Bonding bunnies

It's been a while since I posted.  But we have gotten some new bunnies. I wanted to talk about the process of integrating them together as a group.

I was in need of a male rabbit,   I found one 8 weeks old for sale near me. So I brought him home in a small animal carrier and set him in the pen. He was quickly named Thumper. If one of the adult rabbits came near him he would thump as to try to scare them. SO FUNNY!

I was able to create a pen inside the main pen to house my new bunny.  So he would have time to adjust.

Meanwhile my husband was on a hunting trip and talked to a man who was also raising Tennessee redbacks and brought home 4 babies, from 3 separate litters. SUPRISE 🤦‍♀️🥰CrAzY!!

So I decided it would be best to introduce Thumper to the other small rabbits and get them comfortable first.

In a few days they were all eating together and had stopped the chasing.

So I put them all in the mini pen and they seemed to do fine.  

The adult rabbits did not know what to think of all the intruders.

I would feed them fresh clover and treats beside the fence to encourage some interaction. 

After about 4 days I made an opening in the fence big enough so the young rabbits could get out, but the larger rabbits couldnt get in. 

There was some chasing and definitely had some fur pulled but in a day that had stopped . Now they all eat, play, and sleep together.

 Just like one big happy family!😊

Exercise your rabbits

 Hello, Its been a few since I posted.  I recently attached a exercise pen to my hutch. The purpose was to make the living space larger, now that they have gotten full grown. It also gives them ample room to run laps. I was hoping they would have had fresh grass longer but within a few days they had munched ALL of it.  

I let them out into pen a few hours a day.  Anytime you can help your rabbit to stay heathy by getting exercise is so beneficial. When it is raining or snowing I leave them in the hutch. Rabbits are susceptible to respiratory diseases getting wet can lower their immune system. 

This is how I built my pen.  I started out trying to purchase just a pen to attach, but I was having trouble finding something that would be functional for my space.  So I seen this pen and ordered it thinking that it would work with no extra changes.

I put it together opened the hutch it seemed great, then Copper my male rabbit got his head and front paw through the openings!  OOPS! This is not for my size rabbits.  To fix this I got a roll of chicken wire.  With my husband's help we wrapped it around the outside of the pen. Then we secured the wire into place with some post.  It has been up for a few months now and has worked great! I hope this helps someone who is also looking to make more living space for their rabbits.

Please leave me comments and if you also raise rabbits and have a blog leave your link to your blog in the comments I love learning from others.

The big escape

It was like any other morning. I went down to the hutch to feed and water the rabbits. I did not know how it could have happened, but the hutch door was open! I looked in the top of the hutch and no rabbits!!

 So I started to call their names.  Out from the pine trees here came Silvia, I had some romaine lettuce and a few blueberries for todays treat. She came right up to me to snack, so I gently guided her into the hutch. Wow that was easy!

Now where are those other 2 at?  

I started to look around and just about 10 feet away was Opal, now Opal has always been the most skittish of the three, this could be tricky.

I slowly walked up to her and she came towards me a little.  Then it was like she realized what my plan was and turned real fast and headed under a bush, of course in the opposite direction of the hutch😒.

Meanwhile my husband came out of the house and joined in the search for Copper, As he walked towards the pine trees Copper popped out. Silvia was in the cage, so he got her to go up the ramp, opened the hutch door and he was able to get Copper back in the cage to eat the goodies in the pan. 2 down 1 to go 🙃

Now back to Opal by this time she had decided to venture near our deck, of course I have flowers planted so she had a snack! She managed to stay in and under the deck ALL DAY!

She would come out close enough to eat from my hand but would not let me catch her.  My husband and I decided she had played long enough! We have to be able to outsmart her,  right?  Long story we managed to get her chased back down towards the hutch where she decdied the pine trees were her new home for the next couple hours.

  I knew Copper came in for blueberries so got a few more blueberries and placed them near a  inside the open door, I then got the other rabbits to come to the other side and was hand feeding them by hand and keeping them occupied.  It worked she wanted to have the sweet snack as she interned the cage I jumped to the other side and closed the door!!! 

Lesson learned always check the latches!!