Hot new bunny shop on the block

Looking for great bunny themed gifts online?  Read on!

Now that's what I call a well wrapped present...

I recently commissioned a piece of artwork from Olya Schmidt through her Etsy Bunny Diary shop for a good friend's birthday.  I could not be more happy with how it turned out - the attention to detail was amazing, from the packaging to the wrapping to the artwork itself.

The shop has only been open for a month or so and new items are being added all the time.  For me, the pricing is excellent - low enough to be affordable but high enough to warrant being a very special gift for the bunny lover in your life.

Here's the picture itself.  Was sorely tempted to nab it for myself but resisted temptation and gave it to my friend, who loves it.  Thank you, Bunny Diary, and keep on creating!

The painting... pic courtesy of Olya Schmidt

Flicka has a brush with GI stasis

Flicka has lived here for a year now and has had a couple of episodes of tummy trouble - a little gas taking its time to work its way out.  She would look uncomfortable for a few hours and had to be coaxed to drink water and move around.  Like many whose rabbits are prone to this problem, we can find no reason for these episodes - no change of diet, environment or stress - all we can do is help her through them.

This week she had a particularly bad episode which led to her staying overnight at the vet hospital.  Here's how it went down...

Wednesday morning and she's binkying around as normal, scoffing her breakfast and eating plenty of hay, then disappears to the bedroom for her usual morning nap.  At lunchtime we offer her some food which she refuses.  We try to get her drinking and moving around but she just wants to hunch up and focus on her sore tummy, which feels large and tight.  I phone our vet and luckily he has a free consultation at 4.30pm, so we take her in.  He agrees that her stomach feels 'stodgy' (but no obstruction, thankfully) and admits her for an overnight stay and treatment for suspected GI stasis.  She is given Metacam (pain relief), a gut motility drug, sub q fluids (under the skin) and is syringe fed liquid Recovery Food every 2 hours through the night.

She doesn't produce any droppings until around 8am, so it is likely she was on her way into stasis and we were right to take her in.  She starts eating veggies, is given more pain relief and gut motility drugs and is allowed home in the late afternoon; cue - a touching reunion and much mutual grooming with her partner, Bailey.  She is clearly delighted to be home and runs around frantically chinning everything, including us!  A final dose of gut motility drug and some Fibreplex before bed and the next morning she is bright as a button and 100% back to her normal self.

A slightly scary episode but not an uncommon one at all for rabbit owners.  Our first night without Flicka was an eye opener - made us realise (a) how much noise she makes (think, herd of horses!), and (b) how much we love her.  She may look (and act) tough and strong, but she's as vulnerable as the next bun and just as easily lost.  To lose a rabbit to stasis is heartbreaking and all too common, even with all the correct care being given.

Lesson learnt: rabbits are so fragile - each and every day with them is a gift.

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A day in the life of two house rabbits

My husband and I both work from home and therefore spend a lot of time with our two house rabbits, Bailey and Flicka.  The rabbits are free to go wherever they want but have litter trays and a 'den', under a small table between the sofas, in the sitting room.  Here is a typical day in our lives...

Flicka on the bookshelf, Bailey encouraging her

We are woken sometime around dawn, usually by Flicka binkying around the bedroom or chewing on their wooden tunnel under the bed.  Whoever gets up to feed them gets raced down the hallway by Flicka (more binkies) and followed at a more sedate pace by Bailey (who is partially sighted).  Both rabbits circle our feet manically until their eggcup of dry food is measured out and wrestled to the ground between their frantic noses.  Then it's a furious speed eating, nose bumping contest until the bowl is licked clean.

The rest of the early morning is dedicated to foraging - eating hay, scrounging a bowlful of dried herbs or a dried banana slice - and playing - ripping up some magazines, chewing on a hay roll, racing up and down the hallway.  I give them fresh handfuls of hay two or three times during the 'morning forage'.  Around 10am, Flicka usually disappears to our bedroom for a solitary nap under the bed.  Bailey continues to forage a little but mostly lazes around on the sitting room rug, accepting some cuddles and nose rubs. 

Around lunchtime, Flicka returns from the bedroom (sometimes Bailey goes to fetch her) and they settle down either in the den or next to the coffee table for their 'proper' sleep.  They tuck their paws in and 'loaf', or Flicka may roll on her back, and they sleep deeply for several hours, sometimes twitching and nodding their heads.

At dusk, Flicka wakes up and moves to her preferred position in front of the TV.  Bailey soon follows her and they visit the litter trays for a good hay munch, have a long drink from the bowl and generally prepare themselves for the evening.  Again, I give them several hay tops up in the early evening.  Flicka begins to hassle for their dinner at around 7.30/8pm, following us into the kitchen and honking around our ankles.  They get a few leaves of spring greens, cabbage or kale at around 8.30pm followed by another eggcup of dry food at 10.30pm, which is eagerly anticipated.  When they're not begging at our feet, they are stretched out on the rug, grooming themselves and each other and snuggling up together.

The last thing we see every night... Flicka's face!

Before bed, I top up their hay again and give them a carefully divided carrot which is an object of much 'carrot jealousy' and sideways glances at each other.  They wolf this down while we're brushing teeth etc and then Flicka races through to do some more bed binkies and scrounge a raisin or two off my husband.  I give Bailey a treat too and then go through to get 'tucked in' by Flicka.  She might stay with us on or under the bed, or rejoin Bailey in the sitting room - either way, they will both always be ready and waiting in our bedroom the next morning to do it all over again.

In between all this, we sometimes manage to get some work done!  So that's a day in our lives and hope you enjoyed my first blog post.  Stay tuned for more random ponderings on house rabbits and the fun they bring into our lives.

Bunnyhugga.com is a complete rabbit information resource and non-profit site raising the profile of rabbits as pets.  Join us on Facebook