Afternoon all,
First post here - seems to be one of the best places for swapping best practices for caring for rabbits? Wanted to introduce my two to you all..
To set the scene, my girlfriend and I have just moved in together to a new house that I've recently bought. Small one-bedroom house with it's own garden. When we moved in, my girlfriend was really eager to get a rabbit as she's never been able to have a pet of her own before. So I eventually relented, and after buying and building the hutch, I came home from work one day to meet Jake & Button (from Pets at Home). Apparently they had been brought up together as babies, and so it was recommended that they should be kept together. Both were sold as males.
However, as time goes on and as the days get colder, my girlfriend seems to have lost her enthusiasm - as she seemed to be imagining sunny days out on the grass playing with the rabbits in the lush green grass, rather than heading out in the cold and rain to keep them well fed. So this job has now fallen to me (and my working hours also suit this as I'm around more during the days).
Jake:
As you can see, Jake is a Rex and is definitely the lively one of the two. Very inquisitive! However, Jake really isn't happy being held yet and does tend to get upset when being held.
Button:
Button is a French Lop, and probably about twice the size of Jake now! On the initial visit to the vet, they weren't entirely sure of his sex as there was any clear genitalia obvious. However, on taking them a few weeks later for their Myxo vaccination, it was confirmed that Button is a boy. However, the testicles haven't descended enough to neuter just yet.
This is causing a bit of a problem, Jake is often chasing Button around and trying to bite away at Button's penis. We've had to separate them within the outdoor run to prevent this from happening, but it's not quite so easy to do within the hutch.
We've bought 2 of the medium sized runs to make a much larger run that can be easily moved around and modified, and has proved very helpful in keeping them separate when necessary.
The hutch is doing it's job, and we've got one of the spaceheaters over it to try and keep it as warm as possible during the cold weather.
I've got a litter box in the sleeping compartment (since this seemed to be the main place they went to the loo) and they do seem to be using this quite regularly. I'm a bit concerned that they never sleep up in the sheltered area at all - preferring instead to huddle together at the bottom of the ramp. Whether I fill the sleeping compartment up with hay, or leave it fairly bare, this seems to make no difference! I'm thinking that I shouldn't be too concerned, since they do have the option to move into the closed compartment if necessary?
Anyway, that's the brief history! If anyone can see anything that we might not be doing right, I'd appreciate any opinions! They are due at the vets this weekend for their second vaccination.
First post here - seems to be one of the best places for swapping best practices for caring for rabbits? Wanted to introduce my two to you all..
To set the scene, my girlfriend and I have just moved in together to a new house that I've recently bought. Small one-bedroom house with it's own garden. When we moved in, my girlfriend was really eager to get a rabbit as she's never been able to have a pet of her own before. So I eventually relented, and after buying and building the hutch, I came home from work one day to meet Jake & Button (from Pets at Home). Apparently they had been brought up together as babies, and so it was recommended that they should be kept together. Both were sold as males.
However, as time goes on and as the days get colder, my girlfriend seems to have lost her enthusiasm - as she seemed to be imagining sunny days out on the grass playing with the rabbits in the lush green grass, rather than heading out in the cold and rain to keep them well fed. So this job has now fallen to me (and my working hours also suit this as I'm around more during the days).
Jake:
As you can see, Jake is a Rex and is definitely the lively one of the two. Very inquisitive! However, Jake really isn't happy being held yet and does tend to get upset when being held.
Button:
Button is a French Lop, and probably about twice the size of Jake now! On the initial visit to the vet, they weren't entirely sure of his sex as there was any clear genitalia obvious. However, on taking them a few weeks later for their Myxo vaccination, it was confirmed that Button is a boy. However, the testicles haven't descended enough to neuter just yet.
This is causing a bit of a problem, Jake is often chasing Button around and trying to bite away at Button's penis. We've had to separate them within the outdoor run to prevent this from happening, but it's not quite so easy to do within the hutch.
We've bought 2 of the medium sized runs to make a much larger run that can be easily moved around and modified, and has proved very helpful in keeping them separate when necessary.
The hutch is doing it's job, and we've got one of the spaceheaters over it to try and keep it as warm as possible during the cold weather.
I've got a litter box in the sleeping compartment (since this seemed to be the main place they went to the loo) and they do seem to be using this quite regularly. I'm a bit concerned that they never sleep up in the sheltered area at all - preferring instead to huddle together at the bottom of the ramp. Whether I fill the sleeping compartment up with hay, or leave it fairly bare, this seems to make no difference! I'm thinking that I shouldn't be too concerned, since they do have the option to move into the closed compartment if necessary?
Anyway, that's the brief history! If anyone can see anything that we might not be doing right, I'd appreciate any opinions! They are due at the vets this weekend for their second vaccination.
beautiful buns 
