Friday 23 December 2011

Fluffularily Played?

Did you ever have something happen to you where at the time it all seemed so reasonable, but thinking back on it you suddenly realised you totally got "played"?! So here's what happened to me this month, the story of which, I later found out, is similar to that of several of the regular volunteers.

There I am, working away scraping wee-soaked shavings from the corner of some shed or other when Caroline appears as-if-by-magic beside me.

"You know all these litters of oh-so-cute baby bunnies we suddenly have?" she says, all casually and what-not. "Well, I've been thinking how vulnerable they are in the cold outdoors of the Rescue and how they might benefit from being indoors for the winter months. I wonder if some of the volunteers might consider taking them in for a while..."

So later that afternoon, after some careful consideration of the logistics of having a group of tiny floofy joy-bundles somewhere in my house I say to Caroline "Well, I guess, if they're all small an' all, and are happy to live mostly in one of those big cages I have for emergencies, I guess, maybe I could squeeze them in somewhere in my house..."

"Great!" Caroline says, "We'll sort that out next week!".

But by next week, Caroline has been thinking again. "You know what?" she says. "You know who would really benefit from being indoors - some of our elderly bunnies! You wouldn't mind taking them instead would you...?"

So the next thing I know, instead of having a cage of cute little munchkins causing excitable (but contained) chaos in the corner of one room, I have:

  • Whisky giving me grief because I've given half his room to Sushi and Serena for the winter.
  • Grumpy glares from Jemima and Elvis because they are having to share garden time with yet another pair of bunnies.

Whisky getting his grump on over
sharing his newly partitioned room

Not that I can complain too much - of all the pairs at the Rescue, Sushi and Serena are one of the friendliest. And apart from all the extra sweeping, they are not exactly high maintenance (they do like to spread the hay from their litter trays all over the floor before they eat it).

So it seemed like I didn't come out too badly from the last-minute switch, but the story doesn't end there. Two weeks after they move in, I get a text message from Caroline.

"Can I borrow that cage you didn't use? Another unwanted litter of babies just handed in..."

But guess what? By the time Caroline arrived at my house the plan had changed once more. Instead of loading my cage into her car, we ended up loading the bunnies into my cage. In my spare room. [sigh]

So there you go. That's how I went from living with three quiet bunnies to having, after some subtle manipulation from Caroline, a houseful of chaos. It is also why once again I've found myself with no time to take photo's or write much about the Rescue this month.

Still, I may be constantly exhausted and spending all my time cleaning up after somebun or other, but when hard work looks like this it's hard to resent it!

The moment Sushi notices that Jemima
is watching him with disapproving interest

Serena remembering how annoying muddy feets
can be after two weeks indoors

"I am Meeko. And you are...?"

Shanti, Pikachu, Mr Magoo, Pooki and Meeko

Sunday 4 December 2011

A Whiter Shade of Floof

Some floofy white babies came in this week, along with their mother and older siblings from the previous litter. If you are still reading these words now I'd be surprised cos if you're anything like me your eyes just keep being drawn back to those tiny bundles of squee...[sigh]


Thursday 24 November 2011

Foxy Lady

There are three very important reasons why your rabbit run might need a roof. They are:

  • Jumping
  • Climbing
  • Flying

I'm not talking about the rabbits, even though they are quite capable of all three (or at least, I've met a number of bunnies who appeared to THINK they could fly). I'm talking about those creatures that would seek to do your bunnies harm.

To better illustrate this point to recent enquirers, one of my colleagues spent some time on YouTube searching for some helpful videos to demonstrate and found these:

Jumping:
I can't jump over the fence

Climbing:
Foxes can climb

Flying:
Rabbit Outsmarts Falcon
(Don't get too excited - this was the one video I found in this genre where the outcome was anything short of horrific.)

So there you go. Today we have learned why a run needs a roof, why it may not be safe to leave bunnies playing outside in the garden all day and that a fox is a cross between a cat and a dog. Who said this blog isn't educational?!

Friday 18 November 2011

Double Paw-Fist Strike

Purdy, Hopppy and Whisky share a quick snack
before getting back to the business of fighting.

Well, that didn't work. We tried to find Whisky a new friend (or friends), but all he did was learn new ways to express his lack of bunny social skills.

Being a bunny with no incisors (front teeth), he can be a little outmatched when meetings with other bunnies turn hostile. His new trick for balancing the odds is to pre-emptively pummel them on the nose with his front paws when they are least expecting it, leap on them while they are still surprised, kick them in the back of the head and run off. It started as a response to the unfriendliness of the first girl we tried him with, but once he got the hang of it, and possibly because the first one was such a moo, he decided to apply it to any future bunny he met that looked at him funny. Or thought of looking at him funny. Or had eyes.

Consequently the rest of the bonding attempts did not go well for Whisky, the last one so much so it ended at the vets having his perineum stitched back together. Ouch.

So poor little Whisky is very sad. He has to suffer pain while his injuries heal, the indignity of being force-fed medicines and the loneliness now he doesn't even have foster bunnies sharing his room to glare at. But at least he is home again and I get to cuddle him every day, even if it's only long enough to empty a syringe full of anti-biotics into his mouth.


Saturday 5 November 2011

Bun Swap UK

Previously on Bun Swap UK...

Having failed to make a connection with Spangle, Porridge and Sprat, our precious little Whisky was introduced to a lady nearer his own age named Lara. But to say that didn't go well is somewhat of an understatement. It was, well, violent. The problem would seem to be that after 10 months of the single life in my house (thanks to the illnesses, the surgeries and the failed bondings) the boy has no bunny-social skills left and thinks he's the boss of all he surveys. He needed to be removed from his comfort zone in order for him to accept another bunny on his own level. It was time to take the bun by the ears (metaphorically, not literally) and some serious action.

So this week, Caroline and I have swapped bunnies.

"So what was Peter André REALLY like, Hoppy?"

Whisky has gone to live with Caroline, hanging out in her bedroom at night and the Rescue during the day, meeting new friends on neutral ground. While our old friends Tequila and Heathcliff have come to live with me for a few days and experience Whisky's routines.

"Room service? There are hairs in my salad.
Oh, wait, scratch that - it's just my foot!"

I wonder if I can convince them that Whisky normally makes me breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning...

Random Rabbit

"Roar!"

As we've had a few non-bunny-picture posts recently, thought I'd throw in a picture of one of our recent arrivals to balance things out!

After a long period of having no Rex bunnies coming in, we suddenly find ourselves with about 20. And unusually, since most of our previous Rex residents have been the cautious types, they all seem very bold and friendly.

Several of them really stand out - so meet Aslan, above, one of my favourites. I don't think he will be with us very long though, he's such a handsome and amiable chap. I just hope he's with us just a little bit longer so I can catch some more great shots of him like this one! :-)

Sunday 30 October 2011

Building Site

Caroline has been busy over the last few months. On top of the usual goings on at the Rescue, she's gone and built us a new website! Pop over to rabbitresidencerescue.weebly.com to have a look.

Our old site is all but shut down now and we will soon be moving our domain over to the new one, so in the mean time please do check the link above for the latest info.

Monday 24 October 2011

Stop! Weight...

Something we do regularly, both at home and at the Rescue, is to carry out a simple health check on all our bunnies. This helps us spot problems early and gives us a perfectly legitimate reason for cuddling everybun. :-)

I think I'll save the details of the sort of things we look for for a future post, but one thing we almost always check is their weight. A change in weight can often be the symptom of a real problem, or it can just be an indicator that we're feeding them too many treats! Either way it's a good idea to monitor it and take appropriate action when necessary.

But you're probably not going to want to shell out large amounts of money for a veterinary scale. The human scales are often not sensitive enough, the kitchen scales are often too small. So here's a handy tip: A good cheap solution is the "luggage scale". They are available very cheaply online, and with the addition of a ceiling hook/chain and an old shopping bag (NOT the plastic variety!) you've got yourself a perfectly affordable way to monitor your bunnies' weight!

Now all you have to do is persuade them to climb into the bag...

DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for your carelessness. Think practically - DON'T hang your bunny 6 foot off the ground. Lifting a tubby bunny over your head could end badly for both of you! Add a sturdy chain so the bag hangs lower, put a chair under it so if something happens the bunny won't fall far, and test the strength of the whole thing by weighing something non-sentient first!

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Tiara

On Friday night we lost our beautiful little miracle bunny Tiara and I felt it was right that her passing should be noted here.

From soon after her arrival it was clear that Tiara would have been an easy bunny to re-home - a beautiful little lop with a sweet face and very friendly. However, Caroline had concerns over the way she moved and felt it best to keep her at the Rescue, at least until we could ascertain the extent of her mobility issues.

When it looked like she might need to be with us for some time, Caroline bonded her with Giggles, one of our shy and often overlooked single bucks. They seemed a bit of an odd couple, but they certainly got on well together.

When Tiara's back legs began to fail her, Caroline moved her to her office/hospital to keep a close eye on her and where it would be easier to keep up the regular cleaning of her tail end. It was here that the super-group started to form as Tiara and Giggles got to know Lacey and Grommit, and later on Rocket, Dakota and the two guinea pigs.

Tiara found new ways to frighten us pretty much every month. At one point she stopped using her back legs completely, but she was so spirited and happy despite this that many of our volunteers and friends of the Rescue pitched in to buy her a little wheelchair. However, Tiara had other ideas - defying the vets and our own expectations she suddenly became responsive to her steroids and it was enough to kick-start her rehabilitation. Some days you'd look at her rushing around and it would be hard to believe it was the same rabbit we'd seen struggling for so long.

Her mobility problems never completely went away and we always thought that at some point they would overtake her various treatments and we would have to say goodbye to her, helping her to rest. But it seems that in the end she decided on her own that she had reached the end of her time, going peacefully into the light, snuggled up next to Carolinet.

Goodnight sweet Tiara. Our lives were better to have known you.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Summer's Gone, but Sproing is Here

One of the things I love about Spangle, Porridge and Sprat is that they are possibly the most sproingiest of bunnies I have ever met. They don't just perform your standard binky - it's binkies with extra flair, poise and performance. It really is like watching ballet.

If ever you wanted proof that A Hutch is Not Enough then these guys are it. Given a bit of space they'll show you exactly what those powerful back legs do best. In fact, despite their small stature, they are good examples of why those rubbish two foot high runs are not enough, such is the impressive height attained by their skilful leaps and spins.

Capturing their efforts has proved slightly tricky, as their binkying antics are very random and spontaneous. Plus, nothing makes them more suspicious of me, and therefore puts the dampeners on their enthusiasm, than pointing a camera at them!

But I had a go. Here for your pleasure (and mine!), my attempts to document the sproing of 2011.

Porridge...

"I'm just warming up..."

"Landing is the hardest part of course!"

"See ya!"

...Spangle...

"Weeeeeeee!"

...and champion sproinger, but the hardest to capture in a photo, Sprat...

"Next up - a triple somersault!"

"Floating on air, baby!"

Oh, and of course Whisky didn't want to be left out, but he can't really achieve the the same heights, bless him...

"Ehn!"



Saturday 24 September 2011

288

Cora and Clarence

Two gross things happened to me at the Rescue today. And I figure, if there's something gross going on you want to hear about it right? No? Ok, well put down your dinner and read on anyway.

So the first gross thing that happened to me was that I was assisting and assessing a bonding between a rather large girl and one of our larger bucks. It wasn't going well, more like violent anarchy, so we decided to try her out with one of our innocent little as-yet-un-neutered rex boys. Well firstly, I have to say, he was a little confused, being still a little too young to know what to do with a lady. He was certainly willing to get to know his new friend but all she wanted to do was bite and dominate him. But she was no match for his youthful speed and agility and very soon the tables had turned - despite being four times his size, she was running away and hiding behind me trying to avoid him. He still wasn't quite sure what to do with her, so he kept chinning (rubbing his scent on) her as if she was something to own. But really the thing that turned the tables and switched the dominance from her to him was when he started spraying her with wee. Which would have been fine, and not uncommon behaviour for two bunnies getting to know each other, except that I was sat between them at the time.

So that was gross thing number one. The second, and easier to wash off, came from our little long-term snuffle-bun Clarence. His partner Cora is probably my most favourite little character at the Rescue (not including the bunnies who have at some point lived in my house of course). So to cheer myself up after the bonding incident, I went and sat with Cora and Clarence to relax and hand-feed them some crunchy treats. Which should have made me feel better about the day, but every time Clarence took one he would in doing so wipe his snotty snuffly nose all over my hand.

Thanks Clarence. I think I might go home and shower now.


Thursday 1 September 2011

Theyranwhentheysawus Rex

Don't worry, I know EXACTLY why you are here reading the blog this week. But before I move on to that...

Saturday was completely hectic. Whilst in the middle of dishing out breakfast to everybun at the Rescue I received a text from Caroline telling me that she had been taken suddenly very ill. It was already late morning, but she was going ask Vicki to try and cancel all her appointments. If anyone DID turn up, please could I apologise, give them the tour and the talk and ask them to come back next week.

Oh dear.

I don't really do visitors, I'm more about the bunnies. Fortunately most of the visitors did receive the message, so I just had to deal with one pair of holiday boarding bunnies and the two sets of visitors that didn't pick up their messages in time.

Well, as always it's good to learn new things and this week I learned that if Caroline ever did put me in charge of the visitors we'd only ever have time to see 2 sets a week. It turns out that if you get me started talking about bunnies it's difficult to make me stop! I talked at people for most of the afternoon.

"Get on with it!" I hear you cry.

Yes, so anyway, the reason why you are here, the reason why none of the other volunteers did any work on Saturday and the reason I'm receiving emails from the rest of the Rescue committee enquiring if I have any new photo sets this week. Our new residents.

On Thursday last week we received 11 new bunnies. Yes, that's right, 11. In one day.

But don't worry, they don't take up much space. Yet. They are tiny little babies. (You at the back - stop squee-ing! Wait for the pictures!)

It turns out that, not only should you not trust your local pet chain-store to correctly sex your rabbits, or your neighbour who is unloading their former-children's-'toy' on you, but you also shouldn't trust a random stranger that offers to meet you in a car park to hand over their "female" rabbit to go with your existing two un-spayed girls. Yes, you read that right.

Well anyway, my purpose for telling you how busy I was Saturday was that I needed you to understand why I hadn't had time to take lots of good pictures of our new friends. So no ultra-cute or particularly well composed ones for you this week, but I did manage to snap a few quick pics just so you can have a peek. Much better than this, before I received Caroline's message I managed to record a short video of them eating breakfast, but if you want to see that one you'll need to head over to our Facebook page and have a look on our wall. (We haven't quite graduated to the leagues of having a YouTube channel yet.)

So here you go. Meet Frolic, Fancy, Frilly, Lassie, Frisky, Flipper, Fubit, Fitz, Columbo, Fletcher and Kagny!

"Breakfast" was adequate. Now what of this "dinner" of which I've heard speak?


Saturday 6 August 2011

What's My Name Again?

Following the success of our last request, we have three new little boys who need names! As before, please submit your suggestions as responses either to this post or via our Facebook page. Thanks again!

Bunny Boy Number 1

Bunny Boy Number 2

Bunny Boy Number 3

Friday 5 August 2011

2 For 1

So it turns out bunneh-yawn photo's and buses are much the same. You wait for more than 3 years to catch one and then TWO COME ALONG AT ONCE!!!!

I'm sorry Elvis, are we boring you?!

Saturday 30 July 2011

Buntan Notion

"Excuse me, do you mind?
You are kind of in my light."

"Ah, that's better."

"Now do be a darling and wake me
in about 30 minutes when it's time
to tan my front."

Monday 18 July 2011

Wanted: Names

Any suggestions for what we can call these two little floofy bundles of joy? One boy, one girl. Please add your ideas to the comments below, or via our Facebook page. Thank you! :-)

Saturday 16 July 2011

Anybody There?

SCENE: A shed just outside Royston. It has been raining heavily all day, but there is a break in the clouds and sun is shining through the doorway. BHV is sitting on the floor flicking through a series of poorly taken pictures on the screen of a digital camera. Enter BBs.

BBs: Ah, there you are. We'd like a word.
BHV: Yes, what is it?
BBs: Well, it's just that there haven't been any posts on the blog for about a month. We wondered where you'd gone?
BHV: Hey, I've been busy! Whisky's had major surgery, I've been working late nights at my other job, I've hardly been here...
BBs: People don't want to hear your complaining! They just want to know what's going on at the Rescue. They want to see pictures of bunnies!
BHV: Well I can't think of anything to write.
BBs: People don't care what words you put in - they visit the blog for the cute pictures!
BHV: Oh, very well. And who shall I post pictures of? Who at the Rescue right now is so cute that no-one will even read the words I type?
BBs: Well US of course!
BHV: OK baby bunnies, you win. Here you go...

Happy now?

Sunday 26 June 2011

Whisky in the Sun

Whisky and Porridge chillax

Temperatures are hitting 30 degrees centigrade here in the UK today, so the house buns and I have decided to abandon our plans and spend the day in the garden.

Whisky and Sprat investigate

Which means lots of lazy naps, intersperced with the occasional binky (them not me). Sadly they stopped their mad balletic leaps the moment they saw the camera, but I did manage to capture some of the more sedate moments.

Spangle gets up close and personal

Saturday 11 June 2011

Run Rabbit Run

One of the biggest frustrations of running a rescue is trying to educate people about the minimum size of run that will provide a suitable exercise area for bunnies. We ask for a minimum run size of 6ft by 10ft. The RWAF currently say 8ft by 6ft. Pet shops generally say "any size that gets you to part with your cash before you leave the shop".

We also ask for a minimum of 3ft high to allow comfortable headroom for binkying, though we suggest higher ones are better to allow you to sit in the run and interact with the bunnies.

There's another reason why the taller ones are better...

The extra height might keep the local undesirables off your roof!

The Champs of 1958

Da da da de de da da dum.
Da da da de da de dum.
Da da da de de da da dum.
Da da da de da de dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da da da da dum.

TEQUILA (Bunny)!

Thursday 19 May 2011

Bunnies Without Borders

A little friend came to visit recently and we (Caroline and I) got talking to her mummy about how we organise our indoor space for our fluffy loved ones. We wanted to share their experiences on here, so she (mummy, not bunny) agreed to write this piece for us.

I am a pretty anxious bunny owner and completely and utterly love Alfie and Lola (formerly known as Cherish) - I would be devastated if anything happened to them but I think you can be too cautious (and not cautious enough). I was so cautious with Alfie I initially kept him like this:

I used to let him out for as long as I could each day, when I could supervise, thinking this was enough exercise for him.

I think the key thing for me was when I changed my thinking after speaking to Caroline, and realised that you don't need to cage a bunny to ensure that it is a safe bunny and that bunnies do not actually need to be stuck in cages at all. At first I was very nervous about the damage they would do to my flat and any dangers to them. I didn’t think my flat was unsupervised-bunny friendly at all. After some thought I realised I could reorganise a room for them, which was safe for them to be unsupervised.

Over time I have discovered that the less I bar them from, the less destructive they are and the more I get to know all their habits and behaviours. You just have to have the confidence. The first time I left Alfie alone in his room (before Lola joined him) I was worried about him all night. He was fine. Now, aside from chewing of furniture (I bought cheap Ikea furniture on purpose) and the odd patch of bunny wee, they are very well behaved in their room and corridor (and everywhere else, although I keep an eye on them in other rooms). I really think it's about ones attitude to rabbits and how they should be housed.

Now that they are never caged, I realise that they are in fact most active when I am asleep. When I leave my bedroom door open all night I really understand how busy they are. Last night Alfie spent most of the night using my bed as part of his assault course and Lola practiced her sprint turns on my bed for a large part of the night. Whilst I don’t recommend this (I do wake up a lot!), it would be awful for them to be caged when they really want to be very active.

Below are pictures of their room:

They don't necessarily need a whole room, which might not be possible anyway with 2 unbonded buns, for example, or if there isn’t a spare room going, but an extra fenced off area. Now that my attitude has changed, I would be very unhappy for Alfie and Lola to be caged at all. I'd also love for them to have some outside space but unfortunately this isn't possible at the moment.

Relaxing under their favourite table

All pictures by Anouska

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Joseph

Joseph (front) and his first partner
Athena (who very sadly died in 2010)

Caroline was away on a well deserved holiday over the weekend, which left me with the pleasure of flushing out Joseph's eye with sterile fluids and eyedrops. Lucky me!

"Be careful with him, he's getting a bit bitey" Caroline's notes warned. It went something like this:

"Come on Joseph, let's get you out of the cage. [chomp] [chomp] ... [chomp] Now, onto a towel [chomp]. Now, I'm just [chomp] going to use this syringe [chomp] [chomp] to flush all the gunk out [chomp]...here we go...[flush][flush][splurgh]*...now [chomp] for some eye drops.. [chomp] . [plop] . [chomp] ... and we're done! Now that wasn't so bad was it?!" [disapproving-glare] [CHOMP!]

* Splurgh, in case you wondered, is the sound that eye puss makes as it squelches over your lap. Just so you know.

Friday 22 April 2011

Not Without My Floof

Interesting fact: All rabbits are at least 70 percent floof. Well, maybe not. But a great deal of their apparent physical shape is defined by their fur. I bet if you shaved Glamour and Tansley they'd look exactly the same. Well, maybe not that either. But I can almost guarantee you wouldn't recognize Glamour.

Anyway, what with their fur being such a defining feature, a key part in what makes so many of them so adorably cute and therefore us so powerless in their presence, it always saddens me deeply to see them without it. It's like at the back of my mind something's saying "You poor baby, how are you going to sucker the humans for treats now?". (The answer of course is sympathy - bunnies aren't stupid, they know how to work the angles.) And without the fur they look so much closer to the pictures of rabbit skeletons you see in the books, which makes it particularly disturbing.

This week Whisky had two abscesses removed, one from his ear and one from his upper-jaw/face. (He also had to have a rogue tooth removed while he was under.) All day while I waited to hear how the operation went I was sick with worry. When I picked him up, my first thought was how happy I was that he'd made it through OK. But despite all my rabbit experience, my second thought was still this: "Oh my, doesn't your head look tiny??!!"

NOTE: For those of you not familiar with Glamour and Tansley, pop on over to our Facebook page and have a browse through the 2009 picture album. And yes, they HAVE been with us that long and no, we've got no idea why either!

Monday 18 April 2011

Brothers

"Quit it Thistle, these are my breakfast noms!"

"OK Tansley let's share the noms."

Long time residents Thistle (left) and Tansley (right) enjoying some tasty veg snacks together. An all too common story, they are the result of an un-spayed doe who escaped from her garden and "got it on" with the locals before returning with a surprise for her parents. Sadly not many people want rabbits with wild genes in their mix as they tend to be more cautious of humans. But after so long with us these guys are pretty bold, especially when you're holding the snack bucket!

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Pico's story

In July 2010 my husband came back from a day helping at the Rabbit Residence Rescue with a spare indoor cage and a pet carrier, explaining that Caroline had been involved in a large rescue and needed us to foster some bunnies for a while. We were already fostering some of her permanent special needs bunnies in our spare bedroom so when I opened the pet carrier and saw three little bundles of fluff, I was really excited at the prospect of looking after some baby bunnies for a change. Then the husband told me to look closer, and hiding behind the three fluffy babies was the tiniest rabbit I had ever seen. Smaller than a fist, its eyes were only just open and its ears were still flat against its head. Caroline had found it in a nest, amongst its siblings who were already dead. Caroline thought it was around 2 weeks old and wasn’t sure whether it would survive.

We got the babies settled in to the indoor cage and the three larger babies tucked straight in to the food we offered them. Caroline had given us some Cimicat for the tiny one and so we had our first attempt at hand feeding a baby rabbit. Luckily the baby seemed to want the feed and sucked it out of the syringe without difficulty. We then let the babies have a run around the spare room. The three big babies went crazy, binkying like mad. The tiny one tried to follow them but didn’t quite have the strength to hop and could only manage a very wobbly walk. When it had a wee on the carpet we were ridiculously pleased to know it could go to the toilet by itself.

When the next morning came the little one was again very excited when we offered the Cimicat. Over the next two weeks Pico, as the baby had now been called, continued to grow. We fed her twice a day and feeding time was a real joy. She would sit on a cushion on our lap and as soon as we offered her the syringe she would latch on and suck really strongly. By the end of the second week she could drink a full 1ml syringe within seconds and would take up to 15ml in one feed. After feeding she liked to snuggle in our hands for a 5 minute snooze before chasing around the room after the others. When the other babies were eating, she would desperately try to join in but her teeth just weren’t big enough. However as her teeth began to grow we started to hold out a Science Selective Junior pellet for her and she would grate her teeth against it and make it into a point!

After 3 weeks of hand feeding with Cimicat Pico was finally able to eat pellets by herself. We were so glad that she had developed enough to be able to eat properly but also a little bit sad that we didn’t need to hand feed her any more. Over the next few months Pico continued to grow, along with the other babies who had now been named Jonny, Roberta and Albert. Albert and Roberta went back to the rescue first, followed by Jonny a few weeks later. All three of them have since found new homes.

Although we would have loved to keep Pico permanently we knew it wouldn’t be possible as we already had 4 rabbits of our own plus 2 cats and 2 foster bunnies. We therefore agreed that Pico would return to the rescue to find a new home once the winter was over. To keep her from getting lonely, she was bonded with Wellington, a single bun from the rescue who Caroline thought could benefit from a winter indoors.

Now that the weather has finally begun to warm up, Pico and Wellington have been returned to the rescue. Both are very lively and Wellington is always interested in anything that is going on whilst Pico is more wary unless food is involved! Hopefully it won’t be long before they find the perfect forever home that they deserve.