Rabbit support thread - Page 6

[accountclosed3]

that sounds great DM!

bunnies are wonderful! and, they tend to like brushing, which can keep allergens down a lot if that's an issue for you.

[Birth&Bunnies]

I had asked Dh if we could do the same for the shelter here, but he say NO! I hope your allergies will cooperate.

[BookGoddess]

My bunny is doing so much better now 5 months into her still unexplained bout of dizziness. She's still very dizzy but she has figured out how to get around. She has a daily routine. She hides under a bookshelf for most of the day where she naps. Then in the late afternoon she comes to her condo to eat and drink. Then she's back to scratching, digging, and chewing. This morning I caught her shredding an old magazine that had been on the floor. She was really going at it. I only leave things I don't want anymore on the floor otherwise bunny gets to work on it. I'm glad I stopped the medicine and the other treatments. I was only traumatizing her and myself with the daily doses of medicine. Not to say that giving medicine, even when the bunny doesn't want it, is a bad thing but in our situation the medicine clearly wasn't making much of a difference.

I hope your bunnies are doing well.

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

we got 2 baby bunnies this morning..were in MX and i have no idea how old they are...but they are so little...the only thing i'm really worried about is they have fleas...i've read not to put flea powder on them and use a flea comb instead...any ideas on this..also the one won't drink water out of the bottle with the little metal piece on it but the other will...how do i get that one to drink water?

[BookGoddess]

The flea comb is a good thing. It's non-toxic and gentle plus rabbits love the attention they get from grooming. Kitten flea powder should be ok. I would look for something herbal if it's available in your area. What you want to avoid are the aggressive flea treatments like sprays, dips, collars, etc. That kind of flea treatment can do more harm than good to a rabbit.

As for having the bunny drink from the metal container, I went through something similar with one of my other bunnies. You could try smearing the metal tip of the water container with a bit of ripe mashed banana. The smell will get the bunny there for they love bananas. While the bunny is lapping banana the water should come out. If all else fails, perhaps you can get one of those metal food cups that attach to the bunny's home.

[Paigekitten]

advice please!

So I have this rabbit, and right now neither of us are very happy. I have had her for a little over a year right now. Before that she used to live on someones porch (in all weather!!!!) with nothing but pellets to eat. I want her to be able to be an in-house bunny, but right now she just pees and poops all over the house, and chews like crazy.

Right now she gets out about twice a week for a couple hours each time, because that is when I am able to follow her around and make sure she doesn't rip up my carpet. She still pees all over, and I have already had to replace countless lamps, televisions, phone chargers, and computer cords.

I try putting things down that she CAN chew on (wood, paper), but I still find bunny teeth marks all over the place after I put her away.

I have also tried putting a bunny litter pan with hay and some poop (so it smells right) next to her while she is out, but she doen't even pay attention to it, let alone pee in it.

I have tried letting her out in the kitchen, because it doesn't matter if she pees in there, but it freaks her out, and she slides around on the slick floor in a panic. I tried putting a towel down for her in there so she won't slide around, but she won't sit on it.

So right now she spends her life sleeping in her cage, getting some pets and loves in the morning with her food, and I spend my life feeling guilty about being a bad bunny parent.

Any advice?

[accountclosed3]

living with a bunny means accepting a certain measure of chaos.

in truth, you have to adapt to your rabbit.

first, keep all cords and anything you don't want chewed out of rabbit eyesight, smell, hear, and feel capacities. you can wrap all cords in pipe cleaners, then pin them up high so that the rabbit cannot chew them. if you look at our bookshelves, you'll see that the bottom two shelves are either empty or have metal containers that we filled with stuff that the rabbit couldnt chew or get into.

second, anying that you can't move needs to be sprayed with something rabbits don't like. i used to polish my furniture with olive oil in which i soaked garlic and habenaro peppers. this makes it spicy-hot. this will keep them from chewing furniture, etc.

third, your rabbit is obviously a chewer/digger--mine was too. we ultimately gave up on carpets and bought laminate. he learned how to walk on it, no problem. it only took a day. we put out bath mats for him to sleep on in his favorite sleeping spots, and so he had comfy spaces to rest his bunny body.

if you can't afford that, spray the carpet with the spicy stuff. i would use a vinegar with habenaro pepper blend. the scent should be deterent enough. of course, everyone will smell it.

as for the litter box, this requires some training. Rabbit urine is very thick and heavy and has a strong scent. rabbits will follow that smell to a given space. she probably has a favorite spot in which to pee, and so you want to make sure to clean that up completely.

start by taking the urine up with paper towels, and then use all of the cleansers and neutralizers that you have to get the smell out of the carpet. put the urine-filled paper towels into the litter box, and then begin to encourage the rabbit to use it. Rabbits make a face when they're about to pee--so look out for it--and as soon as she makes that face, pick her up (she'll hold the pee then) and put her in the box. she will start using it.

if she pees anywhere else, be sure to neutralize the smell as best you can.

but seriously, if possible, get new floors. LOL

as for the issue of pooping everywhere, some rabbits never get the idea of pooping in the box. October j was an 85% pee in the box, 15% poop in the box. This means that it was 15% pee outside of the box and 85% poop outside of the box.

i would just sweep each evening and morning.

our guy was a total free roamer, so i just lived with poop on the floor until the end of the day, otherwise, you're doing nothing but sweeping poop 24/7. of course, i didn't have any kids when october j was alive, and no adult is going to put poo in their mouths.

so, if you have little ones, educate them about rabbit poop and suggest that they leave it be until you sweep it once the bunny is up and away.

good luck!

[dharmamama]

Our foster bunny, Mimi, is not a free range rabbit (partially due to the limitations of our life, partially due to the agreement we signed with the Humane Society), so I bought an exercise pen for her. Her rabbitat is in the exercise pen, so she can go in and out as much as she likes and get all the exercise she needs. Exercise pens cost anywhere from $45 on up, depending on how big and tall they are and where you buy them. I got mine for $60 on Amazon.

I actually tried taking her rabbitat (cage) out of the pen and just giving her a nesting box so she'd have even more room, but she immediately used the nesting box as a vault to jump out of the pen (which is 3 feet high), so I went back to putting her rabbitat in the pen. The top is made of wire, so she doesn't like to jump onto it.

dm

[Paigekitten]

Originally Posted by zoebird

third, your rabbit is obviously a chewer/digger--mine was too. we ultimately gave up on carpets and bought laminate. he learned how to walk on it, no problem. it only took a day. we put out bath mats for him to sleep on in his favorite sleeping spots, and so he had comfy spaces to rest his bunny body.

Well, I can keep her in the kitchen while I bunny proof, there isn't a lot of damage she can do in there. She freaked out about the floor, but it's good to know that she will eventually get used to it.

if you can't afford that, spray the carpet with the spicy stuff. i would use a vinegar with habenaro pepper blend. the scent should be deterent enough. of course, everyone will smell it.

Unfortunately we are in an apartment, so new floors aren't an option right now. Did you just soak the pepper in the vinegar?

Rabbits make a face when they're about to pee--so look out for it--and as soon as she makes that face, pick her up (she'll hold the pee then) and put her in the box. she will start using it.

Okay, I have a dumb question, which shows just how LITTLE I know about rabbits.....how do I pick her up without her freaking out?

I can live with the poop right now. The baby isn't mobile yet.

Originally Posted by dharmamama

Exercise pens cost anywhere from $45 on up, depending on how big and tall they are and where you buy them. I got mine for $60 on Amazon.

How tall do they need to be? What I mean is, how high can rabbits jump? Would a dog exercise pen work?

[dharmamama]

Ours is 36 inches tall, and Mimi cannot jump out of it without the assistance of some sort of springboard. The one at the Humane Society is 24 inches tall, and she can jump out of it just from the floor.

dm

[accountclosed3]

october j was a big boy (though medium by rabbit standards at 7-8 lbs) and he could actually jump pretty high, though when we travelled we had one of those fold-able child pens that can open up pretty large and we used that. i suppose the sides were 3 ft high. he never jumped them.

to soak a habenero pepper in anything--you need to cut little slits in the pepper and then soak it in whatever (oil, vinegar, etc). wear gloves while doing this, the oil stays on your fingers and if you rub your eyes, it's torture.

that's a good way to add a huge kick to chili too--just put slits in the pepper and let it sit in the pot for about 20 mintues, and then pull it out. it's spicy!

as for picking her up, i would just gently grab her under her fore arms, under the rib cage like you would pick up a cat, and then put the other hand under her feet. then, carry her to the box.

[BookGoddess]

I found the thread, Zoebird!

My bunny with unexplained dizziness (two separate vets couldn't figure out what was wrong) is still eating, drinking, responding to attention, and taking an interest in snacks yet she sleeps a lot more and isn't moving around as much. Sometimes I wonder if her vertigo is really bothering her and if I'm not doing her a kindness by making a very hard decision. I've been spared this decision with my other pets who passed on so I don't know how one decides when the time has come.

I wax and wane about whether the time has come. There are good days and bad days. My bunny likes it when I pet her. She makes those happy bunny sounds. She likes having her treats. She eats all her food every day. She drinks her water. So on that front she's fine. On the other hand, she stays in her condo A LOT, like most of the day. She used to move about the room a lot more but now she doesn't do it as much. I don't know if being dizzy is finally bothering her a lot. She also is completely blind because of cataracts. I don't know if her behavior is an eye issue or if she's slowing down because she is very old and so she would have been this way even without being dizzy or having cataracts. *sigh*

[GranoLLLy-girl]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

I found the thread, Zoebird!

My bunny with unexplained dizziness (two separate vets couldn't figure out what was wrong) is still eating, drinking, responding to attention, and taking an interest in snacks yet she sleeps a lot more and isn't moving around as much. Sometimes I wonder if her vertigo is really bothering her and if I'm not doing her a kindness by making a very hard decision. I've been spared this decision with my other pets who passed on so I don't know how one decides when the time has come.

I wax and wane about whether the time has come. There are good days and bad days. My bunny likes it when I pet her. She makes those happy bunny sounds. She likes having her treats. She eats all her food every day. She drinks her water. So on that front she's fine. On the other hand, she stays in her condo A LOT, like most of the day. She used to move about the room a lot more but now she doesn't do it as much. I don't know if being dizzy is finally bothering her a lot. She also is completely blind because of cataracts. I don't know if her behavior is an eye issue or if she's slowing down because she is very old and so she would have been this way even without being dizzy or having cataracts. *sigh*

Basic question--did the vet rule out head tilt?

[BookGoddess]

She has head tilt but nothing we've done aas worked. It has been 8 months since it came on (see my posts #34 and #44 in this thread). We did head x-rays which showed a blockage in the inner ear. Both vets said it wasn't possible to surgically remove the blockage. We did an oral antibiotic for a while and weekly pencillin-g shots and even acupuncture. Nothing helped. The tilt didn't get worse either. It hasn't improved either although she manages to get around when she wants to by circling. She doesn't roll. She manages to keep her balance. I wish I knew if she was in pain or having nausea. It's so hard to tell.