Is everything ok?

[Fluffykins]

Hi new here

Fluffykins is our first family pet (after the goldfish) and the second rabbit I’ve ever had in my life. My Bunny was my childhood rabbit whom I had for many years.

So we’ve had fluffykins for jus over 2 weeks now. Got him at 8 weeks. He was one confident and cheeky bunny right away! Doing full body stretches and flops in the carrier on the car journey home
He willingly hopped into his 2 storey condo (in our hallway) and mooshed around for a bit. For the first week or so we’d bring him out (No problems with being carried after the first day) to the sitting room and make a “barrier” with our bodies (the hubby, myself and 2 kids – 5 and 3 year old). My kids are and were completely wonderful with him. My 3 year old tried a couple of times to stroke his whiskers but he’s learnt not to do that. Now all they do is hold their little fingers out and repeatedly say “hey fluffykins kiss kiss kiss” and fluffykins will come up and touch all our fingers with his nose. That’s followed by a lot of love (from us in the form of “good boy”!!! And full body pets). Fluffykins will then bunny away.

Now we’ve got an xpen set up in the living room, I place him in there after the school run but we still have plenty of floor play time together. I’m blessed in the sense when I come home from out he runs to me in the condo / cage and sits eerily still – I’ve realised that means he wants some picking up in my arms love. So I cuddle him standing up in my arms, sometimes I’ll bring him to the sofa and he purrs away in my arms for about 10 mins. Then he wants to run off so it’s xpen time.

He was an outside bunny before we got him and he had been introduced to greens. However I found he had excessive ceciles lying around the condo and he used to have irregular shaped poops when we first got him. I’ve since given him an alfalfa based pellet (1/4 cup once a day) unlimited Timothy and alfalfa hay and 3 days ago introduced romaine lettuce to him. Now his poops are all nice and regular but I’ve had to experiment with pellet amounts to reduce seeing the excessive Ceciles. He seems to produce these ceciles throughout the day, most of the time I see him eating it directly but once or twice he leaves them behind where ever he was sat.

He was initially only on Timothy hay but I introduced alfalfa just because of his age. I’ve learnt by now though to mix the two up otherwise he leaves the Timothy and only goes for the alfalfa (which I completely expected). I’m going to grow some indoor grass for him soon, very excited about that!

We’ve also started potty training, he’s a bit hit and miss which of course is normal. Oh, we weighed him yesterday (he turned 10 weeks) and he was 12.6oz. Is this normal?

Oh and he’s a purebred mini lop (I’m in the UK so don’t know if that means Holland lop in the USA). I’ll post a picture of him as soon as I’ve got an appropriate one (where we aren’t kissing him  

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Would appreciate any and all comments. Thank you!

[Sirius&Luna]

Everything sounds good!

One thing is I would give him more pellets since he’s still a baby, since he’s not been on very many I would probably up it to 1/4 cup twice a day to start with.

Generally, its not recommended to start veggies till they’re 12 weeks old, but since you’ve started him on lettuce and its fine then I think you can keep going slowly.

12.6oz, is about 400g I think? I have a very small mini lop, who at 6 months is just over 1kg, but at 12 weeks I think he was about 800g, so he does sound quite small, but as long as he’s healthy I don’t think it matters. I would increase his pellets a bit though.

Finally, what do you have lining the cage? Its good to make sure that there’s some super soft areas so they don’t get sore hocks.

[Fluffykins]

Hi sirus and thanks for your response. I’ve specifically lowerd the amount of pellets as currently he’s an awesome hay eater (except when he’s being fussy with Timothy and holding out for alfalfa)!

With anymore pellets hay eating goes down the drain and cecotrope procudtion goes through the roof. I’ve read all about giving unlimited pellets but I never take expert advice

To me it’s like with babies and bottle feeding VS breastfeeding.. unlimited feeding of a newborn is vastly different when exclusively breastfeeding as a pose to feeding a manmade substance… science is now finally catching up and realising that. Whilst in general a wild newborn (or any age really) rabbit would regulate their own eating I don’t feel our pets do this (as well). And having unlimited access to things like hay as a pose to a food created to get meat on a rabbit *fast* again is an important distinction to make.

Oof I’ve nattered on! Just wanted to explain why I don’t believe in unlimited pellets at any age

His condo is lined with fleece blankets on both levels and he has his litter box on 1 side (so far chosen 3 corners in which he decides to ‘go’).

He does seem like a baby still (size wise) but he eats hay wonderfully all day, drinks and binkeys around…. I have enormous amounts of poop and pee to clean up everyday so… I don’t know! I feel he is small but maybe he’s just a small one? He has a great appetite. Doesn’t bite my hand off when I give pellets or veg but eats enthusiastically, normally half then comes back to the food after a bit more playing.

He wasn’t the runt of the litter or anything (I saw his siblings) but I didn’t weigh him when I got him. Now I’ve weighed him, I will do it every week and as long as he has put some on by next week I’ll try to stop worrying or over thinking!

[Bam]

Weighing once a week is a very good idea! If he’s niot gaining or if he loses weight, then upping the pellets culd be an option. But if he’s gaining like he whould, i do agree that unlimited hay is the best rabbit food. Good quality rabbit pellets for pet rabbits today are a lot more nutritionally balanced than the pellets fed to meat rabbit and show rabbits. They are, as you say, designed to make the bun gain fast and there’s sadly no demand for longevity in those businesses. But a bun should still get 85-90% of his nutritional and caloric needs from grass hay. It’s the most species-appropriate food there is for a healthy bunny. The very young, the pregnant/lactating , the poorly and the elderly may have somewhat different needs.

It’s difficult to stop worrying and overthinking rabbit things, but weighing once a week and writing down the weight is a great help. Lots and lots of poop is great! Hay has lots of roughage and it works partly as a prebiotic, i e a medium in which the healthy gut microorganisms can thrive. Young rabbits don’t have mature gut microbiotas (obviuously, since they’re young!) and hay is the best way to create a good, sturdy gut flora. As we know now, a well-balanced, highly diverse gut microbiota is extremely important for the immune defense.

What you’ve been telling us so far sounds perfect. His weight is low, but you can’t say if its too low without looking at him. If his hips and ribs are sticking out he’s obviously too skinny. Otherwise it might just be his individual build. Excess cecals is more or less the rule in the very young. It’s not sth to worry about, as long as it’s not sticky poop that sticks to his rear – if it is, you’ll need to clean his butt. 

[Fluffykins]

Hi bam

Yep I hear you on the hay! When we got him he actually did have excess ceciles stuck to his rear, I wiped off what I could with a pet wetwipe but 1 tiny bit I did have to cut away. By tiny I mean like maybe 5 pieces of fur fibres if that. It just wouldn’t come out and I didn’t want to pull any harder!

Anyway, I just found reducing his pellets has really helped “tidy up” his poop, they are now larger look softer (not excessively dry) and all the same shape. When I got him he had a lot of irregular poop and they were smaller too. And we’ve not had a poopy bunny butt since

He is weird! He loves chasing the hoover haha I find it so hilarious. I’ve never heard of a rabbit (baby at that) chasing and pouncing on the Hoover!!

He doesn’t feel skinny at all to me btw, there is definitely a layer or 2 of padding where I can feel his backbones or ribs! Let me try and get a picture in the next post! Oh darn he was all flopped on my lap, this typing motion on my phone has annoyed him and he’s gone

[Fluffykins]

Ok I can’t add my attachments because it seems my files are too big but I’ve no idea how to resize on my phone?

[Fluffykins]

Oh my ARRRGHHH! I had to come here and post this straight away. So fluffykins was flopping mooching and general lazing around when suddenly my hubby turned to look at him, gasped and came to shake me!! I looked over at fluffykins and he was *on his back*!

NOT on his side in a side flop but actually on his back with his paws facing towards the sky. I grabbed my phone to take a picture and my movement made him stand up. THEN about 10 minutes later after he had eaten and drank a bit, groomed himself, he settled down near the edge of the xpen to sleep (As he does). He went into a side flop but then *tried to get onto his back*!!! He couldn’t because he was right up against the bars of the xpen.

WHAT IS THIS?!! It was sooooo cute I’m still in shock haha. He looked like a little puppy! Anyone have any idea is it’s normal for rabbits to rest *on their back* without human aid (trancing them).

[Celamentum]

Hello Fluffykins!

I’ve heard rabbits will actually flop onto their back when they feel 100% safe and secure around you!! So you’re very lucky! Most rabbits aren’t so trusting so quickly… maybe it’s because he’s still a baby. I’ve never seen my own bun flopped over like that and I’ve had him for 7 years! I’m very envious you got to see something so cute!

[Bam]

Agree with Celamentum, congrats! Very young bunnies can sometimes do this, its both scary if you don’t know what’s going on, and super-super-cute when you do know =) The first time I saw my Yohio throw himself on his back my heart nearly stopped, I thought he had a seizure! But he was just a very happy bunny.

[Fluffykins]

Thank you Clamentum and bam!

Clamentum I’m sure your bunny has felt this safe and secure maybe he just hasn’t shown you this position yet but does it in secret I would have missed it yesterday if my hubby hadn’t alerted me so quick. And even then my glimpse was only 3 seconds long!

It was super duper cute! I hope it continues beyond babyhood. He really is such a confident bun, wanted to come out and claim the whole place on the very first day! We were actually going to get his brother at the breeders, an all white mini lop (as fluffykins has the same colouring as my old rabbit and I felt I’d keep remembering him) but this fluffykins kept coming up to us, trying to jump onto our laps on the yard haha and was just so hyper excited at us being there we had to bring him home!

Even when we were leaving and stood up, the white one we were initially interested in was just munching away on the grass whereas fluffykins was standing up on his hind legs against the bars of the pen and staring intently at us.

I fully believe *he* chose us and not the other way around

[ThorBunny]

Loving reading about your cute new bundle of love

Thor will also chase the hoover around our apartment! She loves to pounce on it and I’ve had to put her away now when I vacuum so I don’t accidentally vacuum her up I remember a woman at the shelter I got her from saying she thought all lops have some amount of hearing loss, some have very little and some are almost deaf. So maybe she can’t hear it all that well and just thinks its a lovely plaything

[sarahthegemini]

Aw it is cute isn’t it when they roll onto their backs. My Peanut has done it a few times

[OverthinkingBun]

He sounds absolutely delightful! I don’t think there’s any problem with letting him have lots of alfalfa hay at that age, if it’s what he wants (and unless he looks too fat).

If you are interesting in growing your own bunny snacks, I have had the best luck with just resprouting carrot tops from the store. My bunny just loves fresh carrot leaves, and they are very easy.

[Author]

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