So we picked up the rabbit on Saturday morning and everything has been great so far. There is no smell so far, other than the smell of the hay. The kids are extremely gentle with the rabbit. One of them was told he could pet the rabbit with more than just one finger, he was being overly cautious. The littlest one likes to look but doesn’t want to go near it.
It is mostly in the cage right now. It is a pretty big cage for just 1 rabbit. I assume she is still getting used to her new home, but we left the cage door opened and closed off that room so it couldn’t go too far. We sat around and she ventured out a few times for some exploration and petting.
It is very early on but it seems to be turning out that my worries were unfounded. It is a beautiful brown rex rabbit. The fur is so incredible soft.
It sounds like things are going very well with the new bunny. Rexes are lovely. I had a mini-rex named Billie. She was a beautiful chocolate brown and so soft. It was like having a real live velveteen rabbit.
Are you using a litter box? Rabbits can be litter box trained so you don’t have to clean out the whole cage, but the litter box needs to be cleaned out daily. I used Yesterday’s News recycled newspaper pellets.
If you can get nibble rings, those are very popular with the bunnies. They also love bananas. (It’s probably already been mentioned, but don’t give them a lot of treat foods–one treat a day is plenty–a few craisins or honey nut cheerios or a small piece of banana).
We have had the bunny for 3 months now and things are going perfectly. All 3 kids and the spouse love the bunny. She gets plenty of attention. The bunny comes out of the cage all the time, hops around, likes to be pet by the kids then retreats back “home” when she is done. Everyone seems happy. All interaction with the kids is supervised. Even the 1 year year old waves and blows a kiss to the bunny before bed every night.
There was one tiny incident a couple of weeks in with the 4 year old. He really likes offering a piece of hay or other food to the rabbit. He got a little eager to put it in the rabbit’s mouth when he was first learning how to interact with it. I saw it happening and my reaction time was too slow, but the bunny nipped his finger as it bit the food. There was a microscopic cut on his finger which we cleansed out. No harm done. He still feeds him to this day, always supervised and there have been no other issues. He is much more careful about fingers close to the mouth.
So, all told, it has been a great experience and I am very happy we ended up with the bunny!
