Bandit: rabbity antics

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So I'm in a pretty good mood today, despite the fact that it's now cloudy and windy it's a beautiful 25C out there, and since it was sunny this morning I finally got to go birdwatching. Bird watching and photography is my absolute favourite hobby, it's what keeps me sane. Until today, I hadn't been bird-watching for over a month, which is a huge deal for me as I had been going once or twice a week. So it was just nice to get out there. Haven't perused my photos yet, but I think I may have a couple decent ones of some rainbow lorikeets.

In Bandit's world today there's been a lot of cardboard chaos. He dug and tore up part of the cardboard flooring in his temp cage and spilled water on it. Then when I fed him his pellets, he was very rude and decided to throw the bowl around, so then I had to pick them up from outside his cage and pop them back in. He's been very good since we got home from birding though and has been chilling out in the spacious laundry since then. I picked up some loose pages from the phone book, and on a spur of the moment, I decided to scrunch them up a tiny bit, and shove them inside his hidey box in the laundry. He either loved it or hated it, because there was a lot of movement, digging and shifting of crinkling paper, and then when I came by 45 minutes later, all of the paper had been shoved out of the box. Of course I promptly put it all back in again :p

For anyone who didn't read it in my other thread, I've just purchased some oxbow pellets. I've made up 4 batches of transition food and have sprinkled a few pellets into what remains of his previous food (which isn't a whole lot so I bought the oxbow just in time). While it cost me four times as much as the old pellets, oxbow is at least twice as healthy, it has double the fibre, which is a fantastic start. So I'm looking forward to transitioning. Plus, the cost is pretty much irrelevant anyway seeing as how a bag will last me at least a month, maybe two, and $20 a month is nothing to feed an animal (plus hay of course but now that I'm buying a bale, I'm pretty much saving at least $20 a month from that anyway!). So everything is working out.

I'm trying to transition him to being outside again, the fiance and I lifted his temp cage outside yesterday and he spent a couple hours out there. The laundry is right by the back door so I've had the door open all day while he's been in there since the weather is nice. I'm thinking of having him spend the night outside today, because it's been a warm day it should be a fairly mild night compared to some of the quite cool ones we've been having recently and would be less of a shock to the system.

Anyway, to the point of this post... a cute picture!!
This is Bandit, curled up in his litter tray. Not sure why but he was feeling a little off yesterday, and whenever he feels off, for some reason he lays in his litter tray, he never does any other time. His face is all squished =3 Apologies that it's not very sharp, I had to have the shutter speed way down low to get enough light.
IMG_4883Banditfacesquishsm_zpse6202e42.jpg
 
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Oh that is a perfect picture of him, I just love his colours and the fact that his face is a bit squished makes him even cuter.

Looks like he´s fully recovered now and getting back to his normal self. if it´s warm enough, I bet he loves being outside, you are so lucky, I wish I had somewhere to get mine out of doors.
 
Thanks, he is quite the cutie. He's back to being outside at night now, as much as I would have loved to keep him inside, we're technically only supposed to have an outdoor rabbit where we're renting. Still, as soon as I get home from work he gets to come inside to play. We had a nice long play and bonding session yesterday which was sweet, he such a character to watch play too.

I started him on the first of the oxbow transitions yesterday. It seems to be going alright, his poops are staying good though I notice he has been a slight bit gassy, so I'm going to keep an eye (or nose) on that and hope it clears up. He has no problems eating it though and isn't fussy about it.
 
I like to go birdwatching too! I have something called a birdsong identiflyer and I have 12 cards for it. I got them for a really great price! Normally for new cards its 10 dollars a piece, but I got 12 cards for 25 dollars. Sometimes you can find great deals like that on ebay. I have a bird field guide too. And I love to go birdwatching. I'll probably go out today as its getting nice and warm out. :)

Bandit is adorable! I love that picture of him, he looks so cute all curled up in his box. It looks like he is in a nest, lol. :)
 
I love that pic of him sacked out in his litter box. So, is he still acting all affectionate, like he was right after the neuter? Just wondering if this is going to be an ongoing behavior resulting from the neuter. i have two of my boys going in for their snip today. I'm wondering if I'm going to see any behavior changes with them. Right now they are already pretty affectionate, but their pee spraying is driving me insane.

If it seems like Bandit is still feeling uncomfortable at times, you may want to try and sort out what's going on with him. I never see a rabbit having gas and feeling uncomfortable, as a normal thing. If my rabbits don't act excited at feeding time, are sitting hunched up, change postitions frequently, or are laying down and it seems abnormal(like pressing the belly to the ground), or they are squinting, then I know something is up, and that it's probably diet related, and something needs to be changed. You may either want to hold off on switching feeds right now, until you get his digestive issues sorted, or at least cut way back on the amount of new pellets, and start transitioning with a really small amount. Of course, if he is always seeming uncomfortable, it may be the old pellets causing issues. If you aren't feeding any treats or greens at this point, then it either has to do with the pellets, or he could have a parasite/bacteria causing the problem( I can't remember if you had his fecals tested for that or not). Rabbits really shouldn't have continuing digestive issues, unless they have serious digestive damage and are prone to it no matter what they eat.
 
I like to go birdwatching too! I have something called a birdsong identiflyer and I have 12 cards for it. I got them for a really great price! Normally for new cards its 10 dollars a piece, but I got 12 cards for 25 dollars. Sometimes you can find great deals like that on ebay. I have a bird field guide too. And I love to go birdwatching. I'll probably go out today as its getting nice and warm out. :)

Bandit is adorable! I love that picture of him, he looks so cute all curled up in his box. It looks like he is in a nest, lol. :)

Thanks so much. Birdwatching is a great hobby. I have several field guides myself along with an app on my phone which has calls to help with field ID. When I bird locally I don't need the call ID so much as when I go to new places, it's easy to get out of practice with it though. I'd never heard of the birdsong identiflier before, it looks pretty nifty though :)

I love that pic of him sacked out in his litter box. So, is he still acting all affectionate, like he was right after the neuter? Just wondering if this is going to be an ongoing behavior resulting from the neuter. i have two of my boys going in for their snip today. I'm wondering if I'm going to see any behavior changes with them. Right now they are already pretty affectionate, but their pee spraying is driving me insane.

If it seems like Bandit is still feeling uncomfortable at times, you may want to try and sort out what's going on with him. I never see a rabbit having gas and feeling uncomfortable, as a normal thing. If my rabbits don't act excited at feeding time, are sitting hunched up, change postitions frequently, or are laying down and it seems abnormal(like pressing the belly to the ground), or they are squinting, then I know something is up, and that it's probably diet related, and something needs to be changed. You may either want to hold off on switching feeds right now, until you get his digestive issues sorted, or at least cut way back on the amount of new pellets, and start transitioning with a really small amount. Of course, if he is always seeming uncomfortable, it may be the old pellets causing issues. If you aren't feeding any treats or greens at this point, then it either has to do with the pellets, or he could have a parasite/bacteria causing the problem( I can't remember if you had his fecals tested for that or not). Rabbits really shouldn't have continuing digestive issues, unless they have serious digestive damage and are prone to it no matter what they eat.

Yeah, he is still pretty affectionate. He's gone back to rattling the fencing of the laundry room when he's in there playing, but he still loves his head rubs and often comes running up to the gate for love whenever we say hi.

I had had concerns about Bandit still being gassy at times. It could be because I've started the oxbow transition, though I thought it would be alright considering I used a weaker transition to what oxbow suggests on their packaging. Otherwise, the only thing he's getting is one tiny piece of parsley a day when I put him back in his hutch at night. I didn't have his fecals tested when I took him to the vet for GIS but he recovered well from that after I cut out all the greens. I've been giving the parsley for maybe a bit over a week now in just that tiny single serve a day and it didn't seem to affect him, perhaps the repeated eating of it over time. Wouldn't think parsley would be an issue though. Might cut it out again and see if that makes any difference. Not sure if he's been gassy today as I only just got home from work, he seems alright though. Will certainly keep an eye on him though, will cut the parsley again and then the new pellets if required. Next time I try to start greens again I might try basil instead.

Edit: Adding on to the change in his behaviour regarding his affection. We had a bit of a breakthrough, tonight was the first time ever when I have been holding him on my lap, that he's settled in and just sat there and enjoyed having his head being rubbed and "purred". Never before has Bandit sat still in my lap or done happy teeth grinding while I've been holding him. But I must have rubbed just the right spot and he just settled right in and really enjoyed it for at least 5 minutes, then he suddenly snapped out of it and was his wriggling self again :p It was a really amazing moment though. Love my little guy so much.
 
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He´s such a cute little guy. Mine absolutely adore Basil, it´s their favourite of all. I got some yesterday in the market and they´ve eaten it between them in two days. The only thing is that it doesn´t keep very long and you can´t refrigerate as it discolours the leaves so, when I buy it, they eat it all really quickly and I give it as a treat as well. They also love dill and that lasts really well in the fridge.
 
Whew, am I exhausted. So yesterday on my first day off this week, after a 40 hour week (when I'm used to doing 25 hour weeks), I got up at 3am! But it was for a good cause. I met up with some birding friends to go to Gluepot Reserve for the day. Gluepot is one of THE places to go near-ish Adelaide for arid birds, and it's beautiful. Trouble is, it's about 2 1/2 hours away and we wanted to be there by dawn, so hence the 3am start :p Still, I didn't regret a single minute of it, we had an absolute blast. Got lucky with a few new species, got lucky with a couple of great parrot photos and a red-capped robin. Lighting was pretty terrible most of the day, but it was still amazing, I love the arid zone and mallee, it's my favourite birdwatching and camping habitat. So it was a pretty special day. We birded all day, then when it got dark, we left. I got home just before 10pm, and by the time I got to bed I'd been awake for over 19 hours on about 4 1/2 hours sleep :p I slept great last night, lol.

Anyway, enough about that. I was told that Bandit was quite naughty while I was gone, constantly rattling his gate of his room, and apparently he managed to lift it up enough to get out while my fiance was out cleaning his litter tray. Fortunately, he came inside soon after and managed to see Bandit slipping behind the couch. The little devil. He sure is cute though.

I've noticed that Basil leaves do tend to discolour in the fridge a little, it's quite annoying. Next time I buy some I might keep in a jar with some water.
 
Trying something new with Bandit at the moment, well not really new, just taking his seagrass mats away. He hasn't had much tummy issue, and he's not really gassy, but every now and then there's a couple of poos that just aren't right. Then yesterday since it was Mother's day and we were out, I didn't get a chance to take him out of his hutch and all his poops were perfect. So I thought that instead of the new oxbow, that perhaps it's the seagrass mats. If it is it's very strange, because when I first introduced them, I watched him very closely for any ill effects and there were none. So perhaps the prolonged nibbling on them is what's getting to him. He also seems to be accidently peeing over the top of the side of his litter tray, found a bunch of pee under the foam mats today, which explains why the room was really smelly after he was in there saturday, I thought it was just a smelly litter tray smell that didn't go away. But I suppose that's what I get for missing a day of cleaning up the bunny room. He just needs to fit his furry bum in the tray properly instead of hanging it over the edge :p
 
Mine used to miss the litter tray and hang their bottom over but haven´t done it for ages now as they have quite a large tray. Seems like Bandit wanted you to know that he was not happy being left so long lol.

You can´t keep basil leaves in the fridge as they go brown, I learnt that the hard way after buying fresh basil and doing the same. I read that if the leaves aren´t slimy, you can still eat them but they don´t look very attractive. I usually just put mine in water in a jar but they never last more than a few days so I try and use them up quickly. They are my threes absolute favourite.

Hope you'll put some of your pic of the birds on here, sounds like you had a fantastic time.
 
Yeah, digestive issues can be so tricky to figure out. If there isn't an immediate reaction or downturn after eating a certain food, then you just have to make guesses and start eliminating things one at a time, until you HAPPEN to hit on the thing that is causing the problem. Can be a little stressful and frustrating when you are dealing with a bun that may be sick or get sick. I hope taking away the mats has solved the weird poops.

My buns do the same thing with the litter box, don't get in there far enough and pee over the edge onto the floor. I would change it and get one with high sides, but I have an older bun and it would be hard for her to have to hop over the high side of a litter box. Plus I have a feeling that even if she can do it, if it's too much work to get in there, she may just decide to stop peeing in there altogether, haha :)
 
Thanks for the responses and helpful advice :)

Bandit seems to be doing better without those seagrass mats. No odd squishy poops outside his litter box, and maybe it's just me but he seems a bit bouncier too. Will continue to monitor things closely and see how it goes. Looks like I need to find him another chewing outlet though, because now he's been going absolutely crazy on the foam mats again. It's like a war zone!

As requested, here's a couple of bird images from my day out.

Image 1: Pair of Mulga Parrots
Image 2: Striped Honeyeater
Image 3: Female Regent Parrot
Image 4: Male Red-capped Robin
I blog about some of my birding here: http://birdingbec.blogspot.com.au/ You can see more photos from the day and others.

IMG_5460 Mulga Parrots S2.jpg

IMG_5600 Striped Honeyeater Landscape SFinal.jpg

IMG_5490 Regent Parrot S.jpg

IMG_6115 Red-Capped Robin S2.jpg
 
That's so strange that the seagrass mats would cause digestive problems. Good you figured it out. You could try laying down pieces or sheets of cardboard over the foam mats, then he can use all that energy shredding the cardboard instead of his mats. Or lay down a fleece blanket or old sheet that he can bunch up and dig on.

Great pictures! Those birds are so pretty.
 
Thanks so much guys. It was 100% definitely those seagrass mats upsetting his tummy. No problems at all since I took them away for good. Only trouble is that he seems to be diverting that chewing energy to his foam mats :lol:

In other digestive news, yesterday we finished completely transitioning onto the oxbow pellets (can't believe it's been a whole month!). So I'm pretty happy about that, Bandit is doing well, he loves them just as much as the other pellets. It also means that I can super slowly start trying to introduce some greens again. :)

Bandit is certainly a character though, we've had to stop leaving a gate at the laundry doorway to bar him and just close the door instead, because he was constantly rattling it and on occasion escaping. Now, whenever I open the laundry door he's right there by my feet, hoping to make a break for it I guess :p He's really sweet though, loves his pets and head rubs. I gave him a new toy the other day, it was his dig box, but he had no interest in it, so I emptied it and turned it upside-down and now it's his favourite thing ever. He's constantly jumping up and down from it, and going inside (the front has a slightly lower side so it's like a little bunny burrow).

We've also made good progress in the cuddling department. I can hold him and carrying him around, but he seems to have a short patience tolerance for it, but about a week ago I picked him up and sat down cuddling him, and after a bit of petting him, he settled in and just "purred" as I petted him, it was such a great feeling to know that he was relaxed and happy in my arms, and to actually have a cuddle like that with my wriggly rabbit, for at least 15 minutes too! It was so nice :)
 
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Pretty excited for the long weekend... Bandit can pretend he is too :p

He's been in the laundry 24/7 at the moment, because after a heavy shower of rain a week ago his hutch is still damp on the inside part. I have no idea how that water got in, as it's in a sheltered area, under trees and has a solid cover on top, but I guess I'll never know. With the temperature not being very warm it's taking a long time to dry, so he's been roaming the laundry, which he's loving. Tomorrow I have to sweep it out again because he keeps throwing his hay everywhere! We've also developed a cute little "game". When I take out his litter tray to change it, whenever I bring it back in he jumps onto his blue box and reaches up towards me to beg for a piece of hay, and he does that until I lower the litter tray to him, he chooses a piece to eat and only then am I allowed to put the tray in its proper corner, lol.

I also found my battery charger for my compact camera today so hopefully tomorrow I can remember to charge the battery so I can finally pull the photos off of it, I'm pretty sure there's some more of Bandit on there. I've been wanting to do a proper photo shoot with him for a while though, just not sure where to do it because our lounge room isn't very well lit and I don't want him on a table outside in case something should happen. Will see what I can figure out. This thread is in need of more bunny pictures :)

Other plans for the long weekend include laser skirmish with some friends tomorrow, and some birdwatching/photography on either sunday or monday. Can't wait!
 
Weird I wonder why rain got in. But like you said, you'll probably never know. Bandits game sounds funny. Ash likes to stand in his litter box when it gets refilled so it pours all over him that's his "game". I don't know why he likes it, haha.

I'm glad you found the charger, now we can see more pics of Bandit. :) I need a new camera the only thing I have for taking pictures with is an iphone and that doesn't take very good pictures and it takes bad videos.

I hope you do some bird photography.
 
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I had this theory... Bandit hasn't been out in the lounge room for a while (mostly because he just wouldn't stop pulling at the carpet, trying to shift the gates etc). He always just wanted "out" into the rest of the room, or behind the couch if we blocked it. So I thought, if I just gave him access to behind the couch, maybe he would be less of a grump and stop pulling at the carpet and messing with the gates. The great news is that he's had more fun than I've ever seen him have and he's stopped messing with the gates. He still pulls at the carpet behind the couch when we're not looking though, lol. But it seems to be a little less than he did before. He's also put a couple tiny holes in the couch corner (but they were second hand) so I smudged some vinegar on the couch today to try to prevent that. Not sure what to do about the carpet though. I'm wondering if I put fleece down behind the couch he would play and chew on that instead of the carpet.

Anyway, I took some cute video today of some binkies :)
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGTXjevcwvI[/ame]
 
I know some people will use those round cardboard concrete forms behind their couches. It gives the rabbit a tunnel and access back there, but prevents them from being able to chew on anything besides the cardboard tunnel. Here in the US, home improvement stores carry them. I don't know if it would be the same where you are.
 
I know some people will use those round cardboard concrete forms behind their couches. It gives the rabbit a tunnel and access back there, but prevents them from being able to chew on anything besides the cardboard tunnel. Here in the US, home improvement stores carry them. I don't know if it would be the same where you are.

Thanks, I have read that before, but I've never seen them here. I suppose the other alternative is just standard boxes, I do have some reasonably long ones. Only thing is they're not going to last as long as one of those forms would. Still better than pulling the carpet I suppose. Thanks :)
 

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