Basic Bunny Care

Before I go and tell you a bunch of helpful fact for rabbit habitats I think I should tell you how I know most of this knowledge.

So when I was 4 years old I got my first bunny. Actually I got my first three bunnies. They were litter mates that we adopted from a local shelter. Throughout their lives, and after their lives, I received more rabbits. I have owned a grad total of 7 rabbits. Right now I just have one, his name is TidBit and he is a Netherlands Dwarf cross mix.

Alright lets get this post on the move! So in this post I am going to cover just one topic: What kind of habitat is right for your bunny.

When you have first figured out what kind of rabbit you are going to get the first thing that must cross your mind is cages, and how big they must be. The rule of thumb is that there must be one square foot of room for each pound on your rabbit. However, this does not mean your two pound Netherlands Dwarf can live in a two square foot cage. There are two rule that you must combine in order to get the correct size of cage. The second rule is that there must be enough space for your rabbit to hope three times in a straight line, and the rabbit must be able to stand high on his toes and his ears must not touch the top of the cage. Bare in mind that these two rules combined are for the SMALLEST you should put your rabbit in. There is no such thing as too big of a cage. One other thing is, there are many different kinds of cages available for rabbits now-a-days. I highly suggest the kind that have a plastic bottom and wire cage. The kind that your rabbit is forced to sit on a wire floor can cause problems to your rabbit, such as bone issues and sores on the feet.

I used to keep my rabbits in a large out door rabbit hutch that was built for rabbits. However, I found that they live a lot longer in the house. And so I am only discussing indoor rabbit housing at this moment. Although I may post a post about outdoor hutches at some point.

Okay on-wards we go! Once you have right size cage for your bunny you have to fill it with wonderful things! I have always used white pine wood shavings and have never had a problem with them. Some people say that they are dangerous for rabbits to live one because of their fumes, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I always fill the tray of my cage with about 2 inches of pine shavings. After that there are some necessary thing that need to be put in the cage. The first is a hide house. I always use a store bought wooden one. This is because my little fella likes to chew on his house, and I hate the idea of him eating plastic. For small rabbits a great toy for their cage is a tunnel of some sort. There is a product called "Chubes" which are like giant toilet paper tubes. These are great because once again your bunny isn't eating plastic. Also, fresh sticks from untreated apple (Or any fruit) trees make great toys.

Now on to feeding supplies:
I use a pottery dish that is about 2 inches deep and 3 inches around. It works very well because for the most part TidBit cannot knock it over. For water I use a small rabbit water bottle that you can get from all pet stores. One thing to note about these kinds of water bottles is that they MUST be changed every year (Or even twice a year) because they have a horrible habit of growing an awful green slime in areas that can't be cleaned. And now on to hay racks. I use a plastic hay rack that holds about three days worth of hay. It works well for rabbits who don't like to chew very much, but I don't recommend using it with a rabbit who is a big chewer. For some strange reason TidBit is just not a fan of hay in general, so I don't worry about him chewing too much. He stays away from the hay rack most of the time.

And now the last point I wish to cover is where to put your rabbit's cage:
This is one thing that most people don't even think of when they get a new rabbit. Here are some do's and don't's
Don't:                                         Why?'s
Put your rabbit in the kitchen-   The fumes and gasses from the stove can be very harmful. And also it is too busy of a spot.
Put your rabbit by the door-   Drafts are the most dangerous thing to a rabbit. They can get a cold and die within a few days, before you even notice.
Put your rabbit by the TV-   noises like that scare the poor little guy. If rabbits are stressed they aren't going to be very nice to their humans.

Do's
Put your rabbit in a quiet room that people do go into often enough so the rabbit wont be lonely, but not so much that the rabbit is stressed.
Although I don't really recommend putting a rabbit in a bed room, I have mine in my bedroom (Which is more like a zoo) and he is very happy. It was the only room in my house that he was able to spend most of his time running freely around the room, and not stuck in his cage all the time.

Please, if you have ANY questions about housing your rabbit, visit the 'contact us' page and send us an email.  I would be more than happy to answer your questions.


-Moira-

Bird Taming

     Parakeets make great pets for young people or for people with little time to take care of a more demanding pet. But if you have a parakeet and you have enough time that you want to tame it, here is a post on the methods I found most useful. Over the years I've had several budgies, and all of them have been hand tame. One parakeet that I had (my first ever, in fact,) was very friendly. He hardly needed to be hand tamed. The first morning after I had brought him home he was ready to be out of that cage. After a day, I had to use a piece of wire to tie the door down so he wouldn't open it with his beak and hop out (I had a dog also at the time so it wasn't exactly safe for a little bird to hop around on the floor). Needless to say, with that kind of an adventurous attitude, he hardly needed to be hand tamed. If you held your hand in front of him, he hopped on to go for a ride. But unfortunately, not all birds are this easily hand tamed. The bird I had after he died was a real Scrooge. He hated to come out. He was slightly more difficult to tame because he would rather sit in his cage than come out and go for a ride. Many parakeet books will suggest using a piece of wood such as a dolrod to train him to step up, and eventually switch to your finger. I found it much easier to do it quickly and just skip the dolrod. Hand taming is best done about three days after you've brought your budgie home. A word to the wise--babies are so, so, so much easier to hand tame than adults. So if you have a choice when choosing a bird, go for a healthy baby. You can tell that they are babies because they will have bars all over their foreheads as opposed to the blank foreheads of adults.

Take your parakeet out of the cage in a light towel (make sure he can breathe!). The cloth is so that the budgie will not associate your hand with being frightened. It also keeps you from being bitten, an unpleasant experience. Take the bird (still being held inside the cloth) into a small room without things the bird can hide under or be crushed by (weird as it is, I went into a small bathroom with tile on the floor and walls). Take something with you that the bird really likes. All of my birds have liked millet spray. Set the bird on the floor and let him look around for a while until he seems more comfortable. Then offer him the millet. If he is comfortable enough to eat, then you can let him take a few bites and then move the millet (or whatever you are using) into your hand. Hopefully the bird will want it bad enough to follow onto your hand. Once he realizes that your hand isn't a monster, he should be comfortable with you placing your hand close to him. Of course, move slowly so he isn't startled. Something that helps with timid birds is having an already hand tamed budgie with you. If you are taming your bird soon after you bring it home, it will probably be missing the other birds that lived with him at the breeder's or wherever he came from. Seeing another bird will excite him and he will probably want to play with the other bird. If you can get the other bird to stay on your hand, then the little tyke will most likely come and join him after a little indecision. Another technique that I found helpful was to get the bird to sit on a perch, and then move the perch toward my hand. It cannot be the other way around or it will not work! If my hand is staying still and the perch is moving, my hand will suddenly look like a more secure place to sit. If the bird does not switch places of its own accord, then press your finger against the birds lower stomach BY MOVING THE PERCH FORWARDS. Do not move your hand.

By pressing here, you are knocking the bird off balance, forcing him to step up or fall off. Birds, being birds, have a paranoia of falling. They were made to fly so falling is unnatural. Not to mention it hurts. Again, having another bird around that is already tamed will also help with this. If the birds are sitting together on a perch and you move it so they are both being pressed in the same spot and the trainee sees the other bird step up, he will probably follow suit.

The white bird, Jub Jub is already hand tamed while Perth, the  azure one, is being tamed. Seeing JJ stepping up with no problem gave her a lot of confidence in people. Now she is fully hand tamed and will ride around on my shoulder.

That is all for now, I hope your hand taming goes well!! Have fun and maybe learn a few things!

-Rachel-

An Introduction

     Hi! This is a new blog that we three girls share. It is going to be entirely about animals--things to do with them, things to make for them, ideas for training them, the list is endless. We hope that reading this blog will be fun and informative at the same time; we always welcome suggestions and constructive criticism. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts on posts that you read. Please bear with us as we get started and --most importantly-- enjoy!

-Moira, Rachel, & Emma-