The Bunnies!

Back at Christmas time Hayley bought a bunny for Tristan, we then bought a bunny for Hayley and then Colin decided he NEEDED a bunny too. So Christmas was a fun time with bunnies! They were all males, there was a small chance the one unrelated bunny, was a female. Nooooo they turned out to be two females and one male. It was quite opposite to what the pet shop thought but at least the male is the unrelated bunny. These are lionhead bunnies so they are very soft and fluffy.



the trouble started soon after Christmas when first one, then the other female gave birth, they must have been pregnant when we got them. It didn't go well, both females were too immature and didn't make nests, then rejected their babies in a very upsetting way. We tried to help, it was an utter failure the first time and we did a little better the second time.Hayley and Colin especially worked very hard to raise the three babies in the second litter. One baby seemed to be a fighter and almost thrived but it was not to be.


The last little one, who we were keeping warm with a reptile heater, passed away the day before we had a long power outage. Perhaps it was just not meant to be, it would have been impossible to keep him or her warm with the power out and the mother bunny unwilling to care for it. Educational yes. Sad, very.


The bunnies were all given their own cages by this point as we didn't want more surprises. Then in early March a surprise came anyway, 5, FIVE, healthy baby bunnies were born into a nest which the mother rabbit had created. The mother, Fireball (well it was supposed to be a male bunny) cared for them perfectly and all we did was keep our distance and sneak pictures from time to time!






They got cuter and cuter as time passed and the children have great fun with them. Hayley added a very different bunny to the family too. Below is Marlaine. She is exactly the same age as our baby bunnies, about 7 weeks now. her parents are mother-a white Flemish giant and father a brown Netherland dwarf. Quite a combination!


We have given Hayley permission to breed Marlaine one time, when she is past 6 months old, to a Lionhead bunny and see what the babies are like. Should be an interesting study in genetics with that mix of genes!

Oh and see this little one below:

He's not like the other baby bunnies, his back legs don't work. We love him all the more though and plan to get him a bunny wheelchair when he's fully grown. This bunny has many obstacles but he still finds a way to join in with his siblings and eats, drinks, nurses, plays and gets around in his unique way. He/she is a lot more work as this bunny needs to be cleaned a lot and watched carefully to make sure he/she doesn't spend too long in one position. It is worth the work to see it's little spirit shine though.

So that is our bunny story. It should be longer, with detours too numerous to tell but there is lack of time as always to write things out. The children have zillions of photos and memories to chronicle this journey at least.