Its So Hard

to look after my bunnies.. am really not enjoying it as much as I should

I have now separated them, and all I hear is Pickle trying to break into Twinkle's side of the hutch, this morning Twinkle has had another huge messy bum after she had a bath yesterday afternoon. Twinkle is terrified of me everytime I go near the hutch because she thinks I am going to wash her again.

She cant eat any veg/grass so is on hay and pellets only which seems so wrong cos she should have fresh stuff.

Pickle just doesnt understand why I have separated them I dont think.

I do love them and would never think of not having them, but what part of this terrible situation is good?

One angry single rabbit and one terrified single rabbit.

Awe,sorry things aren't good with the buns the now.The rabbit with the dirty bum have you tried strimming the fur down with a hair clipper?This is quite good too if they have a lot of fur.I did this before with one of my rabbits who was a wee old lady and couldn't clean herself the same and it stressed her having to bathe her wee bottom all the time.When theres a bit less fur it's easier.They'll be a bit huffy at not being together just now,rabbits are good at making you feel bad .Things will get better.Sending hugs. Oh if you are going to clip down her bottom,carefully,try to use a not too noisy clipper and just let the wee bun get used to the noise of it first before you use it.

Don't worry about them being single - I've had 3 perfectly happy single bunnies - only got Benny now as the 2 girls died but he's definitely a happy bachelor.

I've just had a look at your other threads about this pair and I think you did right seperating them - Twinkle was being consistently bullied and it may well be why she's had an upset tum, as it will have stressed her immune system and made her too nervous to eat her caecals. I've got a very nervy bun in my group of 4, and I watched her eat her caecals the other night - literally any tiny movement from me and she was tensed to run and forgetting her poopy eating - and I've never actually threatened her or handled her even, so you can imagine how nervous Twinkle must have been to eat poops with Pickle around.

Pickle may be trying to get at her to bite her for all you know, rather than wanting to snuggle. I had a nethie and she was very nervy compared to my other rabbits (apart from the one I've just described) - they are quite high-strung I think.

I would get them both a teddy to snuggle up to, and keep them out of sight of each other till Twinkle is better. Tia my nethie only needed a tiny amount of veg compared to the big bunnies, and just a couple teaspoons of pellets - they really need to eat more hay than normal bunnies as they are prone to get too plump to eat their poops, with them being a stocky body-shape, so need good hay fresh twice daily. Grass upset my bunny Maa's tum too - I think some of them can't take it and she was fine after I kept her off the grass, although that did seem a sad thing to have to do.

If you use cornflour to clean her up with, you might not stress her out so badly - just rub it into the dirt and slide off as much as you can loosen, and she will be able to do the rest, assuming she has front teeth? (I know a lot of nethies have them removed)

It takes rabbits 2 weeks or so to get used to major changes, so hopefully they will both calm down after a couple of weeks and you may be able to let them within sight of each other again, although Tia just used to bite any rabbit that stuck its nose near her territory - Benny is the same :roll:

I'm sorry you're having such a difficult time at the mo. I don't know the full story but doing the best for them, even tho they don't see it at the mo, is the only thing you can do. Are you hoping to get them back together in the future? If so, then I'd leave the divider so they can see each other, with regards to the messy bum, would it be possible to cut out the pellets too? I had a bun with a messy bum and after a month on hay only it was pretty much under control. I also did a lot of clippng around that area to help with the cleaning and had some unscented wipes too.

She still had messy bum on hay and water diet. She only gets one teaspoon a day of Oxbow T Pellets which are the highest fibre ones I can find.

I dont think its worth trying to put them back together. Pickle is too bossy and Twinkle is too nervous.... thinking about it, this match was never a good idea.

fluffiebunnie said:

I have separated them using wire - do you think its better they dont see each other at all - I felt mean completely separating them as I didnt want them to be lonely

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forgot to say - I don't think either of them will calm down while they can see each other, and as Twinkle's messy bum may be connected to thinking Pickle's trying to pounce on her, you won't know until you do give her some space on her own to relax

elve said:

forgot to say - I don't think either of them will calm down while they can see each other, and as Twinkle's messy bum may be connected to thinking Pickle's trying to pounce on her, you won't know until you do give her some space on her own to relax

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I agree - I'd definitely try separating them altogether, as it must be incredibly stressful on both sides (and for you) at the moment.

Okay I will get some wood and get them separated properly. I hope that will calm things down.

Bless them both and you too! What a hard decision to come to but I am positive it was for the best. As others have said I would try to seperate them totally....out of sight and smell.

It's such a shame about Twinkles bottom but I have racked my brains and cant think of anything else we could have tried, although, I cant remember if we tried fiberplex or not....

Sooz said:

Bless them both and you too! What a hard decision to come to but I am positive it was for the best. As others have said I would try to seperate them totally....out of sight and smell.

It's such a shame about Twinkles bottom but I have racked my brains and cant think of anything else we could have tried, although, I cant remember if we tried fiberplex or not....

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We didnt try fibreplex... but certainly tried a monster list of ideas :roll:

aw i would try seperating them so they cant see or smell each other so much teddy idea for each sounds like a good idea (ps i think you did the right thing reading your other thread about to seperate or not) i would try giving her all te things she is used to as by changing the diet that can upset a bunnys tum. i think that if you change the food then it may also contribute to this. i personally would just make sure there was plenty of hay available to her in adddition to normal food rather than go hay only as clearly this has not really helped. also maybe try making sure she is at minimum stress ie keep her with the original hutch (moving the bullying bun into new accomodation) i hope that this gets sorted.!good luck xx hopefully lack of stress will help settle her tum.

fluffiebunnie said:

We didnt try fibreplex... but certainly tried a monster list of ideas :roll:

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My Frankie recently went through a phase of not eating his soft poos - we had him checked at the vets but they couldn't find anything wrong. I posted on here about the problem and Liz (Hugo's There) and Jane both suggested Fibreplex, which worked like magic Within a day he was back to eating all of his poos and (touch wood!) I haven't had a problem since I keep a tube at home now just in case it ever happens again. It might be worth a try with Twinkle too. Good luck x