I'm such a horrible bunny mom

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BabieDuckie

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I woke up at 1:00 am to the noise of Pancakes unusually thumping around upstairs. She normally sleeps in her cage, and it definitely sounded as if she had gotten out. I went upstairs to check on her and sure enough, she was stuck behind her cage between the cage and some boxes we piled up. I had left the top door open when I was giving her hay before bed, so I'm assuming that's how she houdini'd her way out.

I moved the cage so she could get out and she proceeded to run around frantically, and unusually floppily. I could tell something was wrong but I couldn't get her to stop moving enough to find out what. I turned towards the stairs to call out for my boyfriend to come upstairs, and when I turned back around she was laying on her side with her front paws sticking out and something attached to it.

When I got closer, I realized she had gotten stuck to a glue trap we laid out behind the boxes when we had a mouse infestation. :cry2

She was terrified. I was terrified. I felt absolutely horrible. We've been so conscious about that glue trap back there that we do everything we can to prevent her from getting back there and getting stuck to it, and my stupid self left the top door open, practically leading her to that corner.

She cornered herself behind a planter and my boyfriend was able to get her to sit still enough to begin prying the glue pad away from her paws. I had to get scissors to cut away the glue. We were able to get the glue trap off, but she still had glue stuck to her paws. So we wrapped her in a soft towel so we could pick her up, and tried to calm her... ironically, since she's not used to being picked up at all. (I know, big mistake on our part for not working on that more when we first got her.)

A quick Google search lead me to ehow.com's "How to remove a glue trap from your pet." One of the suggestions was letting the area soak in vegetable oil for 10 minutes and then wiping it away. That worked like a miracle. A little bit of soap and water to clean her off, and she was good to go. :thumbup

I have to say, I was surprised as to how tolerant she was of us touching her paws, holding her. She didn't struggle and didn't fuss at all. I gave her some carrots and kale as an apology and she took it. It took me hours to fall back asleep because I just felt so horrible, and all I wanted to do was cuddle with her.

I checked on her this morning and she was fine. I still feel horrible and guilty... and it won't go away. Of course, my boyfriend got over it within 5 minutes of being back in bed. :sigh: Anyway, if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading. I just needed some place to get this off my chest.
 
Stuff like that happens. Good to know about the vegetable oil....
Plus, she may have felt more bonded to you now that you took the energy to help her. You may have just indebted yourself to eternal bunny gratitude and snuggles.
 
I was gonna say veggie oil but you found it. Any time I use glue boards, I put them inside of a milk crate and put a heavy weight on top. The holes are big enough for vermin but will keep your bunny away and safe.
 
It's kind of like being a parent. You're going to make mistakes. You learn from them and move on. It happens. Don't beat yourself up over it.
 
Things happen. Do not take it too hard. You fixed the problem. That is what matters. We all make mistakes. It is part of being human.
 
I'm not a fan of glue traps anyway (if I was being killed I'd much rather it be with a snap trap) but the oil was definitely the way to go. We once had a baby parrot get stuck to a fly trap at the zoo I interned at and the oil really did the trick there too.
 
I woke up once to "something is wrong with a rabbit" noises, too. I had a 1-grid-high NIC pen around my 9 week old lionhead and 10 week old holland lop's cage... had supervised them for a LONG time and was convinced they couldn't jump out of it or put their heads through it so I thought it would be fine if I took a nap for an hour or two.

while I was napping, I jumped out of bed to the sound of feet scuffling on tarp and found out that Nala (my lionhead) had not only jumped out of the NIC pen, but had tried to get BACK into it by going through a grid, where she promptly got her head stuck!! it was utterly terrifying for both of us.

I'd only had her a week and a half to two weeks and, unlike Gaz, she really wasn't one for being cuddled and held... but for some reason as soon as I started petting her and telling her "it's ok, mommy's here", she stopped fighting against the grid (thank god!).

I didn't know what to do and couldn't be away from her for more than 10-20 seconds because she would start freaking out again... so I grabbed a bottle of vegetable oil and tried putting a little bit around the base of her neck to see if that would let me slide her head out (it didn't, and made quite a mess to boot). I finally had to cut the grid apart from the rest of the pen and take Nala and the grid she was stuck in to my next door neighbor's house at 7:15 in the morning to see if they had anything that could cut through the bars.

we tried bolt cutters on a section of the grid away from the bunny first and quickly found out that they couldn't get through the metal. I held Nala up and asked my neighbor to look from the front to see if she could figure anything out (since I had never had a chance to get a good view from that side)... she said it looked like it was just the ears that were the problem and went back to look for a better tool.

lo and behold, I gently slid her ears back through the grid one at a time and she pulled her head out on her own!

I felt SO bad about it, but at the same time I think it was a pretty big turning point as far as getting Nala to trust me - she became noticeably more snuggly towards me after I freed her from the mean grid! she definitely got over the trauma of it all a whole lot faster than I did.
 
Everybody's right, things like this happen, and the most important thing is that she's okay. But the amount of guilt I feel is incredible. It's gotten easier, but every time I look at her I feel bad.

I let her out yesterday when I got home from work. She was extremely hesitant to leave her cage. I lured her out with some food, and that seemed to work. It took her a few minutes to make sure that her surroundings were safe before she was back to her normal self.

Her attitude towards me hasn't changed, though. I was hoping she'd be a bit more cuddly but things are back to normal, as if nothing happened. Better than everything turning sour and having her hate me, right? :)

Thanks to everybody for their responses! Oddly enough it's a great feeling to know that I'm not alone in this, that similar things have happened to others' buns and it's all turned out okay.
 
I'm gonna go on a rant right now, I can't really help myself as a rat owner. But if you're going to use a trap, use a humane trap-and-release trap or at LEAST a snap trap so they die quickly. Rats and mice are incredibly intelligent creatures. Think of it this way: You're walking around looking for food, when suddenly your feet get stuck fast to the ground. There's nobody around to help you. You start panicking trying to get away. You spend the rest of your life terrified and waiting to die of starvation or a heart attack, or, if you're lucky, something might come along in time fast enough to put you out of your misery. Some rats and mice get so scared and frantic for survival they will chew their own limbs off to get off of the glue trap. Sorry for the negativity, it's just that I'm STRONGLY against glue traps, even though they may seem "humane," they're probably the most inhumane way to trap a mouse or rat.

Have you ever seen Aron Ralston's story? It's pretty much exactly like that.
 
littl3red wrote:
I'm gonna go on a rant right now, I can't really help myself as a rat owner. But if you're going to use a trap, use a humane trap-and-release trap or at LEAST a snap trap so they die quickly. Rats and mice are incredibly intelligent creatures. Think of it this way: You're walking around looking for food, when suddenly your feet get stuck fast to the ground. There's nobody around to help you. You start panicking trying to get away. You spend the rest of your life terrified and waiting to die of starvation or a heart attack, or, if you're lucky, something might come along in time fast enough to put you out of your misery. Some rats and mice get so scared and frantic for survival they will chew their own limbs off to get off of the glue trap. Sorry for the negativity, it's just that I'm STRONGLY against glue traps, even though they may seem "humane," they're probably the most inhumane way to trap a mouse or rat.

Have you ever seen Aron Ralston's story? It's pretty much exactly like that.
Click to expand...

This... :yeahthat: Think of how scared your bunny was, but the mice don't have anyone to end their fear.


However, I am glad you were able to release your bunny with minimal issues :)
 
I would have to agree about the inhumane use of glue trapping. Rats and mice are intelligent little creatures and regardless of the fact that they can be a pest (I am not debating that I certainly would not want them in my home) they should still be treated humanly. They feel fear and pain and its not right to allow them to suffer just because they are a pest animal.
 
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