Rabbits Rule!

The Sugar Man

2008-02-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

This is Spicy Girl's man. I always had a hard time calling him Sugar since that seems a female name. You can always see his hair bounce in this picture. This is a really long-haired rabbit. He's pure white with gray nose, ears and tail, not that you can ever see the tail under all that long hair. He's kind red eyes. Much more outgoing than Spice, he loved to sneak out of the kitchen and visit all the other rabbits in the house.

More Spice

2008-02-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's another picture of Spice. Your can barely see the little bit of white on her nose.

The Spice Girl

2008-02-12T11:09:00.001-08:00

This is Spice. She was one of my foster rabbits until recently. She's a Jersey Wooly, like Hillary, mostly black head and ears and mottled black and white very long hair. She's pretty shy. When I'd pick her up she'd make little grunting sounds like she was afraid, but then she'd snuggle in and be happy to be held for hours.

Death of Topsy

2008-02-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't written in here since Topsy died last April. My energy for writing about rabbits sort of went out of me when she was gone. She was only three years old and I don't know what caused her death. She started snorting and sneezing. It seemed like it would go away. It had before. When after a few minutes it didn't I rushed her to the Animal Emergency Center but she was dead when we arrived. Even now it's hard to write about it.

Attached is video I'd taken only a few days before of Topsy and Quinn, who had just made friends, and are were looking forward to playing and hanging out together for a long time. I treasure having more than a still picture of her!

Rabbits outside

2007-04-22T14:05:00.001-07:00


Eleanor, Charlie and Quinn are outside to enjoy the lovely spring weather. Sunny and NOT TOO HOT!

Hillary outside for the first time

2007-04-22T13:54:00.001-07:00


Hillary, the Jersey Wooly rabbit, explores the outside world

Another foster: Hillary, a Jersey Wooly

2007-03-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hillary's staying with me till she gets rid of a cold. She needs medicine twice a day and I'm giving her probiotics and immune system boosting herbals more often than that.

She a sweet little thing--can't weigh much more than two pounds. If she looks bigger, it's really all fur. The Jersey Wooly was initially bred by crossing a Netherland Dwarf with an Angora rabbit. They come in lots of colors. Hillary looks sort of like a Blue Point Siamese or Himalayian cat. She has blue eyes, which is fairly unusual in rabbits.

Over the weekend, I built a condo for visiting rabbits. This one is perfect for a tiny rabbit like Hillary. It's 28" by 42" and 28" high, with little rooms on 4 levels. She has her two litter boxes, one with litter and one with hay. She can eat hay out of the latter but she still uses it as litter.

Speaking of hay, this long-haired rabbit needs hay even more than a short-haired rabbit because the risk of ingesting too much hair while grooming itself is considerable. She needs combing out often, but it's not onerous because she loves it--sits still and lets me comb. She must know her chances of finding a loving home depend on her looks!

Hillary is sweet-tempered and cuddly. Because she's so little the condo with four levels gives her considerable exercise. She likes to run around on the floor too, but you have to look at the world from rabbit level to remove all the potential hazards first. Things like wires she might chew or hidey holes she might vanish into.

In the picture, she's sitting on the 4th level. Rabbits like both high perches and little spaces so this little spot is perfect.

Bonding Bunnies

2007-03-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

Bunnies are social animals and they like to have friends, but they're particular about who their friends are. Experts say the easiest to "bond" are are a spayed female and a neutered male, though same sex partnerships are often successful too, especially when bunnies are brothers or sisters and are adopted together.

If you have a single bunny who needs a friend, take your bunny along when you look for a partner. My dwarf albino Charlie didn't like the little hotot who was his size at all and picked a part lop bunny twice his size.

I took Topsy along and she got along with several of the bunnies. I picked Quinn because he was both cuddly and assertive. But he'd just been neutered so I decided to keep them separate for awhile. It took more than a month before his first impulse was not to mount her. And they always started to fight. So I started putting them together for short periods every day and separating them before the fight started.

The standoff seemed to be who would groom who first. I could almost hear them saying, "OK, if you lick my nose, I'll lick yours!" Finally, yesterday I saw Topsy grooming Quinn and then a while later Quinn grooming Topsy and sure enough, now they're friends. I'm not quite ready to leave them alone together when I'm not here but clearly that's coming. Thanks goodness. I was worried there for awhile!

Stormy, a Fuzzy Lop

2007-03-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

The Bunny Buddies, rabbit rescue organization I belong to, currently still have more than 50 rabbits available for adoption as a result of a seizure of rabbits from a breeder who could no longer care for them. It's been a huge project for the organization. Individuals are "fostering" as many as 16 rabbits. Most of the rabbits are Jersey Woolies or Fuzzy Lops.

Recently I took Stormy, a Fuzzy Lop, home for the weekend from a local business where the owner is taking care of a bunch--and where I volunteer twice a week. I thought she needed socializing since she bit me twice. Turns out, though, she was just scared. She's really a lovely ball of black, white, gray and brown fur, with ears that go to the floor. She loves to have her fur brushed--good thing since it will have to be done often--and she'll sit quietly in my lap for hours. She's also an active investigator when I let her roam in my bedroom. All the "rabbit proofing" I did for Quinn is more than good enough to keep her safe since she's not the jumper he is.

I already have 4 rabbits, but am mighty tempted by this one!

New Rabbit Condos.

2007-02-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last couple of days building a new condo for Topsy and her new friend, Quinn. There's a lower unit and an upper unit. Each has a perch where the rabbit can jump up. Quinn's has carpeting on it and Topsy has her monogramed fake sheep fleece pet bed. The litter box goes underneath and there's a rug in the open space. Each unit is 28" by 42" and 28" high so they can stand up on their hind legs if they want to.

The condos are built out of plastic-covered wire squares designed to build bookcases. I get them at Target. They're put together with the plastic ties for electrical cables. I just discovered that there's a tool that tightens the electrical tie--well worth investing in. The floors are "coroplast", available from art supply and hobby stores. It looks like corrugated cardboard but is made of plastic. It comes in many colors.

The advantage of the multi-story condo is that it saves space. You can also build them with stairs and ramps so that rabbits can roam over multiple stories. My rabbits spend most of their time running around the house so they won't be closed in here all the time. Topsy will probably have the door to her condo open most of the time since she's used to just roaming the house. In the future I may have to build an outside stair for Quinn so he and come and go freely.

Chewing bunnies

2007-01-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

I just found this picture--my first glimpse of Mr. Quinn at the Bunny Buddies' "adoption day" in December. If I'd looked more closely I'd have realized that Quinn was a "chewer". See where he's been chewing the side of the box? Not that I'd have loved him less. He's been a delight, but rabbits who chew are a real problem.

First of all, rabbits need to chew because their teeth grow continuously and chewing keeps them appropriately filed down. You need to give them chewy things to eat--hay, sticks, etc., as well as "chewing posts" -- something challenging to chew that's not forbidden, sort of like a cat's "scratching post". Quinn currently has an old wooden knife rack and a wooden footstool, but he hasn't definitively learned yet what's allowed and what's not.

Left to his own devices Quinn chews cardboard boxes, baskets, wood furniture where there's a edge for him to get his teeth around, books, and woodwork (he's even chewed at shoulder height by jumping up on the bed and sitting on top of a pile of pillows to attack the door frame). He chews plastic occasionally but it's obviously not as satisfactory as wood so he usually gives it up quickly. He'll occasionally chew fabric--preferably heavy ones like rugs. He's better than a predecessor, Mr. Tops, who chewed holes in any clothing you happened to leave in his reach (sheets, blankets, towels, t-shirts, etc.), but at least Mr. Tops didn't go in for rugs.

Eventually rabbits learn what they're allowed to do and what not, but it's important to restrict their access until they do learn and to make your lessons clear. And it's paramount to give them something they are allowed to chew.

Quinn, the athlete

2007-01-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

Quinn (aka Harleigh Quinn Rabbit) is very active. His binkies are superb. He climbs and jumps places I never thought to bunny proof. He's unbelievably fast.

Harleigh Quinn Rabbit

2006-12-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

We have a new foster rabbit in the house. I hope he'll be a companion for Topsy but he's just been neutered and is still feeling his hormones so I'll keep them apart for awhile. If it doesnt' work out, I'll keep him until he finds a permanent home so he doesnt' have to live in a shelter. BUT, I'm already getting attached to him.

He's a harlequin rabbit, without the perfect marking that make a champion. As if we cared about that. He's young--not sure how young--and probably not full grown. I'd estimate he weighs now in the 4-5 lb. range.

He was supposedly not litter trained; he's catching on fast, though, if that's the case.

Charlie wrapped up in a towel.

2006-10-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

Charlie gets wrapped up in a towel to get his medicine. It's a variation on the "bunny burrito", designed to immobilize a reluctant bunny. Charlie is willing so he doesn't have to be restrained. He's had recurrent Snuffles lately and he's taking herbs and probiotics and vitamins.

Topsy hiding under the bed

2006-08-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Topsy is on her "second story" but she's got underneath the pet bed she sleeps in. You can just see an ear sticking up behind the bed.

Here you can distinctly see a rabbit ear.

Clearly it's a bunny under the bed here.
Topsy jumps down! (Note her bed has her name on it.)

Charlie's private space

2006-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Charlie has a cardboard box hideaway and the entrance to the box is a straw tunnel. Here he is hiding away.

Grooming

2006-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Rabbits groom each other if they're friends, as Charlie and Eleanor are. They've been living together since June of 2002. They're licking each other in this picture. Possibly they're more than usually affectionate since Charlie has been sick with an upper respiratory infection and has been separated more than usual from Eleanor.

The chain is holding the bookcase up—has nothing to do with rabbit restraint!

Hiding in confined spaces

2006-04-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

Rabbits like to feel safe. When they're in the open, even inside with no other pets, they seek out places they perceive as "safe", like under a chair. Here Charlie and Eleanor are under a table—Eleanor is under the bottom shelf of a bookcase. Also up against a big basket. The basket holds paper for the shredder—we use shredded paper for rabbit litter. They know they can jump inside the basket, which is always full to the top, and throw out paper or nibble on it.

Grazing

2006-04-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Eleanor's eating from one of the hay racks on the side of the rabbit house. (I got them a Lowe's for a couple of dollars each—they're intended for spice racks or something—in the kitchen gadget areas anyway.)

I found this arrangement easier than baskets of hay which they always dump. As you can see, though, they still pull down quite a bit. They're pretty messy. I will say for them, though, that they keep the mess in their own house. Charlie and Eleanor live in this house and have the run of a couple of rooms except at night.

Veggies! I got veggies!

2006-04-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

Rabbits need lots of fiber. Make sure their food has high fiber—20% or more—and have grass hay available for them all the time. Alfalfa hay is too rich for a "free choice" food—mine get that only as a treat. [I get food and hay from Oxbow. The maintenance food for adult rabbits has between 25% and 29% fiber. ]

Topsy loves her veggies too. On that plate are parsley, broccoli, snow peas, kale. There was probably a slice or two of carrot—she eats those first of course. Bugs Bunny is not an aberration in his passion for carrots!

I try to make sure there are at least 3 different veggies on her plate every day. My vet says to feed them grass too occasionally, especially if they have any digestive troubles. Lots of fiber and not much nutrition, but much closer to the diet rabbits eat in the wild.

Mr. Tops and Misty

2006-04-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

This picture should perhaps be on the header of Rabbits Rule! because it shows a rabbit intimidating a cat. Misty was a pretty bad cat, with the bad temper that's rumored to affect calicos. She was also part Siamese, in body type and certainly in her aloofness.

She'd been mistreated when I rescued her and never really warmed up to people, let alone to rabbits. She stalked Mr. Tops relentlessly, always pouncing to find that the rabbit had disappeared as if by magic. You could see "Where'd he go?" working its way through her head. But here Mr. Tops had had enough and is cowing her!

Eleanor Outside

2006-04-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

I've just started taking the bunnies out for awhile in the mornings. It's good for them to get sun and fresh air. I have a small play yard, but would like a bigger pen where they could stay unsupervised. Eleanor and Topsy I know won't jump out. Topsy is likely to.

Red-Eyed Charlie

2006-03-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

Charlie was quite upset that he didn't get a new picture on the blog today so here he is pulling his dish up to eat. (Note that I managed to get the red out of his red eyes. They always come out orange, but this fix has at least the pink part right. The pupils are really dark red, but this isn't bad.)

Eleanor the Wise Bun

2006-03-30T07:18:00.000-08:00

A new picture of Eleanor, my intellectual bunny. She's a beautiful creature, with soft fluffy fur that makes her delightful to hold or pet. But actually she is sort of a loner. Charlie picked her out as his partner and she's come to love him, but she won't have anything to do with Topsy and she growls at me until I start petting her when she, reluctantly, gives in to the pleasure.

She can be pretty fierce. A part lop, her ears go up or down and some times straight ahead. Then she looks like a charging bull. I'll have to try to get a picture of that.

Here, though, she just finishing her dinner and thinking her deep thoughts!

My silver bunny!

2006-03-30T07:07:00.000-08:00

When I first saw Topsy at the shelter, I had no intention of getting another rabbit. I went with a friend to "adoption Sunday"—she was thinking about a rabbit. Just before we were about to leave, I volunteered to help move some other rabbits in the shelter to the room where the event was taking place. I walked in and took one look at this bold shining silver rabbit and said, "That's my bunny!"

The Rabbitat

2006-02-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

It's sort of hard to see the set up here. In the distance is the enclosed part (3 cubes by 3 cubes) and in the foreground is the "yard". There's a door there that I use to separate Charlie and Eleanor at mealtime because otherwise Eleanor eats Charlie's food. It also gives me a way to separate them if one is sick. They have separate little boxes and water bowls but when they're together, they both use both of them.

The floor is a piece of linoleum, edged with tiles to keep it down--and to keep the rabbits from chewing on the edges of the lino.

Mr. Tops and the Casserole

2006-02-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

The First Rabbit

2006-02-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

This is Mr. Tops. It must have been December of 1987 that he first appeared in the yard. It was cold, my sister's Russian husband had been visiting, and when we drove home from Galveston it was dark. We saw this rabbit outlined against a bush as we parked. In the days that followed he hung around. I went to buy rabbit food and eventually set up a feeding station in the yard. Alex tried to coax him in with a long cage with food at one end and a door he could spring sitting in the side doorway. Didn't work. Rabbit was too fast.

He was scared of Alex but came up to me if I sat out there with the food. Eventually we got him in and he ate several wires to the stereo the first day. He litter trained himself pretty quickly, put the bad cat in her place pretty easily and made himself at home.

Eventually we discovered that Mr. Tops was a girl but Alex never changed his name.

The Rabbit Hutch

2006-02-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

Alex and I got seriously into rabbits after Mr. Tops came to live with us. This cabinet was the first piece of furniture I bought on my own after I was divorced in the 70ies. I suppose it had glass in the doors originally but when I got it someone had nailed pieces of peeling oak veneer on the inside. I figured I'd eventually replace it. Alex got this idea after he'd spent some time restoring old metal objects we had around and finished with a layer of shellac to keep the finish bright.

Alex drew the rabbits and the flowers were my job. I used stencils. We made paper patterns and taped them to the sheet of copper and then used nails to make the lines.

I sometimes muse on what someone might think a hundred years from now when someone finds it in an junk store. Will they wonder what this was? Did it belong to a fashion trend? If so, when? Is it a kind of pie safe (because of the nail holes)?

Rabbit Food Pyramid

2006-02-19T15:01:00.000-08:00

If found this at the web site of the San Diego House Rabbit Society. You can download a full page-sized copy as a .pdf file from their website if you click here.

It's important to remember that rabbits are not only vegitarians but scrouge for their food and need lots of fiber in their diet. First feed them as much grass hay (such as timothy, orchard or oat grass) as they want. Not alfalfa hay, except in small qualitities as treats, though immature rabbits can have free choice alfalfa while they're growing.

Rabbit pellets should be based on grass hay too, with high fiber.

Treats should be mostly green, leafy veggies. You can get details at the House Rabbit Society. Like Bugs Bunny, rabbits LOVE carrots, but should not eat too many. They're sweet, more like a fruit. But cereal, crackers, pretzels, cookies, Doritos and other "people" snacks are not appropriate for rabbits. Too rich or too sweet. Or both.

A couple of cool rabbit photos

2006-02-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

These are not my rabbits, but they do look at lot like Eleanor and Topsy. Probably why I like the photos—which I found on the net. I think the composition is interesting and not too “cute”. I really hate it when people think of rabbits sentimentally—as little, furry, innocents, designed to get an “Oh…. How sweet!” response. You know what I mean.

If you’re thinking about a rabbit as pet you should start looking at the House Rabbit Society website (see link in the left hand column of this blog). It all started with a book called The House Rabbit Handbook: How to Live with an Urban Rabbit when a woman named Merinell Harriman detailed several “life styles” of people living with rabbits, from rabbits in traditional hutches, to rabbits with cages who roamed the house some of the time, to rabbits who had the run of the house. I got the book when our first rabbit—a Chinchilla like Topsy and the first of these two photo rabbits—appeared in the side yard and we invited it in. Had it not been for The House Rabbit Handbook, I’d not have known you could litter train a rabbit. I’d not have known to protect the electrical cords either. As it was, the first day in the house the rabbit got behind the stereo and chewed several connecting wires.

The “life style” I remember most from that first edition was the student who didn’t have much furniture and bought a bale of hay every couple of months for a coffee table and for the rabbit to nibble.

Rabbit barriers

2006-02-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

Since the two girls don't get along, there's always a fence separating my rabbits. Sure wish I could convince those two to make it up. They do chat (or spit) over the fence, but they do a lot of biting at each other too. And growling--Eleanor that is. She's a growler. Topsy wants to be friends.

Eleanor Roosevelt Rabbit

2006-02-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

Eleanor's relaxing in the rabbitat after dinner. Much as she loves Charlie, she relishes her time alone when he gets confined to his own room to eat. (She used to eat his food when they ate together. Now at least she's got a better figure.) Eleanor's a rescued rabbit (left in a restaurant parking lot I was told), picked out as companion by Charlie. She wasn't too sure about him to begin with—his attention was kind of annoying—but she likes the accommodations and when no one's watching she cuddles with Charlie. She's part lop—you can tell from her face and the ears which go up or down or straight out in front, like the horns of a bull.

She's been peeved though since Topsy came and got part of her space. I can't get them to make friends; they've never been together without the fur flying. Eleanor tends not to make up to visitors and even I have to catch her to pick her up, but once captured she's more than willing to be petted and coddled. It may be that she takes her illustrious name too seriously.

Speaking of which (her famous name) these days she's using her political acumen to try to convince her cousin Archie (a beagle-dachshund) who's running for mayor of Elgin, TX to adopt a "furry creature friendly" platform. He's resisting because that would include cats. Though he emails Eleanor regularly, he was none to happy when he met her in person [in the flesh perhaps?] to discover she was a rabbit. Not as bad as a cat, but.... At home he has to put up with a chicken that's moved into his yard. Eleanor tells him she understands the chicken-in-the-yard problem; she's had to put up with cats and possums in her yard on occasion.

Eleanor in trouble

2006-02-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

I love this picture. It's so hard to run and get a camera and actually get the shot when they're being bad.

Eating Hay

2006-02-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

Not all rabbit owners understand the importance of hay in the rabbit diet. Charlie and Eleanor have just spilled the hay out of the hay basket.

Companion Rabbit

2006-02-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

I work at home, usually sitting in the living room with my laptop. Topsy is almost always there keeping me company. For some reason she loves to lie on the crack between the two Chinese rugs. In the summer, when I'm barefoot, she comes over occasionally and sticks her head under my foot, hoping I'll pet the top of her head with my toes.

One of Charlie's bolt holes

2006-02-18T12:26:00.000-08:00

One of Charlie's favorite places is under this old rocker. He feels safe with a roof over his head. This picture must have been taken right after vacuuming; usually the rug has a layer of white fur. Note how the rockers have been chewed. If you share your living space with rabbits, there have to be some places they can chew.

Charlie's First Portrait

2006-02-18T12:20:00.000-08:00

This was taken when Charlie first came to live here. He'd sit under the couch to make sure no one could ambush him. If this photo looks like a painting, it 's because it's been altered in Photoshop.

Charlie and Eleanor

2006-02-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Charlie is the white one. He's a dwarf albino, fastest rabbit in the West. If Charlie doesn't want to be caught, I can't catch him, though luckily I can sometimes out-think him. He's got very fine white fur that's more like hair than fur. When he sheds, like now, the silky fur gets all over everything, even up my nose when I pick him up. He's been living with me since April of 2002. I think he's about 5 years old. I got him at the shelter where they said he'd been left on their doorstep a few weeks after Easter. (I do wish parents would learn about rabbits before getting them as Easter gifts. They'd do better getting chocolate rabbits if they don't plan to care for a real one.)

Charlie picked out Eleanor as his companion. He didn't like the little rabbits his size, but fell in love with Eleanor. I'm not sure she loved him at first sight, but now they're an item. They live in the rabbitat--big enclosure with several rooms, separate cardboard box houses, hay baskets and a second floor. Mostly though they like it when I leave the door open so they can roam.

Introducing Topsy

2006-02-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

She's a full-sized Chinchilla rabbit. Just had her second birthday on Valentine's Day. I just got off the phone with my son and grandchildren--we tried the Skype video phone for the first time so I wanted to show the children the rabbits. Tospy was the one who wouldn't sit still and eventually jumped off my lap. On the other hand, she's the first to make up to visitors. She's always curious when someone comes.

Here she's helping herself to the groceries. She knows kale and parsley are likely to be for rabbits.