Caring for your bunny

01/04/2022

White Rabbits! Happy April! (It’s snowing?!) this is Sonny Jim and his beautiful white Princess. Sadly she got a bladder stone at 2.5 years and didn’t survive the operation. She was a beeeautiful bunny! ❤️🙏🏽 🐇

06/03/2022

Tinkerbell liked to steal my popcorn 😍❤️

24/02/2022

Ahh this was 3-4 years ago now. Bless her. Beautiful bunny 🐰❤️

24/02/2022

03/01/2022

This is Taz, who would lick you to say she loved you. She really loved her baby brother Max ❤️

03/01/2022

30/03/2021

🐾Bonding bunnies ❤️🐾

They prefer to live with a friend and are much happier this way 🐾😊
They need to be in their separate hutches to start. Bunnies are territorial... if they don’t get on, it can be fatal.
I had my boy, Sonny 1st. He was quite submissive. Princess came when he was just over 6 months old.
A boy and a girl is really good. Two of the same s*x doesn’t always go well but it isn’t an absolute no no.
They should meet in a neutral place with lots of dried dandelion and bunny treats. I always used my bed or a room that neither of them have been in.
Let them nibble the treats and suss one another out. Stroke them and speak to them, encourage the bonding but only to a point... let them do what they feel. There may be stamping, pulling fur and sometimes what appears to be aggressive behaviour... let them do it... but monitor it. They will do the pecking order... I remember Sonny jumped over Princess’s head and just missed her ear with his foot... only step in when you think it is getting too much as in ‘dangerous’.
Let them meet each day... as many times as you like and then go back to their own hutch. Eventually they will show relaxed behaviour such as cleaning themselves and laying down. When they finally lick one another... you’ve done it!!
Eventually, let them out in the living space of the first bunny- supervised. Let them go into one another’s hutches... It will become the norm and you can finally house them together ❤️🐾

30/03/2021

Baby Princess March 2011 ❤️

30/03/2021

Baby Sonny-Jim September 2010 ❤️

15/03/2021

My bunny story

Before I go into TIPS and my experiences in future posts ❤️

I bought Tinkerbell, a harlequin lop for my best friend in December 2009. She had talked about house bunnies and how she wanted one- which I’d never heard of before. Like everyone, I was ‘What? Really? But they live in the garden in a cage?’

We got a book called Caring for your house bunny and read it back to back. We wanted to make sure that we had the means to look after the bunny properly and learned how high maintenance bunnies really are when cared for properly.

Before we brought Tinkerbell home, we bunny-proofed the house and made sure we had the required supplies.

I paid £20 for Tinkerbell... at the time you didn’t have to buy them in twos. That is now recommended and in some places ‘necessary’ to purchase. Bunnies love company and are happier with a companion.

6 months later I also became a bunny mummy to Sonny-Jim, a lionhead-lop . I didn’t intend on it, but I saw him while my friend was buying food for Tinks and after my experiences with Tinkerbell, I needed him to come home with me! He was beautiful!! Someone else started taking an interest in him... I didn’t know what possessed me, but I found a shop assistant straight away to say that I wanted him!

Sixth months later I bought a Princess for Sonny to cuddle up to. Princess was a beautiful white lion head. I will talk about how I bonded them later, but they were so happy for 2 &1/2 years together. During this time I nursed Sonny through ‘e cuniculi’ (bunnies rarely survive this) and then sadly we lost Princess to a bladder stone. It broke my heart!
Sonny had bonded with me and was okay without his friend and didn’t seem phased.

Tinkerbell had regular ‘play dates’ with Sonny and they didn’t fight. Sonny was submissive in nature possibly because I trained him rather than letting him make the rules.

My friend rescued a female bunny to accompany Tinkerbell, but they didn’t get on. So they lived indoors in two separate cages and were let out individually (will cover bunny bonding later on).

We started letting Sonny have the weekends there with Tink and then the midweeks with me. They were together all the time and grew to really love each other. They’d cuddle up together and clean one another.

My friend moved house and fell pregnant (Yey!). I was aware that Sonny was getting older and I missed him at weekends, also that my friend would have her hands full with her first baby. So we agreed that Tinkerbell would come and live with Sonny and I. I had them here with me for 6 years.
They made me smile everyday with their funny little personalities and ways.

I lost Sonny-Jim May 2020 to a tumour on his shoulder aged 10 and Tinkerbell 10 months later aged 11 on 1st March 2021 to Spurs growing on her teeth and her roots had ‘gone’. Heartbroken both times. They really do become a member of the family like a cat or dog would.

I want to share my tips, things that I learnt and how I gave these bunnies the best life I possibly could.

Please don’t assume that bunnies are low maintenance animals. They’re complex little beauties with a life span of 8-12+ years and take a lot of time, love and care.

I hope you find my page useful. Please feel free to drop me a message!

Thanks for reading!

Claire 🥰X

06/03/2021

Hello 👋🏽

I’m Claire and have cared for bunnies for many years. Most recently, Sonny-Jim... I went through a lot with him and almost lost him 3 times since he was 2, but he lived until he was 10 in my care and Tinkerbell who I sadly lost recently aged 11.

They lived in the house, had a litter tray, begged at the fridge and bullied me for banana if it was gone 5pm.

For now, I’ve decided not to have anymore bunnies but I wanted to share my experiences and things that I discovered over the years that may help other bunny parents.

I just wanted to raise awareness of just how clever they are.

Maybe you’re thinking of getting a bunny or you have recently taken one into your care for the first time. You may have questions about bonding, food, training or even new signs/ habits that you’re unsure of.
I’ll share all I can on how I gave my bunnies the best life (I’m not a vet)

You’ll see a message button too above! Feel free to throw any questions my way ☺️🐰❤️