Fri 14 Jul 2006
Last night, we hosted 3 little baby bunnies that our friend’s bunny had. One of them will soon be coming to us as a permanent home. (Her boa also had 8 eggs, so it must be the water. Yeah, that’s it.) These are a mix of Dwarf Hotot and Holland Lop, so they’re not going to be very big. They were the cutest little things, running around and around. They’re like little powder puffs, flying up and down the hallway. We built a hay tower, and they seemed to enjoy just climbing in it.
The night was going wonderfully until one of them looked at Cassi the wrong way, and all of a sudden, one of the bunnies found a chunk out of her side. :( A trip to the vet this morning showed all was well but said bunny is now on antibiotics for a bit. We also found a huge chunk of Ben’s fur, like Cassi had chewed on him as well, but there doesn’t seem to be any animosity between the two (nor can we find evidence of chew, so it may just be the last of his shed).
Ben was just fine with the bunny babies, in fact, he even chinned a couple of them. The only time there was a problem was when one of the little ones stepped on “his” bath mat, and he wasn’t sure he was going to stand for that. A bit of intervention and everything was fine though. When I brought the babies back home to Mama, there was a very aggressive and thorough chinning of the bunnies. I thought Mama was going to attack them, she was so aggressively claiming them….
And by babies, I mean 6 week old bunnies. Adorable. Just adorable.
July 15th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Okay, the picture of the baby grooming him/herself in the hay tower like its a little cave is really priceless! Congrats on the baby. Take lots of pictures. The really young ones are a ton of fun. Just wait till they hit the teens at around 8 months! Do yourself a favor and get him/her fixed as early as possible. The bunny teens are only worse when the bun isn’t fixed yet.
July 15th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
If Cassi us upset by the intrusion of other bunnies, she may take it out on Ben, or even you. Not sure if bunny visits, when there is no intention to bond, is advisable….and Mama would probably prefer that her babies not smell like other buns…
July 15th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Hmm.. hadn’t thought about that. Well, like I mentioned, 1 of the babies will come to our home. Spayed of course. :) I just cleaned the floor and there’s enough Ben fur to make a new Ben, so I’m pretty sure it was just shed. But that’s a neat thought to keep in mind for the future. I’ll have to get a gate to keep them in later or something.
July 22nd, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Yeah, NOT a good idea to be introducing babies to adults. You’re looking at a lot more vet visits if this continues to happen. Poor Cassi’s trying to defend her turf and then you have poor Ben who’s still trying to acclimate to a new home after being in foster care.
July 22nd, 2006 at 9:43 pm
No, no, no more vet visits. They’re friendly and all, but I’ve got cheaper friends. :-p The new baby bunny that was given to us is now safely in the cage and will stay on an alternating schedule for a few weeks. Probably till she’s closer to 3 or 4 months old. That should give Cassi and Ben time to get used to her too. Hopefully the process from there goes well though. :0 We’ll see how many other mistakes we can make. :)