Kjrichings
New Kit
Hello,
So my partner and I have just recently gotten our lovely young rex rabbit Blodyn. She's 7-8 weeks old, and I picked her up from a man in Gloucester who i'm sad to say wasn't breeding rabbit's in very good conditions. They were all in very small cages sharing, and he was feeding them large chunks of tiger bread as part of their regular diet.
Anyway, feeling too horrible to leave her there but only having the room for one new partner in crime she came back with me. No problems at first, very tame, very quiet, very inquisitive, very passive, fell asleep on me the very first evening for a good hour in fact whilst sat watching tv together. Second day no problems but getting more confident with her surroundings. I've been feeding her 40g's of Burgess junior rabbit pellets, fresh hay, and a small selection of rabbit friendly leaves and vegetables and water daily. She is also put outside in the garden run whenever the weather allows. I'm currently at home a lot so am able to give her plenty of company which I do either by putting her in a large cardboard box with hay and water for short periods (30-40 mins) sitting with her next to me, or by sitting with her on my lap. Or trying too at least... we're unable to let her down on the ground in the house as our cohabitants have 3 cats around the house who aren't unfriendly to the rabbit but we dont want to risk it anyway. We've watched and she seems completely unafraid of them from her cage inside, going up to sniff one directly and then carrying on eating.
As i said, the first 3-4 days she seemed to enjoy being with us on our laps, stroked very gently, and being spoken to gently with the occasional piece of apple. Now though she seems to want very little to do with us scrabbling to get away immediately, she comes to the front of the cage excitedly to see us before sniffing our hands, realising we don't have food, then running back to her chewable tunnel, she comes out and seems to be ok with us petting her whilst shes in her cage, but if we try and pick her up, she squirms, scratches, and has started biting (not enough to break skin but enough to let us know it's not wanted). When we set her down on the large bed in our room, she digs frantically, and hops around manically, pushing things out of the way angrily. Tonight we thought we would try feeding her the daily portion of veggies on the bed which she ate like she was possessed but calm enough for us to touch, and then got angry again and actually thumped her foot and growled at us. First time she's done that at all. Yet as I type this, we've tried again to get her out for a little bit of companionship tonight and she's calmly asleep, eyes closed on my partners chest.
I'm unsure if perhaps this is just hormones, or nothing to be worried about. Maybe we're just not being patient enough of her new situation. But we desperately want her to get used to us and being handled, and we're trying to be very gentle and caring in our approach. But we're both confused by her increasingly aggressive behavior. I don't know if it's relevant too but we've noticed she seems to be incredibly thirsty, more so than we'd expect but having not had rabbits in a long time, this may be normal.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read all this, all advice and suggestions are appreciated.
Cheers
So my partner and I have just recently gotten our lovely young rex rabbit Blodyn. She's 7-8 weeks old, and I picked her up from a man in Gloucester who i'm sad to say wasn't breeding rabbit's in very good conditions. They were all in very small cages sharing, and he was feeding them large chunks of tiger bread as part of their regular diet.
Anyway, feeling too horrible to leave her there but only having the room for one new partner in crime she came back with me. No problems at first, very tame, very quiet, very inquisitive, very passive, fell asleep on me the very first evening for a good hour in fact whilst sat watching tv together. Second day no problems but getting more confident with her surroundings. I've been feeding her 40g's of Burgess junior rabbit pellets, fresh hay, and a small selection of rabbit friendly leaves and vegetables and water daily. She is also put outside in the garden run whenever the weather allows. I'm currently at home a lot so am able to give her plenty of company which I do either by putting her in a large cardboard box with hay and water for short periods (30-40 mins) sitting with her next to me, or by sitting with her on my lap. Or trying too at least... we're unable to let her down on the ground in the house as our cohabitants have 3 cats around the house who aren't unfriendly to the rabbit but we dont want to risk it anyway. We've watched and she seems completely unafraid of them from her cage inside, going up to sniff one directly and then carrying on eating.
As i said, the first 3-4 days she seemed to enjoy being with us on our laps, stroked very gently, and being spoken to gently with the occasional piece of apple. Now though she seems to want very little to do with us scrabbling to get away immediately, she comes to the front of the cage excitedly to see us before sniffing our hands, realising we don't have food, then running back to her chewable tunnel, she comes out and seems to be ok with us petting her whilst shes in her cage, but if we try and pick her up, she squirms, scratches, and has started biting (not enough to break skin but enough to let us know it's not wanted). When we set her down on the large bed in our room, she digs frantically, and hops around manically, pushing things out of the way angrily. Tonight we thought we would try feeding her the daily portion of veggies on the bed which she ate like she was possessed but calm enough for us to touch, and then got angry again and actually thumped her foot and growled at us. First time she's done that at all. Yet as I type this, we've tried again to get her out for a little bit of companionship tonight and she's calmly asleep, eyes closed on my partners chest.
I'm unsure if perhaps this is just hormones, or nothing to be worried about. Maybe we're just not being patient enough of her new situation. But we desperately want her to get used to us and being handled, and we're trying to be very gentle and caring in our approach. But we're both confused by her increasingly aggressive behavior. I don't know if it's relevant too but we've noticed she seems to be incredibly thirsty, more so than we'd expect but having not had rabbits in a long time, this may be normal.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read all this, all advice and suggestions are appreciated.
Cheers
