We are the masters at procrastinating and that doesn’t stop at the bunnies. The green and white cage with the wire bottom and pullout litter pan, has been the home to every one of our critters; except for Tigger of course. We do not like the wire bottom cages, those can be painful and cause deformities if buns are left on them for prolonged periods. Our babies have only spent a minimal amount of time in them, until we were able to buy them a more appropriate home. I said all that to get to this point here: once they had been moved to their permanent home, we have not always immediately cleaned and put away the temporary cage. Sometimes it would sit for a few days and other times for a couple of weeks. After Pickles was back in his big boy house; we did move the “Green Monster” to the garage, but put off cleaning it out.
13 Days….13
For 13 days, I managed to avoid cleaning the cage and then I couldn’t stand it sitting there anymore, so I cleaned it and had Levi put it on the garage shelf.
The very next day… you hear me? The very next day after cleaning the green monster; exactly 14 days after moving Pickles back to his house, our “bug guy” tagged me in a facebook posts.
Can you possibly imagine what the post was about? I bet you can’t – just kidding, I know you have figured it out already.
Here is a wonderful human being looking for help. On his way home he ran across what he assumed was a docile bunny. The bunny wasn’t moving very fast and he was able to pick it up without a problem. He knew this bunny needed help; the weather was rainy and very cold for the first time this season.
I kept looking at the pictures and I finally told him that if he couldn’t find anyone to take it in, to let me know. Keeping an eye on the post no one offered to take the bun. Most just didn’t have the resources to take in a bunny while others just didn’t want one; which I totally get!
Heeeelllll no!
Finally I decided to share the post and pictures with Cathy; perhaps you can guess what her first words were in response? Can you? I bet you can, because my people are smart, right? I believe that “hell no, we don’t need another bunny” sums it up to the best of my recollection.
A few hours later when touching base with Bryan, there still weren’t any takers and the best he could do was keep him in a tiny cage in the garage. He did not have bunny supplies nor was he able to purchase any right then. You see, Bryan was the best this bunny could have done because he runs a cat rescue, so he definitely has a heart for animals. He just wasn’t familiar with how to take care of bunnies.
Let me see that picture again
As I watched the feed obsessively, out of nowhere Cathy turned to me and said: “Let me see that picture again”. And that is when I knew she was hooked!
This baby was about 20 minutes away in another town and it was late evening so we asked Bryan if he would be willing to bring the bunny to us; and of course he was. Five minutes later he was on the road to meet with us.
Me: “Levi….go get the cage out of the garage please”
Levi: “Ok…..Wait, what?”
M: “You heard right, go get the cage so we can set it up”
L: “ooookkaaayyy… what’s happening?”
Soon enough Bryan arrived with our newest rescue in tow.
If you know anything about us, you are more than aware as to what the first thing was that we had to do. Why, check the undercarriage of course. You see, we have tons of experience checking below the belt; one might even call us experts 🙂
Congratulations, it’s a boy!
We had ourselves a boy bunny!
He looked to be the size of Buddy and Lizzy Lou but felt much lighter. We really should have weighed him that night but forgot in all of the excitement.
Looking him over we found no obvious injuries, bugs or abnormalities to be immediately concerned about. His teeth looked good, his ears weren’t crusty and he appeared to be in one piece.
He let us check him over and then immediately cuddled right up and nuzzled his face in my neck.
We placed him in his new, temporary home and although Bryan gave him some carrots (that’s all he had available), this baby was starving. While he was chowing down on hay, I did notice that he wasn’t moving his hind legs. He was staying in place and stretching his way to the hay; when he did move, he appeared to be dragging his hind quarters rather than actually moving them. I couldn’t tell for sure the problem, since he wasn’t moving much and we really wanted him to just rest. So we moved his hay and water closer to accommodate him and decided we would take a better look the next day.
Tucking him in for the night we decided to name him Jackson a.k.a Jack, from my favorite movie; not to mention it was just two days before Halloween. Fitting, don’t you think?
Of course before hitting the hay ourselves, we had to make sure to get some extra supplies. Using Chewy has been incredibly time and back saving; with deliveries straight to your door within 2 business days. Their customer service is stellar and prices comparible even cheaper than some.
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That’s a lot of poop!
The next morning we were surprised by a pen full of poop and empty water and pellet bowls. Wow! This baby was seriously malnourished; starvin’ Marvin. We gave him most of the day to rest before taking him to the playpen in the garage that evening. I needed to know if he wasn’t capable of moving his back legs or if he was just that exhausted.
Lo and behold he started moving around the pen; not much at first but before too long he was doing mini binkies. He seemed happy but still a little weak, but at least we knew his back end was physically ok.
Of course we checked him over once again since we had some daylight. His paws and belly were covered in yellow muck, much like Buddy when we got him; and his paws are huge! I mean huge, compared to our other Rex bunnies; his poop was also bigger than Buddy’s which is saying a lot. I had a feeling we may have just been blessed with an extra large breed, Cathy didn’t want to hear anything about that.
What’s his age?
We each had our own opinion on how old we thought he was and Levi insisted he was less than six month, whereas I figured between six and 12 months. But we all pretty much knew he was at least a young adult and not done growing yet. Guesstimating his age we decided to give him a mixture of baby and adult hay and pellets.
Alfalfa hay is great for baby rabbits until approximately 7-8 months of age, at which time it should be phased out gradually. Its high levels of calcium and protein can cause weight issues as well as other health problems; bladder stones for example. This condition requires surgery; not to mention the pain it causes the bun, and will often recur.
Adult bunnies can have a very limited amount, such as a treat or small amounts mixed in with Timothy or Orchard hay.
Not knowing his exact age or nutritional status, we did want him to have the Alfalfa benefits but not cause any health issues; so we gave him just a little mixed in with the unlimited Timothy hay.
To the bunny doc we go
It was about a week before we got an appointment to see our Bunny Doc and she was impressed by his healthy condition; all things considered. He weighed in at 4.5 lbs and we were anxious to hear what breed he was. Drum rolls please….. He is a New Zealand and guess how big these boogers get? Don’t know? Let me share a little something about this particular breed.
N.Z’s are raised and sold as meat rabbits because they are so big. This breed can weigh in at between 9 – 12 lbs; so I guess those big ole paws and poop droppings were just a preview of what is soon to come.
She confirmed his gender and estimates his age around 6-8 months; making it very clear that he is not even close to being done growing.
We left the veterinarian office searching online for extra large pens and ordering more hay and pellets. Making sure our buns have plenty of room in their pens it was imperative to find one large enough to accommodate him, and his growing self. Now that we had more information we were able to make an informed decision about a more permanent house for him.
By the next day we had him set up in his new, much larger home and he absolutely loved it.
This baby is so playful there will be plenty of posts to come about his shenanigans. We are still working at getting our official exotic rehabilitator license, so be on the lookout for our adventures with that.
Toodles for now, but not for long!
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