My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

[whitelop]

I should, but I haven't worked up to that yet. If I'm in the living room right in sight of the kitchen, I've been leaving her out for a couple hours at a time a couple times a week (I'll admit, I'm not a great bunmom in that aspect, because I'm so paranoid of her chewing on my Ikea butcher block because she totally loves to nip at it and I get tired of walking in there to redirect her attention) and overall, she's pretty good. I need to rub a new coat of bar soap on the bottom half of the entire butcher block and man the f up! I have some cardboard and tiles blocking it right now, but she 500s into the tiles and knocks them onto herself and pulls the cardboard away because I let her chew on all of the other cardboard in the kitchen. Otherwise, she's a good big baby. The only time she's ever peed on the floor in there, it was the corner right in front of the fridge when my b/f and I were sitting right there with her! Stinker. Someday I plan to get a playpen (that's been in my amazon cart for months) so I can hook it onto the doorway where the swinging gate is mounted in the kitchen doorway to extend her run area into the living room where she can see me better and I can still get sewing and stuff done without bunny teeth exploring too much.

I totally don't blame you for not wanting her to eat your IKEA butcher block! I love IKEA! My sister in-law's boyfriend used to work at the IKEA you probably went to to get that! hahaha. She lives in your general area I think. Or in some suburb of Chicago. I think they live pretty close to down town.
Anyway! I think it would be pretty cool to have a pen in part of the living room. I would like to do that in my house too! That way they can pop into the living room then pop back into the kitchen, I think it would be sort of fun for them.
Maybe with a nice coat of soap she'll stop nibbling on your butcher block. I hope so. I've never had a chewer, but I think Ellie may be one. I think having a giant rabbit would be an awesome thing! I wish Ellie would become a giant! lol

 

[whitelop]

Awww, you're finally getting your bunny flops! I love to see my bunnies all flopped out. It makes me happy to know they feel so contented. I'm glad Ellie is feeling so happy with you That's so funny that tiny little Ellie is going to need a big litter box. Is this small litter box the same one Foo used to use? I have really liked having a big litter box for Baby because there's lot of room for peeing, hay, digging , and napping in. It seems to keep her messy bunny habits all contained into one nice area, lol.

Oh no, sounds like Ellie is a sugar addict like the rest of our buns. It so funny how exited they get over sugary treats. I used to have a rabbit that would share my fruit popsicles with me(before I knew better). I just slept on a mattress on the floor at the time, and I would be laying on it eating a popsicle, and she would hop up on me and start eating at one end while I was eating the other. She LOVED popsicles! I'm sure Ellie will be sooo excited when she's old enough to eat fruit. I can just picture her eating her first nana, nomming away with her mouth full of squishy banana, lol. You definitely will have to take pictures

Good news! Both Tobby and Libby ate their sherwood pellets rignt at feeding time, yay That didn't eat a bunch, but they did eat them before they ate their alfalfa. There is hope for all our stubborn bunnies

With alfalfa hay it's actually pretty normal to have it be sticks and fluff, even with the really nice stuff. The problem is that when it is dried and baled, the leafy parts crumble up. I have some really nice alfalfa left over from my horse, that I've been feeding a little bit to my bunnies. It pretty much separates into the stems and fluffy leaves when I pull some off the bale. The only time when I've seen the leaves not get so crumbly and turn into fluff, is either when it is cut really late and the stems and leaves are really big, and when it is baled and still a little moist and not dried out completely. Both of which aren't the best for good quality alfalfa hay because later cut and bigger stems means the hay has less protein and mostly fiberous stems, and baling before completely dry runs the risk of the hay getting moldy. I guess the bigger stemmed stuff is ok if you have a rabbit that will eat those thick stems. It seems easiest for me to feed my buns, the alfalfa in a bowl.

This alfalfa is really good quality horse hay. It's probably the best that I ever bought for my horse, but you can see it separates into stems and fluff.

Jenny, I'm so glad they ate the sherwood! Ellie's been doing pretty good with it too.
My alfalfa sticks and fluff doesn't look nearly as good as that alfalfa sticks and fluff. I'll try to take a picture to show you guys what it looks like. But its got brown sticks and like Jennifer said, grayish-green-brown fluff.

Yes, its the same litter box that Foo used. If you can imagine Foo's big butt in the litter box and not going over the side, but Ellie's tiny butt in there and constantly missing the seemingly huge box to her. lmao. I just feel like she's going to need a big box for a little butt!

The bad thing is, I would probably totally share a popsicle with Ellie, as long as it was one of the all natural only fruit ones, lol. I bet that was good bonding for you and that bunny, I bet she did love the popsicles!

 

[Imbrium]

you wouldn't think they'd like something so cold, but damned if they don't! I still remember sharing fudgesicles with my bunny when I was 9 and my parents weren't looking. he loved them!!

you might try a shallow storage bin for a litter box - it works very well, holds lots of hay and it's impossible for a smallish bunny (like my 3-4 lb girls) to pee over the side of it.

 

[JBun]

Jenny, I'm so glad they ate the sherwood! Ellie's been doing pretty good with it too.
My alfalfa sticks and fluff doesn't look nearly as good as that alfalfa sticks and fluff. I'll try to take a picture to show you guys what it looks like. But its got brown sticks and like Jennifer said, grayish-green-brown fluff.

Yes, its the same litter box that Foo used. If you can imagine Foo's big butt in the litter box and not going over the side, but Ellie's tiny butt in there and constantly missing the seemingly huge box to her. lmao. I just feel like she's going to need a big box for a little butt!

The bad thing is, I would probably totally share a popsicle with Ellie, as long as it was one of the all natural only fruit ones, lol. I bet that was good bonding for you and that bunny, I bet she did love the popsicles!

Lol, I was thinking it was the same litter box Ellie is using, but I couldn't image how big Foo managed to pee in there just fine, and little itty bitty Ellie keeps missing. Haha, she's so funny

Ok, Jennifer, 'stickier' but not 'sticky', huh? You're right though, both you guys alfalfa doesn't sound all that great. The alfalfa being brown would be cause they dried it out in the sun too long proabably, or the conditions for drying it weren't good and it got wet at some point. It wouldn't have much in it nutrition wise and would mostly be useful for the fiber. I found that it was really important to find a good farmer for getting good hay. Can't count how many times I ended up going to pick up crappy hay from a farmer that didn't care much about their hay quality, or was only interested in baling cow quality hay, and once I saw it, didn't want to buy any. It was always so nice to find someone that actually had really nice hay. So if you can only get that kind of alfalfa, you're probably fine just feeding Ellie a good grass hay. Brown hay isn't going to give her much nutrition including extra protein, which is why you would be feeding a bunny alfalfa at all. If your grass hay is good, I would just stick with that,

Yeah, it was the good fruit popsicles, and Jennifer, it is funny but they really do seem to like them. I almost wish I wasn't so paranoid about my rabbits getting sugar now. It would be fun to share a popsicle with Roo Hey, frozen fruit would probably make a good summer treat for you guys that feed fruit to your buns.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

For your morbid curiosity, Morgan, here's a link to my burn when it was a day old. This is after the overnight bandaid-and-skin loss (tragically painful) and then I think I had "gauze" (which stuck) and Neosporin on it that day and had to SCREAM while I removed that.

Not for the weak of stomach: http://i50.tinypic.com/10p68fq.jpg

Today, over a month later, it still looks and feels very angry: http://i46.tinypic.com/23ie6oy.jpg

 

[whitelop]

LMAO! THANK YOU MISSY! Okay, so I'm a sick person. As soon as you told me you had a bad burn, I really wanted to see it! Does that make me totally weird? I swear, I'm pretty normal for the most part. Sort of. I'll be honest, a thought crossed my mind to send you a PM to ask to see it, but I really didn't want to be that weird about it, I wanted to play it cool. lmao.
That looks like it hurt like hell though! My burn is not that bad! AT ALL! You look like you took some layers off, mine is only like one layer and would have been healed already if I hadn't hit it on a shopping cart and started this whole downward spiral of beating it up. I think you'll have a pretty nice scar from that one! I'll probably have one too, but it will only be where it keeps opening up. I opened it again today. I also had to scream when that happened and I could not imagine pulling gauze or whatever it was off of a new burn. It makes me queasy for you!


Okay, on to our night. I am not a weirdo, in the sense that I really try not to talk to strangers. I just happen to like and am able to handle gross things. Anyway. My husband, my son and I went to best buy to look at video games for my husband and a new laptop for us. We picked one out, I'll tell more about that in a minute. This is about the weird guy we encountered in the store. We're standing there looking at this samsung tablet, my son is sitting in the cart part of the cart, because I squished his fingers in the non-cart friendly best buy and it wasn't safe for him to be in the seat part of the cart. So this guy is standing on the other side of the display table thing from us and he asks how old AJ(my son) is, I told him 19 months. He tells us he has a niece who is 15 months. We nod and say they grow up fast. Then we go back to messing with this tablet. The guy is still standing there. Then he asks my husband if he works in a different area of town, my husband said no. Then he asked where he did work. My husband told him. Then he introduced himself to us, his name was Scott. They talked about disc golf, which is what my husband works in. Then after the conversation was over, he told us to have a good evening and walked away. We didn't see him again in the store. IT WAS SO FREAKING WEIRD. I was a little scared that he was going to follow us home, so I texted my mom and told her his name and the area he lived in, you know, just in case. The weird thing is, we were in south-south Charlotte and he said he lived in south Charlotte, and there are 3 best buys in the area he lives in. So he passed 3 best buys to go that one which is close to the SC line. It was really strange. Ughhh...why do people feel the need to talk to us? Its so weird. I don't talk to people. I hate people. I especially don't talk to people enough to ask them where they work and if they like it or if its a good company. Thats creepy. I don't know, people weird me out. Big time.
It brings me to last January, my friend, AJ and I were at the beach on a short vacation. We went to the grocery store there, we were in the check out line, my son was like 6 months old or somewhere around there. The check out girl was like "oh, he's so cute! I just want to squeeze him! I want him, can I have your baby? Can I hold him?" I just looked at her like she was freaking nuts and said "uhh...hell no?" I paid for my stuff and we left. She was an odd duck for sure! I don't understand the things that people say. I would NEVER ask someone if I could HAVE their child. Thats crossing a line.

Okay off that, we found the little laptop we're going to get. Its an Acer c7 Chromebook. It is Google powered and basically only checks emails, surfs the internet, does online shopping and plays youtube and netflix. All the things that I do on the computer anyway! Hahaha. We have netflix through the PS3, so don't need to use that, the only time I use youtube is on my phone when I'm not home. And the only thing I do on my computer anyway is get on RO, check my email and read the news. But more often than not, I check my email on my phone because it goes straight to it. So I think it will be the perfect little netbook. It only weighs like 2 lbs and is pretty small and the best part of it is ... it only costs $200! Its PERFECT! It doesn't have windows or any of the regular things that laptops have. It doesn't download anything it really only uses the internet! haha. Its so simple and so awesome. Not to mention, I love google chrome, its my freaking love child! I'm using google chrome right now! hahaa. So thats what I'm getting. And if for some reason I need a windows program or something, I still have this hunk of junk! lol

So about Ellie's litter box. I told my husband that she needed a new bigger one and he said NO! hahaha. He said he doesn't understand how a rabbit that weighs 1 lb can't seem to get her pee inside of a litter box that is 5 times the size of her. He said that he doesn't know how Foo who was 5 lbs and big could use the box without peeing over the side but little tiny Ellie can't manage to get it in the box! haha. He said to give her some more time to learn to get it in the box. I sort of agree with him and I'll give her some more time, but I think she'll need a new big box for when she has a bigger butt.

I think I will go to my feed store and ask them if they can point me in the right direction for some good quality alfalfa. My feed store is pretty small and they don't sell a whole lot of stuff. They just got out the feed business, and they pretty much only have hay and some horse tack. So maybe they'll be able to help me get like half a bale of alfalfa. I hope so. If not, then I think she'll be okay without it. She has coastal and I'm not buying anymore of that kaytee crap and I refuse to pay for oxbow, those jerks. I'll figure it out though.
I was sitting in the floor with her earlier and she was binkying around and 500-ing around, she then stopped ran right for her out of cage litter box and pottied and took a hay break. She just needed a bite of hay then she was back to binkying around. She was pretty sweet earlier too, she came and stood on my leg and let me rub her nose. She doesn't like her cheeks to be rubbed, but loves her nose, ears and body rubbed.
I looked at her teeth and they look so good! They're straight and don't appear to be long and they're so white and little. Little tiny baby teeth. How cute, yet so sharp.

I'm done now!

 

[JBun]

That guy asking all those questions would have weirded me out too. Lol, I probably would have been watching my rearview mirrors all the way home!

Yay, a new laptop! Did you not get it at the store?

 

[Chrisdoc]

Yeah, someone asking all those questions is a bit weird and the girl in the checkout, what a nerve. In today´s world, the guy asking all those would freak you out a bit, it´s idifficult to tell the normal guys from the nutters.

Great news about the netbook and yes, if you don´t need all the Windows stuff, it´s better to keep things simle. These little netbooks are great, easy to carry, weigh next to nothing and have great capacity. yippeeeee

 

[whitelop]

Jenny, no we didn't get it yet. I wanted to read the reviews to see what people were saying about it. All the reviews looked promising. But you can't expect too much out of a $200 computer!

Chris, do you have one of the netbooks, without the windows software?

 

[Imbrium]

Ok, Jennifer, 'stickier' but not 'sticky', huh?

it made more sense in my head, lol. it's sticky in that it sticks to itself real well, but it's not sticky in that it doesn't FEEL sticky if you touch it

I swear, I'm pretty normal for the most part.

I opened it again today. I also had to scream when that happened and I could not imagine pulling gauze or whatever it was off of a new burn. It makes me queasy for you!

The guy is still standing there. Then he asks my husband if he works in a different area of town, my husband said no. Then he asked where he did work. My husband told him. Then he introduced himself to us, his name was Scott. They talked about disc golf, which is what my husband works in. Then after the conversation was over, he told us to have a good evening and walked away. We didn't see him again in the store. IT WAS SO FREAKING WEIRD.

I don't talk to people. I hate people. I especially don't talk to people enough to ask them where they work and if they like it or if its a good company. Thats creepy. I don't know, people weird me out. Big time.

So about Ellie's litter box. I told my husband that she needed a new bigger one and he said NO! hahaha. He said he doesn't understand how a rabbit that weighs 1 lb can't seem to get her pee inside of a litter box that is 5 times the size of her.

hate to break it to ya, but you are SO not normal! that's a good thing, though - normal is boring

you *really* should give those second skin bandaids a try like I keep telling you to - I swear they're awesome and then you wouldn't keep hurting yourself

that guy was creepy as hell. wtf with asking if he works in a different part of town. is he on a first-name basis with the ENTIRE best buy clientele or something that he's surprised to see a face he doesn't recognize? people who feel the need to force small-talk with total strangers for no reason are weird, and not the good kind of weird like you are. I mean, I chat with random folks in stores sometimes, but the conversations always start with a sheepish look and an explanation of why my chest is "crabbing" and ends with me showing off the sugar gliders, lol. at least that's a reason for talking to someone. people who feel the need to talk when there's no reason to talk to someone irk me.

I hate people too.

I got my girls a new litter box tonight, it's SO big and it's awesome! it's pissing me off to no end that I can't find it on the walmart site or on the sterilite website. it's a clear plastic "organizing tray" that's meant to go inside an 18G storage bin, I found it in the storage bin aisle. it's like 22'' x 16'' x 4 1/4'' by their measurements... by mine (measuring the inside of the bottom when I went to make the grid), it's just over 18'' by just over 14''. it only cost $3! it's not as deep as I'd like, but screw it, it's huge and I can put SO much hay in there!

 

[Chrisdoc]

That sounds like a great idea, I must try and find something similar over here as I'd love to have them eating hay all day and night. They do eat a lot as I'm always filling up so I'm happy about that.

Yes, there are some real weird people about but you should get more worried when you get stalked by dogs....happened to me one and I had to change my route as it wouldn't leave me alone...how sad is that, can't keep a man but animals just can't leave me alone haha

 

[whitelop]

I snuck and bought a big litter box today! hahaha. I went to the grocery store which is right next to a dollar general, so I grabbed a big litter box from the dollar general, lol. I'm about to put it in Ellie's cage for her, see if that helps and if she likes it. It will hold so much more hay!

Well, she stayed out of her cage last night, all night. Mama had about one glass too many of wine and fell asleep on the couch! hahah. My husband didn't know she was out to put her up, so at 6:30am, I heard my cat make a weird noise and I thought something got Ellie. I ran into the kitchen to check her and she was asleep on her pile of dirty cage blankets, in the floor. She seemed to enjoy herself while out of the cage. She only pottied on her cardboard sheet and in her litter box, no accidents on the floor. She did so well! I have to try to not do that anymore, I should probably try not to drink that fourth glass of wine either! lmao.

 

[holtzchick]

Hahaha awh glad to hear I didn't miss to much and you guys are doing well! Sounds like it won't be long before Ellie doesn't even need her cage

 

[whitelop]

Michelle, no you didn't miss too much!

I just put Ellie's big litter box in her cage, wow does that thing take up a lot of room in her cage. I put her old box where she likes to potty in the floor, where the boxes used to be and she got in it and used it immediately! She seems to like her new big box, which is good.
I took some pictures of her cage, and the now lack of room. She has gotten bigger and her cage hasn't. I guess she'll be like Foo, never in the cage, just in the kitchen for the majority of the day and the cage for a few hours. I would really like to take her cage away and just have her in the kitchen, but she's still so uncomfortable around the cats. She's coming around though, I think as she gets bigger, they get smaller and she isn't as scared.
I'll post the picture in another post, I have to put them on the computer and with this computer its a pain in the ass. Stupid piece of crap. I don't know when we're going to get the new one, hopefully this week or next week. But who knows with my husband!

My burn is almost healed, thank god for neosporin. Oh, I got new neosporin tonight and I got animal print bandaids! How fun, lol. I got the store brand neosporin, I got two tubes for like 75c cheaper than the name brand and the two tubes I got were like an ounce more than the one tube of real neosporin. I figured it was more bang for my buck! haha. My burn itches like an SOB now! I just want to claw my hand open, it itches SO bad! The neosporin makes it feel better and not itch as much. That stuff is a life saver. I have a scab where I have opened it up so many times, but I haven't opened it in a day or so. Thankfully!

 

[whitelop]

Half of Ellie's cage and her wittle face!

Overhead view^

Whole cage^

Other half of her cage^

Nope, they aren't edited. My computer hates photobucket and I'm really lucky to have actually gotten the links to put them in a post with out my computer completely losing its mind. So I tried not to tempt fate by editing the size.

See what I'm talking about with not enough space in there? (right now, I can hear her rattling her food bowl against her water bowl. She is trying desperately to get the few kaytee pellets in there.)
Her water bowl sits on a small plate, just in case she were to tip the bowl, it would go onto the plate and hopefully not into the cage. The bowl and plate and both really heavy. The bowl is a soup bowl, and yes it says soup on the side of it.
Her food bowl is plastic so she can move it around. She only spills it on the floor when its out of her cage, she likes to tip it up to get the pellets better.

And I know that shiny ad stuff on the diaper box isn't good for her if she were to eat it. BUT she doesn't chew on that box, she chews on that other piece of cardboard in her cage. Its like a tube/tunnel thing. She only chews on plain cardboard, its weird. Foo was the same way, she had a diaper box house too.

Thats her cage! And yes, her blankets are blue velvet. She's fancy!

 

[JBun]

Ellie probably had a blast having a whole night out to explore, or sleep, or whatever she decided to do I like the pictures. It looks like she has plenty of room in there. And the litter box won't just be used for peeing. It's multifunctional: pee, eat, poop, sleep. Hopefully this will keep her 'big' butt contained with no more pee going over the edge, lol. I don't know how she could possibly miss with that one. But then again, leave it to a rabbit to find a way

What a well behaved rabbit she is! I know several of my rabbits would have that bowl of food and water tipped right over within the first 5 minutes of being in the cage, haha. The only way I can keep them from tipping things over is to have the dishes attached to the cage.

 

[JBun]

I thought you might find this interesting. Since I took Zeus off his pellets, all but a little pinch of them, his poops look sooo much better. The first picture is the one I posted before, a couple weeks ago when he was still eating pellets. The second picture is from today with him eating mostly hay and veggies and almost no pellets. I'm sooo happy! I feel bad for him though. He really likes pellets, even the sherwood ones.

 

[Imbrium]

wow, HUGE change in the poops!

in that overhead view of the cage, Ellie looks SO tiny and the cage looks so big, lol. I can't believe her size compared to the plastic spoon... she's such a teeny baby still!

 

[whitelop]

Jenny, WOW look at the difference! Thats amazing! That makes me sort of take a sigh of relief for Zeus. Are you looking for a different pellet to try, or are you going to stick with the few Sherwood pellets that he's getting? I know he probably isn't happy about no pellets, but its for the best and hopefully he'll figure that out! Foo wasn't too happy when she went to no pellets, but she got used to LOTS of salads and I think she got over it.
She is pretty well behaved since she doesn't knock her water bowl over. She knocks her food bowl around, but its plastic and I figured that when its empty she would like to play with it, which is why I gave her that bowl. Hopefully it doesn't become a problem down the road.
So far so good with no pee over the side of the litter box, lol. I'm not totally sure how she would get it over the side. Its not very deep, its just really BIG! haha. She seems to like the new box though. She has made a little nest of hay and she seems pretty content in there to lay down and eat. Gah, if I could just lay down in the middle of my food and relax and eat, the world would be a better place. lmao.

Jennifer, you think she's still tiny?! Shes SO much bigger than she was when I got her! You're right though, next to that BABY spoon, you can see how small she still is, lol. I guess its hard for me to see because lives with me.

Oh I keep forgetting to tell you guys, she is the size NOW that her "siblings" were at the pet store. And they were 8 weeks old. I know its probably hard for you guys to tell how much she's grown, but she's double+ her starting weight with me. I told my husband that all the other rabbits in the cage with her were the size she is now and he sort of understood how small she was compared to the rest. She very well could be the runt, but I still think she was at least a week younger than her "siblings".

I think that Ellie is pretty happy here with me. Every time I go sit in the kitchen with her, she binkies around and goes a little nuts. Its pretty cute. She doesn't do it when I'm not in there though. She likes to lay down on the pile of blankets and relax. Are all little babies happy like this? Is it just a baby thing?
I think she is getting comfortable though, she is starting to flop out in her cage. She scared the crap out of me the other day. She was in her box and it was turned so I couldn't see in. Her head was on the blanket outside the box and she was laying on her side, her eyes were open and I thought she was dead for real! I ran over and she jumped up like "wth mom? I was resting!" I was really worried! hahaha. So when I cleaned and rearranged her cage, I put her box so I could see into it from across the kitchen, so I'll be able to tell if she's dead bunny flopping or if shes a dead bunny! lol

I tried to take some action shots of her last night. I need to download them and see how they turned out. I took a video of her binkying around but its really dark because the flash light thing wouldn't turn on to illuminate the kitchen. My house is a little dark. lol. I might put the video up if its good enough! I spent like 30 minutes in the floor trying to get good shots of her, shes very difficult to photograph. But she is SO funny to watch!

PS. I'm watching The Wonder Years. I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. Its so great! I think I was born in the wrong time, I should have been a teenager in the 70's.

 

[whitelop]

On a chicken related note. My rooster has been crowing every few minutes since 5am. I think I'm about ready to strangle him. He's having a mega hormonal day today I guess. He's feeling extra manly and has to crow about it! Today is the day that I go outside and he sneak-attacks me for just walking out the door. Or he stands 5 feet away from me and crows while I'm on the phone with someone important or something. Which HAS happened.
I was on the phone once with some company complaining about their sub-par product, I'm sure. And he was like 10 feet away from me crowing. Tell me you guys wouldn't be taken aback if it sounded like there was a rooster on the phone with you? The woman I was talking to at that moment was like "uhm, is everything alright?" Like whispering to me like I don't know there's a rooster staring me down. lmao. The same thing has happen whilst on the phone with my son's doctors office. They just pause and are like, "hmmm, you have chickens?" haha. Nope, I sure don't, that's my dog barking! Yep, that's what happens at my house. Its a strange life.