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How do I clean Snowy?

PinkBun

Alpha Buck
Snowy is a white - bad colour for keeping clean I know - lionhead doe.
Recently, with the bad weather, bun has been getting wet, mucky and smelly having been outside on the wet grass and (by accident) been in a couple of showers. Basically, I want to know how I can clean her. She's so mucky on her legs, stomach and -ahem- bits..

Also, she has poo clogged up on her bum! She is on hay, and rabbit feed. I cut down the lettuce and carrots and she's still storing it. She's able to poo the balls (sorry for details) but some has sort of got stuck in her fur. Any ideas?

Sorry about this.

Lots of love,
MUCKY BUN - Snowy.
:love:
 
If it's just dirt from the garden she should clean it off herself :wave: but to get the poo off you will probably need someone to help you. One of you should hold her with her back against your chest, and the other can clean her. If I have to do this I use cotton wool and warm water. Once the poo is all wet it should come off easily.

But you should never feed lettuce to your rabbit, it is very bad as it upsets their tummies and causes messy bums!! :wave:
 
Poppy used to get this because she can't eat hay. Sometimes she still needs cleaning.

I would cut out lettuce and carrot completely tbh :wave: lettuce is wet and not really good for them so this may be what is causing it, carrot is full of sugar and again, not great.

I would go for a more natural diet, like herbs and dandelion leaves from the garden :) it might be better for her to just have hay, grass and things from the garden to prevent a mucky bum :wave: just don't give her a bath:wave: they can clean themselves :D but this is different and she needs a bit of help.

You might need to get someone to help you. My bf holds Poppy, so she is 'standing up', but he supports her bum while she is against his body. She is wriggly but will settle eventually. And I have warm water and nail scissors to cut the poo off her. She used to get massive poo balls weekly but now it's every 2 months or so and even then it's only a bit messy and needs a wipe :wave:

In this weather it would be better to maybe cut those things out of her diet too and go for the more natural way because of fly strike :wave: and a bunny with a mucky bum will look a bit more appealing, so make sure you keep checking :wave:
 
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Righty Ho! Lettuce and Carrot are no longer on the menu. :lol:
Right, so hold her upright and warm water/cotton wool her backside?

She is an awful fidget but she's an outdoor bun and I don't want her to catch a cold if I wash her. If that makes any sense :oops::D
 
Righty Ho! Lettuce and Carrot are no longer on the menu. :lol:
Right, so hold her upright and warm water/cotton wool her backside?

She is an awful fidget but she's an outdoor bun and I don't want her to catch a cold if I wash her. If that makes any sense :oops::D

They can't catch colds so don't worry ;) but don't fully wash her, rabbits can't regulate their body temperature so even though you think they are dry, they aren't :) so just stick with washing/cleaning her bum and she'll be fine :wave: Poppy was an outdoor bun and had hers done evey week, she was perfectly okay :D

Get luke warm water and kitchen roll/cotton wool and give her a wipe, hold or have someone hold her against their body so she is secure :) and do it as quickly and as safely as possible to minimise stress :wave: if she needs some cutting off then be very careful cutting the fur off :wave: I have done this many times so I find it easy but first time it was confusing where to cut :lol: just get as much poo off as you can:wave:
 
They can't catch colds so don't worry ;) but don't fully wash her, rabbits can't regulate their body temperature so even though you think they are dry, they aren't :) so just stick with washing/cleaning her bum and she'll be fine :wave: Poppy was an outdoor bun and had hers done evey week, she was perfectly okay :D

Get luke warm water and kitchen roll/cotton wool and give her a wipe, hold or have someone hold her against their body so she is secure :) and do it as quickly and as safely as possible to minimise stress :wave: if she needs some cutting off then be very careful cutting the fur off :wave: I have done this many times so I find it easy but first time it was confusing where to cut :lol: just get as much poo off as you can:wave:

OK! I will do that right now!
Toodles folks.
Soon to be a clean white bun!
 
How did you get on with cleaning? :wave:

What pellets does she eat? Sometimes Excel pellets cause problems, although they are a highly regarded and widely used brand.
 
How did you get on with cleaning? :wave:

What pellets does she eat? Sometimes Excel pellets cause problems, although they are a highly regarded and widely used brand.

Well, nobody would help me at all.

I picked her up sat her on my knee. I had prepared the lukewalk water and some kitchen roll (out of cotton wool) I successfully managed to rub her legs and stomach but as soon as I went down by her bum to try and remove the poo she flipped and spun herself round (how, I have no idea) and managed to scratch my arm quite deeply. So now I have a few more 'Snowy Scars'. I couldn't try again she'd got herself into a panic state and was breathing so fast I thought she was going to pass out. :oops::oops:

Anyway, I put her in a cardboard box full of straw and put a towel over the top so it was dark and left her in peace (Didn't know what else to do). After 10 minutes she'd calm down so I let her outside again to see if she was ok and she was jumping and eating as normal. (phew)

I then gave her hutch yet ANOTHER clean out and bedded her down with straw, left her tonnes of hay and layered the floor (the outside bit) with Sawdust. She's happy. Straight away settled down and sunbathed.

Yes, I fail at bunny cleaning!
:lol::lol:

Edit: Erm, she's sort of on -ahem- tesco value rabbit feed.. :oops::oops::oops:
 
Bunny cleaning is not easy, especially on your own. Luckily Spenser is an indoor bun and I am pretty careful with his diet. The bunny I was looking after last week is outdoor, and not on such a good diet, but despite efforts I could never get him clean.

It sounds like you are really doing your best, and if Snowy eats a good hay-based diet, with less fresh veg she will maybe sort herself out. Keeping the hutch clean, as I know you do, will also help, as a clean environment encourages buns to keep themselves clean.
 
Bunny cleaning is not easy, especially on your own. Luckily Spenser is an indoor bun and I am pretty careful with his diet. The bunny I was looking after last week is outdoor, and not on such a good diet, but despite efforts I could never get him clean.

It sounds like you are really doing your best, and if Snowy eats a good hay-based diet, with less fresh veg she will maybe sort herself out. Keeping the hutch clean, as I know you do, will also help, as a clean environment encourages buns to keep themselves clean.

I don't know when i'll attempt the bathing again! My god she flipped. I was sat like :shock:.
I am trying my best, I honestly am. I promise not to give her any fruit or veg! She has plenty of hay, some lovely forum members kindly sent Snowy some. I hope she does clean herself she's starting to smell :?
 
I don't know when i'll attempt the bathing again! My god she flipped. I was sat like :shock:.
I am trying my best, I honestly am. I promise not to give her any fruit or veg! She has plenty of hay, some lovely forum members kindly sent Snowy some. I hope she does clean herself she's starting to smell :?

:lol:

Aww bless her little heart, to be fair Stephen would go ballistic if I tried to wash him, he hates water with a passion (unless it's in his bowl :p)!!
Little bits of fruit and veg are OK but natural things which you can find lots of at the moment are much better - things like hawthorn, bramble leaves, vetch, cow parsley, sticky weed, clover and dandelion :thumb:
Are you sure she can reach her bottom properly? Some bunnies who are a little overweight or who are suffering with arthritis can't clean themselves properly because they can't reach, just a thought.

:)

You're doing so much for Snowy and I'm sure she appreciates it so much! :thumb:
 
The feed you give her might not be helping, but I know you are doing your best. How much of it are you giving her daily? Rabbits often need far less than the packet recommends.
 
Snowy is a tad overweight :oops: perhaps she can't reach, Now there's a thought. How would I concor that problem? She won't let me touch her!!

Also, she gets fed a handful of the rabbit food in the morning. She used to get some lettuce leaves and a carrot but she never finished those! She never really finished the handful of feed either.:?
Then, after breakfast at around 7:30 - 8:00, she has a break in her hutch in the sun. And then while I get dressed, make up on etc.. She gets let out into the garden all day as i'm home all day! She is usually munching on grass!

In her hutch she also has lots of straw (which she chews) and hay!
When she gets treats (rarely :oops:) she often finishes them in a night.

Thats all she eats, unless the brothers offer her grass in the hutch?!
 
Snowy is a tad overweight :oops: perhaps she can't reach, Now there's a thought. How would I concor that problem? She won't let me touch her!!

Also, she gets fed a handful of the rabbit food in the morning. She used to get some lettuce leaves and a carrot but she never finished those! She never really finished the handful of feed either.:?
Then, after breakfast at around 7:30 - 8:00, she has a break in her hutch in the sun. And then while I get dressed, make up on etc.. She gets let out into the garden all day as i'm home all day! She is usually munching on grass!

In her hutch she also has lots of straw (which she chews) and hay!
When she gets treats (rarely :oops:) she often finishes them in a night.

Thats all she eats, unless the brothers offer her grass in the hutch?!

The advice I had is that if your rabbit is leaving any food behind (pellets or fresh foods) then they are having too much of it. If you came to visit Stephen at dinner time you would think I starved him as he will jump onto the sofa in his eagerness to get to his pellets! (but I am not starving him - honest!)

I would start to cut down the amount of rabbit food she has gradually, what is it that you are currently feeding her?

Grass and hay are good, take lots of chewing (good for teeth) and good for their tummies, out in the wild grass would make up almost their entire diet so if she has access to fresh grass, lots of hay etc I would consider reducing everything else down slowly.

To give you an idea Stephen is almost exactly 2kg and he has lots of fresh hay and just an eggcup of pellets in a day, fresh food wise he has maybe a handful of natural food like dandelions etc and he might have another handful of fresh grass and cut herbs from my windowsill :) other than that things like fruit (apple/banana/pineapple) and vegetables (dark leafed lettuce/carrot/broccoli) are all treats and fed very rarely.
 
sounds like snowy has a great time running around every day!

I always try to keep in mind that rabbits can live off hay/grass along and everything else is a treat or just to make sure they get all their vitamins, someone told me that on RU one time.

What about plants in your garden? are there any that could be upsetting snowy's tummy? anything new?
 
If she has hay or grass available to her all the time she only needs a tiny amount of food. It might be a good idea to cut it down slowly. Eventually you can just give her a handful of food and loads and loads of hay and you can even hand feed the food you give her.
 
She's on a diet starting tomorrow (mum fed her this morning)
But she's been out since 10:00am, so she's eating tonnes of grass!
There are no plants in my garden, just grass! :)
 
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