Update:
We now have no runny bum and lots of golden coloured poos! She seems to now be eating her caecotrophs (only leaving the odd few every other day or so) now ive completely stopped giving her fresh veg etc.
She is down to 1 litter box in the craft room (she did have 3) but she refuses to choose a corner in her cage. When i do find the latest wee corner and move the tray in with her soiled bedding etc to soak it up (and make it easier to change more regularly) she will go do it somewhere else. Plus she just poos all over her cage and not in a specific corner?
She continues to be very cute and social, coming up to me and licking my nose and nibbling my face like she is trying to groom me. And she me by doing a binky the other day in her cage, very random but very cute.
Her and Red (the dog) have met a little more and they seem to really get on, though she washes herself a lot if he touches her!
She has discovered she can get through the baby-gate now...but her hind legs get stuck so she can't get all the way out, so its door shut from now on but that makes it really hard for her and Red to get along, need to find something to put along the bottom so they can still sniff and meet but which she can't get through!
I am also starting to think she is a boy....ive tried reading posts to help me sex her but i don't really want to poke around down there too much! If She is a he will the balls be quite visible or feel-able, could this help me tell?
Thanks!
Babybella - Poppy was indeed just sleeping and promptly woke up when i moved my chair, bless her! Gave me such a fright though!
Loiuse200 - what we really need are poo pictures which show good-bad in a scale so we can all obsessively watch what comes out of our rabbits and feel good when it's correct! Poppy had no runny bum today and i restricted her to 25g of pellets and hay and fresh water only, she did eat hay last night so hopefully if i reduce her pellets she will continue to eat more when she settles down a bit
LadyLogamorph - I saw the 2 tier cages on ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Ind...ayer-620-/400873366949?_trksid=p2054897.l4275) which would give her double the space but with the same floorspace until i can find a more suitable housing for her.
If we have a garden in the new house i would love to buy her this (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151427594...me=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649) so she can have free reign. She would also come in the house everyday too though
Lucy24 - Thankyou, she seems happy enough, settling in very well and already is proving to be a little madam. She doesn't want to just roam around the craft room she wants my undivided attention for 3 hours now!
Tulsi - The cages you showed me are lovely but far to big to fit in any room in our house, to be completely honest i doubt we would actually get them in the flat at all (the 4ft vivs barely fit as it was when i moved in in oct) plus i don't ant a wooden one as they are difficult to keep clean and as she is an indoor rabbit and i have allergies i need plastic in order to properly clean it out twice a week etc.. Until we move (hopefully jan next year) we are stuck with the indoor cage she has (and the 2 story one i found for in a few months) until then unfortunately.
She is now out in the craft room most of the day, without supervision as long as i am in the house. We also left her out today whilst we walked the dog and she was fine on her own unsupervised. So she has a lot more room to roam now. However all she does is sit under my craft table, she doesn't run around much or do anything really.
TheBunsketeers - Poppy is really good at going to the toilet in her litter tray or her cage...but i hoped maybe if she could do it in a single corner etc. in her cage i wouldn't have to clean her out 2/3 times a week as i am doing now. But i guess that is just something i will have to live with as she seems adamant she will go anywhere in there!
However after lots of comments from people on here i am now of the opinion that Poppy would do better with a more suitable owner as i am clearly not doing very well with her. I will hopefully be looking for a new home for her shortly, once i can find somewhere appropriate to advertise her.
Azucena -
Im not sure i will be getting her spayed, at least not yet. I don't plan to breed from her or anything, but i also don't plan to have children myself but i haven't had a hysterectomy even though im sure it would lessen my chance of cancer etc. That is just one thing i am unsure of atm, will need to do more research into it and have a chat with a good vet hopefully
Her litter training has gotten loads better since i first got her, she did have 3 litter trays and her cage, now just 1 and her cage (her choice, she stopped going in the other ones and when i took them away she didn't care). Ill just have to live with the fact she needs cleaning out a lot more often than once a week. Suppose that's what i get for being owned by a bunny!
Tulsi -
Thanks, i am trying my best. I did a lot of research before i got her, i didn't just go into this blindly. And i didn't plan on getting a bunny until we moved house. But i saw her and it all just clicked. But if it is best for her to go someplace else then it will be done despite that.
Her housing situation is as follows:
Because we only have access to a roof (we live in a 1st/2nd floor flat) it would be difficult to have her outside in a hutch for many reasons:
1) The roof is a suntrap with no shade and no grass.
2) The roof floor is patchy (due to Red ripping most of it up when he was a puppy) so i would need to line her run with something suitable.
3) Red would share the roof with her, and although he is a gentle giant it would require adult supervision every time he was out there to do his business which frankly is a pain in the bum for us humans!
4) We have a family of foxes living near us which regularly come and steal Reds treats and toys from the roof and which have now started leaving him 'gifts'...they would obviously try and eat her or at least bother her a lot.
5) The access to the roof is a window about 2ftx2ft so any hutch or hutch components would have to fit through that gap!
As such you can see my reluctance to have her up there even though she would have lots more room etc.
She now has free roam of the craft room for about 6 hours a day and i hope to increase this to 9am-12pm everyday (i am slowly increasing it to see how she would fair, so far no gnawing/destruction).
The craft room measures 7.5x9ft (66 square ft) and she has access to this much floor space when she is out (minus her cage floorspace) - this includes a giant 'hide' under the vivs and under the table, china cabinet and chairs. Her litter tray is behind the door in the pictures.
I stuff tubes full of hay for her and she has a little cardboard house with doors cut into it. She has a treat ball which she plays with and im going to get a ball with a bell in it for her to nudge around.
I thought about maybe getting her some carpet squares (the carpet shop down the road is selling them off) so she could sit on them and it may help her climb on top of things (she slips on the laminate floor a lot), however i am worried about her eating them. So it's something to think about.
I have put out an advert out for a smaller baby-gate which would allow the door to be open or shut with no worries about her running out (atm the other baby-gate is too large to leave in place AND be able to shut the door if needed). Plus i need some thick plastic mesh to shut off the bottom of it and also the open walk in cupboard in the room.
There isn't much more i can do space-wise for her. If all that isn't suitable then im afraid she will have to be re-homed
Don't shoot me down in flames but having read this post, I think you're doing the right thing. Best of luck, it's never going to be easy rehoming x
Hi there, I'm so sorry if you are feeling like you're not providing well enough for your lovely new bunny. In my opinion you are miles ahead of the majority (those not on forums such as this) as most rabbits are setup in a small hutch in the garden with minimal human or animal interaction, the wrong type of food and little or no hay. You've come on here, asking for advice and that's fantastic. It's clear you love her, would you consider looking into fostering until you're moved, rather than lose her?
On the neutering front, uterine cancer stats aside, its the hormonal behaviours aspect that also comes into play. Spraying, litter training difficulties, becoming territorial, displaying frustration in various behaviours really does end up with a case for neutering. My feeling (and I'm no expert) is that rabbits are such proficient breeders, these little guys are fighting raging hormones a lot of the time once they get to a certain age.
Anyway I just wanted to offer support, there are lots of options to adapt a home for a bun. Seems to me she could almost free range in your gorgeous craft room? Just my opinion of course but if but were me I would go for a temporary mesh door to the room with a good bolt (I can post a pic of one if needed) then dog and rabbit can be pals through the mesh. You could have a couple of deep hay and newspaper filled storage boxes for litter trays in the room, tucked away, and a couple of hidey home options (her cage, left open, and a cardboard box with a towel inside...) and clean ups would be really easy for you. I have a bit of newspaper in tray, hay on top and I roll it up and lay new every other day. Sweep up a few dry poos and then once a week I wipe areas with hutch cleaning wipes and dry with a cloth, it's so much less faff than sweeping out a hutch that way. I don't use wood shavings at all.
From what I can see a lot of folks on this forum come in to rabbit ownership feeling prepared, but soon panic and think 'what have I done' once they get a feel for it ;-) Definitely how it was for me last Aug! :shock:
Xx