New member, new bunnies!

[Deleted User]

EDIT: Changed my screen name to WaskawyWabbit as it was supposed to be.  Pwease wespond apwopwiatewy.

 

Hi, I’m Bob and me and my wife Rosana have recently been adopted by two ot the most beautiful little bunnies!  Both of us are first time bunny adoptees so I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about bunnies.  Sorry for the long first post and intro, but we have a lot to share and hope we’re doing it right!  Rosana is in traveling health care and currently works at a nursing home with an enclosed courtyard that two lops call home.  Well, they had babies and everyone was told the babies had to go.  (The male is now neutered, but not before the next litter was born).  On July 2nd Rosana brought home the cutest little REW that we named Sammy:

Well,having never had a bunny before, I checked online and figured he was only 3 weeks old tops and too young to be weaned.  (That pic was the day we brought him home.  Anyone care to guess his age there?)  Rosana brought him back to the nursing home on July 3rd and he immediately took off jumping and was eating grass everywhere.  Her friend at work who is experienced with buns did the male/female sorting and later that day, Thursday 3 July, everyone was told that all the buns had to go THAT DAY.  She called and said they caught Sammy again as well as another bunny and if she could bring home two boys.  Well, of course I said sure so she brought Sammy back with his brother George, a beautiful white and grey lop:

 

I read that two males are a bit harder to keep together, but figuring they’ll both get neutered and are litter mates, they should be fine.  They get LOTS of attention, lots of Love and are already litter trained!  We even taught Sammy how to say his bedtime prayers:

They get unlimited hay (Timothy, orchard grass and brome grass); breakfast, lunch and dinner of 3 or 4 of the following greens: green leaf lettuce; red leaf lettuce; parsley, dandelion greens, cilantro, couple baby carrots, a sprig or two of mint and a couple sage leaves.  They did have a bag of alfalfa and I noticed that when they had too much alfalfa, they did recently leave a couple day-droppings of cecotropes, probably from too rich of a diet.  I’ve backed off the alfalfa but they get a little in a pellet mix at night.

Since we’re travelling, we need something more portable for now so we bought a My First Pet cage from PetSmart.  A friend gave us their top cage half from the same cage, so being creative, I connected the two and added a ramp.  The best thing is that I can take it all down as necessary or just remove the top for travel.  They have cardboard and straw mats in the top part of the cage to protect their feet, I took them out for this pic:

 

When we started out, I had the whole cage floor covered with CareFresh bedding and they kept pooping everywhere.  I realized what I was doing wrong and added this larger pan and just have an old towel on the cage floor.  Problem solved!  They wouldn’t use the litter pan at first and didn’t like standing on the wire grate so I keep it covered with fresh hay.  The first night with the new pan, they ate most of the hay overnight and peed in the corner because they wouldn’t stand on the wire.  My own fault since my bunny training is not yet complete!  I moved the pan, keep it filled, but twice since they “missed” the pan again.  I’ll keep moving it and filling it with hay until they get it.

 

We take them out 3-4 times a day to play, most times for a couple hours.  They have cardboard boxes, a few toys, crinkle tubes and tunnels to play in and they binkie all the time!  We’re living with family for the time being so they don’t have the full run of the house, but they will as soon as we’re in our own place once again.  They’ve grown so much in the past month and today we let them out on the enclosed porch and they loved it and didn’t want to come in! (Pic from

George is a bit smaller and the more curious and adventurous of the two, but still gets a little tense when picked up.  He’s also a big kisser and loves to give kisses, especially to Rosana. Sammy has grown larger than George and has no problem being picked up and cuddled at all.  In fact, he’s a big mush and just loves it.

I kept teasing Rosana that George was a “momma’s boy” and a “sissy-bunny”.  Last Wednesday morning, Rosana came running in the bedroom yelling that Sammy was humping George!  I explained that it’s a dominant behavior and happens but that was it, I KNEW he was a sissy-bunny, but this wasn’t good at all!!!  NO SON OF MINE IS GONNA…..ok, well, I calmed down a bit and checked each of them again for myself found out that George wasn’t a George, but a Georgette!  Well, THAT explains a lot, but still wasn’t good and we would not only have to rename her, but get them fixed as soon as they’re old enough.  Rosana renamed George to Susie so we have Sammy and Susie.  Here they are with our in-law’s 3.5 lb Tea-Cup Chihuaha Sasha.  Sasha is just amazed that there’s something smaller than her (pic is 2 weeks old, they’re her size or a bit bigger now!)  Susie, Sasha and Sammy:

So how we doing so far?  Any advice or constructive criticism is sincerely appreciated.  It’s amazing how a 200 lb man, retired Navy, used to running enginerooms on US Navy Destroyers can be so taken by two tiny, little, beautiful, gentle creatures, but I absolutely love them both and love to get right down on the floor with them.

Who couldn’t fall in love with those faces?

 

[LittlePuffyTail]

Welcome to Binky Bunny and to the wonderful world of loving rabbits!!! Your bunnies are so adorable! That last picture almost took my breath away it’s so cute! Congrats on your new family members!!!

It’s amazing how a 200 lb man, retired Navy, used to running enginerooms on US Navy Destroyers can be so taken by two tiny, little, beautiful, gentle creatures, but I absolutely love them both and love to get right down on the floor with them.

This made me laugh out loud!!! It’s so true, they can really steal your heart!!! I feel the same way when I see my fiance who is a hard core rock and roll type of guy snuggling with my bunnies and telling them how cute they are! Too funny!

[Sarita]

Welcome. Goodness they are cute and I can tell they are loved.

Have you considered an x-pen (or puppy pen) to house them in? That cage will be too small very soon for both of them.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Welcome!!! They are gorgeous and I think you are dong wonderfully!! Any questions are always welcome, but as for advice, I think you two are doing great!!

[msarro]

Posted By cavalcante on 08/12/2008 2:09 AM

Who couldn’t fall in love with those faces?

 

That made me go awwwwwww so loud my coworkers looked at me funny, hahaha. They’re adorable!

[Bob]

Thanks everyone for the welcome and the replies! I changed my screen name/user name to WaskawyWabbit as it was supposed to be. Pwease wespond apwopwiatewy!

I am looking for a bigger setup such as a x-pen or a NIC setup, but once we get to our next (and hopefully last) destination. We may be moving in this next week and hope to know today. This is a great forum with loads of info, I’ll be likely asking lots of questions!

Bob

[osprey]

Hi Bob, and welcome to BinkyBunny!  Your little guys are just adorable.  Being of the male persuasion myself, I know only too well what a pull these gentle creatures can have on you.

You buns are still very small, and they will be growing quickly.  Might I suggest giving them a small amount of either alfalfa pellets or alfafa hay to supplement their current diet?  The rescue that I volunteer and foster for usually gives babies access to alfalfa until they are 7-9 months old.  Their growing bodies will appreciate the extra calories.

 

[Bob]

Thanks osprey. They are truly so sweet and we’ve been handling them a LOT since we got them to socialize them. They lust love affection and being petted on a lap and it’s funny to watch one get jealous and come over for some loving when you’re petting the other. Their personalities are really starting to show.

About 10 days ago they were both 1.5 lbs. I just weighed them and Sammy is 2.5 and Susie is just 2.0 lbs. Their parents aren’t much bigger, perhaps 4 lbs or so. They do get about a cup of pellets between them per day and they don’t always finish it, but I’ll pick up some more alfalfa hay for them. They go nuts for the stuff! It must be like catnip for bunnies!

[MooBunnay]

Welcome to BinkyBunny! They are so adorable, and thanks for sharing the photos!! It sounds like you have done excellent research, and are taking excellent care of your bunnies.

The only piece of advice I have is that you have to be very very careful that you don’t end up with an unintended pregnancy, females can get pregnant at an incredibly young age (I’ve heard around 3 months at the youngest) – and just one mounting session can lead to many new baby buns! So be extra careful about their age, and you may have to separate them temporarily if they come of age and aren’t fixed right away.

My husband actually had rabbits before I did, and adopted my first little girl bun for me. He loves the bunnies too, and particularly loves the unwanted, unsociable bunnies. I have one bunny that will lunge and bite people, but when he comes around he just says “Hi Grace” and he can stick his head right in the cage and kiss her on the head, and she melts into a bunny puddle! I think men with bunnies are the BEST

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

DItto!! Men with bunnies rock!!

[skunklionshow]

They are beautiful!  I love that last pic too!  I had originally started w/ a dog crate and added on to it w/ the NIC cubes as my needs and the bunnies needs changed.  So my guess is that you can figure out a way to add up onto your current cage.  I don’t use the wire grate on my litterbox, b/c they just don’t “appreciate” that device…so you may want to just get rid of it and use the carefresh and hay on top.  Since they’re babies it might be a while to get the litter training down just right.  So cute!

[Bob]

Thanks skunklionshow, I think that’s part of it. Last night I made sure there was extra hay in the litter box and we had a dry overnight. I added a bit more hay and checked a couple hours later and sure enough there was pee on the cage floor in the corner right beside the box. Nice and orange…gave them a bit of fresh dandelion and lawn grass yesterday and they loved it!

The whole problem, I think, is that I started feeding them hay right on top of the cage bedding back when I had the whole floor covered with bedding. It wasn’t in any dispenser at all. Now they barely eat hay from the outside the cage dispenser and only eat it from the litter box. I’m wondering if a floor hay box would help? They’re foragers and are still small so lifting their heads or bodies up for hay is probably just unnatural to them. I need to give them a hay box anyway, so if that works I’ll keep the grate. If not, the grate comes out. That way I can eliminate one problem at a time. If I add the box and remove the grate and it works, I’ll never know which one was the “fix”.

One of these days MY litter training will be complete! lol…

They are so adorable and such beautiful creatures.  I love getting on the floor and letting them “Hop On Pop” and getting my face near their bowl to watch them eat…  so cute!

 

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