Steph2790
Young Bun
Hi everyone
I’m a long time lurker & figured I’ve never actually introduced myself properly
sorry
My names Stephanie I’m 28 years old from Nottinghamshire & I currently have 4 bunnies (two pairs living separately).
I’ve owned rabbits since 2009 when my boyfriend bought me my very first rabbit called Billy from pets at home. He was the softest black & white Dutch I could of ever imagined owning. He was the love of my life & bought me so many years of happiness & loyal companionship even up until the day he crossed the rainbow bridge last year due to problems with his rear legs. He overcame so much in his life including EC & saying goodbye to end his suffering was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make & I still think about him every single day.
He was such a chilled out bun :lol:
In 2014 a second bunny joined me called Milly (not named by myself but what a coincidence that it rhymed with Billy :lol a brown Netherland dwarf cross who I rescued from the nursery I work at. Fed the wrong diet & left outside where no one cared about taking any care of her I put myself forward to taking her home and giving her the life she deserved.
We spent a short 3 years together until one day she stopped eating due to spurs on her teeth, probably not helped by the bad diet she had at the nursery. She had gone into GI stasis & we battled for about a week to get her eating again. Daily trips to the vets for injections & syringe feeding wasn’t having any positive impact, she was point blank refusing to eat anything & wouldn’t even swallow the food we were syringe feeding into her mouth.
We had just got back from the vets & I’ll never forget the moment she had some sort of seizure & died in my arms & the feeling of helplessness of not being able the help her or stop it from happening it’s something’s thats certainly traumatised me for sure.
You’ll notice she’s laying alongside a grey & white Dutch bun above... well let’s just say Billy & Milly got a little too close for comfort during supervised playtime (I know a stupid bloody idea) but we learn from these things & I’ve never felt more ashamed when a litter arrived shortly afterwards.
Well what we thought was a litter. First time mum Milly had ate & killed all but one of her babies & the carnage witnessed one August morning in 2015 was awful. I can’t belive I allowed myself to let that happen to all those poor innocent buns (Milly included) if I could of turned back time I certainly would of.
I remember frantically searching the hutch & founding this little one all alone in the nest. Milly had eaten it’s foot but it was alive & surprisingly Milly was looking after it brilliantly feeding it everyday.
Meet one of my current buns Lily (pun absolutely intended) :lol: Here’s the moment I could see that something wasn’t right with her poor foot
Milly was such a good mum & their mother/daughter bond was such a strong one given the start poor Lily had this really surprised me. They went everywhere & did everything together. After loosing Milly Lily understandably seemed very quiet & reserved hiding under her ladder in her run everyday only coming out for food once it was put down & we were out of sight. Seeing her this sad was heartbreaking & I fought with the idea of finding Lily a new partner for a couple of months. I didn’t want to just replace Milly plus I was still in shock from her passing but how could I watch Lily so depressed day in day out? I knew I needed to do something.
In October last year we saw the most beautiful ginger & white Dutch boy in the adoption centre at my local pets at home. Instantly I just knew I had to take him home! So we did much to my boyfriends dismay but he came round eventually lol.
This was Oscar & what a stunner he was
We had planned to bond Oscar & Lily together once both of them were neutered, so off they went one morning to have their surgeries & I expected to be nursing 2 bunnies back to full health upon their return. One call from the vet changed all that, Oscar had suddenly reacted badly to the anaesthetic & he had passed away.
Our vet was in floods of tears explaining what had happened & apologised a million times. I rushed to be by his side. They had kept him warm for me on a heat pad so that I could say a proper goodbye. He looked so peaceful just lay in my arms I just remember wishing for him to wake up. I remember coming home from the vets with Lily in one carrier & the other empty carrier. I felt hallow. He spent 4 weeks with us & I just hope they were good ones in his eyes.
A million guilt filled questions ran through my head after ‘why did I put him through that’ ‘he could of just lived separate from Lily & I shouldn’t of sent him for the operation that ended his life’ all I wanted was for Lily to be happy again & instead I’d experienced loosing 3 rabbits in 3 months & had hit an all time low. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to own rabbits? Was I doing the best thing trying to find her a companion?
A couple of weeks passed & Lily still hadnt changed, I forced myself to continue my search for a husbun for her dispite my own heartbreak she needed company & I had to push my feelings to one side for the sake of hers.
We visited our local RSPCA rescue centre in derby & saw some baby rabbits they had for adoption. We chatted to the staff at the centre & explained what had happened with Oscar & decided with their help not to put ourselves through another rabbit operation & instead adopted an already neutered male rabbit they had found as a stray that was approx 2 years old.
Meet one of my current buns & Lily’s husbun Huckleberry my first ever lop eared rabbit.
His personality is unreal & he makes me laugh so much
He sure likes to keep us on our toes with his ‘dead bunny’ poses :roll:
And it’s safe to say they do really love each other!
I now had 2 perfectly paired up rabbits in one part of the garden & one empty hutch in the other (is empty hutch syndrome actually a thing?) Lol well you can probably guess what happened next & if you’ve taken the time to read this super long post THANK YOU! You might remember when I said at the beginning how many rabbits I said I had & are wondering how the last two buns factor into things well here goes.
Meet Bella (black & white) & Loki (brown & white) a Dutch brother & sister pair who have been successfully neutered (phew) - why did I put myself through that again?! Twice! They now live together & have completed my bunny family. They will be 1 years old this October
Bonding was so easy to say they had been separated since they were old enough to mate (which I wasn’t allowing to happen again) they were reintroduced at 8 months old once Bella had recovered from her surgery & her hormones had settled
They are now also inseparable
I’m a long time lurker & figured I’ve never actually introduced myself properly
sorryMy names Stephanie I’m 28 years old from Nottinghamshire & I currently have 4 bunnies (two pairs living separately).
I’ve owned rabbits since 2009 when my boyfriend bought me my very first rabbit called Billy from pets at home. He was the softest black & white Dutch I could of ever imagined owning. He was the love of my life & bought me so many years of happiness & loyal companionship even up until the day he crossed the rainbow bridge last year due to problems with his rear legs. He overcame so much in his life including EC & saying goodbye to end his suffering was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make & I still think about him every single day.
He was such a chilled out bun :lol:
In 2014 a second bunny joined me called Milly (not named by myself but what a coincidence that it rhymed with Billy :lol
a brown Netherland dwarf cross who I rescued from the nursery I work at. Fed the wrong diet & left outside where no one cared about taking any care of her I put myself forward to taking her home and giving her the life she deserved.We spent a short 3 years together until one day she stopped eating due to spurs on her teeth, probably not helped by the bad diet she had at the nursery. She had gone into GI stasis & we battled for about a week to get her eating again. Daily trips to the vets for injections & syringe feeding wasn’t having any positive impact, she was point blank refusing to eat anything & wouldn’t even swallow the food we were syringe feeding into her mouth.
We had just got back from the vets & I’ll never forget the moment she had some sort of seizure & died in my arms & the feeling of helplessness of not being able the help her or stop it from happening
it’s something’s thats certainly traumatised me for sure. 
You’ll notice she’s laying alongside a grey & white Dutch bun above... well let’s just say Billy & Milly got a little too close for comfort during supervised playtime (I know a stupid bloody idea) but we learn from these things & I’ve never felt more ashamed when a litter arrived shortly afterwards.
Well what we thought was a litter. First time mum Milly had ate & killed all but one of her babies & the carnage witnessed one August morning in 2015 was awful. I can’t belive I allowed myself to let that happen to all those poor innocent buns (Milly included) if I could of turned back time I certainly would of.
I remember frantically searching the hutch & founding this little one all alone in the nest. Milly had eaten it’s foot but it was alive & surprisingly Milly was looking after it brilliantly feeding it everyday.
Meet one of my current buns Lily (pun absolutely intended) :lol: Here’s the moment I could see that something wasn’t right with her poor foot
Milly was such a good mum & their mother/daughter bond was such a strong one given the start poor Lily had this really surprised me. They went everywhere & did everything together. After loosing Milly Lily understandably seemed very quiet & reserved hiding under her ladder in her run everyday only coming out for food once it was put down & we were out of sight. Seeing her this sad was heartbreaking & I fought with the idea of finding Lily a new partner for a couple of months. I didn’t want to just replace Milly plus I was still in shock from her passing but how could I watch Lily so depressed day in day out? I knew I needed to do something.
In October last year we saw the most beautiful ginger & white Dutch boy in the adoption centre at my local pets at home. Instantly I just knew I had to take him home! So we did much to my boyfriends dismay but he came round eventually lol.
This was Oscar & what a stunner he was
We had planned to bond Oscar & Lily together once both of them were neutered, so off they went one morning to have their surgeries & I expected to be nursing 2 bunnies back to full health upon their return. One call from the vet changed all that, Oscar had suddenly reacted badly to the anaesthetic & he had passed away.
Our vet was in floods of tears explaining what had happened & apologised a million times. I rushed to be by his side. They had kept him warm for me on a heat pad so that I could say a proper goodbye. He looked so peaceful just lay in my arms I just remember wishing for him to wake up. I remember coming home from the vets with Lily in one carrier & the other empty carrier. I felt hallow. He spent 4 weeks with us & I just hope they were good ones in his eyes.
A million guilt filled questions ran through my head after ‘why did I put him through that’ ‘he could of just lived separate from Lily & I shouldn’t of sent him for the operation that ended his life’ all I wanted was for Lily to be happy again & instead I’d experienced loosing 3 rabbits in 3 months & had hit an all time low. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to own rabbits? Was I doing the best thing trying to find her a companion?
A couple of weeks passed & Lily still hadnt changed, I forced myself to continue my search for a husbun for her dispite my own heartbreak she needed company & I had to push my feelings to one side for the sake of hers.
We visited our local RSPCA rescue centre in derby & saw some baby rabbits they had for adoption. We chatted to the staff at the centre & explained what had happened with Oscar & decided with their help not to put ourselves through another rabbit operation & instead adopted an already neutered male rabbit they had found as a stray that was approx 2 years old.
Meet one of my current buns & Lily’s husbun Huckleberry my first ever lop eared rabbit.
His personality is unreal & he makes me laugh so much
He sure likes to keep us on our toes with his ‘dead bunny’ poses :roll:
And it’s safe to say they do really love each other!
I now had 2 perfectly paired up rabbits in one part of the garden & one empty hutch in the other (is empty hutch syndrome actually a thing?) Lol well you can probably guess what happened next & if you’ve taken the time to read this super long post THANK YOU! You might remember when I said at the beginning how many rabbits I said I had & are wondering how the last two buns factor into things well here goes.
Meet Bella (black & white) & Loki (brown & white) a Dutch brother & sister pair who have been successfully neutered (phew) - why did I put myself through that again?! Twice! They now live together & have completed my bunny family. They will be 1 years old this October
Bonding was so easy to say they had been separated since they were old enough to mate (which I wasn’t allowing to happen again) they were reintroduced at 8 months old once Bella had recovered from her surgery & her hormones had settled
They are now also inseparable
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