The Model Bunny Rabbit

Posted on May 30, 2012 by rabbittude

Tigger posing for the camera
You worked it baby girl!

From early on when the camera would come out, Tigger would pose. This series of photos was all taken at one time within just a few minutes. Tigger seemed to instinctively know to show off all sides of herself to the camera. We really believe she knew she was beautiful.

She had a way of moving that was dainty, delicate, precise and smooth. Unless she was freaked by something, she was all very coordinated ballet like moves. She many not have liked being picked up, but she loved attention. If I brought out a camera and was taking pictures of Shadow and had no idea where Tigger was, usually within just a few minutes she would be hoping in and taking over the photo shoot.

Besides her desire to pose, we called Tigger our model bunny because of her finicky eating habits. She was always slender, bordering on anorexic thinness and quite fussy about her food. We always joked she was on the model diet, avoiding eating whenever possible, but grabbing yummy treats from time to time. Tigger would sniff meal offerings and sometimes hop away. We would put salad greens on a plastic picnic plate and she would sometimes take the plate and toss the salad. Other times she would overturn pellet or hay bowls if they weren’t to her taste. There was nothing physically wrong with her that the vet could find, she was just a really picky eater.

One time when we had Tigger, Shadow and Portia, we received new pellets and hay from our regular company and the taste obviously differed significantly from past seasons. All three bunnies turned their noses up at the new food. We got some of the old season and mingled it in with the new and within a couple of days Shadow and Portia were eating it. Tigger held out for two weeks refusing to touch the new. We were feeding her lots of greens to make sure she was eating enough and checking her weight too.

We spent a lot of time during the first five years of Tigger’s life following her around begging her to eat. Then she suddenly started to eat as if she was making up for all the years of lost time. We said that it was obvious our model bunny had retired and now intended to enjoy life to the full.

We had never thought we would see our Tigger chubby. The last six years of her life we had to watch that she didn’t eat too much fattening food. We had to protect Shadow so that she didn’t hassle or attack him trying to steal his treats or push him away from food. She would run dancing around our feet as we carried food and dive at the plates of greens as soon as they were put down acting like a starving rabbit. Sometimes she would move to stand on the plate hovering above the food making it hard for Shadow to get his share. She became chubby at times and we would have to put her on a more restricted diet to get her weight back down again.

Next post on Friday, the Kitty Bunny …

A Favorite Photo of Tigger & Shadow

Posted on May 28, 2012 by rabbittude

Tigger & Shadow at rest
I love this photo. It shows off Tigger’s beautiful fur and her love of laying kitty style on her side. She also loved to have one little paw up by her face, sometimes almost in a sucking her paw look. It was such a cute reflex action of hers. Shadow is in the background doing what he liked to do best, blending into something dark so that it was really hard to truly see him.

Coming Wednesday, Tigger the Model Bunny.

Meet the Velcro Rabbit

Posted on May 25, 2012 by rabbittude

Previously, I wrote about how much Tigger hated being picked up and held. There came to be one place that was an exception for her where she wanted me to hold her and not put her down.

It was my custom at vet visits to keep handling of Tigger to a minimum thinking that was what she prefered. So I would pick her up out of her carrier, put her on the scale to get her weight and then put her right back into the carrier afterwards until the vet would come in to examine her. I discovered Tigger the Velcro Rabbit by accident. Usually, I am wearing knit tops, Tees for the most part. On one visit when she was about a year and a half old, it was chilly and I had on a sweater.

I was following my usual procedure and after the weigh in, I picked Tigger back up intending to put her back in her carrier. That was when I discovered she was attached to my sweater. She had hooked her little claws around the loose knit weave and wasn’t letting go. I held on to her petting her and talking to her while we waited for the vet. It was a bit of a problem detaching her from my sweater to then put her down for the exam when the vet came in. It occurred to me that the vet’s office was perhaps an exception to Tigger’s don’t hold me rule.

After that visit when she needed to go in, I would hold her and talk to her while we waited for the vet. Many times she would hide her head underneath my arm and not want to even look around. She would try to hold on to me and not want to be put down for the exam. At times if the vet or vet tech forgot and didn’t continue to hold her quite firmly at the end the exam, she would actually make a little leap off the table straight into my arms. I made sure to be standing right at the table at all times talking to her, petting her head or covering her eyes if she was getting really scared. My rabbit was like Velcro and sticking to me in preference over the vet. I was clearly her chosen security.

It was humbling and awesome to know that I had earned her trust to the level that she was placing herself in my care by her choice. From that time forward whenever I held her at the vet or later in life when we needed to hold her for medicine, feedings or to clean her up, she also earned the nickname Baby Girl. That is how we would be talking to her at those times: “It’s okay Baby Girl”, “It will be over soon Baby Girl”, “We’ll look after you Baby Girl’, “Good Tigger, sweet Baby Girl”.

If it hadn’t been for wearing that sweater, I might not have discovered how much Tigger had come to regard me as her protector and that she wanted me to hold her and comfort her at the vet’s office. So if you have a very independent rabbit and are trying to respect that, you might want to check to see if the vet’s office is an exception zone where they too would actually like some comfort cuddling. We never took Tigger to the vet unnecessarily just to get cuddles, but it was a bonus to the visits to be able to make the visits better for her and get some snuggles in return. Because of what we learned from Tigger, we also discovered that Shadow too sometimes wanted to be held and comforted while at the vet.

Tasmanian Devil Bunny

Posted on May 23, 2012 by rabbittude

Abstract of Tasmanian Devil Bunny No pictures on this one. However, they would have been a blur of motion like this abstract drawing where you see the jumble and tumble of swirling bunny parts. It is a bit dizzying to look at and so was Tigger if you picked her up as a baby bunny.

Tigger was like trying to hold on to the whirling dervish Tasmanian Devil of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. You saw motion and body parts with brief stops. Tigger tended not to stop until I would get smart and put her back down. She made it quite clear that to her the term four on the floor also applied to rabbits. All four paws were to remain on the floor unless she decided on a lift off.

It was a real exercise to hold on to her safely as she would squirm, wiggle, somersault and do flip-flops in my arms. In a blur of dizzy speed her head would be up, down, right, left and then repeat the process … Everywhere the head went the little paws followed and those little paws had kitty sharp claws. It was early summer in Georgia when we got her, so I was usually in a V neck Tee and shorts. I would end up scratched all over my arms, legs, neck and Tigger usually managed to get at least one paw hooked into the V neck of my shirt, so I got a good measure of scratches on my chest too. It was embarrassing to have to admit that a rabbit less than three pounds had mauled me.

I kept trying to pick her because up at first we hadn’t gotten the room with her cage bunnyproofed and I would carry her to the kitchen for run times. We got that room bunnyproofed pretty quickly and fortunately Tigger was a quick study with the litter box so we didn’t need the easy clean kitchen for long. Then I could allow some of the wounds to heal for a bit. I continued trying to pick her up but a little less often, attempting to get her used to being held. Tigger never really got with the whole being held program with one exception that I will talk about in the next post.

We had wanted to try to do nail clippings at home, but always had to take her to the vet for that. She needed the fear factor of the trip to hold still enough for exams and nail trims. Even with that fear factor, it would take three people for exams, two to hold her while the vet examined and two people for nail trims, one to hold and one to trim. Since Tigger’s top weight was never higher than 5 1/2 pounds, it was extremely close quarters for the humans at vet visits trying to hold one very small bunny rabbit still without stepping all over each other.

It was just amazing how strong and agile one small bunny rabbit could be. Later in life when she needed medicating or cleaning up due to old age issues, she would still run like crazy trying to get away, not wanting to be picked up. The difference was that when I did pick her up, she would be amenable to getting things over and done with as soon as possible so that I would put her back down. Still, she was a two person job. One of us had to hold her, while the other medicated her or worked on fur cleaning issues. The response to being put back down did not change no matter what her age. Once she hit the floor, she would hop off a bit flicking her back paws as she went and would then stop and thump once or a few times depending on how violated she felt by our interference with her person.

We tried to respect Tigger’s desire not to be picked up and only picked her up when her care or safety required it. The rest of the time, we chose to get to know her and let her get to know us on her terms. We sat on the floor or laid on our stomach or side on the floor, letting her come to us to interact as she chose. The room she was in at first was a combination guest bedroom / office. Sometimes we would sit on the floor with our backs up to the bed. Tigger would hop on our laps and run up our bodies to get up on the bed. Later she learned to take flying leaps up on the bed and would play with us there. Blaine would take a sock and play a very gentle tug of war by just giving her some resistance with him holding on to the sock so that she was the one actually tugging at it. That usually tired her out and she would then take a nap between his legs.

Getting to know Tigger on her terms was rewarding. Many times over the years she would hop up and bestow sweet bunny kisses on our foreheads. As she slowed down some late in life, we would have the opportunity to lay beside her snuggling for a time while petting her.

Coming Next on Friday, meet the Velcro Rabbit.

What’s Your Name Bunny Rabbit?

Posted on May 21, 2012 by rabbittude

Our little Tigger bunny was unforgettable. Her looks were unqiue, but she also packed a truly big rabbit personality into her little bunny size. The vet she saw the longest summed it up when she said, “Tigger is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them!” We had many nicknames for her over the years because of the oh so many sides to her looks and personality.

We had read that it helps a rabbit to get to know their name by hearing it in every sentence to associate that name as being theirs. We talked to her a lot all of her life. At first, we ended almost every sentence with her name. However, Tigger might have thought at times that her name was “No, Tigger!” or “Tigger, No!”. We found ourselves saying that a lot as she taught us a whole new level of bunnyproofing. We didn’t shorten her name or call her anything else until it was clear that she recognized that when we said Tigger, we were talking to her. In the decade with her, we embraced every possible variant of her name: Tig, Tigs, Tigster, Tiggers, Tiggery, Tiggirl.

It always surprised people who weren’t familiar with rabbits that she knew her name. She actually came to know a whole lot of words and phrases. We were certain without doubt she knew her name, because when we had both rabbits and would yell “No Shadow”, Tigger would ignore us. She knew we weren’t talking to her. When we called her name, she would react. It wasn’t always the reaction we wished, but she would react to her name. We could be across the room and if we started to say, “Good Tigger, Good Bunny”, she would start to tooth purr. We would be able to see her jaw gently moving as she purred.

There were a couple of nicknames she earned by her size and shape: Half-Pint Harley, Little Bit, Hipless Wonder, Weasel Bunny. Most nicknames we called Tigger were based on her personality: Princess, Lady Bunny, Tasmanian Devil, Air Bunny, Wiggle Worm, Freakazoid, Squirrel, Tiny Terror, Little Stinker, Pretty Bunny, Model Bunny, Kitty Bunny, Velcro Rabbit, Baby Girl.

How did one very small rabbit come to have so many names? All these nicknames have a story. By telling you her nicknames now, I am giving a preview of some stories to come. Tigger packed an awful lot into her decade of life. She so rarely looked to be really resting. Most of the time she seemed to be plotting and planning her next move, the next thing she would try. She was energetic beyond belief for the bulk of her life, right up until just the last few months. It was like having a living breathing Energizer bunny rabbit who would just keep on going and going. It was amazing to know her!

Coming Next on Wednesday, meet the Tasmanian Devil bunny.

So, How Many Chins Does a Rabbit Have?

Posted on May 18, 2012 by rabbittude

My toys must have my scent!

The title is a bit of a trick question. As a noun, a rabbit has one chin. Turn chin into a verb by saying a rabbit chins things and a rabbit has as many chins as they want to have.

Tigger was religious about chinning things. She would make the rounds on a regular basis chinning everything in her cage and her play area. I knew that rabbits had a scent gland in their chin and liked to claim things by chinning them, but I had never seen any other rabbit be quite so territorial as Tigger. Tigger was always on the move and as she moved she would chin things. It was almost as if you could see the little bunny mind thinking, “This is mine, this is mine and this is mine too.” Everything was regularly and thoroughly claimed by Tigger.

It was hard to pet Tigger because she was so much on the move. After she would hop into her cage to get her bedtime treats, she knew it was settle down time. It was one time we could usually open up the cage door and be able to pet her (blocking it with our bodies though against potential escapes). There was a ritual first that had to be observed before we could actually pet her. Tigger would sniff the hand reaching in. Then she would chin the hand. Only then would she lay down and put her head down in position to allow the human hand to pet her.

The rituals that were so much a part of Tigger are what had us calling her Princess very early on. She wasn’t ever ready for interaction with any living being until she had observed her rituals first. You had to know how you had to present yourself to Tigger or she would be hopping away in a huff. The little nose would go up in the air, the back would turn and then off she would hop, sometimes with a thump.

Anyone else have a rabbit with an abundant number of chins?

It’s a Calico Rabbit!

Posted on May 16, 2012 by rabbittude

Tigger rocking & rolling, showing off her tummy and all her fur colors!

No, we didn’t think we had a Calico rabbit. It is though what quite a number of people said when they first saw Tigger or a picture of her. We didn’t know how to describe her either at first. We knew Calico wasn’t right as that was a cat breed and not a striped pattern, but what breed of bunny was our Tigger?

I had attended quite a number of county fairs growing up without ever seeing a rabbit like Tigger. I also had a number of rabbit books I had accumulated, but looking at them I didn’t see any bunnies that looked like Tigger. While looking in some newer rabbit magazines, I did see some rabbits that looked like her. I hit the Internet looking for more information on the Harlequin rabbit with Japanese coloring. At first I thought bingo, that is our Tigger bunny, until I read that the Harlequin rabbit is around nine pounds.

Even though Tigger was still growing, it was pretty obvious from her very dainty ears and paws that she wasn’t going to be a nine pound rabbit. Full grown she ranged from 4.5 to 5 pounds and chubbed out a bit late in life to 5.5 pounds. So early on, it was obvious that she wasn’t full-blooded Harlequin. We called her our half-pint Harley. During the first year we had her, I read in a rabbit magazine that some breeders were trying to create a mini Harlequin rabbit and figured it was quite possible with her beautiful coloring and small size that Tigger might have resulted from such a plan.

Our hipless wonder weasel bunny

It was a guessing game for us wondering what other breed/s might be in her genes. Full grown, when Tigger would lay stretched out, she was quite long and skinny. Reading about all the different rabbit breeds, we wondered if she might be part Himalayan rabbit. The Himalayan breed is small in size around 2-4 pounds and known for a very long snakelike body. So was Tigger part Himalayan? Perhaps.

However, Harlequin / Himalayan didn’t totally track with her personality. I had read that Harlequins and Himalayans were known for having calm and easygoing personalities. Tigger was freakazoid and sassy beyond belief. However, I also read that Harlequin’s enjoy attention, are curious and love to be the center of attention. Tigger was extremely curious. She just had to be in to everything. She also truly loved attention. If I brought a camera out, she would pose. Later after we got Shadow, if I was taking pictures of him, she would hop over and take over the photo shoot.

If you are ever trying to figure out what breed of bunny you might have, a place to start can be the rabbit breed categories established by associations in your country. For the US the American Rabbit Breeders Association’s Recognized Breeds provides a lot of pictures and links to breed profiles with information on the size, coloring and fur of the different breeds. Now if you really love pet rabbits, do not make the mistake of actually joining any of the breeder organizations. Been there, done that oops and don’t want to read about rabbits being raised for fur or meat.

We will never know for certain what exact mix of rabbits lead to our Tigger, but we always figured she was one of a kind. That led to our enjoying her company to the fullest, because we always figured once she was gone that there would never be another bunny to come along that would be just like her. Sometime in the future, when we decide to bring another rabbit home, we won’t be expecting one like her, but will be looking to learn what one of kind bunny they are. Rabbits are such an adventure to get to know, because they all have such unique characteristics and personalities!

Coming next: So how many chins does a rabbit have?

Rabbittude News Flash – Update

Posted on May 14, 2012 by rabbittude

An upgrade to our Rabbittude website to bring the website and blog together has been in planning for quite some time. We finally had the opportunity to do the behind the scenes work needed to make it a reality. We are in the process of bringing it live right now. Rabbittude.com won’t be available until the file uploading process is complete.

So the next post on our “Calico” bunny will be on Wednesday. However, we will be moving things to a different web server during the next 24 hours. That can sometimes cause browsers to have difficulty locating sites for 24 to 48 hours after the move. Have no fear if Rabbittude.com or the blog disappear, they will show back up again once all the browsers update for the new location.

After the move, you will be able to find the blog on Rabbittude.com or if you have bookmarked blog.rabbittude.com as a favorite, that web address will be programmed to go to the new blog location. We know we will have some sorting out issues for a short time to and hope to keep those to a minimum.

We have completed moving everything over and combining our website and blog together. We are still working through a few wrinkles. It does not look like we have the ability to import current subscribers or followers. If you were previously subscribed to receive new posts via email, you will need to use the subscribe link on the right to subscribe here. So sorry all for the inconvenience of having to re subscribe / re follow!

There’s a Tigger in Our Kitchen!

Posted on May 11, 2012 by rabbittude

Initially, we put Tigger’s cage in the bedroom that we had set up as a combination office / guest bedroom. We didn’t have the room bunnyproofed at first and Tigger wasn’t litter box trained. So, when it was time for runtime, we would take her to the kitchen. The kitchen was both easy to secure by blocking off the only entry into it and easy to clean with linoleum flooring. Only the spaces around the refrigerator needed blocking. Everything else was cabinets to the floor with no way for a Tigger to disappear or escape. We blocked one side of the refrigerator by wedging it with a roll of paper towels that she could also chew on while we wedged an upended planter box in to the space on the other side.

We put our regular throw rugs away during Tigger training and purchased some small kitchen rugs that we could easily put in the washer and scattered those on the kitchen floor. We brought in a litter box filled with paper pellet litter. We put some cardboard over the only baseboard to prevent her chewing that. We now had an apartment pet security deposit to protect! We had a washable kitty bed for her to rest on and her carrier with the door off as a hiding box. She had a water bowl and food bowl on a plant tray to keep those tidy. The unexpected side benefit of the tray is she liked to flop on it. The sides supported her and it became bunny furniture. Tigger also had every bunny loving toy we could think of for her to chew, rattle or throw: empty paper towel rolls, jute / wood small animal chews, cat belled balls, a phone book.

Tigger actually learned to run really well on the linoleum and would go sailing / skating across the floor at unbelievable speed. Blaine and I would take turns sitting on the floor playing with her and getting her used to both of us. Here are some of the pictures of those times …

What do I want to do first?

Would you care to explain these weird pellies in with my usual?

Okay, what did I hop in? Maybe you should clean the floor more often?

Would it be asking too much for some privacy here please!

Ahhh ... the bunny yoga stretches are so relaxing ...

Coming next week, the Calico bunny rabbit.

Tigger Visits The Vet

Posted on May 9, 2012 by rabbittude

So Tigger, are you looking for your vet?

Since I hadn’t planned on bringing a bunny home, I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find a good vet. It actually turned out that a rabbit savvy vet was close to where we lived. I set up an appointment. Then I had to find another larger pet store to get a proper carrier for Tigger to travel in. The original pet store had not had one and we had to bring her home in a cardboard pet box which was no way for a bunny to travel, dark and scary and easy to chew through if a rabbit got motivated enough.

I picked out a small kitty carrier where the top could be separated from the bottom allowing for easier storage and cleaning. The top and front had metal grille doors allowing for putting Tigger in through either opening and checking on her from the top to help prevent really easy escapes out an opened front door.

After making the appointment, we put the carrier in Tigger’s running space in the kitchen to get her used to it, so that it wasn’t completely unfamiliar when she had to go into it for the trip. Right away, as little as she was, she hopped up on top of it. That was an early sign of things to come with Tigger. First she sat up and looked at something and then she jumped on top of it.

Tigger on carrier On the day of the appointment, I put Tigger into the carrier and put it on the passenger seat next to me with the door facing me so that we could see each other on the trip. I used the seatbelt and shoulder harness to strap in the carrier to keep it in place should any sudden stops be needed which unfortunately occur a lot in busy metro Atlanta traffic. I drapped a small towel over the carrier top so that the sun wouldn’t shine in her eyes, but made sure the side vents were clear for enough air circulation. Then we were off.

There wasn’t a whole lot of Tigger for the vet to examine. I don’t remember her exact weight, but it was somewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 pounds. She was just a handful of bunny. The vet checked her over giving his opinion that it did indeed look like we had a little girl. The best news was that she was an otherwise healthy bunny who was malnourished due to a bad diet. He gave me a brochure for the Oxbow Company and suggested that I order some Alfalfa hay and pellets to fatten up our baby. Then we would add greens in upcoming months and switch to Timothy hay and pellets later on when she was full-grown. We discussed spaying her in about four months when she would be about six months old.

Tigger and I both left happy, she to be leaving the poking and prodding behind and I with fears of larger health problems relieved. I ordered her Alfalfa hay and pellets right away. When they arrived a few days later and I opened the package, it was like receiving a box full of meadow. The smell was wonderful. If I was a rabbit, I would have been all over that food. So, great new hay and pellets on board, bunny is about to be fattened up shortly.

That is when we started to get the drift that Tigger had a very stubborn little bunny mind and did not want to change from what she was used to which was the awful guinea pig pellets. I followed suggestions from rabbit sources online to mix the old pellets with the new. Tigger would pick out all the bad stuff and leave her good rabbit pellets behind. It took weeks and we were down to the very last spoonful of the guinea pig pellets before she decided that she liked her new Alfalfa pellets and switched over to eating them. Fortunately while she was arguing the pellets, she was liking the new Alfalfa hay. Slowly our bunny baby started losing some of her very bony feel.

Coming next, there’s a Tigger in the kitchen!