Piper says “Hello” from Tallahassee, FL

[Pipers Parents]

Hello Everyone,

About Us:  

We are from Tallahassee, FL and this is our first post. . We stumbled upon the forum while looking for some stuff for our new baby girl bunny.  My wife and I currently have been raising parrots for the last 15 years (We have 6 feathered Kids and a 20 year old son) and I always wanted a rabbit.  As a child I would help my mother raise mini lops so I do have some working knowledge of them but I want to learn all I can so we can be the best parents we can for her. I have an education in Marine Science and have a love for all things living even though I took a different career path.

About Piper:

She is Netherlands Dwarf/Lion Head mix. She was born November 15th and is 9 weeks old today. She is snow white and almost looks a little bluish in person.  Her eyes are more blue than anything else but do have a tinge of red in the correct lighting.  She has the tiniest cotton ball tail and the cutest little puffy crown.  She very fluffy and the people we adopted her from were Chinese and called her “small ball” in Chinese because she was such a little ball of fluff.

Her temperament is very calm and very adventurous.  She is also quite the Diva as she is generally posing in most pictures as you can see.  She such a Diva about laying in her bed posing that I nicknamed her “The Duchess” as she truly acts like royalty laying around or when she eats.

We have had her for a week and a half.  She is just now really starting to settle into the house.  She immediately took to sitting on our laps for hours at a time being rubbed but she only does it on her terms.  She is quite the jumper and loves to play around the house for hours though I do need to work on some additional bunny proofing because she likes to gravitate to the part of our great room that has 3 parrots.  I thought she was interacting with them but I caught her yesterday trying to get some seeds out of the largest parrots lower waste tray that is only a couple of inches off the ground.  

As you can see, I set up her home in a X pen.  I chose the largest one I could find and will continue to add and modify to it.  I would have never thought that she could get thru the spacing of the bars but imagine my horror when it took her less than two seconds to slide not only out but back in.  I have utilized some 12 inch plexiglass to make a skirt until she grows into the spacing. It is an inch and a half wide.

I used some of my previous bunny knowledge and put her liter tray in the corner she used the first day.  It is layered in carefresh and hay.  I put her pellet/hay bin where she will eat while in the box and did ever other trick I knew to work on litter box training.  To my AMAZEMENT she has been FULLY litter boxed trained in the first 48 hours!!!!  Including spending up to 3 hours outside of the cage and coming to it to use it and drink and eat!!  She did have an accident in the kitchen once but it was only 6 droppings and it was her first time exploring there and I think she got lost.

As for her diet: (And this is an area I have a couple of questions if you do not mind.)

When we got her she was eating hay and pellets but I did not like either that she was eating.  The hay was Coastal Hay from Walmart and the pellets where the large small world complete 25lb bag from Walmart .  I have NO ISSUES with Walmart but I wanted her to have a better diet especially as a juvenile.   I have slowly switched her to Oxbow Essentials young rabbit food pellets and Oxbow Young rabbit hay.  I know both are Alfalfa based but she is a baby and I have already offered her equal amounts of Small Pet Select cutting perfect blend select Timothy hay (which she loves.)  I will also be working her out of the pellets and into Small pet Selects Timothy based pellets over the next 4 months.  Does this seem like a good diet and plan? 

We started offering her fresh greens over the last 5 days.  Day one was Kale.  It was a BUST.  She chewed and stopped.  Day 2 was Basil.  She devoured a leaf and stem.  Day 3 was Cilantro.  It was devoured.  Day 4 was Dill weed.  She ate it sooo fast!  Today I gave her a mix of the three she liked but she only nibbled and went after her timothy hay, pellets and alfa hay in that order.

She actually slept other than to eat, drink and use the litter box almost all day today but is currently going in turbo mode around the house!

I did find a use for the huge garbage bag of Coastal hay that came with her.  It makes a PERFECT cover for the carefresh litter and since the strands are a foot or more long it is pretty non tracking and has no dust.  I will have to definitely find out which Walmart he got it at!

So what do you think?

Thanks in Advance!

Michael & Shana

[Bam]

Hi and very welcome to the BB forums! Piper is so cute it’s barely believable
It sounds like she’ll have a great life with your family. Oxbow essential young rabbit pellets is an excellent choice. And hay is the most important food for a bunny. (A young bun can have alfalfa hay as well as grass hay.)
Sometimes you need to present a veg a few times before the bun decides to try it, so don’t give up on the kale just yet! And rabbits do tend to love seeds, which is bad for them, so you should try and make sure she can’t get into the parrots’ food or she will probably gorge herself with it.
I’m so looking forward to hearing more from you and your little Piper

[tobyluv]

Welcome to Binky Bunny! Piper is very cute! It’s recommended that you shouldn’t feed greens or veggies to rabbits until they are 12 weeks old. I’m confused about her age.  She would be older than the 5 weeks that you stated if she was born on November 15.   If she is only 5 weeks old, as you said, it would be best for her to only have hay and pellets, and to wait a few weeks for the greens.  It seems like she must be older than 5 weeks since you have had her for a week and a half, which would have made her less than 4 weeks old when you got her, and too young to leave her mother.  You may have already seen the BUNNY INFO link at the top of each page here, but it has a lot of good information on all the basic aspects of rabbit care, and is very helpful. Feel free to ask any specific questions that you do have though.

 

[Pipers Parents]

Posted By tobyluv on 1/18/2016 4:24 PM

Welcome to Binky Bunny! Piper is very cute! It’s recommended that you shouldn’t feed greens or veggies to rabbits until they are 12 weeks old. I’m confused about her age.  She would be older than the 5 weeks that you stated if she was born on November 15.   If she is only 5 weeks old, as you said, it would be best for her to only have hay and pellets, and to wait a few weeks for the greens.  It seems like she must be older than 5 weeks since you have had her for a week and a half, which would have made her less than 4 weeks old when you got her, and too young to leave her mother.  You may have already seen the BUNNY INFO link at the top of each page here, but it has a lot of good information on all the basic aspects of rabbit care, and is very helpful. Feel free to ask any specific questions that you do have though.

 

Thank You.  It was a typo.  I fixed it.  She is 9 Nine weeks old as of Yesterday.  I thought greens were OK as long as she has been eating hay?  She has been eating hay since she was with her mother according to the seller.  I can hold off on the greens but she has had them for 4 days now with no ill effect?  What are your thoughts on it?

[tobyluv]

Thanks for clearing up her age. Since Piper has already has some greens and had no problems, it’s probably okay to let her have some, but go slow. It’s recommended to start with one, then to wait at least 3 days before trying another veggie. It’s good that she is eating timothy hay since it’s best that a rabbit eats grass hay at least 2 weeks before starting them on greens. Here are 2 links discussing greens/veggies, with lists of good ones and the frequency that you can give them –

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/VeggieList/tabid/144/Default.aspx,

http://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables-and-fruits-for-a-rabbit-diet/.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Now yes indeedie ! That is a very cute little munster ! And with her size she could sneak anywhere! So yes, be thorough with your bunny proofing !
Glad she likes cuddles, even if they are on her own terms !
Keep us updated with her growing progess ! :o)

[Author]

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