Hello all,
I've been reading through a few blogs lately and thought it would be fun to start one about my new bun, Bandit. Today has been a tale of highs and lows, but I'll begin with when I first brought Bandit home, which was only a few days ago.
Bandit is a Smoke Pearl rabbit, who I got at about 16 and 1/2 weeks of age. I picked Bandit out from his siblings because he was a male, not that I was bothered by it either way, but as we're renting, when I let my rabbit out in the exercise pen on the lawn, I didn't want a female digging divets all over the place. After a haphazard start which involved me getting 2 minutes away from the breeder's house before getting a phone call that I'd taken the wrong rabbit! (She'd accidently mixed the cages up when moving them to get some hay out for me), so back I went before driving home again with the 'right' rabbit. Funny thing is, as it later turns out, it may have been right the first time...
Day 1 with bun was interesting. His hutch is outdoors, he spent about an hour in his hutch while I went out for a few supplies, before getting to spend the whole day inside in the laundry (which is quite large) as it was too hot out for him. Which worked out because it enabled me to spend some time with him, I left him alone for a little while I washed dishes so he could get settled and then tried to tempt him with varying treats, with little success. Though I discovered that he absolutely loves pellets, so I put some in a treat ball. Turns out, he's super smart too and figured out how that worked in about a minute. My previous rabbit who I had for about four years, couldn't figure it out.
On top of the treat ball smarts, he seemed to almost toilet train himself! What bliss. I set up a box with wood shavings and hay in the corner of the laundry and when he did his first couple of poos outside the box, I put them straight into it. About two more poos followed outside the box (which I quickly deposited into the box) and after that, not a single one. Everything was done in the litter box.
Day 2 and 3 involved lots more free run time in both the laundry and the exercise pen on the lawn, he quickly learned how to best make the use of frozen drink bottles and tiles, and very much enjoyed nibbling away on the lawn. In addition, his laundry litterbox talents seem to be transferring to his hutch litterbox use, even though the litter box is a quite small corner one, he still somehow manages to get his little bottom on it!
Day 4: today. It seemed that Bandit was definitely becoming more relaxed around me, I could go out to his hutch and open it without him running into the sheltered part. He would stay where he was and even not shift away when I pet him. He had a vet appointment scheduled for the afternoon, and since it was raining, I brought him inside for play time in the laundry again. It was a happy time of many binkies, which was great to see, because I hadn't seen many of them yet. I thought I also made progress with bonding too, although it was hard to tell.
At half past 4, we loaded up and headed off to the vet. Bandit was unceremoniously coaxed from his crate and onto the exam table. Unfortunately, there's a huge low point for me here. I was holding onto Bandit, who was very scared, and he got free of my grip, before I knew it he was making a jump off the table. I tried to catch him but to my horror only ended up making his landing on the floor worse. I was beside myself for hours after the vet appointment and cried. I felt like such a failure to him. After his leap for freedom, we scooped him back onto the table for his exam. The vet poked and prodded and poked some more, ummed and ahhed before informing me that Bandit was in fact a girl! A big surprise to me, I was a little disappointed, but not overly worried about it, I mean, I'm already attached to the dear little thing! So, after a check of her teeth, and a jab against Calici, I was sure that Bandit absolutely hated me.
When we got home, I brought her back inside (because I felt so guilty) and simply set the crate down in the laundry, opened the door, put some fresh basil leaves at the entrance and let her be so she could relax. About an hour or so later, I sat down in the laundry with her, at first she wouldn't come out but I think her curious nature got the better of her (my shoes seemed to smell funny). I pulled out the bag of pellets (knowing she loves them) and started coaxing her towards me with them. I feel like we made huge progress here, because at first she was just putting her front paws on my legs and reaching for the pellets, then at one point she was sitting completely on my lap eating pellets while I was petting her. I was so grateful that she seemed to forgive me for what happened (the power of the pellets) and it helped me to feel not so guilty about it. It was also good to see her happily eating and moving around after her fall and calici virus vaccine.
So it's been quite a dramatic day today, but I know as a whole that we are making progress. She's trusting me more, being much less shy and generally seems to be happier than when she first arrived.
Here's an image for those who may not have seen it in my re-introduction thread:
I've been reading through a few blogs lately and thought it would be fun to start one about my new bun, Bandit. Today has been a tale of highs and lows, but I'll begin with when I first brought Bandit home, which was only a few days ago.
Bandit is a Smoke Pearl rabbit, who I got at about 16 and 1/2 weeks of age. I picked Bandit out from his siblings because he was a male, not that I was bothered by it either way, but as we're renting, when I let my rabbit out in the exercise pen on the lawn, I didn't want a female digging divets all over the place. After a haphazard start which involved me getting 2 minutes away from the breeder's house before getting a phone call that I'd taken the wrong rabbit! (She'd accidently mixed the cages up when moving them to get some hay out for me), so back I went before driving home again with the 'right' rabbit. Funny thing is, as it later turns out, it may have been right the first time...
Day 1 with bun was interesting. His hutch is outdoors, he spent about an hour in his hutch while I went out for a few supplies, before getting to spend the whole day inside in the laundry (which is quite large) as it was too hot out for him. Which worked out because it enabled me to spend some time with him, I left him alone for a little while I washed dishes so he could get settled and then tried to tempt him with varying treats, with little success. Though I discovered that he absolutely loves pellets, so I put some in a treat ball. Turns out, he's super smart too and figured out how that worked in about a minute. My previous rabbit who I had for about four years, couldn't figure it out.
On top of the treat ball smarts, he seemed to almost toilet train himself! What bliss. I set up a box with wood shavings and hay in the corner of the laundry and when he did his first couple of poos outside the box, I put them straight into it. About two more poos followed outside the box (which I quickly deposited into the box) and after that, not a single one. Everything was done in the litter box.
Day 2 and 3 involved lots more free run time in both the laundry and the exercise pen on the lawn, he quickly learned how to best make the use of frozen drink bottles and tiles, and very much enjoyed nibbling away on the lawn. In addition, his laundry litterbox talents seem to be transferring to his hutch litterbox use, even though the litter box is a quite small corner one, he still somehow manages to get his little bottom on it!
Day 4: today. It seemed that Bandit was definitely becoming more relaxed around me, I could go out to his hutch and open it without him running into the sheltered part. He would stay where he was and even not shift away when I pet him. He had a vet appointment scheduled for the afternoon, and since it was raining, I brought him inside for play time in the laundry again. It was a happy time of many binkies, which was great to see, because I hadn't seen many of them yet. I thought I also made progress with bonding too, although it was hard to tell.
At half past 4, we loaded up and headed off to the vet. Bandit was unceremoniously coaxed from his crate and onto the exam table. Unfortunately, there's a huge low point for me here. I was holding onto Bandit, who was very scared, and he got free of my grip, before I knew it he was making a jump off the table. I tried to catch him but to my horror only ended up making his landing on the floor worse. I was beside myself for hours after the vet appointment and cried. I felt like such a failure to him. After his leap for freedom, we scooped him back onto the table for his exam. The vet poked and prodded and poked some more, ummed and ahhed before informing me that Bandit was in fact a girl! A big surprise to me, I was a little disappointed, but not overly worried about it, I mean, I'm already attached to the dear little thing! So, after a check of her teeth, and a jab against Calici, I was sure that Bandit absolutely hated me.
When we got home, I brought her back inside (because I felt so guilty) and simply set the crate down in the laundry, opened the door, put some fresh basil leaves at the entrance and let her be so she could relax. About an hour or so later, I sat down in the laundry with her, at first she wouldn't come out but I think her curious nature got the better of her (my shoes seemed to smell funny). I pulled out the bag of pellets (knowing she loves them) and started coaxing her towards me with them. I feel like we made huge progress here, because at first she was just putting her front paws on my legs and reaching for the pellets, then at one point she was sitting completely on my lap eating pellets while I was petting her. I was so grateful that she seemed to forgive me for what happened (the power of the pellets) and it helped me to feel not so guilty about it. It was also good to see her happily eating and moving around after her fall and calici virus vaccine.
So it's been quite a dramatic day today, but I know as a whole that we are making progress. She's trusting me more, being much less shy and generally seems to be happier than when she first arrived.
Here's an image for those who may not have seen it in my re-introduction thread:
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