The Checkers Diary

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GabrielleB

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2010
Messages
16
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Location
Ringwood East, Melbourne, , Australia
Well Checkers' story all starts just over a week ago......I came home from staying at my boyfriends house and I pull into the driveway and notice my mums cat holding something in his mouth, naturally, I yelled and screamed at him until he dropped it and it turns out its a tiny baby bunny of about a week old!

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He weighed just over 200 grams when he first came into my care.

I door knocked in my area, but nobody seemed to know where he came from, thus begins the daunting task of hand rearing him!

Going by the advice given on the internet (and from previous experience), I bought some rabbit rearing formula and tried to feed him. The first day, nothing, the second, under 2mLs, the third 2mLs....his weight was dropping rapidly by about 5 grams per day. I took him to the vet, and she told me I wasnt feeding him enough! Feeling like a very bad rabbit mother, I upped the frequency of his feeds to every 2 hours (as per vets instructions) and now he is finally eating enough, and has even started to put on weight! He has gone from 165 grams to 172 grams in under 24 hours! Such a feat for a tiny bun who was looking worse for wear :)

So that brings us to today, the day after our vet visit, he has had 5 feeds in 11 hours, totalling 16.8 mLs of milk today! He is steadily drinking 2-5 mLs of milk per feed and I am very proud of him!

He has also turned into an adventure rabbit! He loves to explore and is sooooooooooooooo inquisitive :) As soon as hes finished eating hes like "ok mum, I want to be on the floor, and I want to be there NOW!"

So cute :)



Pic taken 28th July
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Pic taken today (29th July), having a run around the loungeroom!
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Well its the 8th of July....17 days since Checkers came into my care and he is doing phenominally well :) I couldnt be more proud of him! He is now a wopping 290 grams! and has gained 20 grams 3 days in a row! Hes growing up so fast :D

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Tiny bunny binky!!
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Most recent pic, taken two days ago
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and this vid was taken 4 days ago :)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqV-7j_VwCU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqV-7j_VwCU[/ame]
 
Gosh just one problem after another with little Checkers, his teeth are misaligned, so he will more than likely need teeth trimming for the rest of his life, he has fleas and I cant use any treatments on him until he is 6 weeks old, so I am picking them off by hand and changing his bedding a lot, and today I discovered he has cataracts! So I took him over to the vet, and she confirmed what I had found and said he has practically no vision :( Poor baby Checkers
 
Poor little bunny. He is definitely cute. We found Stewart when he was about 12 weeks old. He had really bad teeth and was at the Vet every other month. He live to almost five, we think that was about his age give or take a month.
 
What a gorgeous bunny, and what a caring person you are to take care of the little bunny.

It's sad that he doesn't have much vision, but I think the fact that you didn't know that for a while means that he manages very well regardless! I mean bunnies manage to get around fine at night when it's totally dark. I think so long as you don't change his cage set up too often that he'll be fine.

I hope your vet can help with the teeth and fleas... hang in there. keep up the good work :)

ps. love more photos too when you get a chance!
 

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