Wiki Rabbit (formerly Remington)

Hey friends!

So this will be my little journal about my adventure with my first owned rabbit! I've rabbit-sat many times so I understand the basics and what to do and what not to do but this will be different!

So I answered this ad at work for a free bunny. I only considered it because he came with everything I needed to start off with: a big 4 foot long cage, DuMor feed, water bottle, litter box, litter, pine shavings bedding, a puppy fence for playtime, and hay.

Before I go on, I will say that I do know the issues with Pine shavings; no need to berate me about it. Besides, I'm allergic to it anyway.

So, I picked up my bunny on Sunday, September 24th. I drove 45 minutes for "Wiki", a cute name I thought. When I met him, he was not exactly how I pictured "Wiki" would look. Not that he wasn't unhealthy, he was just bigger than expected. So I changed his name to Remington and call him Rem or Remmy. Wiki is a cute name but it's "too cute" for him. He's not a dwarf by any means which is kind of what I'd picture a bunny named "Wiki" to be. Of course, I knew he was an English Lop and knew they were larger buns so that wasn't bad. I just wanted to make sure he'd fit in the carrier I had for him!

So I took him home and set everything up in my bathroom for the time being. I'm currently cleaning out my spare room to put him in there eventually with unlimited room while I'm not home or at work.

I'll be calling the vet today to set up his first check up! The previous owner never took him to the vet :-( So I want to make sure everything is all set and that I can get him to be fixed asap before bad behaviors set in.

So far so good though! He has no interest in wires/cords, not even cardboard. I don't think he was ever given play toys or chew toys because he hasn't quite figured out what to do with them yet. He's just now started to play with the rabbit kebob with a bell I got him and it's been over a week now. He primarily poops in his cage and pees in his litter box. He doesn't do much of it outside his cage which is really nice! The last rabbit I pet-sat did all of it including humping my arm because he was so excited >.< He was an old bun of 8 years who'd survived colic as a kit so he was getting a little senile by the end of it.

So I have some pictures to upload but I'm at work where the signal sucks so they may or may not appear for a little while lol.

But that's all for now!

If the Pine has been kiln dried, it removes all the phenols which is the toxic part, so then pine is okay--we have been using it for 2 decades and have one that is 18 now and has been on pine for longer than a decade. Cedar is the one you can't ever use as drying doesn't remove the phenols from it and is why it is used to line hope chest, drawers and closets as it is toxic to moths and insects and any other small animals. Have the vet tech show you how to trim nails and also make sure his teeth are okay.

Nancy McClelland said:

If the Pine has been kiln dried, it removes all the phenols which is the toxic part, so then pine is okay--we have been using it for 2 decades and have one that is 18 now and has been on pine for longer than a decade. Cedar is the one you can't ever use as drying doesn't remove the phenols from it and is why it is used to line hope chest, drawers and closets as it is toxic to moths and insects and any other small animals. Have the vet tech show you how to trim nails and also make sure his teeth are okay.

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See, I've been also told that cedar was fine as well.
I'm just not going to use any. As I mentioned, I'm allergic to pine anyway so it makes no difference lol.

Yeah, I do know how to clip his nails, haven't done it yet since I've got to remember to bring my clipper from my dad's house to my mom's where he is.

My best friend is a vet tech, so she's showed me how to hold them still in the past for things like that. Holding him on his back between my legs, just have to be extremely careful of course.

So Rem doesn't like toys or...anything really.

He has no interest in chewing on wood blocks or cardboard or the door frame, nothing! I almost want to count myself lucky but I know how good chewing is for them. Any ideas on getting him to chew them? Rub a fruit on it to see if he'll take it as a treat?

He also doesn't eat as much hay as I'd thought. I believe the former owner never fed him veggies or a lot of hay so he mostly had pellets. He loves his pellets. I've tried limiting his pellets and offering more veggies and he does have unlimited hay, both oat grass and timothy but he doesn't seem very interested in the hay.

He's also scratching at his ear more than I find comfortable. It's one of the concerns I'll bring to the vet; ear mites or infection of some sort. Want to make sure my bun bun has the best!

But, he loves running around when I'm there and does a lot of binkying and flopping and grunting lol. He seems to be a very happy bunny. He presented himself to me for the first time since having him two weeks, he sat right down in front of me and had me pet him till he closed his eyes happily. He's a good bun bun.

No other real issues with him. I have his new water/feed bowls coming in hopefully today unless UPS is being stupid again. They said yesterday that my PO box was UNDELIVERABLE.....what? They must have hit it during lunch. But I have a box....and they keep larger items for me in the back like everyone else....they put in the post that "there was no safe place to place the package and so we'll try next business day" whhhattt?? So confused! I both love and hate Amazon >.<

I have a harness coming for him as well so I can get him trained on that. Mostly I want it to make vet trips easier. He'll absolutely still be in the carrier but it may be easier to keep him still with a harness on. Obviously can take it off for the vet when she needs to check him out, not a problem. But, I'd like to bring him outside as well. I have the small (small to me) playpen that opens up to 8 square feet, not bad, but I want to get another so I can connect them and make 16 for bun to run in while we're out side. I think he'd enjoy that more.

I have a lot to do between work, writing letters, articles, and editing a newsletter for my Fish Club so I don't know when exactly I can get the pictures of him up but hopefully soon!

Is that Remmy in your Avatar? And nice that he's starting to present himself to you for attention.

Angie said:

Is that Remmy in your Avatar? And nice that he's starting to present himself to you for attention.

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Yes ^_^

Photos!

Well he's certainly made himself at home hasn't he What a cutie pie, and I love those ears!

JBun said:

Well he's certainly made himself at home hasn't he What a cutie pie, and I love those ears!

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Oh, that he has! haha!

I definitely need to get another fence though so I can bring him outside to run around more. He gets super excited when I'm around so he jumps and dashes everywhere and then stops in front of me to receive pets, then dashes again lol. But I know he's got some pent-up energy here and not quite enough room to properly run. He has the whole bathroom (quite a large bathroom) and half the hall to himself where there is rug. But the bathroom is slippery for him.

I finally received his bowls yesterday too! He loves drinking out of the water bowl more than the bottle, which I figured. I'll keep the bottle up for now just in case he somehow finds a way to knock over the (slip proof) bowl or runs out. It's a 32 oz bowl, so not quite all he needs but good enough for more than half the day while I'm gone. The other one is for foods ^_^ He seems to like them so far! And I like them because he can't spill his food everywhere >.>

I love that last photo of him all stretched out with his tummy on the floor. He must be relaxing and cooling it. Does his fur feel like plush velvet? It looks as if it should feel that way.

Ah,

so we've decided to stick with Wiki lol. It's growing on me. He also responds to it as well!
any moderator could change the name of my post to Wiki Rabbit instead? I can send a PM if required!

He also knows the command "Get out of there" which is very convenient! He listens most of the time which shocks me. The other rabbit I've sat for a while did not care about commands lol.

Angie: his fur is very soft, not Rex soft but it is quite wonderful!
He flops all the time! Sometimes it's cooling (it's been so hot and humid up here for this time of year! Hopefully it cools soon! Not that my reptiles are complaining lol) but most of the time he fully flops over onto his side and sits there happily lol.

I've also tried putting him into a trance to trim his nails which he desperately needs. But he's a LONG bunny! Any tips on that from anyone who has a 10 pound or bigger bun? He freaks out at the towel so I haven't been able to put him in a bunny burrito yet either >.< ugh, so bad at this. I trim my cat's nails all the time and it's no problem! Wiki's has only been done like twice the old caretaker said >.< which is no good! That's why he's got scars on his poor ears! Poor baby! He was also never really given veggies either! I'm glad I was able to take him. He's a very happy bunny now it seems.

Well....Wiki found out how to jump over his 36" tall fence >.<
Little butthead jumps up to get his feet in the hole and then jump over from there. Well...he kind of falls from there really, but it seems partially controlled >.<

Any tips? He doesn't seem to be able to jump over when it's on slippery floor at least. He's been a bit of a bad bun lately so I put him in his cage while I'm away and he's out for the 5-6 hours of playtime later. I just didn't want him in the room that will eventually be his room since there are still cords out and many other things he can get into. He shows absolutely no interest in chewing anything really except his veggies so that's good but obviously I'd rather be safe than sorry.

So I assume just leaving the fence in the bathroom so there is still good airflow through is probably my best bet. I had the fence in the hall where there is some rug so he could get some traction and jump better there. It's also folded up so only two panels are out (like in half so it's multiple panels on each side so it is more stable) so he was using the panels as a platform to jump from when he'd get up there. Oi, what a troublemaker!

His first vet appointment will be October 29th! Woohoo! Fixing soon after!

Wiki escaped his cage yesterday while I was at work >.>

Good thing he has no interest in poop scenting or chewing things! He did throw things around though lol. And I did learn that he won't jump the fence if he's on slippery floor like the bathroom so I'm safe (for now) in leaving him out in the bathroom with the door open and fence up so he can at least run around there and stretch out comfortably while I'm at work.

He doesn't like his new food. Picky eater! He'll nibble occasionally. He's getting more greens than he ever had though so I'm not super worried. I've seen him nibble his pellets so it's not like he's stopped eating. He gets about 3 cups of greens a day, he's roughly 10-11 pounds. It varies on what I'm feeding him. He loves pretty much all veggies I've fed him so far. He wasn't totally sold on the bell pepper lol but he loved the broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, escarole, and cilantro I've given him so far! Kale and cilantro are his favorites so far.
His former owner never gave him veggies before, only DuMor pellets. I've got him on Oxbow now at least so much more fiber for him. I believe it was 16-21 for DuMor and Oxbow was more like 26-32 I think? Something high. It's the highest quality that I can find around here, I know it's not the best but for what I'm paying for him, it's what I can afford at the moment. I always try to get the best I can afford.

Not much in other news so far, he hasn't been thumping as much which is nice. He only thumped once last night when I woke up the first time and hit the snooze lol.

I spoke too soon on the thumping!

For some reason my pets were scared of me yesterday....I'd done nothing different....It was just my cat and Wiki, both scared of me :-/ Wiki thumped for like...an entire hour. Not straight but on and off and wouldn't move. Still thumped even when I gave him some Escrole to try to lure him out from behind the couch. No real luck. Was able to get him later when he was not thumping. He wasn't freaking out or anything, jus thumping. He came up and grunted around me later so....I'm not really sure what happened there. Very weird.

If he's not clearing the pen in one jump, you can try attaching cardboard or posterboard to the upper section of the panels with zip ties. This keeps them from being able to jump part way then climb over the top. You're lucky you don't have a chewer, that's the worst rabbit behavior to have to deal with when you have a house bun.

Oxbow is a good brand. It's what I use too. He may gradually get used to eating them once he realizes the old pellets are gone for good. If he's maintaining good body condition/weight and seems healthy, with him eating plenty of veg I wouldn't worry too much about the pellet eating.

It's hard to pinpoint what upsets our buns. If you are sure it was something about you that caused the thumping, some things that we don't think about that can cause this to happen are if we use something with a new scent, like hand soap, lotion, cleaning products, etc. This can make us smell different to our animals.

With the nail clipping, if you have someone that can hold while you clip, that would make it easier. If you have to do it on your own and holding him in your lap won't work, maybe if you could lay him between some towel rolls on your bed, that might work if he'll stay in place. If not, you can take a look at this video and see if this technique will work for you. Or there is always paying the vet to do it.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9KemnaTGIs[/ame]

I adore that woman's videos. So thorough and well explained. She reminds me of my vet who is about teaching her patient's parents of why we do certain things and not others. She isn't just a "well I'm going to do this and that's it" kind of vet. She's very good, helped me out a lot with my late Leopard Gecko who ended up dying due to complications beyond either of our control.

Wiki's vet appointment is 10/30 at 5pm. Not sure if I already posted that here. I have another blog going on another side and don't always write the same things lol.

But yep, Wiki can clear the fence in one giant leap >.> Found that out today when he jumped over from the bathroom which doesn't have good traction for bunnies. I was surprised he attempted it. So....have to figure something out. Maybe I can still do the cardboard to deter him, it's a good point, that's JBun.

After a bunch of fuss, I was able to trim his nails. I didn't go too far, he was clearly not happy with the situation. I used a combo technique from this woman's videos and attempting a trance. He did have a broken hind foot nail which I assume is from jumping the fence. There's no blood or any evidence that it hit the quick which is good, I may try to trim a little further up in about a week, especially on the back ones since I did so little; they still click on the ground quite a bit.

I bought some new treats for him, Oxbow dried carrot/dill treats which he's devoured and actually asked for more. He likes the Timothy rings but these are even tastier I guess lol. Hopefully I can train him with better habits!

He knows how to break out of his cage >.> Darn thing presses up against it and pushes until it unlocks the first part and then gnaws on the top to get that to move out. I used one of those climbing quickdraw carabiners, a small one so he can't slip through. He wasn't very happy about that. He was still attempting to get out when I was around so I waited until he backed away from the door to open it. So, hopefully we can deter that habit since it's rather loud O.O

So, instead of trying to make things easy and give him some proper air-flow, I've had to just close the bathroom door on him >.< I'm in the process of cleaning up that room for him so he can just chill there instead. That was the plan anyway, clean that up and make it the bunny room so I can eventually get him a friend and they have the entire bedroom to run around in and play while I'm not home. I really don't want him to stay in any sort of cage all day while I'm gone; it's not fair. I mean, his cage currently is decent sized and he can hop around in it but it's not the same of course. So, working toward that goal as fast as I can. Lots of things to do currently!

In the future, I really want a Lionhead bunny. So cute! There are some really good breeders around my area if I can't find one at a shelter. I'd ideally like to rescue one, but, I also really want a Lionhead too. I've already rescued Wiki so that counts, yeah? lol.

Nothing really new of note.

I found Leafy Greens. I wasn't sure if that was an overarching term or a name of an actual plant. So Wiki and Stormfly (my beardie) has been eating those and Chicory this week. I actually thought I was buying Escrole since it was in the place Escarole should have been but it ended up being the greens, oh well. He seems to like them!
Tried some yellow squash this week and he wasn't a fan, but Stormfly is!
Also picked up two Endive's and Wiki loves those.

I've been feeding less pellets, usually just in the morning he gets his share and then I fill up his hay again. He's been eating more hay, yay! He cleared out his hay bin last night which makes me happy. So I filled that back up and added more to his litter. He was very excited to get his pellets.

I've taken to closing the door on him instead of using the fence since he can clearly escape that. So no point. I didn't want to close off my other room that he likes to get into because I have reptiles and fish that get heat from my main room. The spare room will eventually be Wiki's room once I clean out some more things and sell off more of my fish. There's just too much he can get into at the moment unfortunately, but soon!

Leafy greens is just a broad term for dark green leafy veg. It includes things like green and red leaf lettuce, spring mix, romaine, butterhead lettuce, kale, carrot tops, spinach, bok choy, turnip greens, beet greens, swiss chard, arugula, endive, dandelions, ribwort and greater plantain, mustard greens, radish tops, etc, and you could include the green leafy herbs in there as well. Ones you shouldn't feed are iceberg lettuce, rhubarb, and no tomato leaves if you feed tomato. I know that I use the term to differentiate between them and other veggies. Here are a few veggie and leafy greens lists for buns. I have yet to find the perfect list. Some don't have a complete listing, don't say what you shouldn't feed, don't say which ones might cause stomach upset, or don't give good instructions for first time veggie feeding, so I've included several that have helpful info. You'll find with most rabbit things that you just have to gather info from several reliable sites, then sort through it all to get an accurate picture.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/feeding_en.pdf
http://www.mybunny.org/info/rabbit-diet-and-nutrition/vegetables-and-fruits-for-bunnies/
http://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables-and-fruits-for-a-rabbit-diet/
http://www.lagomorphs.com/salad.pdf
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Vegetables


My buns go nuts at pellet time. Most rabbits tend to have quite the sweet tooth, so anything that tastes sweet(like pellets with added molasses) they tend to get pretty excited about.