Let’s Talk About Neglect
Today we had these two adorable fuzzy lops surrendered to us, but unfortunately I knew we were in for a ride the second they were handed to me - because of the smell. These bunnies are going to need some painstakingly slow shaving and vet visits for their irritated skin to make sure nothing fungal is going on. Please support if you can by donating and sharing, and commenting name suggestions below (one boy, one girl) ❤️
➡️ Now here comes a time that I will walk a fine line between not wanting to shame anyone out of surrendering their pets when they need help, and needing to talk about a very important topic: neglect.
Note that this owner did the right thing by recognizing they weren’t providing adequate care and getting them to a rescue that could help them. The male lop (brown) is also neutered and they are 5 years old, so I don’t doubt that these bunnies were loved and properly cared for until recently. And honestly, I don’t think the owner even realized they were this badly matted until it came time to get them in the carrier to surrender them, but therein lies the problem.
Sometimes neglect sneaks up on you. It’s starts with getting a week behind on cleaning. Then two weeks, then four. You don’t notice the smells because you’re with them all the time. Then before you know it your bunnies have been living in their own filth for way too long. Hopefully you’ve been feeding them and watering them, but sometimes even that falls the way side and can lead to illness or tragedy.
Neglect is extra problematic when it comes fluffy animals that need grooming. Matting is painful and unsanitary. This type of matting doesn’t happen quickly and doesn’t automatically come with this kind of filth. This took a long time and unclean environment.
So you tell me, at what point does neglect become abuse? When there is pain? When there is illness not being treated? When there is consistent hunger?
**Please don’t shame the owner, just use this as a
Silver Paws Golden Days
Omg I almost forgot to mention that after our event yesterday we stopped by Silver Paws Golden Days Co Senior & Specials Needs Sanctuary’s meet and greet at Bar K for a little senior dog snuggle to brighten our mood 🥰 If anyone is looking to adopt the absolute sweetest little senior chihuahua, Olivia and Wilma are both to die for! I seriously could not stop snuggling them so I put them on the table to be closer to me 🤣 They also have a senior poodle, dachshund, yorkie, shih tzu, and so many other absolutely adorable breeds and mixes too. I’d have brought them all home if I didn’t already have three big seniors at home who wouldn’t play nice with anyone new. I also know the rescue owner personally and she is simply the best human, so go show them some support!
Adoption Event
Come see us at A1 Pet Emporium South! Even if you’re not looking to adopt we’d love to meet the local bunny community and you can still enjoy the cuties 🥰
We’re here until 4pm but have only had one vistor so far!
Westley and Buttercup
I just had to share this sweet moment between Westley (black and white) and Buttercup, or mini zebus. We may have originally been the ones to bring these two to safety, but they truly saved each other’s lives. They have been inseparable since they first met as terrified, malnourished calves. Westley had been in an especially bad state from a home where he had been abused, living up to his little knees in manure, and beyond stunted in growth for his age at the time. Now, over a year later, they are both thriving, growing normally, and absolutely loving life and each other. Westley even enjoys some scratching from humans these days, though Buttercup prefers just to have her animal friends.
Help feed Westley, Buttercup and the other farm animals at the link below. Your donations are what allows us to give these animals a forever, happy home.
https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary
Raffle Winners
Here are all our ✨raffle winners!✨
The first winner, and winner of the grand prize is: Tanya Huller
Our 18 other winners are:
Jalene Tower
Ashley Page
Naomi Vaughn
Lori Gammon
Justine Garbarski
Kelsey Rathbone
Alexandria Harris
Alexandria Harris
Tanya Huller
Megan Gibson
Debra Foley
Alexandria Harris
Naomi Vaughn
Tanya Huller
Ashley Page
Kelsey Rathbone
Megan Gibson
Ann Marie Webber
Please message me to pick which bunny (or bunnies if you won more than one) you would like to name. First come first serve ❤️
This is what life with parrots is really like - loud! 😂 Right now they can’t all be out of their cages at the same time so Fred the Amazon parrot loves to voice his distaste with this. To be honest, he actually just loves yelling and does it often - as well as the occasional dog barking and blood curdling scream. He especially loves to yell when you’re already stressed because Amazons are notorious for feeding off of their humans’ energy and they LOVE chaos. That’s why yelling at a bird, especially an Amazon, will never get them to be quiet but instead will only make them get louder (and also that’s just mean). Thankfully we don’t have close neighbors who would surely call the cops thinking we are holding someone captive. Keep that in mind if you ever thinking you want parrots, especially larger parrots. Also do consider how cute and funny and endlessly entertaining they are though!
Did you know bunnies drink as much water in a day as a mid sized dog?
Before we get into that more and talk about bowls vs bottles, please consider sending a donation our way to help support the many bunnies here. We have had extremely few donations this month and we’re already half way through. We absolutely cannot continue our lifesaving mission without all of the support from our followers - and sadly that support has been really lacking for a few months in a row now. You can use the link below to donate!
https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary
Now as for why rabbits drink so much water - they have extremely high metabolisms coupled with a high fiber diet that requires water to keep things moving through their system. We provide every bunny at the rescue with a gravity waterer to make sure that they have enough clean, fresh water at all times. Some people also prefer filling a large ceramic dish a few times a day and that works too (anything lighter than ceramic they will typically flip over). A bottle however, severely limits the amount of water a bunny is able to get because the drip is extremely slow. They will be able to live but will have a much higher chance of dehydration which also leads to a higher chance of gut impaction and urinary infections and blockages. The constant biting on the bottle can also cause expensive damage to a rabbit’s teeth. So in the battle of bowl vs. bottle, bowl will always win!
*Pictured are Toffee and a new addition to the group. What would you name her (food themed)? She was surrendered by a breeder who no longer wanted any rabbits. She is extremely shy when it comes to humans but is loving having bunny friends.
Sanctuary Bunny Space
Finally as finished as we can be, for now, with the sanctuary bunny space. I cannot even begin to tell you how difficult it was to renovate this garage space into a bunny kingdom after hitting unexpected electrical issues, flooding issues and then money flow issues. We had to get real creative with a few things - like using actual paper and duct tape as wallpaper for now, since there is no way we can afford real wallpaper and the walls aren’t possible to paint with how weird they were set up before we moved here - think particle board with holes in it for holding tools.
Anyways, this is over 400sqft of free roaming space for (currently) 35 bunnies, who are all spayed/neutered of course. A double mini split heats and cools the building. There are 15 litter boxes with approximately 40lbs of hay held above them that they will go through in 1-2 days depending on how munchie they are. Then there are six, 2 gallon gravity waterers that they will go through in a day or two as well. Plus a “second level” made out of a loft bed, a 6ft long tunnel/castle with two stories made by my wonderful husband, an xl kuranda bed, a bench for the humans to sit and buns to climb on and lots of toys, rugs etc. to keep everyone busy and make sure there are resting places for their feet.
The flooring is a vinyl sheet, all one piece so they can’t pick at any edges, and 30” pens line the entire thing to keep them from messing with the walls or edges of the flooring. Luckily I don’t have any big jumpers, so no one has ever even attempted to get over the 30” height.
Yes! They all get along besides the occasional hump or short chase. Maybe the occasional booty nip if they want someone to scoot over, but those are completely normal bunny behaviors.
No, unfortunately they’re not all the best at using the litter boxes so I do have to do daily cleaning. Don’t let them kid you with their cuteness. They are A LOT of work! And let’s not forget expensive either.
If you like wh
Babies
Thank you all for the concern for my hand. I swear I try to be careful, I’m unfortunately just very clumsy and perhaps a little cursed 🤣
Here are some very cute baby bunnies to make up for the nasty jump scare and as an extra thank you to those who have donated. Thanks to your donations we’ll at least be able to pay off Tres Leches vet bill and that’s a huge weight off of my shoulders. We do still have a long way to go to reach our monthly goal, so all donations are extremely appreciated!
https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary
The last couple days have been EXHAUSTING as we scramble to finish the “wall paper” in the bunny building and finally finish fixing the lights and a few other things. Keep in mind, even when we have big projects we also have the day to day animal care - so it’s work from sun up to past midnight on these kind of days, and that’s why this project has taken so much longer than expected. However, it’s all worth it because we will be officially, FINALLY revealing the new space tomorrow or Thursday as long as all continues to go well 🤞🤞🤞
In the mean time, here are two of the island bunnies settling in in their quarantine space. We haven’t had hardly any donations and we are truly desperate for them now with these 11 new mouths to feed. Probably tomorrow I’ll post each of their individual medical needs but I wanted to have a few days to observe them and see what exactly needed to be done.
Would you all want to do a naming raffle for them? Or any other ideas for fundraising for these cuties in particular? A gift card raffle maybe?
https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary
Sunny & Stormy
I was showing the conures the little bit of snow coming down and Sunny decided it was time for a concert. I love that they are still my biggest little fans even when my voice sounds this nasty from pneumonia 🤣
I make up new songs for them just about every day but Sunny is loving this “Sunny the Pooh” version a lot. His favorite song though is actually “Too Sweet” by Hozier, and he gets so into it the rhythm (no wayyy I’m hitting those notes right now though lol). Stormy is less of a dancer but she sometimes joins in and always loves watching Sunny dance.
A sanctuary and rescue for bunnies, small mammals and livestock, in Oklahoma. Every animal deserves a chance!
