New to bunnies- just fell in love.

[ChelseaMorning]

Hello everyone!!

I just brought home a little bundle of overgrown saber claws, floppy ears and territorial lounging and grunting on Saturday, and I am already super enamored with her. Her name is Ruby and she is about 1 year old. She was dumped on a friend’s porch and somehow I ended up agreeing to watch her for a while. She was in this tiny cage, barely big enough to turn around in on filthy cedar bedding. She has no idea what to do with hay or greens (though her teeth look okay and she loves shredding cardboard), but I keep offering. Despite whatever this little girls early days looked like, outside of her space she is an absolute doll. She is at most indifferent and at best really friendly towards my dogs and she lay down right between my big one’s legs this afternoon and let him lick her ears. She comes to me and lets me pet her head, even after I cut her nails and cleaned her butt/anal glands. I unfortunately do not think I can keep this girl permanantly, and I will be reaching out to rescues as soon as the holiday is over, but she will have a safe foster home with me until she finds her forever family. Right now I have her in an X-pen, configured to be 6′ x 2′ with a large litter box on one side. She is great about peeing in the box, but she poops all willy nilly. I think she is just traumatized from living in her own waste. Right now she is eating some of those crappy pellets, very little hay and some kale (the only green she will touch so far). I am trying to get her to eat more fiber, but she is stubborn and probably really stressed.

 

I’m looking forward to getting advice from all the people on this great site. Please tell me your experiences with fostering bunnies, caring for them, socializing them and teaching them to enjoy life!

[Deleted User]

I’ll take her!!!! How much to post to Australia? Ha ha hah, just kidding! How “fantastic” are you! Ruby sounds so precious, my heart just melted (watch out Henry – I’m thinking of doing a trade!). Obviously I can’t help you out with info, but wanted to say how wonderful you are, and such a shame Ruby can’t keep you and your dog’s as her family. But I’m sure you’ll only pass her onto another loving grateful home. All the best ChelseaMorning. and Ruby!

[Hazel]

Thank you so much for taking her in! Sounds like she was in dire need of help.

How sure are you of her age? Did the person who dumped her on the porch actually have the guts to stick around and tell your friend about her background?! If she is indeed at least 1 year old, she needs to be spayed very very soon (I’m just going to assume she’s not spayed, considering the way they kept her). Her chance of reproductive cancer goes up every day, it will be over 85% by the time she’s 3-4.
Her negative behaviors are most likely related to not being spayed as well. Lunging, being territorial and not using the litter box properly are all hormonal behaviors.

Spaying should help with a lot of her issues and like I said it is a must for females because of the cancer risk. I don’t know what the exact reasons are that keep you from giving her a forever home, but if it’s because of her behavior, spaying should change things for the better .

Thanks again for helping this poor thing.

[ChelseaMorning]

Hi there- yes, my friend knew the dumpers and were able to track down her background to a certain extent. She is not spayed as far as I know, and from what I have read that is indeed very important. My not keeping her has nothing at all to do with the behavior, but instead is a combination of space (she is literally taking up ALL the floor space) and finances (I CANNOT afford to get her spayed or even take her for a checkup), so I will be reaching out to rescues and hoping that they will do these things for me.I live in New York City and I have 2 dogs, a cat, a bearded dragon, 2 rats, a corn snake and now Ruby, and I do not have a job at the moment. I work to support my animals while being a full time student. I also move A LOT. Doing that is hard enough with the dogs, but with Ruby, I think it might be downright impossible (although I am fantasizing about building her an enclosure under my bed). For her sake, I really should not keep her, so I am going to try not to. She deserves an amazing forever home, and I will do everything I can to get her one. She is slowly building up her endurance for moving around the house- I think she just never got to hop before, and I am really enjoying letting her try new foods (parsley, kale, collard, turnip and mustard greens, carrot tops- she won’t touch the actual carrots). I am just absolutely enamored with her, and I hope she gets the very best.

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