Aufzug Taube! posted:

Jesus Christ those are cute bunnies. The second one looks just like a bunny I had as a class pet 6 or 7 years ago. He loved getting his ears rubbed, and he ate so much goddamn celery. He was really fat and soft which made him even cuter. I was definitely a slave to his cuteness. He was probably the softest animal I ever touched. I wish I could get one but somehow I think my cats would rip it apart.

Just looking at that thing makes me want to rub its ears.

MDR posted:

I've never really seen a Rabbit up close, what are their attitudes/personality like? Seems like it would be awesome to have a rabbit companion.

Lady Bug posted:

My Peter (not very creative I know but I loved the Beatrix Potter stories ).

his claim to fame: http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/02/post.html


He likes to sleep in funny positions, it's really adorable.

He doesn't like to be picked up but loves a good petting on the forehead. He hates getting his nails clipped and hates me for a while if I try. I can't trance him and the Bunny Burrito doesn't work. The other day I managed to clip a few of his nails and gave him a strawberry as a peace offering. I think he's okay with me now.

The best thing about Peter is that he figured out the whole litter box deal from the very beginning. He's always pooped and peed in the box, I didn't have to train him or leave him hay in the box or anything. It was really awesome.

Edit: OP I think Lucy might be a French Lop but Jack looks more like a Mini Lop (German Lop).

quote:

How long did it take to litter train a bunny? I've been trying for a few weeks now but it's sometimes hard to tell when he's peeing. He'll sometimes back into a corner and just sit there and when I peek under his butt, no pee. And the one time I think he's just sitting in a corner, he moves away and look, puddle.

Also bunny needs a bigger cage, but that will have to wait a month until I move into my new apartment. How long does it take for them to get used to a new home? I imagine new apartment + new cage will be a big deal.

a gaylord faget posted:

For all of you with dogs and bunnies, how did you get them to be friends? I'm moving into a new house, but if/when I get bunny she'll be the first critter in the house. Also the impending dog is a gigantic 150+ thing. Her cage will be in my room and I doubt a gate would work to stop that dog so I'd probably just leave the door closed if they fought. Will this work or will I have to be constantly vigilant about the dog terrorizing bun?

pauliesyllabic posted:

Lately I've been thinking a lot about getting a bunny (or two). The only thing stopping me right now is the fact that my apartment has an awful lot of cords laying around. More specifically, my entertainment center and computer desk have all of the cords stuffed behind them. Are rabbits really that bad at chewing on cords? Aside from encasing cables in sleeves, is there any sort of spray or other method that would reliably keep them away from that area?

Alternatively, would it be too mean to keep them in a cage most of the day and just let them out for awhile when I'm home? I've got a spot picked out that could fit a decent sized two story cage, so I don't think they'd be too cramped, but I don't want the place to feel like a prison.

candeh posted:

Trotting out my cube cage pictures for yet another bunny thread

angelicism posted:

I'm a bit perplexed by people's pictures and descriptions of litter boxes. Hay goes in the litter box? I thought hay was for eating? I have a little wire ball that hangs from the top of the cage that I stuff with hay so it doesn't get mushed up with the fruit in the bowl. I have some sort of bedding currently all over the floor of the cage, but I'm getting the impression the floor of the cage can just be the plastic bottom?

TheDeadKnow posted:

Is having two buns better than just one, overall? I know they are social critters...drat it, Momiji, neutering you will be expensive!....but if it means he can have a buddy after, it's worth it.

angelicism posted:

How do you do this? The last (and first) time I cut my bunny's nails it was an ordeal with me holding her as still as possible and my friend carefully cutting and holding the paw steady. After every paw we let her up and after every two paws she got a treat. x.x

girlscoutdropout posted:

angelicism posted:

I tried this last night and I couldn't get her to stay and after a few tries she was getting cranky at me so I stopped. Shall try again tonight keeping this in mind, but I feel like she really hates it.

Levitate posted:

I don't really have any new pictures of my rabbit, Sprout. He's shedding like crazy right now though and I hope that ends soon. I need to find a brush or something...but he's iffy on being brushed.

Levitate posted:

Anyways, I really want to try trancing my bunny, but to be honest I'm kind of scared to try. He can get pretty feisty when picked up and if freaked out, will nip if necessary. Is there anything that seems to indicate whether or not it works on certain rabbits? Does it work more often on mild mannered rabbits?

Moraine Sedai posted:

Two things to help prevent this: 1) Always check the yard before putting bun down for play and 2) if your yard is too large to really keep a good eye while she's out, block some of it off and let her just explore a safe area. You could whip something up pretty inexpensively that is also collapsible so you can put it off to the side when not in use if you like. Plus if you do this, it's easier to catch her again.

Another thing you can try when you need to catch her is to have her favorite treat ready and bribe her to come to you. :P

Hanpan posted:

I don't suppose any can tell me what is wrong with her ear from those pictures... one of Pickles ears will stand upright almost constantly and looks as though it is broken because it doesn't rest naturally like the other.

Deceptor101 posted:

very very nice, simple, to the point, bravo! mine is just simple blogframework
I HAVE BEEN UPSTAGED~!
Seriously though, I read some things that I really needed to know, such as water bowl vs bottle, never read that anywhere else before. Out of curiosity, whats the specific reason to not use the drop treats? I used them when I had rats and naturally thought "why not?" for the bun.

alucinor posted:

Rabbits are obligate herbivores (unlike rats) and are naturally lactose intolerant: ingestion of lactose by someone who can't digest it can have bad effects on the natural flora of the gut:



girlscoutdropout, a couple of notes on your site:

*You have a photo of the cavy pellets under KayTee Timothy Complete. Try to replace this with a photo of the rabbit pellets. Rabbits should not eat cavy pellets and vice versa, and you may not be intending to imply that they should.

*Purina rabbit chow is actually not a good recommendation for young adult rabbits. It contains alfalfa as a source of roughage rather than timothy. It's only recommended by HRS as a feed for adult rabbits who need the increased calories. Ingredient information here.

*"Many times, if a female rabbit isn't spayed, and isn't able to have babies she will get cervical cancer." - this seems to imply that breeding a female will prevent cervical cancer. It won't. Breeding or not, an unspayed female is likely to get cancer, and breeding certainly isn't the solution. You may want to rephrase this if this is not your intended message.

*"Rabbit's teeth continuously grow, they always need stuff to chew on!" - You may want to clarify this. Many rabbits won't use commercially available chew toys, and in fact these toys don't address the real problem, which are spurs and malocclusion on the rear molars. The best way to keep a rabbit's teeth worn down is to feed long strand hay as the primary component of the diet. The primary use of chew toys is to alleviate boredom, which you addressed elsewhere.

All in all, very nice work.

SpaceMonkey posted:

Do rabbits really need water bowls vs water bottles?
because I know that if I put a bowl in there my rabbit with flip it over no matter what.

and the website needs work design/code wise, it was like a blast from the past but fun!

SpaceMonkey posted:

no the website works fine it can just be done with allot less code/work.

And I'll have to keep an eye out for large bowls

Windy posted:

Murphy never learned to use a water bottle, and will not drink from one at all. I have a bowl that clamps onto the side of the cage so he can't tip it over or dip his ears in it on accident. It also stays clean since it is off the floor of the cage.



As for the website, The picture of the gray rabbit blocks part of the text on some pages for me. Also, alfalfa hay is ok for young rabbits to eat. My vets have actually scolded me for not providing more alfalfa to Debbie when she was a "kid".

alucinor posted:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html details the change in diet that is needed as a rabbit grows up and ages. It gives very specific time points for the switchover from alfalfa to timothy. This page explains the differences between various types of hays.

The hard thing about providing this sort of educational information is that either you come up with a bullet point that 99% of people can understand, or you have to give a long-winded lecture on every subtopic. If you mention that alfalfa is OK in certain circumstances, many people fail to read anything but the first three words, and then wonder why their rabbit dies of bladder stones from too much calcium-rich alfalfa.

You have to choose what audience you want to share this information with, and tailor your information to them. Think of it this way: Why should someone go to your site instead of direct to rabbit.org? Well, maybe because you provide simple bullet points instead of 300 pages of documentation, and that makes your visitors more likely to know the MOST important basics even if they can't tell you all the details. OK, in that case you may want to keep the timothy-only information and not mention alfalfa, instead saying "for information on feeding baby rabbits go here: rabbit.org". Don't confuse people who are easily confused, so to speak.

On the other hand, you may want to focus on user-submitted information and less on information which is already available elsewhere. In that case, you can just list some really basic outlines, and make more links to the exhaustive resources. Then focus on details from users that rabbit.org doesn't really mention - like "my bunny really likes to tear up phone books" or "my bunny was sick and wouldn't eat, and the vet didn't know what to do, so I mixed some fresh dill with her hay and she started eating!"

You could also divide up your information into Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. So in Basic you say: Timothy only, alfalfa is bad. Intermediate says: Alfalfa for young rabbits under 1 year, and for older rabbits (6+) who need additional calories. Advanced you say: A diet of mixed timothy, bluegrass, orchard grass, and alfalfa is advisable, but the phosphorus to calcium ratio and fat/protein ratio levels in the diet should be constrained to the following proportions....

Etc. Once you decide what type of information you are trying to provide and to whom, you can also make a disclaimer page that you can point to whenever someone says "Why didn't you mention X". You may also consider bibliographies for each page, so people know where you got your information and where to go for more in depth information on each topic.

If you want to see some other resources for more advanced topics, especially medical resouces, this and this both have some very good, very advanced articles. And don't overlook the value of the search box on rabbit.org, if you want to know what the "official" stance is on a particular subject. They have many more articles available for searching than are linked from their main menus.

tokidoki posted:

Hmm, I clicked on 'diet' in the side nav bar and the entire bar disappeared and now I can't do anything but look at the intro page. Or is the site not functioning, yet?

Windy posted:

As far as the vet is concerned, it's always a good thing to find a vet and schedule an appointment to at least meet the doc and introduce him/her to your new bunny. Better to familiarize yourself now(to decide if you like the vet) than to wait until an emergency pops up.

angelicism posted:

So after looking at all your pictures of your rabbits (in their homes), I'm a bit confused. I have this bedding stuff that I put all over the floor of the cage, and I'm going to pick up a couple corner litter boxes this week (that's what the pet store owner called them -- they're little because my bunny's little). What goes in the litter box, the bedding? And more bedding on the floor of the cage? Or nothing? Because if it's nothing the plastic floor is slippery and she's not happy with sliding all over the place. If it's bedding what's to make her think litter box = peeing instead of bedding = peeing?

angelicism posted:

Oh; I was told that since my bunny is a dwarf rabbit she's not going to get much bigger. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a litter box she can actually get into because usually the walls are too high.

I don't have any carpet scraps lying around at the moment; will newspaper be okay for the floor for now?

girlscoutdropout posted:

Like Windy said, a ferret litter box that's square with a lowered side should work well. I've never used Feline Pine, but I don't have any smell problems with Yesterday's News (as long as I change the litter box every other day) so I guess I'll just stick with that. Either is fine though.

Newspaper will be fine, but I can almost guarantee it will be shredded by morning.

Dwarf rabbits can get pretty big! I've also heard of pet stores (not sure if that's where you got him/her) of mis-labeling rabbits as "dwarf" just because they're young and small. I know that's how some of the bunnies came about at the rescue I help with. People expect these little bunnies to stay 4 lbs and then they hit 7-8lbs and they don't want them anymore. Not saying this is the case with you, but just something to think about. Also, some bunnies are mixed breeds and you never know how big they'll get.

angelicism posted:

I'm sure I'll adore my bunny regardless of what size she is. She already has me wrapped around her little... er... toe.

Is it okay if there's shredded newspaper? Should I just leave the 'bedding' stuff I've been using? I'm afraid that will encourage her to pee/poop everywhere, though.

I think I'll get the corner litter box for now since she is still little and if/when she gets bigger, get a box. Where are you people seeing these ferret boxes with the lowered side? My local pet store didn't seem to have anything like that.

Tricknee Hacksaw posted:

He gets to be neutered soon. Yippie for everyone!

alucinor posted:

Just use a standard cat litterbox, or get a rubbermaid container and cut down the sides like so:

alucinor posted:

Many words.

very sparkly posted:

This thread has me in LOVE with the mini lops. I would love to get one and build it a big hutch sometime in the near future. I spent a few hours looking online the past few days at petfinder and the local rescues but didn't find any of that particular breed available. Bookmarked and will keep checking though.

Levitate posted:

Out of curiosity, do other people here have completely free range rabbits? Mine hated cages from the beginning, so at this point, he gets run of the place.

I've done this for years and he's been pretty good and hasn't destroyed much. He has his spots he likes and it means he gets to run whenever he wants (usually in the morning when he wants food).