And it really hurts to see a little critter in pain… You see, sometimes, for a yet unknown reason (most likely his hairs though), his intestines somehow get blocked so, well, he is unable to ‘take a dump’… And because that hurts, he doesn’t feel like eating… And because he doesn’t feel like eating and feeling generally shitty, he finally ends up lying down in his litter box — something he usually doesn’t do.

So if that happens, we know it’s that time again and we have to give him some special care.

This not being the first time, we do have a pain-killer and some stuff called Prepulsid, which ought to help him process the blockage, in our medicine-cabinet. The last time we saw it coming, we could react pretty quick and were able to medicate him before things escalated, but last night, we didn’t see it coming. Trying to force a rabbit some medicition with a little plastic syringe didn’t really work out either — it only stressed the little animal even more. So he ended up scared and behind a couch.

We could do nothing else but call the vet and, not having a car anymore, had to depend on a friend to take us. I really hate to have to ask other people for a favour, especially when you call ‘m to find out you’ve woken them up because they went to bed early… Woops.

The vet checked him out and was able to administer necessary medication. Maybe I ought to get the painkiller he uses and a syringe to inject the stuff in stead of administering it orally. See, I had to do that to one of our cats before so I know that, apart from the adrenaline-rush, it is less of a hassle than trying to get an animal — that doesn’t want to eat — to eat something…

We were back home at about 23h, but as usual, didn’t go to bed until 1h30 because we wanted to see our beloved animal eating something. In the end, that didn’t happen and I was like, thinking it may be best to leave him alone for a while as he might just be irritated by us. This morning when I woke up, I quickly jumped out of bed to check on the little animal to see he ate all the greens and stuff we had put there the night before. If you got pets and you’ve bonded fairly well with them, you know that was a pretty relieving sight. I may sound like a pussy but I really love that furry little rabbit.

For the moment things seem to be looking out pretty good; he’s acting his usual self again so that’s cool.

Why is eating so important?
The reason it is so important that rabbits eat, and why we’re on our toes when it happens, is because they have this unique digestion system not many people are aware of. Some people may perhaps know that, just like Microsoft employees using Microsoft products, rabbits are coprophagic, meaning that they eat their own shit. (Yeah, that’s a cheap shot but it made me chuckle, OK?)

Also, a rabbit has evolved to be able to live in harsh environments, all the fur he ‘licks’ up when he cleans himself, he eats, not wasting anything. (In female rabbits, after ovulating, even the unfertilised egg will be assimilated by the body again if it hasn’t been used.)

The technology is pretty smart but obviously has its drawbacks, such as blockage caused by too much fur.

Another one of these drawbacks it that the digestive system requires it to be active, all the time. If it doesn’t get any food to process for 12 hours it’s critical and after 24 hours of having nothing to process, the digestion system could go into a total shut-down (‘stasis’) and is hard to ‘jump-start’. This is a situation we don’t want to have, of course.

One of the things we’re trying is to give him some fresh pine-apple juice (it has to be fresh pine-apple, processed canned ones are no good) because the enzymes in it help break down the rabbit fur in his stomach — which should reduce any blockage caused by it. We’re not a 100% sure if that’s causing all the problems though, but it always seems to coincide with the period in which he’s shedding his fur… so it is definitely worth a shot (and the fellow loves the stuff, man, he won’t complain!).

We’ll see how it goes.

Amazing…

Animals, Bambi, Thumper, Rabbits, Deer

So we were sleeping and in the middle of the night, last friday, we heared a *bang*, a toy-bell ringing and a very loud screeching rabbit. We jumped out of our beds and raced to Chico’s cage.

There we saw the little fella entangled in the cages’ bars trying to force its way out — a pretty scary sight. In fact — initially I thought the critter scared itself to death and was stuck there, frozen still. Luckely, the guy wasn’t dead but just frigging scared.

Usually, you don’t ever really hear a rabbit make any noise, besides some cute humming. Only if it fears for its life that it makes this awful screeching sound. Kinda like a squeaky toy, you know, that high pitched noise (oh yeah that reminds me to kill that sadist that invented those toys — I still hear the damn sound echoing in my mind).

Anyways, we still don’t know as to what exactly happened, but what we do know for sure is that Chico got caught with its jaw between 2 bars. While I was holding the animal, my girlfriend was bending these bars further apart and the bunny ran off in its cage when it felt it was loose.

All in all a pretty panicky situation, especially because after, the rabbit was very scared of everything. We kept offering it food but it refused in the beginning so I feared something with its teeth, or jaw even.

But now its happily eating and running around again — not as before, but the affair obviously left a scar and those things take time with rabbits.

So now we can go back to enjoying our two weeks off — laters.

Rabbits, Bunnies, Cages, Panic

(Well, actually, he was just cleaning himself and I had a lucky shot. )

Rabbit, Images, Pictures

Today’s image is really cute (check the ears).

You might want to check the others out if you love cute, furry and cuddly animals.

CuteOverload, Rabbits, Bunnies, Cute

“;
foreach($arr as $rec)
{
if ($cnt == 0) echo “
“;
echo “

“;
$cnt++;
if ($cnt % $cols == 0)
{
echo “

“;
$cnt = 0;
}
}
if ($cnt > 0) echo “

“;
echo “

Animals, Pictures, Rabbits, Cats

They aren’t responsible for that situation.

Mr Ratter, who is also a Shetland Islands councillor, added: “The damage they can cause is huge, especially in an area like the south end of the island which is sandy. Rabbits can destroy huge areas of grazing.”

A bounty has previously been operated on the island by the local authority.

Shetland Islands Council paid 25p per tail in 1990, and a total of 11,183 rabbits were killed.

The only reason that rabbit-populations increase is because their natural enemies, over tens to hundreds of years, have reduced in numbers, because of the humans that want to inhabit that environment.

A fine other example of humans messing around was when they brought the first rabbits to Australia — where they have absolutely no natural enemies and could thrive. Like AIDS, they also invented diseases to kill them off in a weak attempt to control the population.

And now, because of that, again, nature has to pay the price… I’m not a tree-hugging fanatic, but this type of ‘population-control’ is surely not good.

It just shouldn’t have ever reached to this point.

Rabbits, Nature, Bounties

Jeff Smith, 63, spotted the black and brown animal two months ago. He said: “This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster. The first time I saw it I thought to myself: ‘What the hell is that?’ I have seen its prints and they are huge. It is a brute of a thing.”

Of course:

[..] Animal lovers have urged allotment holders to find a happy ending to the saga.

A spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: “It seems ridiculous to demonise this animal for doing what it can to survive.”

And rightly so.

Nature, Animals, Rabbits

preventing my rabbit rattling the bars of his cage

Although I don’t know whether that person will visit this site again in the future, I did want to let people know that rabbits like playing with noisy toys, throwing things about.

I’m not aware of the full situation, nor am I a vetenarian, but when your rabbit is rattling the bars of its cage, it is highly likely that your pet just wants some attention.

Rabbits are animals that like to have a certain ‘rhythm’ to their way of life. If your rabbit has gotten used to getting out of his cage every morning, it will definitely make some noise the moment you forget this. If I oversleep, I usually get awakened by a noisy rattling rabbit because he is used getting some greens every morning.

It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something wrong with your rabbit; it can just mean your rabbit likes you (or the attention / greens it gets).

I don’t think you can prevent this. (Honestly, I don’t think people even should.)

This is normal rabbit behaviour which you shouldn’t want to prevent. Maybe he is a bit bored though and wants something challenging to play with — rabbits are more intelligent than most people think and their minds need to get stimulated unless you want to end up with a sad, bored, unhappy rabbit.

Incidentally, we bought a coconut a couple of days ago. I split it up, gotten rid of the white coconut-stuff inside (unhealthy for rabbits) and they really enjoy biting it and throwing it. It is fun to watch and maybe it may point his attention to something else than the bars of the cage.

If your rabbit really loves making that sound it will continue though. Please let him.

Animals, Pets, Rabbits, Rabbit Care

Animals, Pets, Bunnies, Rabbit, Pictures

And here they are:

Rocky — looking like he runs the place.

Chico in his home-made castle.

Animals, Pets, Bunnies, Rabbits

Rabbits, Animals

Truly sad stuff to see nature raped and pillaged all around us.

Animals, Nature, Rabbits

I can just imagine this happening — my rabbit would be jumping up-and-down in his cage, too. The trick is to get the little critter to nibble on intruders’ nuts.

Animals, Pets, Rabbits, The Netherlands

	This is Rocky when we just got him a couple of years ago. He’s afwully cudly and loves attention.
	This is Chico, our other rabbit. Picture taken with my mobile the day we bought him, together with another bunny. He can be very happy if he gets his favourite snack and runs (and sometimes jumps) around the room all happy.
	This is the other rabbit, we called him ‘Vlekkie’ (tr: Spotty), but sadly this one was seriously ill. We immediately went to the vet and he got some shots. Back home, we tried to give him water and food because he didn’t want to eat. Sadly, he died in my hands. This image was also taken with my mobile and the only picture of Vlekkie I got.

Animals, Pets, Rabbits