Pam Nock

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Hi Michelle,

I, too, am glad to have met your acquaintance. I enjoy your stories,your ideas, and your interest. I usually find myself smiling afterreading one of your posts.

I really hope that your rabbit is with you on your wedding day too.Flopsy Walker lived to be 18 years, 10 months and 21 days old. (Flopsyis in the Guiness Book of World Records as the Longest Lived Rabbit.)

Tucks and I are tryin to beat that record. Let's do it together, all of us and our rabbits.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Does any one know about wild rabbits and their warrens?

Within the warren in the wild, do rabbits all dig separate holes, or dothey dig one big tunnel and have a burrow of their own off of it? Whatabout rabbits that live in the country, but there aren't rooms forwarrens. Is that a different lifestyle or where you see one, there'smore?

Thanks for any insight you can give.

-Carolyn
 
Well I hope my bun lives that long. I was just outfor a walk, when on the road I saw two little creatures, as Iapproached closer I saw that they were two buns! just hopingaround and playing with eachother it was so cute!!!! :) It makes mewant to have more than one!! :)
 
Wild European rabbits live in warrens, or a seriesof underground burrows. I believe the entire group digs,enlarges, repairs the network of burrows with tunnels, sleepingchambers, toilet chambers and the like, but the Alpha male and femaleget the choicest locations and most of the attention from the rest ofthe group. Other couples mate and raise young, but more onthe periphery and less choice locations.

R.M. Lockley's Life of the Rabbit (1946?), and the basis forAdam's Watership Down is the best description of our domesticrabbits behaviors that I've been able to find.

Local cottontails do not live underground, but nest in depressions inthe ground, often under brush, foliage and the like. Ibelieve their young are more fully developed when born and do not needthe safety of a burrow while waiting for their eyes to open and fur togrow, like our European rabbit does.

There is much more involved than I would care to go into right now, orthat I could possibly remember from Lockley's most excellent book, butit is a worthwhile read if one can locate it, as it WatershipDown, in my estimation.

Buck ;)
 


Thanks, Buck. I will read it. Silly I haven't yet, I've only read pieces of it. Will start on it today.

* * * * * * * * * *

Hi Michelle,

I know what you mean about wanting more than one! I constantly have tokeep telling myself that Tucker's a handful himself as a house rabbit.

-Carolyn
 
MyBunnyLovesMe wrote:
I heard that bunny's hearts can beat so fast that the "hum"is that true? I told my brother to be more careful with her after thatwhole "scaring them to death" thing. We used to chase her around andjump out in front of her, then she'd actually do the same to us, but ifthat's gonna kill her...like... I'm learning so much things, I feellike I'm doing everything wrong :( Thanks for helping me again, Pam,Carolyn and Buck you've all be super helpful. I hope to have my bunlong enough to walk down the aisle at my wedding as the ring bearer :)
I hope you'll post photos of the wedding : )

I'm not sure the of the maximum heart rate, but it probably doesn't compare to the hum of the 500 bpm of the little hamster LOL

Exercise is good for your bunn. It's the prolonged periods ofhigh stress/fear that can kill. It can happen when attackedby predator and sadly, I've heard of many instances of wooled rabbitsdying while being sheared. (We do shearing and I canguarantee that it does *not* have to be stressful orpainful). My 13 year old son is the *shearingmaster*. The rabbits act like they are act a beauty spa andare totally relaxed. Ryan just seems to have the magic touchwith them -- and he's not even a *rabbit person*.

Pam
 
You shear rabbits, like you would sheep ?? I didn'tknow bunnies even had enough hair to do that and what would you need itfor? I couldn't picture my bun BALD! lol. As for the scaring thing, I'msure my bunny doesnt think of us as her predators, at least I hope shedoesn't. I'm sure if she did she'd run away more often. Last night Ihad her out and she was going crazy lol. She was running around so muchI couldn't keep my eye on her. She was just jumping and thumping thenshe'd take off somewhere then run back then flop over thenrun again! lol. Bunnies have the funniest behavioural patternssometimes :)
 
Clippers don't work well on the soft Angora wool(which can grow 5-10 inches or more), so we use small scissors,shearing them in the same way that you would shear a sheep (exceptwithout the clippers). Some people pluck their angoras whenthe coat matures and becomes loose and easily plucked.

You have to be very careful when shearing because it's easy to poke or cut the rabbit.

The do look funny after shearing : )

Pam
 
Oh okay! I didn't even know you could do that! (told you I know NOTHING! lol)

I know you're supposed to clip your buns nails...but my buns aren'teven long. So I've only done it once so far. It's hard to keep herstill for that long, I don't even wanna try to bathe her or trytrimming her hair...lol I'd probably hurt the poor thing :(
 
When I clip nails, I usually go through and doabout 50 rabbits at a time. That's 900 toenails, so I have tobe pretty fast LOL

Pam
 
holy crap lol...well, I thought I had it roughhahah. My bunny doesn't like to sit still... any tips? I usually wrapher in a towel and rub her little nose, it kinda puts her in a "trance"but not usually lol. She starts kickin and wants to get out. I'm soafraid to hurt her so I haven't cut her nails since, but like I said Ijust looked at them last night and they're not curling under oranything.
 
You do have to be careful when trying to hold them on their back so their don't struggle and break their back.

I sit on a crate (gives me a nice "lap" to hold bunns). Ihave a towel on my lap and firmly place bunn, using my legs to restrainthe rabbit. You can wrap part of the towel around therabbit's head if they are trying to struggle (this usually subduesthem). Be careful not to let them kick out as they candislocate/break their back. It's an unmistakable "pop" noisethat you do NOT want to hear : (



Pam
 
Okay, well I don't have a crate... I have lots ofchairs though :) I'll be careful with her. She likes to haveher face rubbed (between her eyes) it usually puts her tosleep so thats what I did the last time, but then she wakes up andtries to roll over on her tummy. I usually hold her tight enough sothat she doesn't feel too threatened but she can't move. I talk herthrough it, even though she never listens..lol
 
The chair doesn't give a good lap to work on --everyone pokes fun of me at the shows because I tattoo rabbits while Isit on a crate.

Pam
 
Carolyn wrote:
I'm feeling like Col. Schultz, "I know Nuttthinngg!!"


The thing thatI love about the rabbit hobby and whatcontinues to fascinate me is the fact that I will never know everthingand I continue to learn something new everyday. :D
 
Dogarnit!

I just went home and discovered that Tucker does have white flakes onhis ear and it looks like he's lost a bit of fur on the one ear aswell. Mites!I hate them!

I'm thinking of treating it with Listerine at first, but wondering whatyou think of that treatment. Is it really effective ingetting them and keeping them away? I'd tend to go for theflea powder after that because not quite sure at this time where to getthe ivomec.

He's got a faux fur bed that he sleeps on all the time. Itcan only be washed in cold water, will that kill the mites if they'rein there or will he just be reinfested?

Thanks.

-Carolyn
 
Mites cannot live for long off of the animal. Just stick the bed in a plastic bag for a month.

I've never used the listerine, but it certainly can't hurt to try that first.

Kitten flea powder should be effective. Always be aware that*any* flea/mite/tick medication, in rare cases, can cause aneurological reaction when absorbed through the skin. Thereare also risks with Ivomec.

Just want to be sure to stick a couple disclaimers in there LOL --don't want anyone saying that "Pam assured us that product wascompletely safe" :?



Pam
 
Hi Pam,

Thanks for being so thorough in your answer. I dowant to keep it as organic as I can get. A poster on theRabbit Web suggested to someone to use Listerine and an "apply" oliveoil. She said to spray down the cage with listerine as welland feed rosemary to the rabbits daily that have mites. Shealso suggested rosemary oil between their shoulder blades, which is acommon place forcats to get treated for fleas. Iwonder how long the mites will last with that combination.Don't want a problem with reinfestation. I wish I knew whatcaused the dogarned things!

Tucker's trouble spot is on the fur on the back of his ears.Are they fur mites or ear mites, in that case? No sign ofproblems inside the ears, just the dandruff look, so I'm thining it'sfur mites.

-Carolyn
 
With the olive oil and rosemary, it sounds like we're preparing Tucker for the roasting pan not fur mite treatment LOL

Olive oil will make a mess, although I believe you said you had purchased some VetRx? Rub a little of that on.



Pam


 
GREAT IDEA!!!! :dude:

I completely forgot about thatstuff!!It just needs to be applied to thearea that's infected, or should I dowse a little all over?

Will get my steamer out tonight and give that cage a goodcleaning. Dirty little varmints!! I'm gonna killthem all dead!

Yes, was NOT looking forward to the oliveoil!"GettingTucker readyfor theroasting pan with the rosemary and olive oil."*laughs*It really does.

-Carolyn

 

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