Rabbit progress

Our new pet came out of "hiding" (next to rabbit house) within hours
and now shows little fear of the cats - who are still fascinated. I
haven't seen them so absorbed in anything in a long, long time.... The
only one not paying attention so far is Baby Eyes, but that's probably
because she's constantly hanging out in Dave's room, which is far from
the "hutch" area.

Rabbit consumed half a bowl of rabbit pellets and all of the fresh
greens. I'm trying a new set of greens today, to learn what rabbit
prefers. This time, the salad contains dandelion, chicory, arugula,
lambs quarters, mallow and wild carrot, with just a few sprigs of red
clover and a bit of parsley. We'll see which ones disappear first.

And today there's rabbit poo in the litterbox!

On May 1, 10:08*am, hopitus wrote:
Just keep an eye on Bunnykins in case he /she takes a shine to one of
your
cats to mate with.

A male rabbit will mount anything- I had one that enthusiastically
mounted a cylinder vacuum cleaner! (He was drunk at the time through)

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On May 1, 10:41*am, hopitus wrote:
Unlike cats I don't think they jump up on high furniture.....


They can jump and often do spectacular jumps when playing but whereas
cats like high places for security- rabbits prefer to be under cover
for security so they don't particularly jump onto furniture although I
can't vouch for house rabbits

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Lesley Madigan wrote:
On May 1, 10:08 am, hopitus wrote:
Just keep an eye on Bunnykins in case he /she takes a shine to one of
your
cats to mate with.

A male rabbit will mount anything- I had one that enthusiastically
mounted a cylinder vacuum cleaner! (He was drunk at the time through)

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Girl I worked with had a female Siamese cat (unaltered) and a male
dachshund. When the Siamese came in heat the first time, the office was
taking bets as to whether she'd give birth to kittens or puppies! (Hey,
he was only trying to help her out - a female Siamese in heat could give
howling lessons to Banshees.)

Pat wrote:

Rabbit consumed half a bowl of rabbit pellets and all of the fresh
greens. I'm trying a new set of greens today, to learn what rabbit
prefers. This time, the salad contains dandelion, chicory, arugula,
lambs quarters, mallow and wild carrot, with just a few sprigs of red
clover and a bit of parsley. We'll see which ones disappear first.

Wow - save some of that for me!

And today there's rabbit poo in the litterbox!

Do rabbits actually use litterboxes? I thought they just left "raisins"
all over the place.

Joyce

--
I'm in favor of animal liberation. Why? Because I'm an animal.
-- Edward Abbey

wrote:
Pat wrote:
dandelion, chicory, arugula, lambs quarters, mallow and
* wild carrot, with just a few sprigs of red clover and a bit
* of parsley.

Wow - save some of that for me!

The yard is full of all the right stuff for rabbits, and the
plentiful, plentiful rain is making it grow like there's no tomorrow.
This bunny seems to be a munching machine. Has eaten all of the greens
I put in the cage this morning, and is working on a second serving.
Definitely prefers red clover above all others. Glad I didn't pull all
of it out. (I've been trying to encourage the white clover as a ground
cover, because it doesn't grow as tall. And pulling out the red
clover, because it smothers everything else.)

I've seen quite a few video clips today of cats and rabbits
interacting peacefully. I'm sure that when this one is a little
bigger, I will be able to let it have the run of the house with the
cats. It seems absolutely fearless

On 02/05/2011 05:18, Pat wrote:
The yard is full of all the right stuff for rabbits, and the
plentiful, plentiful rain is making it grow like there's no tomorrow.
This bunny seems to be a munching machine. Has eaten all of the greens
I put in the cage this morning, and is working on a second serving.
Definitely prefers red clover above all others. Glad I didn't pull all
of it out. (I've been trying to encourage the white clover as a ground
cover, because it doesn't grow as tall. And pulling out the red
clover, because it smothers everything else.)

Red clover seems to be a favourite among herbivores. My sister had a
tortoise who loved red clover over everything else.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

On Sun, 1 May 2011 11:53:23 -0700 (PDT), Lesley Madigan
wrote:

On May 1, 10:41*am, hopitus wrote:
Unlike cats I don't think they jump up on high furniture.....


They can jump and often do spectacular jumps when playing but whereas
cats like high places for security- rabbits prefer to be under cover
for security so they don't particularly jump onto furniture although I
can't vouch for house rabbits

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs


Rabbits tend to like to stay on the floor.

They DO NOT like to be picked up. At all.

If they get upset while being held, they can kick their hind legs so
hard, it can snap their spine.

I have seen this happen

If you must pick them up, it is VERY important that they be held close
to the body, with their hindquarters immobilized; either with one hand,
or by placing he rabbit's hindquarters firmly against your body, to
prevent them from kicking, and possibly causing non-survivable damage to
themselves.

On May 3, 12:11*pm, (Nobody) wrote:

Rabbits tend to like to stay on the floor.

They DO NOT like to be picked up. At all.


As long as they're handled just as you described and from an early age
rabbits are okay about being picked up- they'll never enjoy it the way
cats like to be hugged and they'll struggle if you don't support their
bottom (In fact the way of picking them up and holding them is
virtually the same as the way you would pick a cat up from the floor)
but they are okay with it for short periods (and just like cats it
depends on the rabbits temperament- I wouldn;t have picked Fugazi (RB)
up without wearing a suit of armour for my own safety but her sister
Isis (also RB) begged to be picked up- we used to reckon she was so
lazy she liked being carried around as it saved on her walking)

I used to show rabbits and we started picking them up for short
periods like a few seconds when they were very young and rewarding
them for not struggling with a treat then build up on that as a show
rabbit has to tolerate being held by owner whilst stranger checks a
back leg (they have their registration rings on their back legs) then
the stranger lays them flat on their back along their arm for a second
or so to check for diarrhoea (any rabbit found to have it is
immediately put back in the carrier and the steward goes off to scrub
their hands as infection control) if bunny is clear, the steward then
does a quick going over to look for things like eye or nasal discharge
(Disqualified again), coat shiny, ribs not visible etc then hands
bunny back to owner with a pen number, owner takes bunny to pen
complete with sticker in their ear showing the pen number, bunny
waits around until their table is called at which point a complete
stranger comes to collect bunny and carry to show table where a judge
will handle bunny before asking another complete stranger to carry
bunny back to pen,,,,,If this bunny has won a class they'll be
retrieved from the pen by a number of strangers as they go up the
scale...so say for example I'm showing Angus (so called because the
tuff of hair between his eyes looked like a clump of heather- so he';d
been called Heather until we realised he had 2 lumps were no lady
rabbit has one and my brother said "Angus" sounded Scottish) In what
was then the 3rd biggest show in the UK, he got 4th in the juvenile
fur class (owner under 14) then went on to win his breed class (adult
silver fox) then went back to be judged in the fur group and won best
fur (Rabbits are grouped into fur, fancy and rex) then was once again
hauled from his pen to be judged against the other group winners and
was awarded best in show (one judge loved the way he kept trying to
eat her pencil) at which point he was photographed being held by his
proud owner

But if at any point he hadn't been easy to handle he could have been
disqualified...the reason for his well behaved charm ?every time he
was returned to his pen his owner slipped him a carrot

I haven't thought about the fun I had doing that for years- but I have
just opened an old briefcase and taken out the 50+ rosettes including
Angus' best in show from that day

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

"Lesley Madigan" wrote in message
...
On May 3, 12:11 pm, (Nobody) wrote:

Rabbits tend to like to stay on the floor.

They DO NOT like to be picked up. At all.


As long as they're handled just as you described and from an early age
rabbits are okay about being picked up- they'll never enjoy it the way
cats like to be hugged and they'll struggle if you don't support their
bottom (In fact the way of picking them up and holding them is
virtually the same as the way you would pick a cat up from the floor)

(Snipped - a lot of fascinating information about rabbits)

*Some* cats may enjoy being picked up and/or hugged. I've had a number of
cats over the years. Only one of them really enjoyed being picked up. You
could hold him in your arms as long as you wanted to - provided you didn't
sit down. Two or three have tolerated hugs, but I can only remember one who
really seemed to enjoy being hugged. Most of those I've had enjoyed sitting
on my lap, as long as it was their idea. Two or three have snuggled in bed.
Cats are individuals, and, apparently, so are rabbits.

Joy