What bunny owners do

[Nords]

Since prairie-dog & bunny recipes have been popping & hopping, so to speak, I thought I'd anthropomorphize a little.

Our rabbit's veterinarian has started a local "Bunny Ohana" that gets together to let our bunnies run around with each other while the owners compare notes & take pictures.  Although many bunnies look like prairie dogs fish bait rodents, they actually come in quite a variety of sizes & colors and they have surprisingly impressive personalities.  Last weekend's gathering brought in about 20 bunnies of all kinds and we learned a lot.

Two bunny owners are getting married next month so their bunnies have been learning to get along with each other.  The big bunny is Coco, a lop-eared rabbit about two feet long, eight pounds, and three years old.  She's unusual because she splays her feet out to both sides instead of on one side.  The little white bunny is Lilo, about a foot long, two pounds, and 18 months old, who still enjoys snuggling under a stuffed animal (mother substitute).  Most bunnies won't put up with this when they're mature.

 

[Nords]

Some bunnies are more touchy-feely than others and will sit in your lap or even cuddle in your arms. (We don't have that kind of bunny.) One woman has her bunny practically hypnotized and our daughter was able to do the same with Lilo. They'll stay in that position for 30 minutes or longer, and one woman said that her bunny will sit in her lap for two hours. Vets originally thought that bunnies were frozen with terror in these positions ("Help, I'm upside down!!") but have since concluded that the bunnies enjoy being cuddled by someone they trust. (Because the bunnies keep coming back for more.) If we tried to do this with our bunny we'd have bloody stumps for fingers.

 

[Nords]

Our bunny, cleverly named Peter Cottontail, is a dwarf orange Rex, about 18" long, four pounds, and five years old. He didn't have a very good time because we made the mistake of bringing his cage so he decided he had to defend his territory. When we moved the cage out of the room he finally mixed with the crowd a little but he's used to being the only bunny around as well as the center of attention. (Next time we'll just bring his travel box and we'll put it away as soon as we let him out.) This photo pretty much sums up his "Bow down and worship me" attitude. He must be right-- we feed him, we pet him whenever he wants, and we even clean his litter box... as far as he can tell he is the superior being.

The best part about this bunny gathering is that our kid decided a second bunny wouldn't work out. Phew!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats okay, I dont mind the bunny recipes.

In fact, i'm feeling generous today.

You can all eat me.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Eat you sir...

We'd rather eat Johnson !

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well, I meant it in the nicest way possible...

 

[cube_rat]

You can all eat me.

Did you mean to say we could all bite you?

 

[MasterBlaster]

From Monte Python's Lifeboat Skit...

How we feeling, Captain?
C: Not too good. I...I feel so weak.
2: We can't hold out much longer.
C: Listen...chaps...there's still a chance. I'm...done for, I've...got a
gamy leg and I'm going fast; I'll never get through. But...some of you
might. So...you'd better eat me.
?: Eat you, sir?
C: Yes. Eat me.
?: Iiuuhh! With a gamy leg?
C: You didn't eat the leg, Thompson. There's still plenty of good meat.
Look at that arm.
5: It's not just the leg, sir.
C: What do you mean?
5: Well, sir...it's just that -
C: Why don't you want to eat me?
5: I'd rather eat Johnson, sir!
?: So would I, sir.
C: I see.
?: I'm not a salad...everyone's gonna eat me! << ? >>
?: Uh, well.
5: What, sir?
?: Go ahead, please, but I won't -
?: Oh nonsense, sir, you're starving; ducking.
1: No, no, it's not that.
?: What's the matter with Johnson, sir?
1: Well, he's not kosher.
5: That depends how we kill him, sir.
1: Yes, that's true. But to be perfectly frank I...I like my meat a little
more lean. I'd rather eat Hodges.
?: Oh well, all right.
5: I still prefer Johnson.
C: I wish you'd all stop bickering and eat me.
1: Look. I tell you what. Those who want to can eat Johnson. And you,
sir, can have my leg. And we make some stock from the Captain, and then
we'll have Johnson cold for supper.
Crew: (cacophonous)
Hmm, yes, good idea, excellent thinking, very good, I don't suppose
we could have Hodges in the morning, jolly good idea, etc.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

what a cute lop ear bunny. love it. i used to take care of the bunny hut at summer day camp when i was a little kid. i remember i used to love the albino's with the pink eyes. great animals. i can't believe anyone would eat one.

 

[KB]

Cute bunny pictures... That's interesting how your bunny was protective of his carrier.

Nords, I have wild bunnies in my yard. Any suggestions on feeding them so they don't eat all my lantana?

 

[Cool Dood]

I have wild bunnies in my yard. Any suggestions on feeding them so they don't eat all my lantana?

Yes, try feeding them to your dog.

 

[laurence]

My wife had a bunny named Bugs (another original name) that lived for 8 years+, and was a very fun pet, loved to be petted, loved potato chips and pina colada yogurt, and wasn't fixed, so he had a favorite pillow he would hump all day. He had quite a full life from what I could tell, finally went to his great reward and still has his tombstone in DW's parent's backyard.

I had a bunny named Annibell who lived in a "run" with a small bunny house in the back yard. She always found a way out of it and would run in circles with my cat in the backyard. I was so amazed at how much of good friends they were, considering the carnivore/herbivore dynamics. Annibell would play untill she was tired, then munch on mom's flowers while Silky (the cat) would lay in the grass next to her, just hangin' out.

Bunny's are definitely o.k. in my book.

 

[HFWR]

Bunny's are definitely o.k. in my book. 

Ditto!

 

[Nords]

Nords,  I have wild bunnies in my yard.  Any suggestions on feeding them so they don't eat all my lantana?

Bananas & raisins. It's the herbivore's equivalent of a human ice-cream diet. It should ruin their digestive systems and thin out the herd pretty good in about a month. But they'll go with smiles on their faces!

A more realistic approach would be chicken wire fencing around the lantana, buried about a foot deep. Even if you planted broccoli, lettuce, & carrots on the other side of the yard the bunnies would stake out their territory and some poor sap would always be stuck with the lantana duty...

 

[brewer12345]

Nords, is your bunny house trained? How did you manage that?

 

[KB]

Thanks for the feeding info Nords.....I will need to put wire around most of my yard to keep bunnies out, I have a wrought iron fence which is open to a creek area. If the bunnies eat too much, I'll add the wire.

Meanwhile, I'll put some carrots and raisins in the quail feeder where the bunny likes to eat shelled sunflower seeds. We're having hot weather and the last lettuce I put out for him/her got crispy right away. The ants liked it, not the bunny.

 

[Andre1969]

I have a couple of wild bunnies running around in the yard. I think one lives under my side porch, and the other lives under a '52 Benz I'm storing for a friend. At least, whenever I'm out there, especially walking the dog, that's where I see the respective bunnies take off from.

I think the pet ones have always bothered me because they just seem so fragile. I'd be afraid that it would get hurt. My roommate's sister had a pet rabbit named Nibbles. We called him "Nipples" so often that his sister and even his mother started doing it!

The pet bunnies I've seen have always seemed kinda skittish, too. It's cool to see them be so affectionate.

 

[Martha]

I really am a pet person. Really. But I grew up eating rabbit. When my FIL was alive he used to buy them and we would cook them up in tomato sauce. Sorry, I can't help thinking of them as food.

I do like the picture of Nords' bunny. It reminds me of our youngest parakeet, trying to be lord of the manor.

My brother had a bunny for a while. We had to watch it for a period of time. Ate most of our electrical cords. But it got along well with the dog.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Gabe has a stuffed bunny that wiggles its tale and says "Some Bunny Loves You!". Scares the bejesus out of the dogs.

Any of you come near me with tomato sauce or any kind of chili sauce and theres gonna be trouble.

I remember a funny rabbit recipe from a cooking magazine, probably 15+ years ago. An odd southwestern "chili", IIRC it had no tomatoes and no onions, just a bunch of different kinds of red peppers and some seasoning, cooked until the rabbit was tender and the peppers turned to puree. Looked like chili, allegedly tasted pretty good, but I never tried it.

 

[REWahoo]

United States Air Force Officer Training School, Medina Annex Mess Hall, in the 70's. Rabbit was served at lunch every Friday. Fried rabbit, rabbit stew, and my favorite, hasenpfeffer. Tastes a lot like chicken.

Maybe they served it for breakfast. I never asked what that first "S" was in SOS.

 

[Nords]

Nords, is your bunny house trained?  How did you manage that?

He actually trained us (that "superior being" issue again).  Bunnies don't train very well and they're pretty stubborn about the habits they pick up.  So we try to accomodate his instincts instead of relying on his intellect.  After four years he responds pretty reliably to "Not for bunnies!" and "Banana..." but that's about all you get.

Our familyroom is the "worst" room in the house, filled with crappy furniture & teenagers.  We've covered all wall surfaces from floor to about two feet with thin tileboard (white plastic) to keep him from chewing on the drywall, and all electrical cords are wrapped in plastic cord keepers.  (Chewy on the outside, crunchy on the inside, with a shocking aftertaste.)  We've covered parts of the floor with plastic chair mats (the carpet protectors that go under desk chairs) and his litter box is surrounded by a ring of 3'x2' absorbent pads.  (We watched where he preferred to pee and set up the litterbox there.)  An old matchstick curtain on the lanai window is yummy.  He's finally decided that varnished wood & melamine is yucky.  The doors are screened with anti-pet screening (yucky).  The exits from the kitchen & diningroom are blocked off with heavy plastic baby gates that take forever to chew through.  The peripery of the room is lined with cardboard boxes for him to hide & play in.  He used to chew vinyl & leather but after four years he's finally decided to stick with cardboard & scrap drywall.  Palm branches & bougainvillea twigs are also yummy if I remember to rotate them weekly.

He's trained our daughter that just about anything left on the floor is yummy (including TV remotes & Playstation controllers).  He has a blast with boxes of tissues, pulling them out one at a time and prancing proudly around the room holding them in his mouth.

Bunny nesting/hiding instincts are surprisingly creative.  They chew to grind their teeth down, and Peter has chewed a number of bunny-sized holes in various parts of his cardboard boxes.  He also tugged them around the floor until they were in just the right places.  (It took him weeks.)  We didn't realize that he had a plan until one day he ran full speed behind the sofa, headed for a seemingly certain collision into the box warren, and blazed straight through the holes without ever touching the boxes.  A pursuing predator would have been tangled up in the first box.

Although we put up the doorway gates to keep him from roaming, he thinks they're for his protection.  If we forget to put one back up he'll run back & forth between one of us and the opening, or even go into the next room and paw at your leg to "remind" you.

I don't like the responsibility of caring for & entertaining pets.  However they're great for teaching kids the harder facts of responsibility & lifespans, so if I had to lose the pet debate all over again then I'd probably still pick a bunny.  Like cats, they're pretty independent and they show just enough affection to make a kid feel the rewards of their efforts.  They can be messy & noisy but they're generally not.  Another family advantage is that they're semidiurnal-- their active periods are mornings & afternoons, just when the family is bustling around.  They tend to be sleepy during noon and midnight, when many houses are empty & quiet or everyone's asleep.  They're relatively cheap to feed & care for.  They don't seem to have many health problems, but if they do it's usually quick & terminal.

And finally, they live for 8-12 years when domesticated... just about the length of time between a kid's first interest in pets and their (the kid's) high school graduation.  We hope.

Here's some links that we've found helpful:
http://www.hopperhome.com/hopperhome-anatomy.htm
http://www.rabbit.org/
http://exoticpets.about.com/od/rabbitcare/

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Tastes a lot like chicken.

More fodder for the "Matrix" conspiracy freaks.

By the way, I do NOT taste like chicken.

 

[brewer12345]

I'm a dog person, myself. Mom had a few bunnies when we were kids and I have to admit that I never really saw the point. But I like seeing the wild bunnies hopping around my neighborhood. And so do my beagles.

 

[Shredder]

Didn' that gal in the possum living article like bunny also Shredder