Best Toy Choices

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Rabbittude

Did I do that?

Yesterday I wrote about our Great Wall of Cardboard which got me thinking a lot about cardboard and just how much the bunnies love cardboard. Hands down, the things that have kept our bunnies the most occupied over the years were made of cardboard or paper.

If you want to keep a bunny occupied, they are a lot like small children, much more interested in the box than what came in the box. Remember that before you go investing in expensive bunny toys that you think are cute but the bunnies ignore. When you use up the paper towels, save the rolls for the rabbits. When that new phone book comes, give the old one to the rabbits. If you have an office paper shredder, you might want to take those old newspapers and shred them up. Then fill a big cardboard box with them to let the bunnies dig it out or tunnel through it.

If you want to invest in purchased bunny toys, a great place to start is cardboard tunnels. You can get them online or at pet stores. Or you can just go to the home improvement store and get the cardboard rounds that are used for pouring and molding concrete.

Online stores that cater to rabbits are carrying boxes, cottages and tunnels made out of cardboard that have been designed with how rabbits play in mind. Since I know how much our rabbits love cardboard, I would see those as a good investment in something they would spend their time playing with. One key thing in finding things rabbits like to play with is that it reduces the amount of time they might be playing with (chewing on) things you would like to keep bunny free.

Mystery & Rabbits

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Rabbittude

I saw an article in a magazine that talked about what a person’s choice for a pet revealed about their personality. It said that rabbits are a favorite for people who like mysteries, because rabbits are unpredictable. You never know what a bunny will do next.

This is both the fun and exasperation factor of having a rabbit. Watching a rabbit is wonderful entertainment, but can also be nail biting suspense when you realize your rabbit is doing something bunnyproofing never anticipated.

From the very first time that Tigger and Shadow set paws in our home, they have been determined to stretch all the boundaries of known bunny activities. They have thrilled us, made us laugh, and had us holding our breath hoping their stupidest stunts would work out okay. We’ve never been able to reach them fast enough when they have appeared to lose their little bunny minds and go for the all out stunts and acrobatics.

Shadow must think that he is part flying squirrel. He launched himself off the back of the sofa with his legs spread out like wings. Fortunately, he was only winded from the four-foot drop to the floor. However, it was obviously a thrill for him. We keep catching him up there looking out, obviously thinking about trying it again. One night he was on the floor and sat up on his hind legs as if he was begging and then launched himself straight up into the air about three feet and came forward into a binky and landed four or five feet from where he started and raced off top speed.

Tigger loves to do the bunny commando crawl. She has wiggled her way under almost everything in the house and seems to be attempting to rescue all the dust bunnies, since she brings so many of them back from her adventures. She didn’t limit the commando crawl to just the floor either. When she was just a two-pound baby, she decided to scale the wall behind the privacy screen of a desk. I walked into the room to see the tips of her ears peeking above the back of the desk and one tiny paw hanging below the privacy panel. The inevitable fall to the floor that occurred before I could reach her took my breath away. Fortunately, it was a well padded carpeted floor. She just took off running to her next adventure.

After ten years with Tigger and Shadow we have learned one thing for certain. We have no idea what they might try next. We have become bunnyproofing experts over the years trying to protect our little death-defying stunt rabbits. One vet told us that their willingness to do so much is an indication that we have created an environment for them where they feel completely safe and free to explore.

We intend to enjoy every moment of the rabbit mysteries that they still have ahead for us!

Typical Saturday

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Rabbittude

Even after ten years, it is amazing to see how quickly our bunnies react to things of interest. Tigger and Shadow were asleep under the dining room table seemingly uncaring and unaware as the afternoon ticked away.

Then in walks Blaine fresh from the grocery store and all of a sudden it is feeding frenzy time at the edge of the dining room rug. Tigger and Shadow are pushing and shoving each other, doing sideways body blows to shove the other farther away. They are both looking interested in humping the others head in their efforts to establish who gets to new food first.

I am playing referee, while Blaine sorts out what small treat to give them to settle them down again. Tigger gets a small blueberry. Shadow gets a raspberry. Both are now back under the table sleeping again.

Bunnies are definetely live in the moment opportunistic little beings!

Repurposing Rabbit Style

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Rabbittude

I am always looking at repurposing things and using them in ways other than the obvious. When Tigger and Shadow first came to us as babies, they made messes like babies. They knocked things over, threw things, kicked things. It happened while they were out. It happened while they were in and things would land outside their cages. So I started looking around for some things to reduce the bunny messiness.

We had some long narrow rectangle green plant trays we weren’t using. I decided to use them to hold their food bowls in their run area to contain the messy food and water spills. The long trays also worked well placed beside their cages to catch things that fell or were kicked or thrown out.

Then the bunnies showed me another repurposing, plastic trays as bunny furniture. Tigger and Shadow both love to use the narrow green plant trays as a bunny couch or bed. The picture here shows a wider flat plastic tray that Tigger is using as a chaise.

It is a use we would not have thought of or realized they would like if we hadn’t put the trays down on the floor for other uses. Now when I am in discount stores, I am always on the lookout for things they might like for furniture. Thank you bunnies for loving something that is easy to clean and inexpensive! Another funny thing is that they have never tried to chew these and the original green plant trays are still in use ten year later.

The Scooter

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Rabbittude

When it comes to running, Tigger and Shadow are like little bunny race cars. They are sleek, corner with ease, and run fast as the wind. Portia, the bunny we lost a few years back, was different. She moved fast for her, but in comparison to Tigger and Shadow, Portia was a scooter. Her version of a run was funny and funky rather than fast and sleek.

She was so cute to watch when she would decide to use her scooter run. We could count on seeing it when we would leave the door to our half bath open. Portia treated the bath and alcove like area created behind the open door like her forbidden territories.

Portia would either sneak in to the bath or the area behind the open door when we weren’t around . The half bath was at the bottom of the stairs to the first floor. When we would start to come down the stairs into Portia’s area, she would come zooming out of the bath or out from behind the door. They were her little guilty pleasure areas to explore all on her own.

Since Portia came to us as a rescue bunny at about a year old, we didn’t know her full history. We thought her funny run and inability to jump up on things were possibly due to a past injury. However, it turned out she had an unknown congenital heart defect which led to a sudden and early death at just four years old. We realize now that she probably didn’t have the same energy as Tigger and Shadow and paced herself according to her limitations.

Thinking back to that cute scooter run is even more special knowing that it was Portia full-out at her peak speed.

Race Cars and Rabbits

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Rabbittude

Ready to run ...

Rabbits are fast. Think animal world race car fast, out run a predator fast. In fun terms, someone coined the phrase “Bunny 500” to signal a rabbit racing around, usually in laps around a room or house (see yesterday’s blog for a video example). Sometimes they are pure unadulterated motion and speed and sometimes they take the turns on two legs, clip the wall or crash into each other.

I have read cottontail rabbits can reach speeds up to 35 mph and jackrabbits can reach 45 mph. I would say our rabbits easily reached 25 mph in their youth. We would see them sitting across a twenty-foot room and feel it was safe for us to move. In just one footstep, we would have a rabbit underfoot. I cannot tell you how many times we almost drop kicked a bunny. We had to learn that when they were out running around, we absolutely could not move without watching our feet as we moved and being ready to quickly side step or dance out of a running rabbit’s path.

Even at 10 years old, they are still incredibly fast. Recently, I was walking down a flight of stairs. I was about to put my foot down on the next step down when Shadow appeared out of nowhere flying up the stairs, landing right where my foot was going. I ended up doing a one foot hop on the stairs trying not to step on him or fall down the stairs myself. Thankfully, we both came out of the encounter safely.

Living with roaming rabbits, means always having human eyes and ears open for where they might suddenly appear . We also take our shoes off at the door, so that we can more easily feel them as they come close to our feet and ankles.

Later today, I will blog about binkies.

Fur Therapy

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Rabbittude

: Ahhhhh Yes!

Tigger just presented herself to me to be petted. For Tigger that means she hops up to where I am and gets my attention. If I am sitting somewhere reading, she will rise up on hind legs so that her head peaks over the edge of the seat. Once our eyes meet, she goes back down and hens up on the floor. Tigger is a bunny who wants to be petted by invitation. It is an invite we gladly accept. She has the softest baby fine fur that is so incredible to touch and stroke. When she settles down and starts to tooth purr, awwww!

Shadow doesn’t give special invitations, he is ready to be petted whenever your hand touches his head. He also seems to have petting radar and comes running anytime that Tigger is being petted. He just can’t get enough of having his head petted. If you stray off his head, you will be reminded by his head butting your hand to stay focused.

Petting a rabbit becomes addictive. Their fur is so wonderful to touch and having them stretch out and start to purr and become putty under your hands provides a special bond.

So it is no wonder to me to hear that some rabbits have become Fur Therapists and visit hospitals or senior centers. Both rabbits and humans benefit from the loving touch of stroking the bunny. However, my two would never be candidates for professional therapy bunnies. They are way too crazy active even at ten years old.

I worked for an assisted living center once several years ago that had cats and dogs visiting and someone suggested I should bring my rabbits. Well that would have been like creating a bunny version of the Mississippi Squirrel Revival as sung by Ray Stevens.

We will just keep the fur therapy private between us and the two rabbits here on their home turf. It is a real joy to take regular bunny breaks, taking time out of the day to pet the rabbits, everybunny wins!

The Cost of Rabbits

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Rabbittude

Pirabbit ~ Hand over your money ...

Early on with Tigger and Shadow, I was doing lots of online searches for help on bunnyproofing. Some of what I found was lighthearted and funny, but really good information at the same time.

The following piece is one I had printed out years ago from a page on www.showbunny.com. I am no longer finding the page on their website. So I will type it in here for your enjoyment. It is funny but also too true.

Lose Money: Raise Rabbits

It begins with the free rabbit that your friend offers you. He thought his was a male, and was surprised to find that he now owns seven rabbits instead of one.

So you get the Rabbit Starter Kit (~$60).

Then you buy all the rabbit books that the pet store has, along with $100 worth of Rabbit Treat and chew toys.

Then you find out that the books were written in 1950 and are mostly wrong. The Rabbit Treat is too rich for them. The starter kit is full of things like alfalfa and cedar shavings that are bad for rabbits. The bunny ignores the chew toys – what they really want is paper and cardboard.

You also discover that the cage you bought is inappropriate for rabbits and just about any other small animal. Moved by guilt, you purchase a better cage with a nice pan underneath ($85+).

You hear that rabbits can be litter-trained, so you buy a litter pan and kitty litter. (~$10). The clay litter turns out to be not so good, so you replace it with a flushable litter (~5).

The paper and cardboard cause intestinal blockage which requires treatment ($500).

And their nails grow too long and you try to cut them, but the bunny amputates one of your fingers, so you pay a vet to do it (~$15 for nail clipping; $75 for YOUR doctor visit).

You discover that you have one of those rabbits which need their teeth trimmed, too! (~$15).

Then he pees all over and humps your foot, so you pay to have him neutered (~$100).

Then he discovers your computer and chews through the power cable and printer cord (~$100).

He ruins your antique furniture and chews up the baseboards (~$a whole lot).

He starts digging in the wall to wall carpeting, creating a huge hole. He eats the stuff underneath, requiring another trip to the vet. The landlord finds out and you are forced to leave, forgoing your security deposit ($300 and up!). That’s not mentioning the new security deposit and moving costs …

The phone goes dead and you see the last of the cord disappearing into bunny’s mouth. He eats the phone book for desert.

You get smart and you rabbit-proof the house ($~100-$200).

And then he jumps up on your lap and rubs your nose with his. “Awww,” you say, “It’s all worth it.”

Addendum … Rabbit dies after 8-10 years of senseless destruction and you go out to get another because you miss having a bunny around. 🙂

~Author Unknown

I only wish that some of the current prices were still as low as when this was first written!

Adventures with a Shadow Man

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Rabbittude

When we first brought Shadow home, we were thinking of calling him Ebony because of his beautiful black velvet coat. That is until I spent just one day with him and was losing him constantly. He was like a flitting shadow. It was a game to him to disappear at will.

Shadow likes to hide in plain site. If there is a dark piece of furniture he will sit in front of it and disappear. If there is a shadowed corner of the room, he will rest there. He loves to hop on the dining room chairs and sleep on the seats. I have to practically bend over standing on my head to see him there. When we moved into a new home the previous owners left a black rug in the dining room. One night I walked into the dimly lit room and all of a sudden part of the rug in front of me moved. He loves to lurk behind furniture just barely peeking around the edge and sometimes it is only his shadow on the wall behind him that gives his location away.

Our little rabbit man is a creature of the dark and sometimes it is only a flicker of movement that will give his location away. At times it is his sheer stillness that will have me sensing rather than seeing where he is sitting. While I am working in our home office I will sometimes hear a plop in the office chair behind me and will turn around to barely see a black rabbit sitting in a black leather office chair.

His undercover nature finally got him into trouble. I am always checking rooms before I leave and close the door to be sure he hasn’t snuck in without my knowledge. One day I left our home office and forgot to check. Twenty minutes later there was a loud chewing and scratching noise coming from upstairs. I went into the hallway to find it empty and silent. As I looked at the closed office door, it occurred to me that I had locked the little boy in there. I pushed the door open slowly until I felt it stop and left it open. Shadow popped into the opening with a very grumpy look on his little rabbit face. I don’t feel too guilty because it took the guy twenty minutes of exploring the office and chewing a few cords before he decided he had had enough adventure and wanted out. We now refer to the incident as Shadow’s Big Adventure.

Bunny Drill

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Rabbittude

Little Tigger will take off at top speed and Shadow immediately assumes that there must be danger and shoots off at the same time. She will often sound the alarm when he is in the bunny latrine. So his take off will come with a spray of litter into the air. Sometimes they are a tandem pair of rabbits running full speed looking for all the world as if they are harnessed together. At other times they take off in opposite directions. If we are lucky one or both of them will fly up the stairs, dive under the bed, and start thumping out danger signals. If we are unlucky they will run in opposite directions and come diving into a tunnel from different directions, meeting in the middle in a head on bunny collision.

Tigger is quite a vigilant bunny sentry in responding to knocks on the door, phones ringing, and anyone walking into the room. When it comes to movement or noises, Tigger has a hare trigger. She is very catlike in patrolling the perimeter and can often be seen flopped on top of the cage using the high ground to maintain surveillance. Tigger and Shadow are housed on the second level of a tri-level home and Tigger will also station herself at the stair landing on the second floor to be able to monitor anyone coming up or down the staircases.

Our bunny drills are initiated by the warden of the warren, Miss Tigger, our Tiny Terror, aka Freakazoid. She is always on full alert for anything she deems out of the ordinary. Basically, almost anything moving or making noise in the room that isn’t her.

In stark contrast to the very relaxed cute kitty flops that I wrote about earlier, this hyper alertness make us feel at times that we have a psycho bun with a split personality. She can go from completely relaxed to running full speed in the blink of an eye.

I have lost count of the number of drills that we humans have set off by sneezing. No germ in the world is going to get close enough to Tigger to get her! However after such thoughtless offenses on our part, our bunny sentry will often give us that look for startling her and setting off a false alarm.

The bunny drills were more upsetting when they were younger. Now, I guess I’ve gotten used to a bunny on patrol and Tigger has settled down some in what she recognizes as a danger. We finally realized that if we talk to her as we move around or come into rooms, she stays alert but doesn’t go too crazy. At least they still get some exercise as they get older.

Kicking Back

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Rabbittude

You Work It Baby!

This blog is dedicated to kicking back. No bunny we have ever seen does kicking back quite like Tigger.

Right from the time we brought her home as a baby bunny, Tigger has done the cutest flop and drop routines. The ones that really get our attention are the kitty style curl ups where she is rolling around on her side and back and sometimes licking her paw.

This is clearly done at times with some thought on her part. Tigger will do her cutest flops right in front of us and then will look right at us with her big brown eyes and the message is clear, “I’m sooooo cute! Just come over here and pet me right now.

Shadow has noticed over the years just how much attention Tigger gets with her cute flops and started to imitate her. I really wish I had his first attempt on film. Instead of the cute flop and pose that Tigger gets, Shadow looked like he had a seizure with all his body parts sticking out at odd and awkward angles. He has improved with practice and is quite cute himself now.

Tigger still remains the queen of the cute flop. Sometimes it seems she is actually modeling for the camera and working through different poses. She rarely hops off when the camera comes out, but holds still and even turns different ways so that we can get every side of her. Tigger seems to know that there just isn’t a bad side to her cute little bunny body.

I hope everyone here in the US is having a safe and fun holiday weekend!

Tiny Terror

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Rabbittude

Never underestimate a rabbit. We thought this bin to block the side of the refrigerator was great, but she did hop up on top.

Right from the start, we knew we were in trouble with Tigger. She was a baby bunny when we brought her home. We found out quickly we had two pounds of sheer determination. Tigger would sit up on her hind legs and look around at things. The next thing we knew, she was going where she had been looking.

She would hop on top of her cage, hop from there on to a desk and from there up to the shelves of the hutch on the desk. One time she scaled the wall behind the desk by climbing up between the wall and the privacy screen that formed the back of the desk. I came in to the room and saw just the tips of her ears peaking above the desk and the bottom of one paw hanging below the back of the desk.

When she wasn’t using items to springboard from one to another, she was taking running starts and flying leaps. We would see her in position like a runner with an intense look and then she would go flying off. One time my husband was lying on the guest bed in her room and saw her with that look. He had just enough time to say “NO!” and the next instant he was sucking bunny tummy as she landed on his face. Another time she took a flying leap over the 27″ baby gate in the doorway of her room and took off racing around our apartment. I had been sleeping in that Sunday morning, when Blaine shook me awake exclaiming, “Help! She’s loose in the apartment and I can’t catch her!”

We often said that we would not have been surprised to come in to a room and actually see her hanging by her paws from the ceiling fan. She just seemed to know no boundaries. I really didn’t think we were going to make it to one year with her.

Thought we had this shelf blocked with a big bin, but there she goes!

Tigger would also commando crawl and shimmy into any space she could squeeze into. We have had to dig her out from under bookshelves, the TV stand, the sofa … Once we made the mistake of trying to put Tigger and Shadow’s cages on a low platform when we read it was good to have the rabbits at least a little above floor level to protect them from drafts. The platform had a gap down the center of just 2″ x 3″ and sure enough, in Tigger went. The platform went bye, bye quickly.

We had sliding closet doors that were on tracks at the top but hung free at the bottom. Somehow, Tigger figured out that if she bounced against the inner door it would swing in and she could run into the brief space created between the doors and get into the closet. We were terrified when we saw her do it, so afraid we were going to see her smashed between the doors if her timing was off. We blocked access to the closet door fronts immediately.

Now it is ten years later, and we are glad to have our tiny terror and her sidekick still with us. In all the years and all the stunts, we have been fortunate to have only had one scraped side and one strained leg between them.

If you ever bring home a high energy bunny bent on extreme stunts, you will need maximum bunnyproofing. More later on the most vital need for successful bunnyproofing …

Rabbittude

Rabbits + Attitude = Rabbittude

Category Archives: Bunny Stunts & Fun