New here! Hello

[paleosteveo]

Hi everyone! My name is Steve, I am new to raising a rabbit.  My girlfriend and I just adopted an American Chinchilla, from a local pet shop.  She is about 1.5 years old and about 9-10 lbs, and her name is Basil.  We brought her home May 25 last month, the pet shop gave us a good deal $30 dollar adoption fee and 25% off all supplies bought at time of adoption.  We chose that store because my girlfriends friend who is now a Vet worked there and recomended them to us. Anyway!  When we went down there we met Basil and fell in love the shop guy said that they had gotten her from a local rescue here on Long Island 3 months ago, and beside the basic pedigree didn’t know too much about her.  We got her home and set up her cage, its maybe 6ft by 3ft .gave her fresh Oxbow timothy hay and pellets and fresh water. and she seems happy enough.

i have bunny proofed the the living room where we keep her, blocked off all the wires and small places i don’t want her to get stuck in. I let her out of the cage every morning around 9 am and give her about an hour or so floor time along with a breakfast of parsley basil and a few leaves of romaine lettuce, and of course she has here hay available all day.  She usually goes back in the cage on her own then i just shut the door behind her.  My only major problem is that when i’m not looking she jumps on the couch and pees on it.  then she jumps down and hops away.  I don’t know what to do about this besides just blocking off the couch and not letting her there.

Any advice for a newb rabbit raiser? Also how do you post pictures here?

Thanks

[Sr. Melangell]

Hello there, to upload a picture click on the bottom where it says Attachments then upload from there, as for tinkling on the couch don’t punish her, she will not understand, I’m wondering has she been spayed? Can you litter train her?

[paleosteveo]

Hey like i said the pet store didnt have much to tell me besides basic pedigree, so i dont know if she is spayed or anything like that. Im taking her to a vet next week on my vacation to get a general check up and see if she needs anything like vacs and see if the vet thinks we should spay her or not.

[Hazel]

Welcome to BB!

She should definitely be spayed if she’s still intact. The cancer risk for unspayed females rises to above 85% by the time they’re three years old. I’m guessing the vet would have to do an ultrasound to determine if she has been spayed or not.

[JackRabbit]

Ditto what Hazel said.

As to peeing on the couch, the couch probably smells like you and she’s marking it. Also, most bunnies like to pee on soft things like our beds and furniture. Some bunnies get over this once they are spayed/neutered and settled in. Probably best to block access to the couch or put something over it like a tarp (either slippery so she doesn’t want to hop up there or waterproof to protect it).

[paleosteveo]

That makes sense about the peeing, I figured it was something like that. Thanks Also more of a tech question but all of my pictures are to big to post anyone know how to reduce file size of a photo? Thanks in advance. To the litter training, I set up a shoe box in the corner of her cage that she seems to be using a lot to poop inside her cage, I know that at first they kinda poop everywhere to mark territory, but she seems to be past that phase now with a few pills here and there.

PS sorry I’m all over the place lol

[LongEaredLions]

You can use a photo editing site such as photobucket to resize the piccies.
Congrats on the new bunny and welcome to BB!

[Author]

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