October chat

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

White rabbit, white rabbit, white rabbit!

Let’s rabbit on about rabbits this autumn ^_^

I wanted to start this month with good news: Molly has calmed down so much that we can remove one of the double fence panels during the day. It’s the one that’s farthest away from her litter box, bowl and lounging spot. We supervise, but so far they only groom each other and snuggle up again. Molly seems a bit happier and is flopping a lot more 🥰

 

Molly’s been through a lot of medical tests in the last months, and it made her even more frightened/aggressive towards us and her brother. She attacked Owen when he came too close to her pen. We moved her pen so she has solid walls on 3 sides. On the open side there’s a double fence so Owen can’t get too close.

She used to attack us when we changed the litter box, but she hasn’t attacked us for days, so we wanted to see how she’d react to a meeting spot for her and Owen. At first she reacted with a scared toot when Owen investigated, but she kept coming back to the spot. Instead of beating him with her paws she was inquisitive, and then there was mutual grooming.

[GlennTheLionhead]

Hey!

Aww little Molly whats going on! I wouldn’t be surprised if this is territorial aggression hightened by having an unbonded bun around i.e owen.. Are you still trying to bond Molly and Owen?

Glenn and Nellie are doing well…they have a vet check up tomorrow because Glenn’s ears have been a bit floppier than usual.. And of course its time for a general health check!

Nellies coming out of her shell very slowly but well.. We can walk, stand and sit around her without her running away and she will now let us pet her if she is eating a treat or forgage…. Shes come a long way from trembling in the presence of humans.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

That’s amazing, so good to hear that Nellie is making so much progress!

Good luck at the V-E-T, and I’m hoping that they won’t give you bunny butt 😉

 

Owen and Molly had some really cute weeks together, and then something happened that made them fall out again and again. Molly still tooted and sprayed urine while they were together, so we gave them their own pen and called the clinic for help.

That went really well, until she got aggressive in her pen too 🙁 That was after her first visits to the clinic. We tried to move one of them to the bedroom to see if that would alleviate her anxiety, but then they both stopped eating…

It seems like they do want to be together, but that Molly is going through some issues that need to be addressed. She does seem to take comfort in him, because she’s much more relaxed now that they have a spot where they can cuddle up.

Our little girl has more issues than the New York Times, but we still love her to bits.

 

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

This thread is useless without pics!

Grooming:

Relaxing together:

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Oh my, the love of a bunny… So warm… and rather smelly… oh dear god what did you just do!?!

Yeah, Owen peed on me in bed tonight at 5:30 in the morning. I hope I didn’t wake the neighbours, because I was swearing his ears off 🤬

He’s fully free-roam at night, and normally it’s just cozy when he drops by for a visit. It doesn’t really break my sleep.

I was laying on my side and thought that he was finally sitting down next to me to get petted, but instead he lifted his tail and peed all over my arm 😕

Dominance, trying to mix in his scent, or a bunny love letter… Bas suspects that it’s a dominance thing: the bunnies act really differently when he’s over here for the weekend. Whatever it is, please don’t.

[Plumped Cuddly Bunnies]

What I find very interesting is that you free roam your bunny and he jumps up onto your bed? If I did this with my bunnies they would tear the house to shreds and bite holes and chew the bed sheets. I would love to be able to free roam in the same way you do.

Is it to do with the breeds?

I noticed my lop makes a better house bunny as he tends not to want to chew and destroy everything in sight. He is quite well behaved but he is living out in the yard right now because I have two Does in the house who are not spayed. The two does get to free roam but with restrictions. They both get supervised playtime. I will probably do a swap over at some point and put the does out in the yard and bring in the lop buck to live indoors.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Free-roaming goes in small steps and doesn’t happen right from the start. Especially if they’re young they’re still very destructive, and some bunnies may never become free-roamers. Others can free-roam but go back to their pen at night. And all of that’s okay.

Owen is a little over a year old now and we let him free-roam at night. He stopped peeing on me since I laid a rolled-up towel against me at night. He still hops onto the bed, even when Bas is here, but then he just walks around and checks for a treat.

[prince dorian the bun]

LOL, @Ellie from the Netherlands, you have a handful with those two!

I love the idea of them snuggling in bed with me, but it’s usually digging or chewing the blankets or playing under the bed. And I could totally see Dorian peeing on me… he’s done it before! 😅 In fact night time is really the only time they get put in their room. They often put themselves in there these days.

Miu is finally becoming more social, she’s way more into pets and even comes when called. Is likely to give you a look if there isn’t some food involved, but she will stay for a single pet and some compliments before scampering back off on one of her adventures. Speaking of the fact that the slippy floor is not a no go zone for her is taking some getting used to. Dorian does not go on slippy floor, so we tend to forget that she can and that meant she snuck outside while I was taking out the garbage. No worse for wear (in fact she had a grand time!) and outside in this case is just my front deck, but now I have to remember not to leave the door open with out having a fence up.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Awww, Miu is so brave and making such good progress! And it does take getting used to a bunny who doesn’t need a carpet! Our Molly walks into the kitchen now… 😯

[Bam]

Ellie, not a nice surprise but one that Vilde bestowed on me ever so often 😂

PlumpedCuddlyBunnies, many buns cant be free roamed just at once. Most need to be pennwd at night for quite some time. Pretty much anybunny can be interested in chewing bed linen, baseboards and, in my bun’s case, the underside of my bed. The bed chewing is very annoying, the whole bed shakes, so I shut her out of my bedroom at night.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Oh dear… We watched a documentary called “Remarkable rabbits” and it showed that urine marking is a typical male way of saying: “You and me, hun!”. I’m happy to report a week of dry nights: I rolled up an old towel and lay that against me now. Owen still hops onto the bed and comes to look for a treat, but I haven’t received any love letters.

Last night Owen was particularly happy, and he binkied across the bed several times. I just laughed every time and fell asleep again. As long as he doesn’t do this every night I’m fine with it. I’m much like a bunny in that way anyway: it’s better for my illness to have 2 or 3 short sleeps than 1 long one. Already looking forward to taking afternoon naps together with the fluffbutts!

[Azerane]

It’s been a while. I keep forgetting my password 😆

We moved house a few weeks ago, so pleased to have found somewhere new to live. Still getting settled but the animals adjusted well.

Luna had her kidneys checked the other day. When the vet was going over her history (we had to see a different one than normal), she confirmed that Luna had calicivirus (RHDV) early this year. Something that my vet had speculated but then moved away from as a diagnosis.  How she survived I’ll never know, and how Apollo didn’t catch it I’ll never know either.

Luna’s urine test results have come back showing that she is now in kidney failure, not just kidney disease. What that means for her life expectancy now I’m not sure. I’m not even sure what stage she was classed at before since I never asked. When chatting to the vet at the appointment she did mention average life expectancy from diagnosis was about 2 years, we’re coming up on that in a couple of months. Still waiting on another call back from the clinic to organise her medication but will ask some more questions then.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Talk about ups and downs Azerane… Luna must be a medical miracle, I’ve never heard of rabbits surviving that. Really hoping that something can be done for her.

Aww man, Australia is one of the worst places for a bunny to live. I hate it that they haven’t approved the vaccine for pets, it’s so needlessly cruel 😥 It’s not like they’ll transfer that immunity to others, because the vaccine needs to be repeated every year. Even if they were dumped in the wild and got offspring, the antibodies would only protect the kittens for a short time.

[Plumped Cuddly Bunnies]

Well I’ve never seen my male bunny so worked up. I went out to feed him and top up his water bowl and he went crazy started jumping up at me biting running circles around me biting at my shoes and legs trying to jump up at me. At one point I had to shake him off my leg. He is now stamping his back foot constantly running around outside like a headless chicken. .

[Bam]

Plumped CuddlyBunnies, he could perhaps be mad with sexual desire? My bridge bun Bam displayed similar behavior directed at my dog. He was totally obsessed. She was not happy. It stopped after I had him neutered.

Azerane, I’m very sorry about Luna. How remarkable that she has survived calici.

[Author]

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