Category: bunny

My recent blogging hiatus comes from a very needed vacation that ended up being more vacationy than expected. I’ll write more about hiking in future posts… Currently a bit jet-lagged, but wanted to post something about Noe, who was mostly good while we were gone.

While Noe has an excellent bunnysitter who comes over twice a day, she still gets bored and destructive. This time, apparently she got into some of my bank statements, which were foolishly in her reach (but which had never been interesting before,) and ate the tassels off of a small carpet in the kitchen. At least the latter seems to have caused her no ill effects, the idiot. She seems not to have destroyed any pillows or carpet or managed to get up onto the dining room table, so that’s nice…

But now she is all about the forehead rubs. And parsley.

A bored bunny is a destructive bunny. I’ve always thought that Noe would make an excellent paper-shredder. Who needs one of those fancy machines when you have your own furry agent of entropy on hand?

The second law of thermodynamics states that spontaneous natural processes increase the entropy of a system. Rabbits are excellent at creating disorder. They are little entropy machines, taking plants, chopping them up, compacting the remains into little balls, and extracting energy to use for destruction. If she was a D&D character, she would be chaotic neutral.

This took place in about an hour one day, when she was feeling especially frenetic. We no longer keep old newspapers where she can get to them. It’s apparently great fun, but really a pain to clean up.

In my last bunny post, I mentioned Noe’s “bunny palace:” a bike box cut in half and stacked with another box to make a 3-level structure. You can see only two levels in this photo, but here it is. There’s a smaller box on top, but it’s cut off in this photo.

Notice that the levels are perfect bunny-height: tall enough to hop around in, but short enough for a tunnel-like feel.

Here she is on level 2, munching on hay:

Having several entrances into each level is a must.

You can also buy specially-made cardboard bunny houses, but my philosophy is, as long as you have a pet that loves to play with old boxes, you should make the most of one inexpensive option.

Noe loves cilantro.

It is a tasty treat.

One of her favorite veggies.

She always suspects that we’re hiding just one more piece.

Time for a short gift-giving guide for the rabbit in your life! Don’t worry- some of these these are last-minute do it yourself ideas for the person who finds him/herself needing a bunny present on short notice.

1. Paper towel or toilet paper tubes (make sure you take any leftover paper bits off). These have several uses:

• Great for chewing (they make a cool hollow noise). Plus you can wrap them around the legs of your chairs to keep bunny from gnawing on the furniture…
• Put hay inside for bunny to pull out. Hiding a treat in the middle, like a piece of carrot, will make bun very enthusiastic about this one.
• A fun game you can play with your rabbit is “ring stack”: cut the tubes up into 1″ rings, then stack several into a pyramid shape. Bunny will have fun knocking them down, and picking them up to toss. Then you can stack them up again. Repeat until one of you gets tired.

2. Empty clean cardboard boxes. Also a number of uses:

• Small ones (too small for your rabbit to fit into) can be closed and given as chew toys. Now loves chewing on box corners. I imagine there’s a satisfying “crunch” as she gets through the corrugated paper.
• For boxes that bun can fit into comfortably, and has enough room to take a few steps and turn around, cut two or three holes in the box  on either side, big enough for him to get through easily. Close up the box. Long boxes make fun spaces to run through. You can put newspaper inside to encourage digging (be sure to check to make sure he’s not using this as a litterbox).
• You can be creative with putting boxes together. For Noe, we’ve taken a bike box, cut it in two,  stacked the halves on top of one another, added a smaller box on top, and cut holes between the levels and on several of the sides. Instant 3-level “bunny palace”! This is a fun place for her to explore, nap in, and snack on hay.

3. Paper bags. Fun to crawl into, and gnaw their way out of. Give your bunny a head start by making a small hole in the bottom of the bag, and then leaving in on its side on the floor.

4. Hard plastic toys- pet toys (balls with bells inside), baby toys (fake keychains are fun to toss), etc. Just make sure she’s not eating the plastic.

5. Untreated straw balls and mats, and wicker balls. These are often available at specialist pet retailers and can be great fun to shred, roll, rip up, etc.

6. Bunny-specific toys- these include things like dried cholla cactus and yucca rounds, wooden chew toys, and toys with bells that are fun to toss. There’s a huge variety out there- see the retailer links in #5 for ideas.

Be sure NOT to let your bunny gnaw on treated wood, or any wooden toys that are dyed without food-grade dyes. If it’s apparent that she’s eating any plastic, replace the toy! For more toy ideas-as well as general bunny care tips- see the House Rabbit Society.

A cold front has just moved through Florida, leaving weather in the 60s in the daytime, and low 40s at night. It’ll be a while before we get any freezing temps (hopefully!), but it’s plenty cold for Noe.

She’s been exceptionally lazy the past few days, either laying in the sun or on ‘her’ chair under the dining room table. Possibly in part because her chair cushion has been reinforced with an old towel, after the foam eating incident a few weeks back. She seems to like the extra padding, too.

Usually, she will be more active in cold weather than in the heat- bunnies get overheated pretty easily- but ever since she developed arthritis, she’s been slow-moving the first few days it’s cold. We shall see how she acts over the winter.

Oh, and she does still hop over to be underfoot in the kitchen, so we know all is well…

Noe is doing much better after her little “episode” last week. We returned from a trip to my sister’s baby shower (Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica-themed, with jello shots and pumpkin-haupia pie) this weekend to find her just fine, and happy to see us.

It’s so cute when we get home after a trip- she follows us around the house, naps in the room we’re in, and demands petting. We have an awesome bunnysitter, but Noe likes having people around…even though most of the time she seems to be ignoring us.

So, we had some bunny drama this week. Long story short, Noe ended up with some issues with…shall we say, producing sufficient quantities of poo. Bunny physiology requires the furry little eating machines to keep fiber moving through their systems at a pretty good clip, and a bunny who can’t poop generally ends up a dead bunny in a matter of days.

Noe never got to that point, but she did have to go to the vet twice, and is currently on gut motility drugs to help her poop (which, apparently are sugary and very delicious, so there’s no problem with giving them to her, unlike other medicating experiences which have been traumatic for everyone concerned…)

Trip #1 to the vet was on Monday morning. We updated her x-rays (she has arthritis, so this is just something we’ll have to keep track of over time), and she got her meds. I’ll try to actually post the x-rays here at some point. Trip #2 was yesterday, because she was still not up to her usual poo volume, and was still clearly uncomfortable- we did some bloodwork on this excursion. (Highlight vet quote: “Her poop is a much better size today!”)

So, in total, about $500 was spent, we got some new x-rays done, and Noe is doing better overall. The cause of the digestive problems was probably a combination of general arthritis flare-up discomfort, too much fruit (no more nibbles of that for a while), and eating foam out of the chair cushions (yes, the bunny is quite stupid at times).

Oh, and apparently she is so good about holding still when getting poked and prodded by the vet that they are really surprised that she is such little beast about being picked up at home. Sigh.

Ode to rabbit
by Sonia Stephens

You perhaps do not appreciate the elegant placement
Of the single dropping left under your favorite chair.
The nipped power cords disturb you, though I merely
Highlight your dependence on electronic devices.

The midnight water-bottle clicking, the five a.m. newspaper tearing
Remind you of my insatiable hunger
And that I have not been fed for six entire hours.

Come! Bring cardboard boxes that I might gnaw
Or I will chew the sweet gumminess off your envelopes,
And feast upon the buttons of your remote control.

Look upon my works, O human, and sigh at my cuteness.
I am bunny.



We had a traumatic day this week- the maintenance guys came in to the apartment to check the fire alarms, furnace, and stove (yes, we do have a furnace in Orlando, and yes, we have used it.) Noe was peacefully sleeping when this occurred, and she tends to freak out when unexpected loud things happen and she’s napping. And the fire alarm is really loud.

To make matters worse, there were two maintenance guys (the appearance of multiple people at once bugs her ,) with a ladder (she hates ladders, for some reason). It was not fun for her at all. There was mad dashing, thumping, and hiding in a box. Finally, I locked her into her cage so she wouldn’t accidentally dash underfoot.

She got Petromalt and veggie treats after it was over, of course. But we were not allowed to pet her for several hours. I fear that she blamed me for the whole experience…