Rabbit games – our favourites #barbarablogs

Hello everyone, it’s me, Barbara Rabbit, here again! As you may know, I write a weekly post here – you can find the older ones here, under #barbarablogs.

Like all bunnies, my brothers and I enjoy a few simple rabbit games. You’ve probably realised from reading my blogs that rabbits are incredibly intelligent. We need a lot of mental stimulation.

My brothers are both younger than me, and, I mean nothing rude by this, but Ned might not be quite as smart as I am. Gingee is pretty clever, but Ned doesn’t always pick things up so quickly. So we all have different needs when it comes to games. Our parents are pretty good at playing to our strengths and finding games that work for all of us. We’re quite lucky. (Don’t tell them that. I don’t want them to get complacent.)

Here are some of our favourites!

Fingers through Bars and Fingers round Ned

These are two of Ned’s favourite games.

Fingers through Bars needs him to be inside a cage, and a human will wriggle fingers at him. He’ll hop around on his hind legs all excited and cute. I don’t quite see the appeal myself.

Fingers round Ned is a game only daddy and Ned can play. Apparently our mum just isn’t very good at it. What you need to do is circle your fingers around his head and he’ll bob his head around like mad. Because he can’t hear very well, I think he really enjoys games where he has to look at things.

Climbing on Humans

Ned and Gingee love doing this, and I’m getting better at it too. It was quite difficult for me at first, because I couldn’t work out quite how to get up onto a human. It turns out you need to push with your back legs, rather than pulling up with your front legs! Once you remember that, it’s easy!

If you’re very brave and have a fun human, he might even move along the floor a bit while you’re sitting on him. Gingee really likes this.

Surprise Rabbit

Such a simple game, but so much fun. Sneak up on a human. You can climb on them or not, but you just need to appear really suddenly – you can either do it by walking quietly and slowly or by running at full pelt. It’s so much fun to watch them be startled!

Box

Box is a really fun game, and there are so many variations. We have loads of cardboard boxes right now, which I hear is because my parents are having a human baby and keep on ordering things for it online. But the best part is that most of the empty boxes end up in my room!

The rules of playing Box can be as simple as just climbing into the box, sitting there for a bit, and then getting out again. Sometimes you can hide in there, or wriggle yourself right to the back, depending on the size of the box.

But the best way to play Box is to get food involved as well – as is the way with all the best rabbit games! Sometimes my parents will put chopped up apple or little carrot sticks in a box and cover them with paper or cardboard, and we get to forage for them. It’s so much fun!

Plastic Baby

This is a new rabbit game. Our parents have bought us some little plastic babies to prepare us for our new human baby. We get to groom them while our parents tell us how good we are.

I really like licking the plastic bits of them, and they have yummy clothes to gently nibble. There are three, one for each of us.

Explorers Under the Bed

It’s really self-explanatory! If the humans will let you, go under their bed and explore!

I don’t usually find anything under there, but I really like being in the small space. Sometimes it is a bit of a struggle when they want me to come out, though. They’ve sent Ned or Gingee in to get me before now.

 

Stairs

Now, this isn’t a game that I’ll play. I don’t like the stairs, and if I have to go up or down them, someone has to carry me.

But Gingee really likes playing stairs. He says that the stairs lead to lots of other fun rooms and that there’s nothing quite as fun as dashing down them and then zigzagging back up. Ned does this really clever thing where he can jump up about five steps in one go, as well. He landed on our mum’s big belly last night and she made a really funny squeaking noise, and it was brilliant. What a great twist on Surprise Rabbit!

Finger Nibbling

This is one of my favourite games. It seems only fair – my daddy cuts my claws, so I should help to keep his nice and short too, right? He’s very brave and doesn’t squirm too much, although I think I have got his skin a few times. But sometimes that happens when he does our claws as well!

The best time to play this game is either after he’s cut up an apple for me, so his hands taste like apple, or after he’s eaten some yummy human food. I like it when he’s had Marmite because it makes his hands taste all salty. There was also a time when he’d had salted caramel and that was amazing. You never quite know what the situation is going to be, so I’d recommend testing this out on a regular basis.

Fellow furry friends, what are your favourite rabbit games? Humans, what do you like to play with your rabbits?

Until next time!

Barbara Rabbit xxx

Barbara the rescue rabbit

I’ve written about how we came to adopt Ned and Gingee, our first two bunnies, before. And Barbara, our rescue rabbit, has her own regular section on this blog! But I’ve never really talked about how she came to live with us, and her story.

The first thing about Barbara is that we don’t know too much about her history. We know that she is the softest of all three of our rabbits, that she loves apples more than anything, that after she’s had her claws clipped she needs to nibble your nails in return… but we don’t know how old she is. It’s strange to have a family member that we love so much and yet so know so little about her.

We first met Barbara in November 2016. Ned and Gingee had lived with us for over a year by that point. They fought all the time so lived separately – Ned upstairs and Gingee downstairs. We’d pretty much given up hope of bonding them.

Barbara was living at Pets at Home, with Support Adoption for Pets. I noticed her a few times when I went to buy hay or food. She had a sign up next to her cage saying something like:

Barbara the rescue rabbit

My name is Barbara.

I am a rabbit.

I have been in this store since March so the charity is trying to find me a loving home.

Who calls a bunny Barbara?! What kind of name is that for a rabbit? (It turns out it’s very good marketing! It got her noticed.)

She was this massive (compared to the boys), grumpy, sleepy floof. Easily noticeable.

But I absolutely did not want a third rabbit. We had Ned and Gingee and they needed a room each and were clearly never going to bond. We were at our limit.

So I kept on seeing her, hoping someone would adopt her, and going home again. I wanted her to have a home, but I didn’t really see that it needed to be our home.

I mentioned her to my husband, just in a passing text. “You’ll never guess the name of this rabbit that’s up for adoption!”

And, because he knows me probably better than I know myself, came back immediately. “Do we want her?”

… Um. I don’t know. I hadn’t really considered adopting her as a serious possibility until that very moment. Sitting in my office, I pushed my chair back from the desk and thought for a moment. “We’ll talk about her later,” I replied, eventually. “We’d need to find out more about her.”

So that evening, we sat down to talk about Barbara. What would we need to know? What should we take into consideration before making the decision whether to adopt her or not?

  • Could she live with other rabbits? Was she likely to bond with anyone else?
  • How old is she?
  • What was her health like? We already had one special needs bunny in Ned – in one way, that meant we knew what to do and support a frail rescue rabbit, but in another, it meant that we were already stretched fairly thin.
  • Why had she been there so long? Why did no one want this poor girl? Nearly nine months is a long time for a beautiful bunny to wait for a new home.

We decided that I’d go into the shop tomorrow and ask the questions. Find out a bit more about her, and then we’d make a decision.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been so nervous as when I went in to talk to someone about her. Some time in the last few days, my feelings about her had completely changed and I was suddenly petrified that she’d have been adopted. “That’s okay,” I tried to reassure myself. “I just want her to have a home. It doesn’t have to be with us.” I was lying to myself. Suddenly I wanted to get to know this big fluffy bunny much better.

I needn’t have worried. She was still there. Still big and fluffy and grumpy. And the staff were thrilled that we were asking about her.

Here’s what we knew:

  • They wanted her to have other rabbits for company. So far, she hadn’t got on well with any, but they thought that she’d do well with a boy who might be a bit compliant as she seemed rather bossy. (Maybe Ned, I suggested.) They’d tried to bond her with a few, but no luck.
  • They thought she was about three years old, maybe a bit more.
  • She was fairly healthy by then. However, when she’d come to them, she’d been neglected and abandoned. Her claws were long. She walked on her heels so had sore hocks. She was so thin you could see all her ribs. She’d never gone to the vet. Her teeth were bad and she had to have them filed down. She hadn’t been spayed so had cysts. She was in pain and was very aggressive. Her tear ducts leaked (like Ned!). The charity had paid for her vet treatment and she was now the picture of health.
  • She hadn’t been eligible for adoption the whole time as she’d been so sick. Now that she was, they wanted to make sure she went to a home where her new humans knew about caring for special rabbits.

Well, it wasn’t quite what we’d expected, but we certainly knew we could care for her. We were already taking care of Ned’s bad eyes, and wiping a few more bunny eyes would be easy enough.

My heart was breaking for this poor girl who had had such a rough time, when our boys had everything they wanted. How could we not pursue this further?

They suggested bringing Ned and Gingee in for a date to see if everyone got on. So, that weekend, the boys hopped into their cases and we drove over to properly meet Barbara for the first time!

Barbara meets Ned!

I won’t say it was all plain sailing. We didn’t all bond instantly. It took until April before all three rabbits were living happily together in one room, and Barbara came home on 12th December.

We’ve had some health problems, too. At her first vet visit, they noticed her teeth needed filing again, and we learnt that she’s not good with anaesthetic. She takes a very long time to wake up.

She developed some arthritis in her elbow. With medication, all of the problems related to this have cleared up, but we worried for a while that she might need one leg amputating.

We think she may actually be older than three. Eight? Maybe younger? Her bone density is very low, which is either a sign of being an old lady or due to malnutrition in earlier life. We hope she’s younger than eight as we want to have a long time with her! Now that she enjoys life, we want her to have a long one.

Barbara moved in with us on the day that a dear friend of mine passed away, and I had a difficult time adjusting. She loved my husband from the start, I think, but she and I didn’t bond immediately. After how easy it had been for me to bond with the boys, I felt awful. She was so skittish and not as playful as the boys, and it was a strange transition for us all.

But from the time I found out I was pregnant, Barbara became incredibly affectionate towards me. We spent a lot of time cuddling on my bed, just me and her. She groomed me and I stroked her and we’d fall asleep together. My husband would take her back to her room once I’d dozed off. (Yay for first trimester exhaustion!)

And the more confident she got, the more she and I bonded. I can honestly say that we’re very close now. She’s one of my favourite people in the world! How can I help it? She’s grumpy, demanding, so intelligent, very sassy, and knows what she wants. She’s just fabulous!

Look at my beautiful girl. That confident face! She has come such a long way.

Barbara the rescue rabbit

Happy gotcha day, Ned and Gingee!

Today is two years exactly since Ned and Gingee’s “gotcha day”! In other words, it’s two years since we adopted them and they came home to live with us.

Dear Ned and Gingee,

It’s hard to believe, in a way, how fast these two years have gone. It feels like you’ve been part of our family forever. But it also feels like only yesterday that I felt so apprehensive as I waited for a response to find out if you’d be able to come and live with us. It’s funny how time works like that!

I can honestly say that you’ve changed our lives for the better. You made us a family, rather than just a couple.

Driving home with you in the car for the first time felt much how I imagine it will be when we bring your human sibling home in a few weeks. I knew everything had changed, but I had no comprehension of just how much. We didn’t know quite what we were doing at first, but the four (now five, soon to be six) of us have figured it out together.

Ned, you’ve caused us so much worry that it’s unbelievable. So many times we’ve thought we might lose you, but you keep on persevering, and now you’re so strong.

You are an inspiration to me, little man. How can you have gone through so much pain and discomfort and come out the other end still so happy and trusting? The last time you had your vaccinations, you were purring as the vet was putting the needle in you!

You’re an unusual little bunny. You love car rides, being brushed with a wet comb, all kinds of things that rabbits aren’t supposed to. Maybe you’re part kitten or puppy. You’ve still got an adorable little baby face, and I know that it causes problems for your health, but I think you are one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen.

You’re much tinier than you should be, but your intense personality more than makes up for it. We know you can’t hear us very well, but we also know that you know how much we love you.

I love how you climb up onto my lap when I’m feeling sad, and how you enjoy playing with our hands. You’re the tiniest, greediest little thing, and I know that’s probably my fault because I spoil you. I just love to see you so excited!

You are such a good brother to Barbara, and it’s so nice to see you take care of her.

I didn’t know it was possible to love anyone so much until you came into my life.

Gingee, you are the bravest and cleverest rabbit in the world. You know that you’re the best therapy bunny anyone could ever want, don’t you?

You keep us going when we’re feeling down, and I know you understand emotions far more than anyone could believe. It doesn’t even have to be us. I see your concern for TV characters dealing with depression. I’ve seen you try to get to them to help them. (And I think it’s a good thing we’ve cut back on your TV viewing a bit!)

You’re definitely the one in charge, despite what Barbara might think. You’re so good at trying to take care of her and Ned, and I’m so proud of you for persisting in grooming their eyes when they need it.

I can’t believe how clever you are. You’ve eaten more cables than I can count, broken out of so many cages, and understand so many words. You’ve even learnt to train Ned – although we really don’t mind if he goes on the stairs!

I know you love me, Gingee, even if your daddy is your favourite person in the whole world.

I’m so pleased that the two of you get on again. Seeing you interact is one of my favourite things in the world, because for so long I thought you’d hate each other forever. I know you didn’t enjoy us persevering and repeatedly trying to bond you, but I think you’re happy about it now, aren’t you? You love cuddling each other these days!

I can’t believe it’s been two years since your gotcha day, and I can’t wait to have many more years of adventures with you both.

Love from your human mum xxx

 

I would like a rabbit pet #barbarablogs

Hello friends. It’s me, Barbara Rabbit, here again. Catch up on my older posts here!

So, I’ve been thinking. I would like a rabbit pet. Not a pet rabbit – I’m a pet rabbit myself. I would like a pet for myself. I know I’m getting a baby human soon and that will be lovely. But I think there are lots of other animals out there that I would enjoy living with as well.

I’ve been trying to think over the advantages to each one and work out which would be best for me. Of course, I doubt my humans will let me have any kind of new animal. They can be so unreasonable at times. I mean, it would only be a bit of extra work for them.

They wouldn’t have to do any of the training. My brother Gingee has learnt to do animal training. He copies what the humans do and he’s taught Ned to keep away from the stairs by doing a little growl and then moving him. It’s very clever.

So honestly, all it would really be would be a bit more cleaning and perhaps some more food and maybe transporting them on a very occasional vet visit. Hardly anything at all, really.

Rabbit Pet Idea 1: A chick

rabbit pet idea 1: a chickThey can fly, you know. I’d be able to train it to fetch me the treats that my parents insist on keeping on high shelves that I can’t reach.

I’ve tried to get Ned and Gingee to do some sort of obstacle course run onto the top of the chest of drawers where the fenugreek cookies live, but they just keep on looking at me as though I’m mad. I can’t imagine why. As young rabbits (they’re only two), I think they should be taking plenty of exercise to keep supple and not develop arthritis like I have. Yes, there’s a bit of risk, but boys are meant to enjoy that!

Also, chicks are really fluffy, so it would be a bit like having another rabbit around. We’d take turns to groom it. And I bet the beak would be useful at times – we could train it to attack if needed!

Rabbit Pet Idea 2: A monkey

rabbit pet idea 2: monkeyOpposable thumbs. Enough said.

I’m only thinking of a small monkey. I wouldn’t want an ape or a gorilla or anything huge like that. But a tiny little monkey that I could train to open doors and food containers for me would be really useful. And I bet they’d be absolutely brilliant at grooming!

They’d probably also be quite good at giving cuddles if I needed them when my humans weren’t available. At times, I do really like cuddles.

However, I think a monkey might be rendered irrelevant by my upcoming human baby. She’ll be able to perform most of the monkey’s tasks, I think.

Rabbit Pet Idea 3: A small pony or miniature horse

rabbit pet idea 3: horseI could sit on its back and be a lot faster than my brothers when it ran.

Did you know that rabbits and horses are actually fairly similar? Yes, I know we don’t look at all alike, but our digestive systems are pretty much the same, and we could share our hay.

I’ve even heard that if you can’t find a rabbit specialist vet, you should try and make sure your parents take you to an equine vet if you need some sort of specialist treatment, as they’re more likely to know what to do on you than a cat and dog vet.

Horses and ponies even binky like us bunnies do!

Also, as someone who once lived outside, I think I’d be doing a tiny little horse a really good deed by adopting one and letting it live inside with me. I did not like being outside, so I bet my future tiny horse doesn’t either. Maybe I’ll present it to my parents as a completely altruistic act…

Rabbit Pet Idea 4: A small goat

rabbit pet idea 4: goatYes, I have Ned and he’s pretty much like a little goat.

But think about it: goats are pretty similar to us rabbits. They’re determined and feisty and furry and I hear they have a great sense of humour.

And they’re really destructive and sometimes I’d like some help in trying to dig up the carpet or tear up all the newspaper in the world. A goat could be a really good asset to me there!

The horns do scare me a bit though.

Well, those are my ideas, anyway. Does anybun else have any good suggestions?

Until next time, my long-eared friends!

Online rabbit resources – my recommendations

I admit to being pretty clueless when we adopted Ned and Gingee. I’d had a rabbit growing up, so I thought I knew what I was doing. Then it turned out Ned was pretty sick, and I started looking for online rabbit resources.

There is a lot more information out there than there used to be. Back in the 90s, when I had my first lovely bunny, everything seemed very simple. But then again, rabbits didn’t live very long back then either. Everyone was amazed that I had a bunny who was 11!

Even nowadays, a lot of “civilians” don’t know much about the proper care of a rabbit. Fortunately, I’ve found loads of online rabbit resources that have helped us bring Ned back from the brink, keep Gingee healthy, and be the best owners that Barbara needs.

I’ve divided my list into two sections: one is “static” information, and the other is helpful groups that you can join. I find it can actually be helpful to have someone to talk to, and I’m a part of a few Facebook groups.

(Do note: I have house rabbits, so my resources might be a bit biased towards them. I’m also based in England.)

Online rabbit resources

  • MediRabbit: With two special needs bunnies, I’ve spent a lot of time on here reading up on different illnesses. Obviously I’d always recommend a trip to the vet rather than just doing online research, but when the appointments were booked or it wasn’t an emergency, this has been a great resource for reading up on what could be the issue with Ned. If you’re a bunny hypochondriac like myself, though, do beware. I’d pretty much diagnosed poor Ned with syphilis at one point! (Eventual diagnosis: very flat face, malformed tear ducts, prone to infection, pasturella. Treatment: tear duct flushing under sedation as necessary, regular eye cleaning at home and trimming his face fur to stop any matting.)
  • The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund (RWAF): The UK’s largest rabbit association. They have some brilliant information on what to do in various bunny health situations, and their rabbit-friendly vet list is one of the best you’ll find in the UK.
  • Binkybunny.com: This site has some great information on topics such as litter training, bunny-proofing, healthy diet, etc. They’re a US site so some of their information about costs isn’t quite accurate for me, but I usually find myself here if I’m curious about whether a new food is okay. There’s also a forum, which I’ve never participated in but have read fairly extensively. Over the years they’ve answered most questions I’ve had, without my even having to ask!
  • The House Rabbit Society: Lots of good resources on difference aspects of raising a house rabbit, and also plenty of lovely pictures. If you’re in the US, they also have a good list of vets who will treat rabbits.
  • Rabbit Awareness Week: You didn’t know about Rabbit Awareness Week? Dreadful! It’s in June. Their site has some good information on environment, bunny behaviour and health. I’d be wary of their guidance on which is the best food, though, as they’re sponsored by Burgess Excel, who are a food company. (And I’d always recommend feeding Science Selective if possible.)

Online rabbit communities

  • Rabbit Owners Community: This is, hands down, my favourite online rabbit resource. There are members from all over the world, which means that you get a great variety of opinions, and there are a lot of very wise rabbit owners there. If you’re doing something that could hurt your bunny or that isn’t best practice, you’ll be told. If you just want to share cute pictures of your rabbit, they’re very very welcome! They have some great resources in their downloadable files as well, some great guides to bonding, vets, etc. Definitely worth joining this one!
  • UK Rabbit Group: I’d recommend that everyone joins a local rabbit Facebook or similar group, if they can. While obviously we all like to think we’re prepared in terms of emergency vets, last-minute food questions, etc., we all know that problems crop up from time to time. And it’s nice to have the possibility of local people to ask.

I’m sure I’ve missed some really good ones – are there any others you’d recommend?