just back from the vet.. need to vent

[Theodorusrex]

We just had Theo in the vet to get his claw clipped (£9.50 is well worth me not being scratched to death by a stressed out rabbit ?) and he was as good as gold! The vet nurse made a few snide remarks though which have really irked me. It started off with ‘do you keep him inside’ which when I said ‘yes he’s a spoiled house rabbit’ she replied that ‘he really should be outside that’s why his nails aren’t wearing down. You should get him a run for outside’ and then later when I joked about the fur flying everywhere because he’s moulting at the minute she replied ‘he’ll be moulting because it’s far too warm for him inside’ and as we were leaving she started going on about letting him out on concrete fo a run and getting him a run for outside. Theo rarely goes outside and when he does he hates it ? He’s such a pampered princess and he gets loads of exercise in the house running around like a loon as he’s free range downstairs mostly. It’s annoyed me like because I believe keeping rabbits free roam inside is one of the best ways for their wellbeing, especially living in Ireland where it’s cold and wet all the time, even in summer, and we have a lot of predatory animals. Just needed to rant cause I knew you guys would understand ? Since when do only indoor bunnies moult also?! Haha

[Luna]

Sorry you had a bad vet visit. Geez you’d think that nurse never saw an indoor bun before! At least Theo did well with his nail clipping.

[Wick & Fable]

I’m actually very surprised such a comment was made about indoor rabbits. The very first thing my vet said was “And he’s an indoor rabbit, right?”— my vet advocates for pretty much all rabbits to stay indoors because of outdoor predators and unstable conditions. My vet is a non-dog/cat practitioner, whose main clients are birds, lizards, and rabbits, so she and her VA (who volunteers at a rabbit rescue) both are quite knowledgeable; you can tell by how they handle rabbits and interact with them. No large animals are allowed on her premise.

Yeah, stick with your guns. If anything, I would say get some more textured floor mats for Theo if his nails are getting trimmed more frequent than usual. Some rabbits love those things….

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Bam]

It sounds pretty old school. There are some people here as well that consider rabbits outdoors pets. I also think many vets and vet nurses still think most indoors rabbits sit in a small cage all day long. Maybe most still do, but it is becoming increasingly common for people to have a bunny room or free range buns here.

Bam likes being outside but Yohio hated it. I don’t like it, but I’m a typical overprotective bunny mummy

[Theodorusrex]

Yeah my vets only take dogs, cats and rabbits. As such they have a good knowledge of rabbits but I have noticed that some of the opinions can be a little old school. Sometimes I can feel really judged at the vets and I definitely did today.. she made a comment when we walked in too and was like ‘oh is his handling better now’ as if I’m a bad bunny parent because my rabbit gets distressed at the vets! Thankfully wee Theo let me hold him as good as gold to show her today ?

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Yikes, what a fossil…
It feels so bad when inexperienced people give you “advice” on how to treat your bun. There are so many misconceptions about bunny care, luckily more and more people are coming around and buns are slowly starting to get better care.
I’m sure Theo is spoiled from here to eternity, and dpn’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!

[Q8bunny]

I’m subscribing to Ellie’s fossil theory because the nurse’s remarks just sound so vexingly ignorant. For her information, Chewie runs around on tiles all day long and his nails STILL need a trip to the vet every two or three months for a trim. And moulting is determined by light not so much by temperature (Kuwait has two seasons and bunnykins moults at least four times a year). So I say give her a disdainful smirk next time and pass her the URL to HouseRabbit for some continuing education hours.

[Bam]

Fossil theory sounds accurate.

She might also be challenged personality-wise. Some people just aren’t very nice.

[Q8bunny]

True. The world is brimming with social stupids

[Theodorusrex]

Yes, I too will be agreeing with the fossil comment The other vet nurses in there are so lovely, and Theo loves them all bar this one. Animals are a good judge of character I always think.

Slightly off topic but recently I came across this resource someone had recommended on a rabbit Facebook group for a new rabbit owner: http://buckysbunnies.tripod.com/Diet.html
The last few paragraphs are interesting (and very aggressive) about house rabbit groups:

‘Unfortunately the internet is mostly full of “advice” from rabbit “rescue” groups or “house” rabbit groups. Much of this information is inaccurate. These groups started out promoting a diet composed of mainly hay and vegetables with pellets added in small amounts. They often would write that pellets weren’t needed in a rabbit diet. They had nothing to back them up, no studies, no research, nothing. The veterinarians they got to recommend these diets also contributed nothing as far as backing up this radical diet. Some even misrepresented commercial pellets, saying they were only made to fatten meat rabbits up quickly, therefore were not good to feed pet rabbits. This completely ignored the large segment of the rabbit community who raise rabbits for show. It disregarded the many varying pellet formulas available to all rabbit owners.

In addition these “experts” would write that most pet rabbits they see with health problems are fed pellets. They failed to follow up to find out what type of pellets were being fed, the amount, and other factors that would be important to determining the true cause of the health problems. Where you buy feed, the formula the company uses, how much you feed all matter. Not every pellet is created equal, some stuff on the market is not good, or it could be good but has sat on store shelves for ages and lost it’s nutrients. The veterinarians would just say it was the pellets. Now I’m reading more garbage that feeding pellets cause teeth problems. There isn’t credible evidence that this is true.

Recently these same groups have started adjusting their diet recommendations, adding pellets as being important. I suspect the rationale behind the push for a non-pellet diet had to do with making a name for new groups, getting money in the form of donations by coming up with things that contradicted all that went before, and was being recommended by Breeders and our organizations. Pellets were designed to provide a proper diet for rabbits, long term. Feed companies put money into researching their pellets. They have done the research to back up the validity of a pellet based diet. We still have nothing that shows a hay/veggie diet is best or even works long term to maintain health. I suggest pet owners ignore groups that sport “rescue” or “house” in their name. Ask them to prove their theories, with facts, research, articles published by objective 3rd parties vs in house publication. You will soon find out what I have, they can’t.’

This website is also recommending feeding up to 8oz ( 226g) to a medium size rabbit breed. That’s a huge amount!

[Q8bunny]

I might be losing my marbles, but did someone change my last post? I’m pretty sure that’s not what I wrote…

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

That’s odd Q8. Maybe it was edited by one of the mods? Don’t know how that works on this forum.

@Theo: the internet is the perfect podium for everyone with an opinion, unhindered and unfiltered. For any advice there will be people contradicting it, but this page has to be one of the worst ever. It sounds like they think they’re onto some big conspiracy theory of people who purposefully malnourish rabbits. The sad thing is that there is nothing you can do about people with a “conspiracy theory”-like mindset. They’ll just shout: “Aha, you’re one of THEM!”, and your point will fall on deaf ears.

I hope people will do their homework and will read up on rabbit care before they get one. Hopefully they’ll see many sources who can show the opposite. Looking up info on the web is great, thinking for a second about that info is still people’s own responsibility.

[Q8bunny]

Perhaps… although I don’t know why. It’s not like I said anything about a forum member or used any terms that I haven’t seen used a dozen times before. I have a phrase I use specifically for a certain type of charming person, and that phrase has been changed on my end. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive because here people’s words are constantly altered under the loving guidance of the ministry of censorship and it’s weird to come across it in a more… ‘liberal’ forum.

[Q8bunny]

Now I’m wondering if there’s a way to delete every post I’ve ever made… it kind of freaks me out that my words can be changed without my knowledge. *X Files theme starts playing*

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Maybe it’s meant to keep the forum family friendly if it was edited by the mods.

I’ve been on the edge of editing too I think, in the book thread. There just wasn’t a more delicate way to fully describe how horrible that book was and why.

[Q8bunny]

[Bam]

Q8, we can change posts but we only do that when minors state their age or full name or name a vet clinic etc that they’re unhappy with (under the Communications Decency Act, the person posting can be sued). And we always, always PM the member about the changes we’ve made and why and ask if they want us to delete the whole post instead.

There is some type of censor-code that kicks in automatically if you write some words, I only know that because Vienna once did and mentioned it. It’s not something we leaders get notified about, it’s automatic. I don’t know which words get replaced/taken out -perhaps those that get beeped in American daytime tv-shows?

Ellie, I loved your description of that terrible book

[Q8bunny]

It was not a beep word – it was a regular word used in other threads, hence the weirdness. Meh… algorhythms are weird.

And yes. Ellie’s book description was amazing. And now I feel bad for highjacking Theodorusrex’s thread *sending virtual bunny treats as a peace offering*

[Bam]

Please forgive us, theodorusrex =) It was an algorithm that changed Q8’s word, even though it wasn’t what you’d normally consider a bleep word.

As for 226 g of pellets for a medium sized rabbit i must say it sounds like WAY too much. My Bam gets FibaFirst now, and according to the serving-size info on the box, he should get 30 grams per kg body weight and day, in his case 60 grams in total. That’d be 14 of those long pellets (In case you don’t know, FibaFirst pellets are 10 cm or 4 inches long and about 1 cm wide). He doesn’t even get half of that and he’s still a little chubby. I find it’s the same with dog kibble, the serving-size recommendations are way too generous, except when it comes to puppy food.

There are good types of rabbit pellets, and we don’t recommend a pellet-less diet (unless there’s a medical reason confirmed by a vet, there are always those special cases). Here’s some info about a study performed by the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh and Burgess Pet care: http://www.therabbithouse.com/blog/2014/01/22/muesli-pellets/

The Internet sure is full of conflicting info about more or less everything =/

[jerseygirl]

I thought Al Gore was into climate change, not word change. 

[Theodorusrex]

I know Bam, it’s scary that new bunny owners can be reading that and taking it as gospel. Very thankful I found Binkybunny when I adopted Theo. It has taught me so much!

Do you feed Bam fibafirst exclusively.. At the moment Theo gets a small serving of science selective pellets and then 1 or 2 fibafirst sticks daily – more as a treat. He loves them though. Maybe feeding those exclusively might be better as they’re super high fibre… hmmmm…

Oh and I don’t mind in the slightest – glad the mystery was solved 

[Author]

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