My bunny, Judah...

[RamonaAnne]

I love the stories that end with a big sigh of relief and a little chuckle. I do have a questions for you though....did I understand you correctly - your cat and rabbit enjoy playing together? That I would love to see!

I'd say 95% of the time...Sometimes Nina just wants her space...She is, after all, a cat...So if Judah gets too close to her on the bed or on the floor or whatever, she'll let him know, usually with a quick little paw tap on his head!...Poor thing...Usually he's good, but sometimes he can be a pest...Once -- and only once -- did she "scruff bite" him...He learned pretty good after that to give her space if she wanted it...

Nina will climb in the cage with him when I'm feeding him...She cleans and nuzzles him...and often when he's in his cage and the door is closed, she will lay beside him on the outside of the cage...

They're really funny to see together...

It was so funny, after I got home, Nina kept crying at me like something was terribly wrong...And she kept acting like she wanted me to follow her upstairs...So of course I did...She went over to the cage and started rubbing all up against it and even gently tapped it with her head a few times and meowed rather frantically at me as if to say "Momma...He's not here, something's WRONG!..."

Funny how they "know" what things are supposed to be like, isn't it?...

 

[RamonaAnne]

Ramona Anne, I'm so glad Judah is okay. We use to have a sweet Holland Lop, her name was Samantha until "her" testicles dropped, :crazy: than she became Samson.

That's not my only blunder either, :shuffle: I took my Dane puppy to the vet fearing he had a tumour on the side of his penis. My vet took one look, laughed, :LMAO:then said, "You haven't had many short-haired male dogs have you?" :!rolling:

Oh, dear...That kind of made me laugh...

And it made me feel better, knowing I'm not the first person to get concerned over animal testicles....

And I probably won't be the last...


I should have figured that's what those two things were when they showed up...

At least I know that I did the right thing...And, I learned a few things, too!!

 

[RamonaAnne]

I found my rabbit in the woodpile one winter. He was tan with long ears, so I knew he was not wild...must have been dumped or a "runaway." He just loved me, kept running circles around my feet, then spraying me with this awful urine that smelled like body odor. I had him neutered and all that has stopped. The vet tech told me to try cheerios (Oats), they're his favorite. Anyhow, I think you will see a nicer rabbit once neutered.

Even nicer?!...Yay!! I wouldn't mind that...He's still quite sweet, but a little scared/nervous at times...He's such a good boy...But I do want to get him neutered to help the urine stink less and to hopefully keep him as sweet as he is (and maybe even sweeter!!) ...

Today, I just took him to the vet's in a cardboard box (the same one I brought him home, in, actually...) and just closed it with duct tape...When I opened the box while I was in the reception area, he got on his hind legs and poked his little head out and looked around as if to say "I'm here, you can all tell me how adorable I am now!..."

My mom (who came with me "just in case" it was going to be a bad situation...) laughed when he did that and admitted to me that it was rather cute...My mom claims that she doesn't like animals...I think deep down inside, she does...

I am certain that if she got to know a Newfie (or three!!) she would absolutely fall in love with them...

Next time my friends have my house & dog sit for them, I might ask them if it's okay to invite my mom to come for dinner one night to meet their dogs...and let the Newfs work their magic on her...

 

[RamonaAnne]

So (hee hee) sorry (hee hee) that you had such a scare(hee hee), but very happy Judah is a healthy(hee hee) male. Sorry can't help but laugh.
My last rabbit was a lop ear and you could not tell if he was a male or female, nothing showing. My neice had a rabbit we had given her for a present. A neighbor who had a pet store assured them hers was a male. Well after the 2 of them got together it was hers that had the baby bunnies, that was how I knew I had a male. He lived to 13 years old. I never knew any others that lived so long. His name was Winnie after Winnie the Poo poo poo, since that is what rabbits do best.

Glad I could make you laugh!!

Amusing stories from some of you about bunnies being a different gender than first thought...

Love the name Winnie!! That's creative!!

As I type this, Nina is sleeping very contentedly on my bed and Judah is munching away on timothy hay...

And I realize how incredibly blessed I am to have such great ptes...even if they're not Newfies...(One day...one day...)

 

[newfx's2]

Oh, dear...Alice was an Allen (or an Albert?!) all along?!...Yikes!!...

I had NO idea about males being so smelly...But I knew females could get pregnant...so I asked for a male...and he was, by far, the most mellow AND the most adorable...Two things in one!!...I looked first for the mellow factor...The cute factor was just icing on the cake, as it were...

Yes, I am on FB... Ramona Anne Dube...Current profile pic is of a dog winking...He belongs to my friends, but since I'm "Auntie Ramona" I take and post pics of their dogs...There are some of their Newfies in my "The Dogs" album...

Just mention that you're from NN when you send the friend request...I generally try to be careful who I add (despite having a lot of friends on there...)

I'll have to post some pics on there, too, of my rabbit...There are some pics of my current cat, Nina...(and possibly some older ones of my first cat, Sox, but I don't really remember...)

Uhm...How big is "big" ?...(What a good question to ask Newfie owners!!...Ha ha ha!!...) Judah weighed 2.8 today...and he's about 8 months old...I was told they don't get any bigger than three to four pounds...

I always have timothy hay in there for him...and he likes to eat his pine shavings...I haven't been feeding him as many fresh veggies...but I have been giving him fruits...He loves apples and bananas...This time of year, we mostly use frozen or canned veggies...It's hard to find good cucumbers in the stores, especially when you're used to fresh off the vine, garden fresh!!...This time of year, I really do tend to eat more fruits than veggies...I will have to make a point to get some veggies for my little guy!!...

Are there any veggies or fruits they sholdn't have for various reasons?....

He did eat a cranberry the other day...My mom was making cranberry apple relish and dropped one on the floor...So I rinsed it off and fed it to him...He LOVED it....

I heard papaya has an enzyme that will help break up hair and allow it to pass more naturally...But I'm not sure how much truth there is to that?...

I'll have to make sure the next food I buy him doesn't have a lot of alfalfa in it...

Maybe I can even get some good quality bunny pellets and start mixing it together so he's not taking in so much alfalfa...

The vet said his bladder is really good and he was a very clean and healthy rabbit...I want to make sure I can keep him as healthy as possibly for as long as possible...

By the way -- do any of you rabbit owners do anything to keep their teeth down?...Judah's are fine for now...I'd like to know what I can do to keep them that way...He LOVES to chew on toilet paper and paper towel rolls...and his pine shavings...and his water bottle spout (that's a little annoying in the middle of the night!!)...and anything else that's remotely cnew-on-able!!...(including my shirts and sometimes even my hair...) Good thing he's so cute...

I was going to have them filed next week at another vets office that is much closer to where I live that I know handles rabbits...but the vet in Maine said that wasn't necessary yet, and would just be counter productive...

So....Do I just keep letting him chew on the things he's chewing?...

And the other thing is...He doesn't just chew the toilet paper and paper towel rolls...he also *eats* them...and also he eats other cardboard...I figure it's "okay" since some pet stores sell cardboard box chew things with treats inside of them...

And for all you "floof" fans out there, you'll be glad to know Judah has "floof" that sticks up right between his ears...Sometimes it just sticks up...Other times I have to take my fingers and "brush" it up...I call it his Newfie look...

Hee hee!!

My daughter just kept the name Alice. He isn't smelly at all. Could it be his bedding? We use Carefresh and are happy w/ it except for the fact that some of it sticks to Alice, but it brushes right out. Another one I just tried that I bought for my Hedgehog's bedding is Fresh World by Sunseed. I bought it at Petsmart and this doesn't stick as much to the rabbit's fur. My husband is a vet and has never filed down Alice's teeth. He is given plenty to chew on, so it's not a problem. He likes alot of the rabbit chew sticks on the market. I do have to trim his nails on a regular basis. He is much easier to trim that my cats.

Typical line from the seller is that a they won't get any bigger. I learned that years ago w/ my first rabbit, a Mini-Lop that I was told wouldn't be but 5 lbs. At that time I didn't know it was the Holland Lops that stay small. Alice is almost 2 yrs and already over 5 lbs. I don't think he'll get much bigger. He looks huge due to his fluffy fur.

 

[RamonaAnne]

My daughter just kept the name Alice. He isn't smelly at all. Could it be his bedding? We use Carefresh and are happy w/ it except for the fact that some of it sticks to Alice, but it brushes right out. Another one I just tried that I bought for my Hedgehog's bedding is Fresh World by Sunseed. I bought it at Petsmart and this doesn't stick as much to the rabbit's fur. My husband is a vet and has never filed down Alice's teeth. He is given plenty to chew on, so it's not a problem. He likes alot of the rabbit chew sticks on the market. I do have to trim his nails on a regular basis. He is much easier to trim that my cats.

Typical line from the seller is that a they won't get any bigger. I learned that years ago w/ my first rabbit, a Mini-Lop that I was told wouldn't be but 5 lbs. At that time I didn't know it was the Holland Lops that stay small. Alice is almost 2 yrs and already over 5 lbs. I don't think he'll get much bigger. He looks huge due to his fluffy fur.

It might be the bedding...I recently changed things up a bit for him...and it does seem to make a difference...

His cage had a "floor" and then underneath it all was a sliding litter pan that came out of the bottom...I was lining it with newspaper and changing it a couple of times a week....

I was having a lot of issues with that...The biggest two being the stink and the fact that his pee went places I didn't want it to go (like, the floor!!...) and because it was so stinky, and the floors are wooden (and old!) I was afraid that the smell would stay there...

So after trying a few different things (litter pan in the corner -- didn't fit!...Plus he wanted to eat the plastic!!...) and trying a metal "urine guard" thing (also didn't seem to fit...) I decided to try taking the floor of the cage out and lining the bottom with pine shavings and just letting him live in that...Part of the inspiration for that came from seeing a guinea pig cage with the higher sides...

So, that's the set up now...It works okay...There was a tiny, tiny, TINY bit of pee on the floor the other day, but nothing compared to what it was like before...

My mom had some chux pads left from when she had some surgery (she's had both knees replaced, a pacemaker put in, two hernia operations, and a historectomy....) ... So I've been cutting them into quarters and putting one under his little potty corner...He only pees in that one spot, so that's quite handy for me!....

The shavings seem to absorb the odor (and the urine!!) much better than the newspapers...It's quicker to clean up...And pine just smells better anyways!...He does tend to fling it around when he's hopping in the cage, so a few times a day I scoop it up and put it back in the cage...I'd rather pick up pine shavings every day than have the floor stink like bunny pee forever!!...

Now, though, the poor little guy is "slipping" on the smooth bottom of the cage...

Sooo...I'm going to measure the dimensions of the pan and see if I can get a rough bottomed one at Tractor Supply or at a Pet Store or something...

Where I live I'm not really close to much of anything, so Tractor Supply or the pet store that's an hour away are my only two choices, really....

Judah and Nina are about the same when it comes to trimming their nails...It's not their favorite, but they are both "okay" with it...I've actually cut Judah's nails to the quick the first two times I did it...He's due to get his nails cut again...The last time I did them, I cut the fur around his claws so I could see what I was doing...It worked!!...Of course, now that I can see where the quick is, I don't bother to trim the fur so much anymore...I just make sure there's enough light to see what I'm doing and I go for it....

He was tiny, tiny, tiny when I bought him...He literally fit in my hand...I'd say he was maybe the size of a newborn Newfie pup...

How old is Alice?...I'm wondering how long it'll be before Judah "tops out"...

I was going to buy him some chewy things at the pet store the other day but they were like blue and green and orange in color...and I was a little afraid to get them for him, for fear that the dyes might upset his little system...

I did get him a chewy thing that looks like a little long (it's not much bigger, actually, than a toilet paper roll) and it was filled with seeds and things inside of it...He's been working on that little by little every day...Seems to like it well enough...

Have a good one,
-Ramona Anne

 

[skoorka]

Thank goodness he's ok! If it makes you feel any better, I once dragged Elwood to the vet five minutes after finding a protrusion on his foot. $42 later the vet looks at me and says "it's his thumb"! In our defense, he had just been diagnosed with elbow displaysia so I panicked... but still! Also... photos please!

 

[RamonaAnne]

Thank goodness he's ok! If it makes you feel any better, I once dragged Elwood to the vet five minutes after finding a protrusion on his foot. $42 later the vet looks at me and says "it's his thumb"! In our defense, he had just been diagnosed with elbow displaysia so I panicked... but still! Also... photos please!

Awe...Sorry about the elbow displaysia...Does he do alright even with it?...

And cute story about the thumb!...

The things we do for our pets!! hee hee!!...

I'll post pics soon! I live in the land of dial up internet...But I have places I can go to get faster internet...so I shall upload some pics as I'm able to!

Before I took him in, I had facebooked someone who lives sort of locally and breeds rabbits of different sorts...(He does know what he's doing!) My nephew & his wife got their angora from him...(she is SO beautiful and SO mellow....wow!!...)

Anyhow, I had messaged him...And then when I wrote back to tell him what had happened, I kind of felt silly...Still, he wrote back and said he was looking to re-home some of his rabbits and offered me one if I wanted it...Made me feel good that even after freaking out just 'cuz my bunny mautred, he would make me that offer...

I said I might be interested in taking one of them...but only AFTER Judah gets neutered...

As good as Nina is with Judah, I think she'd want to be friends with and play with the babies and might get too rough with them...And besides, if it's just going to be a pet, and not part of a breeding program, neutering is the responsible thing to do!!...

Have a great day everyone,
-Ramona Anne

 

[NinaA]

Pooper Deux was a girl and she was wonderful when she was little. Dwarf Dutch. When she matured, though, she was fierce. Who knew she would live 12 years. Hay every day, no lettuce or gassie veggies.

 

[ward_hill]

who knew?!!

 

[RamonaAnne]

Pooper Deux was a girl and she was wonderful when she was little. Dwarf Dutch. When she matured, though, she was fierce. Who knew she would live 12 years. Hay every day, no lettuce or gassie veggies.

What veggies are gassy?... Judah loves lettuce...

I am planning on getting him a few different veggies and fruits later today...

Love the popper delux name too!!!

Hee hee!!

 

[RamonaAnne]

who knew?!!

Ha ha ha... I certainly didn't!!...

 

[KS Newf]

So glad he is OK. He sounds like a fine bunny outside of this problem. Love his name and love bunnies.

 

[newfx's2]

What veggies are gassy?... Judah loves lettuce...

I am planning on getting him a few different veggies and fruits later today...

Love the popper delux name too!!!

Hee hee!!

There's no nutritional value in lettuce and it does cause gas. Alice loves spinach and broccoli, but broccoli too causes gas in rabbits and should be fed in limited quantities. Alice loves kale, carrots and parsley. I only feed him veggies once a week. His main diet is high amounts of high fibre and good quality grass hay. The best hays are timothy, oat, Bahia or wheat.

You might be able to do some online shopping for Judah. I know certain stores offer free shipping or discounts.

 

[kdwbellea]

So glad to hear he is ok.

I have a Flemish Giant (Ms. Matilda Rumble Buns) adopted from rescue a few months ago, and they told me that a small section of 2x4 soaked in apple juice is great for them to chew on and helps keep their teeth down.

House Rabbit Society has the absolute hands down best information on all aspects of bunneh care/love/living with bunneh. As a brand new bunneh owner I use them all the time. http://www.rabbit.org/hrs-info/site-map.html

Ms. Rumble Buns bosses my cats around all the time, she will head butt them if they are in the way of her noms. ha ha so funny oh and Ms. Rumble Buns is a solid 20 pounds and not even a year old yet!

 

[NinaA]

Same veggies that cause gas in humans will give it to rabbits. Broccoli, cauliflour, cabbage, etc. Pooper loved spinach, kale, carrots, pea hulls and parsley (we used to collect it at restaurants) oh, and carrot tops. She loved carrot tops. She also loved fruit, but we never gave her any of that in large amounts and only about every other day. BTW she was called Pooper Deux because our original rabbit (a gift to my husband) was Pooper. Pooper did not do well and the kids bought Pooper Deux as a replacement. It's too bad she was so mean, she was really, really cute.

 

[drulzelot]

Glad it all turned out okay. I would love to see pix, I'll go friend you on FB, I hope you'll have some bunny pix up there soon!

 

[RamonaAnne]

Glad it all turned out okay. I would love to see pix, I'll go friend you on FB, I hope you'll have some bunny pix up there soon!

I added four that were taken from my phone to an album called Judah and Friends...you can find them there!

I will add more on FB when I'm somewhere with fast internet and can do so...

 

[TerriW]

...snicker....

There's no end of ways we can embarass ourselves at the vet's, unfortunately. I remember taking Max to be neutered, and asking the vet, now how do you do this? Make an incision and tie it off? She pulled back a bit and said "I'm NOT doing a VASECTOMY!" Was I ever appalled when I found out what they really do- almost didn't have him neutered!!

 

[RamonaAnne]

...snicker....

There's no end of ways we can embarass ourselves at the vet's, unfortunately. I remember taking Max to be neutered, and asking the vet, now how do you do this? Make an incision and tie it off? She pulled back a bit and said "I'm NOT doing a VASECTOMY!" Was I ever appalled when I found out what they really do- almost didn't have him neutered!!

Aside from removing the testicles, what else do they do when they neuter an animal?...

I was told that there are some risks involved in having a rabbit spayed or neutered...They can't handle waking up sometimes...

I'm wondering if I still want to have it done or not...I'd hate to bring him in for the operation and not have him make it...But at the same time, I think he'll be even calmer and sweeter if I do get it done...

I know it's a decision that only I can make....However, if any of y'all out there would have some advice, I'd appreciate it...

Thanks,
-Ramona Anne