My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

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Morgan
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
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Location
York, South Carolina, USA
I felt like I had to start a new blog for Elvira. I can't bare to look at Foo's blog, because it makes me too sad. So Elvira gets her own.

If you didn't already know, I have a tiny baby bunny named Elvira, we're starting to call her Ellie as a nick name, but you guys could call her either. I do.
She came from a pet store, which is an unfortunate thing, but its where she's from. I went in on Saturday, December 15th, just to see how they were treating their rabbits. They get their puppies from a puppy mill, so I never go into that store. I've reported them but nothing happens, I don't know why.
They had about 10-12 babies in the enclosure. There were some blue dutch's, some lops, some broken black colored ones, they were all adorable. They had food, water and hay, so I was satisfied. Then I saw the store rabbit, who is an orange standard rex, I went over the pet her because I've never felt rex fur. lol she was SO soft.
I walked back over to the babies and watched them for a minute, then this tiny little ball of black and white fur pops out from under another baby. This baby was 1/4 the size of the others, she was so tiny. I asked the woman how old she was and she said 8 weeks. I knew there was no way. Her siblings were the two blue dutch's and they were 3 times her size. She could very well be the runt, but I felt so uncomfortable with her being there and being some spoiled little brats Christmas present and being thrown away in a few months because she was "boring" or "too big".
While I was in the store, I was listening to this woman buy a guinea pig, cage, water bottle, food dish and bedding. As I found this baby she was walking out with the cage and stuff.
I went out to call my husband and fight with him about the bunny. I watched her fill the cage with carefresh then walk back into the store. I continued to beg my husband and fight with me. I got off the phone and was walking in as she was walking out, I then watched her put the guinea pig IN the cage in the back of her little peanut sized SUV. The baby guinea pig wasn't in a box in the cage, or anything, just running around. I told her she might want to put it in a box, then walked back into the store. The owners were waving her off as she put this poor little guinea pig in her cage. I was shocked.
I knew then that I had to get this tiny baby. I felt really bad and sad for the other ones, if I had the space time and money I would have taken all of them, but I don't. I knew there were older and wished them the best. I figured they would be able to survive better, being the bigger ones.

I told the woman I wanted the tiny one, she grabbed her, sexed her as a female, which I still need to verify. They charged my card, and put her in a box. The woman then, TAPED THE BOX UP. I was again, shocked. She then asked me if I needed anything else; cage, hay etc. I told her no, just the rabbit. She asked if I had timothy hay, I said yes. I had another rabbit at home and knew what I was doing. She looked shocked and asked if I was going to put them together, I said no. Then I left.
I called Rachel on my way home and we laughed about it. lol

My husband was NOT happy with me. Not at all.
He's starting to come around too.

Anyway, most of you already know about her first few days here with me.
She never got to really meet Foo, and for that I feel bad. I wish she had, but then again, rabbits don't think about other rabbits like people think about people. So its probably okay. I just think they would have liked each other.

After Foo's passing, I let Ellie out of her cage, she ran straight for Foo's cage. She hoped right in and started to eat her hay. I left her out for a few minutes, I don't want to over do it with her. She explored the kitchen and chinned some things. I put her back. A few hours later, I let her out again. Again, she went right to Foo's cage and got in it. She walked around, picked up bits of hay and then went to her litter box. She peed in Foo's litter box. I didn't know what to think. Her litter box was dirty, hell the whole cage was covered in poop from her poop marking. But she never peed in the cage, she always only peed in the box. I was amazed by Ellie's first reaction was to pee in the box. It was pretty awesome.
When I do finally clean Foo's cage out, I'll give Ellie her litter box with the grate so her feets don't get dirty on dirty litter. Maybe she'll just 'know' how to use the box. That would be wonderful.

Ellie has become quite the sweet little girl. Not to mention brave. She comes up to the side of the cage and stands up, she wants out all the time. But she's still too tiny for me to let out like that. I have to also monitor her to see if she is a chewer. I won't know what to do if she chews on things.
She lets me pet her little nose when she's standing up at the door of the cage. She can also jump out of her cage by herself! Its a big jump. I worry about her when she does it, but she's got some ups for such a tiny baby.
She will also let me hand feed her. She will take pellets from me. Its really sweet. I can't wait to start feeding her veggies and greens and fruit. I hope she isn't picky and I hope she likes all the things that I get for her.
I don't know if I'll do a pellet free diet yet, I have to make sure she isn't picky about greens and veggies. If she is, then she gets pellets. She is not picky about hay. She eats more hay than anything I've ever seen. Foo ate a lot of hay, like 3 days worth of hay for another rabbit was just her one day hay supply. She ate 1/2 a gallon bag of hay, just at the vets office before her surgery.
Little Ellie, also eats a lot of hay; since its most of her diet right now. I hope she stays that way, I like a mostly hay diet for a rabbit.

This is probably the most I'll say for a while, because I don't really know much about her yet. What I do know is, she is spunky and active. She's always eating. She's scared of the washing machine, but she will explore anything. She is very soft, with baby fur. She's a black and white, mis-marked dutch. And her ears are huge, way too big for her head. lol

Here are some pictures, I think most of the posts will be pictures for a while. To show her growth, she's already bigger than she was when I got her.

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The above pictures are the first night I had her.

And these below are from today. Ignore how her cage looks, I haven't had the heart to clean the cages out yet. I'm going to clean both of them out later though. I'm just trying really hard to put it off, but I can't any longer. They're both a mess.
I'll take some more later when she's out of her cage.

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^Look how big her ears are and her little grinch feets. lol Her feets are already so stained, hopefully I can fix that.

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^This one is a good one of her little nose and mouth.

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^This one reminds me of Foo, because she used to rest her little lips on the bars of the cage. Now Ellie does it. I think its adorable.

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^Here is another over head in her litter box, you can see from the one from a few days ago, she is bigger already.

I'll probably just take a bunch of pictures of her from now on and put things here and there. I'm still getting to know her and we're learning about her.

As for Foo's blog. I'll go back to that one, if I'm thinking about her or something or if I want to reminisce about her. You guys feel free to post on there if you're thinking about her or want to say something to her. Thats what I'm going to do. But I'll talk about her on here sometimes too, just not too much.

So everyone, welcome to Elvira's blog. I hope you guys enjoy her life and adventures as much as you enjoyed Foo's life. I hope that I can give her a wonderful and happy life. I can't wait to see the bunny she grows up to be.
Enjoy everyone!
:headflick:
 
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Little Elvira is a climber. She climbed up the side of her cage and fell into her water bowl. That was to let me know she wanted out. What am I going to do with a bunny who climbs?!

She is also totally obsessed with Foo's cage. I closed the door because I didn't want her to go in there and this is what happened:
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Then I run to the bathroom real quick and come back and this is what I see:
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She is in Foo's hay box.

When she gets scared instead of running back to her own cage, she runs to Foo's. Its kind of sad. It makes me want to cry because I think she wants a big bunny to protect her.

She's so feisty though. I think the picture of her in the hay box is really cute.
 
Aww, she's a cutie :)! I hope she helps you heal from the loss of Foo. Isn't that weird that she runs to Foo's cage when she gets scared? I think you may be right about her wanting to have a big bunny to run to when she's scared. She is such a cutie. I know she will never replace Foo but maybe she will fulfill the role of your second heart bunny. Is your husband still mad about you adopting her?
 
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She is really cute. I would have brought her home too. It seems to me that you guys are right. I think she runs to Foo's cage beacuse the smell of Foo comforts her.
My foster Magnum was a climber. He really liked being high up and had to check everything out. I had to keep a really close eye on him when he was out playing and I have to do the same with his mom Petals. They both like to walk along the top of my couch. I have never had buns like them so it definitly took some getting used to. Good luck with your sweet baby.
 
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almost every single one of the newer pictures of Ellie made me "awh!" out loud when I saw them - she is just TOO cute!
 
I'm in lurrrrrve....she is so beautiful and I love the pics. She's got such a lovely expression and I love her little mouth and nose. Mine also climb. The first time I caught Houdini on the back of the sofa, I nearly had a fit but they all do it regularly now and I've got used to it. They never have tried to jump from there to the floor although I'm sure they'd OK if they did.

Love the blog name and really looking forward to hearing all about her and seeing the pics as she grows. I know that if you get them at this age, they grow by leaps and bounds and you should get pics of every stage.

Animals are really sensitive to things and I think she knows that Foo's not coming back but wants to be near to her so that's why she's heading to her cage.

Enjoy her, pamper her and love her, that's really all they ask and, in return, they give you everything they have.

Elvira is going to steal all our hearts and is a worthy successor of Bunny Foo Foo.
 
Thank you Chris. I hope everyone enjoys her blog and enjoys watching her grow. I think I'm going to enjoy having her, I'm starting to warm up to her more. I get sort of sad when I look at her, but I'm starting to get less sad when I see her now.
She's just so small and helpless.
 
Morgan, you saw something in her when you picked her out in the shop that touched your heart, maybe it was Foo helping you out. She's a baby and needs a fantastic bunny mummy like you to show her what to do and help her grow and learn. I had Bandy from this age and when I look at him now, I can't believe how he's grown and how much he's learned. You'll look back at these pics in a couple of months and be amazed by her progress. Enjoy every moment as I'm sure we will reading all about her and everything she does. Only bunny slaves like us can understand that special bond you'll have with her and that you had with Foo.

Bunnies defintely rule :bunnieskiss
 
That is such a sweet TINY little baby girl (well if she is in fact a girl)!!Squeeeee :D She seems like a very adventurous little thing too!

I'm the kind of person who thinks everything happens for a reason...and I think this little lady landed in your life so you wouldn't be without a bunny when Foo passed. It sounds like you will have your hands full, and I hope she is a comfort.

Looking forward to hearing more about your new bun!
 
Tonight I made Little Ellie a tiny rice heating pad. My house doesn't have central heat, so the primary heat source is our wood burning stove in the living room. It gets a little chilly in the kitchen at night and thats where she is. Its pretty cold here tonight and I felt like she might get cold. So I took one of my son's old baby socks and filled it with rice, sewed it shut, covered it with the other baby sock and then sewed it into a pouch. I then wrapped it in her blanket and put it in her little house, that she loves to sleep in. I put it in the corner like kind of on the side of the wall, so she may not be able to lay all the way on it, but next to it. Her elephant is on the other side of it, so it should radiate the heat in there pretty good. Not to mention, I covered the top of her cage with our bathmat that needs to be washed, so if there is a draft coming from above she won't get it.
I know rabbits do well in the cold, but she's just a tiny baby and when I felt her ears they were a little cold.

She's a total sweetie. She licks my fingers. Foo never licked me, unless I had wine on me. lol But Ellie licks me, I kind of don't know how to feel about it. I'm getting used to her though. I think she is going to be a good bunny. I think she's going to be pretty smart and friendly. I think she's going to be pretty energetic too, since she already is. I hope her ears stay big. I love big ears.

I feel better taking care of her. I also feed better writing about her. Its not the same, her routine isn't the same since we don't have one. But we'll start one and it will be different, but it will make me feel better. She is making me feel better, its still so difficult.

I think my husband is going to get me NIC grids for Christmas so I can build her a cage with levels, since she is a climber. I think she'll like the levels to jump around on.
I also ordered her some sherwood forest maintenance and show food. I got the 12 lb box. That should be here Thursday or Friday, that way I'll be able to start the pellets as soon as possible. She seems to be maintaining weight pretty good, if not gaining any. I can't tell if she's gained. I need a scale, bad. But she's grown and she always feel like she has a full belly, its always soft too. Her poops are also perfect. I've never seen such perfect little poops. lol No soft poops or anything.
She got into Foo's hay box and ate the hay that was in there. I'm not sure what was in it, it was a mix of botanical, oat and coastal I think. Her poop still looks good. I'm really happy about that. I did see her eat a cecal though! I was surprised and I haven't seen any cecals at all.
I put the litter box in her cage and some hay on the grate. I think she may be using it, I swept up her poop and put it in there. She'll get the hang of it, it just takes a little bit of time.

It makes me feel a lot better to write about her, I hope you guys still like to read it. Even if you don't, I still feel the need to write it. I hope you guys don't mind my rambling on about poop and hay. lol
 
Lol, since when have any of us minded talking about poop and hay :) They seem to be a consistant subject talked about on here. I'm sure they are one of the top 5 discussed on this forum!

Oh, I know about the licking! I love it when my babies lick and groom me in return. Most of my adult rabbits never lick me when I give them nose rubs. They'll lick my shirt or the ground next to them, but never my hand. It's like they are saying 'thank you slave for the nose rubs, but you are too far below me, for me to actually lick you'. Dash was my best licker. She would practically give me a bath with her affectionate licks. I loved that bun :)

Well, I love hearing about Ellie! Especially with this being your first experience with a little baby, it makes it even more fun to hear about your new experiences with her. That was so funny that she snuck into Foo's cage to eat the hay. I love that picture of her hanging out in the hay bin :) I'm so glad that she seems to be really healthy. When I got Baby after Dash died, I was so stressed out with her food problems that I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy her being a baby. I hope you enjoy every minute of it! It gets more fun as you start to see their personality really emerging. Can't wait to hear more Ellie adventures :)
 
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rambling about poop and hay is something we all do at times, lol. sounds like you're really pampering Ellie - she's spoiled already!

here's the scale I got after much shopping around - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003STEJFM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 ... I must've looked at like 100 scales (many of which were nearly identical) before settling on that one.
my shopping criteria:
~ could do grams (for the gliders and hamsters) and lbs (for the bunnies) and was easy to change between the two
~ measured in 1g increments (some scales only do 5g)
~ didn't really have any extra bells and whistles - just simple and straightforward
~ didn't have one of those expensive button-type batteries (this one uses a 9V, which comes with it)
~ had a large weighing surface
~ was inexpensive, but not to the point of being a crappy product
~ no red flags in the reviews (btw, there's a review on this one complaining that the included battery didn't fit - they've apparently fixed that issue)
~ easy to tare (since with the bunnies, I have to put them in a box)

this one only has a 1-min delay since the last weight change before it turns off automatically (seems like most scales with that feature have a 3-min delay), but you can disable that completely with a little switch on the bottom of the scale. it's accurate and consistent even with a bunny wiggling around in a box on top of it. all-in-all, I'm very happy with the purchase!

I had to tack on some stuff to get to $25 for the free shipping... I got seagrass twists for the hammies (a big hit) and a willow ball and plastic slinky for the bunnies.

by the way, you might hold off on the NIC cage for a bit because of her size - Nala was about 11 weeks old before I was absolutely positive she couldn't fit her head through the grid any more. if you think her head is too big because you tried measuring her head with your fingers and holding them up to the grid but it turns out she proves you wrong, the solution was to gently tuck the bunny's ears back through the grid - the moment I got Nala's ears through, her head popped right out.
 
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Lol, since when have any of us minded talking about poop and hay :) They seem to be a consistant subject talked about on here. I'm sure they are one of the top 5 discussed on this forum!

Oh, I know about the licking! I love it when my babies lick and groom me in return. Most of my adult rabbits never lick me when I give them nose rubs. They'll lick my shirt or the ground next to them, but never my hand. It's like they are saying 'thank you slave for the nose rubs, but you are too far below me, for me to actually lick you'. Dash was my best licker. She would practically give me a bath with her affectionate licks. I loved that bun :)

Well, I love hearing about Ellie! Especially with this being your first experience with a little baby, it makes it even more fun to hear about your new experiences with her. That was so funny that she snuck into Foo's cage to eat the hay. I love that picture of her hanging out in the hay bin :) I'm so glad that she seems to be really healthy. When I got Baby after Dash died, I was so stressed out with her food problems that I didn't get much of a chance to enjoy her being a baby. I hope you enjoy every minute of it! It gets more fun as you start to see their personality really emerging. Can't wait to hear more Ellie adventures :)

I totally understand why you were worried about food issues when you got Baby. I'm worried about it too, even though Foo didn't have GI issues, I'm still not savvy is baby diets and I'm super worried about her not getting enough food! lol
I can't wait to get the pellets in the mail. I feel like when I get the pellets, I'm going to take a huge sigh of relief because I'll feel like she'll be getting enough food. lol
I've been hand feeding her pellets, she likes them and eats them from me, which is nice. Its nice to feed a bunny by hand again. Every time I cut up a banana I cry, because there is no one to share the ends with(my son eats like 2 banana's a day) Foo always got one end and I got the other. Ellie can't have the ends yet, and I find myself really really wanting to feed her the end to feel "normal" again. But I fight the urge and just eat the other end myself. Its so different.

I can't wait to see whats she's like later in life. I'm really trying to enjoy her as a baby, its just unfortunate circumstances she is growing up in. So I may miss things because I'm in such a daze and that sucks. I'm trying to be so attentive to her, but its so weird. I'm glad she doesn't have lop ears.
 

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