only want to have bedding/litter in the litterbox.

[BUNNYFOOFOO823]

I guess we will want to have him potty trained, my husband suggested the grass simply because we had heard about certain cedars and litter causing cancer in Bunnies and we didn’t want poor Frederik to get sick, I’m taking him to the vet on Monday because we have no idea how old he is or if he is even a he! I did think of putting a small box in there for him to go potty but im just so scared of what litter to use, i read some litter can be dusty and cause pneumonia! We thought the grass would be a good idea because it was natural (we got it from an all organic holistic grower) and because maybe it would seem more normal to him and his little feet were getting stuck in the grating which wasnt soft at all. He lays in the grass and caresses the grass too so we think he likes it, but i dont want to confuse him when we litter train either

[Beka27]

well, you’re going to want to have him in a solid bottom cage. wire bottoms are very bad for their feet, and they are not necessary for littertrained bunnies.  the cage looks like it is very small, so as he gets older, you will need to upgrade to something larger anyways.  many people build condos or use an xpen for a safe indoor home.

some light reading for your Sunday…  lol.  if you have any other questions about anything, please ask.

littertraining (including safe and unsafe litters):

binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/LitterboxTraining/tabid/62/Default.aspx

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/litter.shtml 

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/training.html

diet:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

binkybunny.com/Default.aspx

spay/neuter:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/spay.html

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/spay-neuter.html

[BUNNYFOOFOO823]

Beka, thank you so much for the advice, we are def. going to go buy the litter box and appropriate litter for Frederik. I like the idea of the Xpen but I have two retired greyhounds and i’m not 100% confident yet and probably will never be about an open top cage

we are moving to a larger apt in the next year which then I will have a dedicated room where I can keep Frederik and put a larger living space for him there.

Do you know any Vets in CA who are dedicated to Bunnies? I called my regular vet as I have seen a great variety of animals there and they said they did have a doctor who specialized in Lagomorphs, but id like a recommendation from someone in the know.

[Ana]

You can get a top for your Xpen.

As for a vet, there is a list for each state. I’m sure someone will be along to link you.

[Beka27]

we have quite a few CA members and i know there are great vets in that state, but i have very little geographic knowledge about CA. i hear it’s a big state. lol.

here is the HRS vet page by region… http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html and like i said, wait for some other members to happen across.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Congrats on your new bunny and that’s fantastic you saved two greyhounds!! We have a greyhound rescue here in Edmonton and I just think that’s great you rescued those two!

K-guys we need to talk about this grass floor!! I’m on edge-is this an option?? I *want* a grass floor!!-Neatest idea ever!!

California has lots of dedicated rabbit vets, and wonderful rabbit rescues! Your very lucky to be moving to such a rabbit friendly environment

[BUNNYFOOFOO823]

Hi Guys!  want to thank everyone for all the awesome advice, i am soo appreaciative. I took Frederik to the Vet today just for a simple check up and because I had a zillion questions I needed sure answers to. I was fortunate enough that my vet who sees my Greyhounds also sees Rabbits and has about 10 other Rabbit patients so I felt comfortable with her knowledge.

Although it turns out Frederk is not a HE at all he’s a SHE!!! Which we were happily surprised about, he has been respectively re-named to Tiger Lily.

About the grass, my vet was happily amused and i even took a small patch for her to review, she thought it was a pretty cool idea so I figured I’d tell you all a bit about it.

It is a Scotch Moss type grass that blooms small white flowers which are fine for Bunny to eat although she doesn’t actually eat much of it. What we’re going to do is when take Tiger Lily out for her walks we will hose the moss and leave it outside to dry and drain, being that were basically here in the desert the water evaporates quite quickly. I had read a lot about mulch and cedars causing cancers in Bunny’s so I wanted a natural alternative something that reminded Bunny more of Nature and she does hoppy dances and caresses the grass all the time! So I think so far it is working.

Look for a Holistic, Organic grower who won’t put fertilizers of pesticides in the Moss, water it minimum of once a week, we have water restrictions here in California so once a week is fine. A block will cost about $12 – $13 and we used two blocks.

 

 

 

[Cassi&Charlie]

That’s awesome…best idea ever. If your in a hot place I think it would help Tiger Lily keep cool as well. I’m so impressed. I think I just worked out a summer option for keeping Charlie cool.

[Princess*Smudge]

 OMG that is awesome! hahah I would love to have some of that for Smudge. I think she might just end up eating it all though. But still a very cool idea

Edited: oh and I love the name!! It’s so cute

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