Hello!!! Iâm an animal shelter worker that works with small/exotic animals, I worked in vet med prior to my current job.
Patron Saint of Elwood and Sylvie â¤ď¸
My partner and I have 5 rabbits- Marcus, Fion, Willoughby, Caspian (partnerâs), and Penelope (partnerâs), but we also have a large crew of various species. Iâve kept exotics for most of my life and animals are my main interest and hobby!
You will likely see me mostly posting my rabbits but I also post about the Minotaur, Ancient Greece, and rabbits or other critters at our shelter.
If you tag my rabbits as âkinâ/âmeâ or random characters, I will probably block you lol. Nothing personal, I just always find it odd and would prefer not to see it in my notifications.
Miscellaneous fun facts below the cut!
Iâm working on a novel and love writing, other hobbies and interests include cyanotype, wet specimens, jewelry making and goldsmithing, ball jointed dolls, baking, historical fashion, the Minotaur, Ancient Greece, insects and herpetology. I have an Ancient Greek replica lyre that I need to get better at, and write I a lot of poetry. I recently took up knitting and am beginning my metal smithing journey in the near future. I enjoy ethically acquired oddities and bone collecting.
Iâm vegan- I respect peopleâs choices to do what makes the most sense for them with their diet, but I will not interact with anything pro-animal consumption for my own sake.
I am pro-breed preservation and ethical breeding just as much as I am pro-rescue.
Animals:
Sylvie - Belgian hare đ
Elwood- Velveteen lop đ
Fion- Belgian hare
Marcus- Flemish giant mix
Willoughby- Velveteen lop, from the same home as Elwood :â)
Baby- Green cheek conure
Falcor and Sweet Potato- Axolotls, 13 and 7 respectively
Mildred, Clarence, Clementine and Lilly- kitties
Gideon đ, Caspian and Penelope- Partnerâs rabbits, New Zealand mix, Californian, and French lop mix
There was a girl on neopets a few years back who had a pet tick. She'd post pics of it in polly pocket playsets. I gotta find it again it sounds too fake
It was finally sunny enough yesterday for me to take pictures of the Sylvie I made :)
I might redo her again in the future and try to get the colors more accurate, but this was my first bigger knitting project and Iâm so pleased. Now I just need to pick yarn for Elwood :)
Handsome man Marcus had his vet appointment on Friday!
After a radiograph, we determined he has 1.) arthritis in his knees 2.) spinal damage that pinches his nerves (and probably also the reason why he poops and pees all over the place, since he likely canât tell when heâs going), and 3.) the beginnings of thymoma, or essentially, pre-cancer in the thymus gland that presses on the heart and lungs as it progresses.
All said; I kind of figured lol. My concerns about his breathing before I adopted him were completely ignored and not even dismissed, just never addressed. So, I feel even more confident in adopting him now, as his breathing issue is very subtle and likely wouldnât be noticed until it was an emergency situation. If it worsens, heâll be put on steroids. There is some comfort in knowing our paths will diverge in the future, and knowing why, since all of my previous rabbit deaths have been very sudden and unexpected.
I knew going into this that he was older, painful, and had underlying issues, so itâs nice to have confirmation for that and have a plan moving forward. Heâs been having lots of fun spending time with Fion, chewing on toys and pooping everywhere.
Where can we find your bonding guide? Iâve got a difficult bonding case and Iâm completely inexperienced đŹ
Here is the link for anyone interested! To reiterate- this is the method my partner and I have used with success. Itâs not 100% guaranteed to work, as rabbits will always decide when they want a relationship to work, but these are some good things to try to set everyone up for success. You are always welcome to reach out to me via messaging with any questions or concerns that youâre running into!!
The Rabbit Bonding Bible The most intensive guide to letting your rabbit have a friend! If you have rabbits, youâve probably heard about âr
I set them up together yesterday since theyâve both been wildly indifferent towards one another. Fion started grooming Marcus after 45 minutes and I left them to hang out for the evening.
Some mild scuffling ensued (just some humping and fur pulling, I only felt the need to separate them 1 time), but nothing serious, which is crazy and something Iâm very unused to with rabbits lol. Even after the scuffling, they would lay down next to each other which is a really great sign that they like each other, theyâre just deciding whoâs going to be boss. Fion is a lot more receptive to humping and pretty unbothered by it, but since Marcus has limited mobility, itâs hard for him to do it, so Fion has a leg up on that one even though I donât think he cares much about being dominant lol.
Theyâre currently set up in a pen in my bedroom on their âhoneymoonâ while they settle their hierarchy, and will get free roam access to my bedroom once they seem fully comfortable with one another :) probably a few days, or until they stop waking me up in the morning humping each other lol.
Iâve gotten a lot more comfortable bonding rabbits over the years and becoming familiar with what different behaviors mean and should look like.
If anyone is ever interested, I have an extensive bonding guide that I wrote up for my work that gives a step-by-step process for bonding, especially for more complicated rabbits. Iâll be going through this process again when my lady rabbit arrives in July- I feel very lucky that these guys are so mellow, and it makes me feel more confident in having a trio!
how do you prevent your creatures from pooping everywhere??? mine are litter box trained enough to pee in the box and will poo in there while they eat their hay, but otherwise not so much. I have to vacuum their enclosure every couple days due to poo buildup (sometimes they even manage to get it in their water bowl, ick!!)
I like the idea of letting them free roam, but I worry they lack the manners. I was cuddling Nougat on my lap the other day when the bastard pooped on me. it's not difficult to clean but I wish he wouldn't so I could let him wander (then again, this is the same rabbit who used to piss and shit all over my bed because of his territorial nature, and still might if he could get in my bed)
Very good question!! In my experience, itâs been very dependent on the bunny- Fion has had PERFECT litter manners, like 100% since he arrived. Elwood usually had small slip ups and always had bad pee manners. Some things that have helped me are:
â˘spaying/neutering, of course
â˘having a designated litter/mess corner
â˘using a larger litter box than seems necessary in this corner
â˘deep cleaning the space with an enzyme cleaner to remove scent/washing any blankets, rugs etc, but leaving the litter box a little dirty and putting poops into it, in the hopes of really highlighting where messes should go
â˘slowly expanding their pen environment to room environment rather than all at once, because with a lot of new territory, theyâll be more inclined to scent mark
â˘moving any poops back to the litter box and using vinegar to spray the area that they pooped to remove the scent
â˘shrinking down their environment when bad little manners persist, to help solidify âthis is your territoryâ
â˘doing ALL feeding in the litter box- For a while, Fion would poop wherever he ate pellets, so I fed him his pellets in his box. I use the Rooly box with the enclosure, and I find having the large, flat surface of the litter box combined with an enclosed litter box has helped a lot. That one isnât super doable without a lot of space, but increasing litter box size to accommodate, and making a bit more cozy does seem to help.
Itâs pretty typical for them to poop on their people LOL, thatâs a territory behavior. âYou donât smell like me, and youâre mine- Here, Iâll fix that!â Itâs the same reason theyâll go on our bed.
All of that said, they might not ever be 100% perfect, but there are lots of little ways to get them closer to 100%, and I find that they do improve over time once theyâve been in a space for a while and are able to designate their litter area- Once a full space smells a little more like them (from chinning, walking around etc) theyâll be less inclined to scent mark. Iâm hoping Marcusâs manners improve (heâs about 85% when peeing, and maybe 60% with pooping), but I wonât know for sure until heâs been in the space for a while.
Iâm also not sure if your bunnies are bonded- If theyâre not, but live nearby one another, this can lead to over-compensating with scent marking to really say âI LIVE HERE!!!â as a dominance display.
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