Not to mods: this pic has his old (professional/pet store) harnessš You can see around his neck the blue, same color as the leash
anyways lets start.
**wild bunnies/nature**
Today I took him outside in the evening. Mostly because at daytime there are lots of people and dogs walking so itās just less stressful and calmer for both of us in the evening. You know it has that āquiet summer evening in an empty park, hearing cicadasā vibe.
We saw two wild bunnies hop around and graze and clean themselves + take a nap. We also saw a deer that came up just a fee meters from us. (about 5 meters, it hadnāt noticed us. Then it jumped a bit when it noticed us. Jumpscare kind ofš).
Sad thing is he doesnāt have as good eyesight as me (I think at leastš to my rabbit knowledge). So he didnāt see the wild rabbitsš Once I tried to point to them exitedly like ālook! over there. Your wild relativesā. But likeā¦ he doesnāt have the capacity to understand what pointing is of courseš
Anyways so yeah. That was cool š
**enrichment**
I posted here about a week ago and people pointed out he needed more enrichment in his cage. (except for food, like hides and stuff).
I have bought him a play tunnel which he loves. He likes to just chill in there and lay in the middle of it. He also loves to chew on it unfortunatlyš«¤ Soā¦ umā¦ He loves it so it is worth it. But I will have to buy a replacement when he had chewed too much. (like in these past two weeks heās only chewed a 2x2cm hole yet. But still. Annoying little chew monster).
I also bought him chinchilla sand. (wild rabbits like to bathe in dust. People have split opinions on this for domestic rabbits, but mine loves a good dust bath to roll around in.). I placed it in a litter box type of box: first day he exitedly digs around in it and splatters sand over half his enclosureš
Luckily enough that was just first day exitement, nowadays he enjoys it normally without digging half of it out. I think part of that was also that he has grown LONG, and he would like to be able to fully sploot in it, which itās a bit too small for (like even with his legs extended).
So next step is buying something larger, I just have to figure out what, since the edges need to be low enough for him to jump into. Maybe his old cage (a **big** pet store bunny cage), so that he will have a whole part of his enclosure with another surface to even run around in.
We will see though. I might rather like to sell the cage since itās worth between 100-200 dollars.š°šøš¤
**pulse?**
how do you take a rabbits pulse? Itās not important really (I mean most people donāt do it as far as I know) but mostly for fun, and to just know a baseline.
I tried once last month and got it to 130 which seemed normal. According to google it should be 130-150.
But today I tried again and I only got it to 120. But itās fast though so maybe I just counted too slowš Because I mean I held him so I could feel just on his ribcage so I feel it should have been accurate?
So is google wrong or am I taking his pulse wrong? Maybe itās also too fast to actually count so I should just give upš
**bonding**
I had him until he was 1. He was super chill and all but HATED being picked up, claw clipped, me holding his paws etc. But he liked to lay besides me and chill.
age 1-2. Due to foster care stuff he had to move away for that year. I visited still once a month and kept his claws clipped etc. (tried to buy some food and hay and litter as well but the family was already on top of that lol. When they returned him I got with me 3 big litter bags and 4 hay bags).
now (age 2 and forward):
He is very much more chill to be picked up. He still doesnāt particularly like it, but I can at least pick him up without him acting like I am about to kill him. Also now when I hold him after picking him up he doesnāt panickingly try to get away (as a kid I had to burrito wrap him to eg clip claws).
He was as I said skittish before. Unless I held him/picked him up he wouldnāt let me touch his paws or belly. Nowadays he is fine with bothš (as I said, he even let me press on his ribcage to feel his pulse). Like nowadays he lets me just feel around where I want.
(lol, that sounds so weird, but itās different to just āpetā your bunny on their back, and them letting you for example trace their front elbow, or hips or neck. (Also donāt ask me why I do itš I just doš¤·āāļø I am always the one to first find ticks, lumps and scars on animals (dogs, horses, etc) because sometimes I kind of āinspectā themš¤·āāļø Like sometimes I just turn his ear over and look inside. Or sometimes I just trace his backbone. I just doš¤·āāļø)
So anyways, that was just a sidenote to explain why I want to āfeel aroundā. And he has gotten lot less skittish about thatāŗļø)
He also has gotten much more āinteractiveā in a way that when I for example come home from work he runs up to greet me and I can see he is actually happy š
(when he was younger he was more like āYeah I see youāre here, but Iām eating hay/sleeping/busy right now.ā)
by NationalNecessary120
