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At my wits end with candy

runnybabbit

Alpha Buck
From my post earlier this week, you know about the cage problem and I am having one made for her, so for now we just have to make do with what we have.

As for the pooping and weeing problem, she still wont go when she's in the cage. I have taken her to bed with me the last few nights but she wont use the litter tray when it's in my room and waits until she's back downstairs to use it, although she will wee on my bed and did at least 4 times each night, she didn't poop.

Now she seem to be off her food, not her veggies, hay or wholemeal toast, just her dried food. I was trying to get her onto s/s and she was just leaving that but now she wont touch any of it.

When I took her to the vet after that episode she checked her over and said she couldn't find anything wrong with her and that it was prob hormonal but to keep an eye on her and take her back if she had another episode..... thank god she hasn't. She wont give candy her op until she looses some weight, which is why I'm trying to get her onto s/s.

But I'm just about getting to my wits end, I don't know what else to do and I'm not sleeping now because of worrying, I've had to finish work early today again because of worrying about her and now my daughters got an infection in some scratches that candy did when she 'invaded candys space' all amy did was lay on the bed next to her.

All candy seems to want to do is be with me, just laying at my feet when I'm watching tv or on the pc, sitting watching me if I'm doing something or lay on the bed with me at night. She will run about if I chase her or if there is just her and I in the house.

This all sound so really silly but I just dont know what to do. I know I cant let her rule the house (which is what she is doing at the moment), I just want everyone to be happy and healthy and I'm not winning on either score.
 
well if you're trying to get her to lose weight I'd cut out the wholemeal toast and pellets (not that she wants them) and be glad she eats hay and veggies - House rabbits don't need any pellets at all calorie wise, although they may need the vit D if they never go outside - and they most certainly don't need high carb treats like bread.

It sounds like she's bonded to you meanwhile! I always rub some dettol cream on scratches as soon as they happen - you can get nasty infections from animals so just keep it handy?

If I were you I would just buy some of the fireguards from Argos, clip them together around Candy's preferred spot for her tray, peg a bedsheet over the top, and look forward to the day when you can get her a boyfriend - a lot of her neurotic behaviour may be because she's bonded to you and misses you when you're at work/in bed.

She doesn't need to be spayed to have a boyfriend either - it usually goes more smoothly that way, but it's not essential so long as the boy has been neutered for at least 2 months prior to them meeting. You might think another bunny is the last thing you need, but it might help with her odd behaviour, and make her less attached to you?
 
Hiya. How old is Candy? As you say she needs to loose weight as long as she is eating hay/veggies she does not need any dried pellets/cereal mix at all. She wont starve!! Just keep a check on her poops to make sure they are not becoming small and dry or few in number. I am not sure where the litter tray that she will use is but could you make the area around it her space? Maybe partitioning it off. Does she have things to occupy her. Something like an old telephone directory to rip up or a cardboard box with shredded paper in to dig into. As she is an entire Doe she may well be territorial and hormonal so maybe you could try to explain to your children that they can touch Candy when she is outside 'her space' but to leave her be when in the partitioned off area. The other thing that might be worth considering is does she have a Dental problem. Bunnies do exhibit pain/discomfort in very strange ways and maybe her 'toileting habbits' and possessiveness of you are her way of showing somethings up. Hope the stressful situation settles down soon. Jane and Buns xx
 
I didn't realise that bunnys bonded with humans, I thought it was just other bunnys. I have to say the relationship between candy and my daughter (she was bought for amy) is almost nil. I've just collected amy from the kids club and when we came in Candy ignored amy totally and came running to me and has now gone to sleep at my feet while I'm on here. I don't think I understand the significance of Bonding either, as I said I thought it was just other bunnys, kind of bessy mates or boyfriend.

If she dosen't need the dried food, then I will stop giving it to her or worrying if she dosen't eat it as long as she is still going strong with her veggies, I won't stop offering them for now tho, just in case she's being faddy.

Candys litter tray is positioned between her cage and the computer desk (which is where I normally am). The space that amy invaded was my bed when candy was laying on it, this being after candy had spent her first night sleeping on it and weeing on it, if that has any significance.

Reading between the lines on this, it sounds like candy is just growing up (shes about 9-10mths old) and is changing from a baby who loved everyone and everything to a bunny that knows what she wasnt and is quite happy to 'relax' on the soft warm carpet and will do her bunny business in her tray when she decides she wants to.

Hormonal bunny and a hormonal child all at the same time, god give the strength and patiance :lol: :lol: :shock: :shock:
 
runnybabbit said:
The space that amy invaded was my bed when candy was laying on it, this being after candy had spent her first night sleeping on it and weeing on it, if that has any significance.
I'd say that is significant - particularly as she is refusing to go to the loo anywhere other than her litter tray. It sounds to me like she has decided that your bed is also her territory, and is telling you so by weeing on it!! That's one of the main ways bunnies mark things as their possession...mmm... So because the wee was territorial rather than "I need to do a wee", that would explain that, and would also explain why she went for your daughter!

Also remember that they are prey animals and as far as they are concerned, anything that they don't recognise and trust (like the person that feeds them!) are likely to be coming to attack them and carry them off to be eaten. That may also have something to do with why she has gone for your daughter - children in particular tend to be a bit less sensitive to the needs and feelings of bunnies, not through any fault of their own, just because they haven't got fully developed empathy skills, particularly of animals!

Also getting the bigger area for her to live in should help her lose weight as it will encourage her to be more active, especially if you give her a variety of interesting things like boxes, old phone books etc to explore and play with. Also give her the food in a treat ball (if you don't want to cut out the bread and pellets straight away, cut out the bread as that is by far the worst thing) and maybe dangle or hide the veg so she has to work a bit for it.
 
yes she's definitely in love with you! I guess she gets very stressed when you are away so long - why not get her a teddy bear and see if she can transfer her affections to that instead, then she won't be lonely? Make sure she doesn't eat bits of it though :roll:

If you want her to lose weight though - cut out the pellets totally :)
 
I s'pose that would explain why I thought she was talking to me..... she was in her own little way, often when I speak to her she will chatter her teeth back to me, we sit for ages at night with our heads close doing this.... who's the barmy one here :lol: :lol:

Every teddy I have bought her or made her (I knitted her one and made her a felt one) she has chewed to bits within a day or so.

I'm trying to find out more about bonding from the internet so I can understand just how shes feeling and what it is I've done wrong to make her want to bond with a human, other than totally confusing her.

This could be why I never get chatted up by fella's, it's my perfume, offputting to men but totally irrisistable to bunnys :shock: :lol:

Right then, no more toast (not even the crust off mine every so often ?), and cut out the dried food totally, do I do this cold turkey so to speak ?. Veggies, herbs and hay and a vit D suppliment, if poss, is that everything or is there something that would be missing in that mixture.
 
Claude was much the same,he followed me everywhere and always weed and pooed on me!
In the end i decieded another bunny was the solution and miffy came along,he still loves his mummy,but has a friend of his own kind too!
Ps when i got lilac from the rescue,i cut down on dry food,because she was hugely overweight,i didnt cut it out though,you can still feed dry food and have bunnys loose weight,lots of exercise is the key,lilac looks wonderfull now :)
 
you haven't done anything wrong to make her fall in love with you - They always bond to you if there's no other bunny around and they've never had a bunny partner before.

with the toast :no:

with the pellets - mine only have a handful a day anyway - a very small handfull - you can see the bottom of the dish as much as the pellets in it - The less pellets they get, the more hay they will eat, unless they really hate hay - sounds like Candy enjoys it?

I guess she was jealous of the teddies :shock:
 
Aw, I don't beleive this, Candys nicked off with a whole pack of mustard and cress out of my shopping bag, she's round the back of the washing machine and there's no chance of getting her out. So much for her diet. Will that amount of mustard and cress make her ill, cos I know my bunny and she wont leave it alone until it's all gone.

That'll teach me to leave her in her cage until I've got all my shopping in and the bags off the floor.... thought I'd cracked it tonight, no added bits from amy cos shes at her dads, so a chilled shopping experience, bottle of wine for when I got home... did not count on my bags being candied.
 
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