bookishrabbit
New Kit
Hello!
I recently adopted a 3 year old female rabbit (lionhead mix) from a local shelter. My senior rabbit that I owned for almost 11 years recently had to be put to sleep about a month ago, and I had always known I would adopt after he passed away. He was also a lionhead, so I have a soft spot for them.
I have named her Rosemary, and she is spayed and very sassy! I've been calling her Spicegirl as a nickname.
Her background from what the shelter told me is that she was brought to them by her original owners who no longer wanted her. They had almost no info about her personality, but that she was already spayed. The shelter said they checked to confirm and did find a scar and tattoo showing that she was spayed.
They adopted her out to a family who tried bonding her to their current rabbit, but it did not work out, and the family called the shelter and said they gave Rosemary to their hairdresser after 30 days or so of having her--the shelter then called this hairdresser, and she said she wanted to return Rosemary as she was being very cage aggressive and lunging at her/her kids. Shelter took her back and she has been with them again for awhile, while they tried to find the right home for her.
So I am well aware the poor girl has recently been bounced around a ton and I do not know what her life was like with the families she was with--I know they had a large crate for her as her "cage" but do not know if she got a lot of time out of it or not and what the kids were like with her.
I brought her home and she has been doing really well, I've had no aggression from her except that she gets extremely excited at feeding/pellet time at night and will grunt and try to grab the bowl from me when I put it down. Even that I will not call aggression. We have no kids, it is just me and my husband.
She is free-range in a large spare room all to herself. She is never confined in her crate that I have set up, it is just to hold her litterbox and food bowl and to have a safe space for her to go to if needed.
I do have a couple xpens going around the room perimeter and blocking off the baseboards and hallway door so she cannot come out of the main door (or chew on the door lol, as she had shown a tendency to chew the closet doors in the room)--we have a puppy and to be safe she is not allowed out of the spare room right now. I do keep the main door open so she can see us and I can easily go in and out during the day to sit in the room with her.
However, even with the whole room to run around in (I've got a ton of toys/boxes/tunnels set up for her that she does love) she is curious as all get out and will sit and chew on the xpen bars sometimes as if she is upset she cannot come out and have the run of everything else. She doesn't do it a TON, it's just for a minute every once in awhile as far as I can see, but I do know chewing bars can cause teeth issues if it goes on too long.
Is there a way to discourage this behavior at all? She is doing great having a large space, I think her aggression was because she felt the need to be territorial over a small space in her past homes. She binkies a ton, and she tolerates small amounts of pets so far--I just sit on the floor and let her come to me when she wants attention for a few minutes, and then she will hop away when she's done with me lol. Often when I first leave the room is when I will turn around and see her gnawing the bars like she wants to follow me and see where I'm going. Sometimes I will hear her doing it when I'm in my office working, but once again, doesn't seem to last long.
Or should I not worry if she is only doing it a little bit every once in awhile?
Sorry for the long post and background info! I'm just excited to have her and give her a chance at a happy, comfortable life.
--Janessa
I recently adopted a 3 year old female rabbit (lionhead mix) from a local shelter. My senior rabbit that I owned for almost 11 years recently had to be put to sleep about a month ago, and I had always known I would adopt after he passed away. He was also a lionhead, so I have a soft spot for them.
I have named her Rosemary, and she is spayed and very sassy! I've been calling her Spicegirl as a nickname.
Her background from what the shelter told me is that she was brought to them by her original owners who no longer wanted her. They had almost no info about her personality, but that she was already spayed. The shelter said they checked to confirm and did find a scar and tattoo showing that she was spayed.
They adopted her out to a family who tried bonding her to their current rabbit, but it did not work out, and the family called the shelter and said they gave Rosemary to their hairdresser after 30 days or so of having her--the shelter then called this hairdresser, and she said she wanted to return Rosemary as she was being very cage aggressive and lunging at her/her kids. Shelter took her back and she has been with them again for awhile, while they tried to find the right home for her.
So I am well aware the poor girl has recently been bounced around a ton and I do not know what her life was like with the families she was with--I know they had a large crate for her as her "cage" but do not know if she got a lot of time out of it or not and what the kids were like with her.
I brought her home and she has been doing really well, I've had no aggression from her except that she gets extremely excited at feeding/pellet time at night and will grunt and try to grab the bowl from me when I put it down. Even that I will not call aggression. We have no kids, it is just me and my husband.
She is free-range in a large spare room all to herself. She is never confined in her crate that I have set up, it is just to hold her litterbox and food bowl and to have a safe space for her to go to if needed.
I do have a couple xpens going around the room perimeter and blocking off the baseboards and hallway door so she cannot come out of the main door (or chew on the door lol, as she had shown a tendency to chew the closet doors in the room)--we have a puppy and to be safe she is not allowed out of the spare room right now. I do keep the main door open so she can see us and I can easily go in and out during the day to sit in the room with her.
However, even with the whole room to run around in (I've got a ton of toys/boxes/tunnels set up for her that she does love) she is curious as all get out and will sit and chew on the xpen bars sometimes as if she is upset she cannot come out and have the run of everything else. She doesn't do it a TON, it's just for a minute every once in awhile as far as I can see, but I do know chewing bars can cause teeth issues if it goes on too long.
Is there a way to discourage this behavior at all? She is doing great having a large space, I think her aggression was because she felt the need to be territorial over a small space in her past homes. She binkies a ton, and she tolerates small amounts of pets so far--I just sit on the floor and let her come to me when she wants attention for a few minutes, and then she will hop away when she's done with me lol. Often when I first leave the room is when I will turn around and see her gnawing the bars like she wants to follow me and see where I'm going. Sometimes I will hear her doing it when I'm in my office working, but once again, doesn't seem to last long.
Or should I not worry if she is only doing it a little bit every once in awhile?
Sorry for the long post and background info! I'm just excited to have her and give her a chance at a happy, comfortable life.
--Janessa