PLAYING WITH THE RABBITS

These bunnies were born last month on January 26…and today is our first time to play with them…and it may be the last time too…coz we’ll be giving them away again, in a few more weeks…we can’t afford to keep anymore bunnies kasi e…Whitey’s babies this time are four – two white ones and one completely brown like its dad and another white one with big brown patches. They’re just sooooo cute and cuddly, quite big at just three weeks! One pair will be given to Keith’s ‘special friend’ while the second pair to Ate Gemma, Kaye’s school bus operator, she had long been asking us to give her some bunnies and now she can finally get her wish…

WHITEY BIT ME!

Today, we planned to transfer Whitey to Brownie’s cage because her bunnies are going out of the wooden box and may fall off the floor of her cage. Her cage shall be cleaned too and get new steel matting because the old one was already torn in some places. My nephew started by transferring Brownie to the small steel cage then he cleaned Brownie’s cage first. But when it was Whitey’s babies turn to be transferred, I offered some kangkong to Whitey to distract her but she ended up biting me on the finger. It wasn’t very deep but it still bled and so I washed it thoroughly with soap and water and it was my nephew who handled the transfer of Whitey and her bunnies to the smaller cage.

It was only much later when I searched the internet and learned that it is rare for rabbits to have rabies and much more so to pass it on to a human or animal it bites. This is because the rabies virus can kill the rabbit and so it has no chance at all to pass it on to another being. Here’s an article I read from EHOW…

Rabies is a virus that affects the central nervous system in mammals. There is no documented case of a rabbit giving rabies to a person in the United States. Bites from rabbits rarely require treatment, according to the Center for Disease Control. However, even though it is rare, rabbits can get rabies. Rabies causes swelling of the brain and death. Death usually occurs only a few days after symptoms appear. (Rabbits & Rabies eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_6022147_rabbits-rabies.html#ixzz267A8tR9v)

So I guess I felt more or less assured that I would not need anti-rabies shots (whew! Thank God!) I just need to keep the wound clean so it won’t get infected. Meanwhile, here are some more pics of Whitey and her cute bunnies at more than two weeks.

NEW KITS FROM WHITEY (AGAIN!)

Since we bought the bunnies last year (around August), Whitey had given birth three times already - imagine that? Spaced three months apart, Whitey gave birth to five kits on her first pregnancy, then three on her second and you won’t believe this - eight kits this time around. I first heard her scratching wildly inside her cage at around 4:30 am so I went down and saw that she was once again already molting. I just made a makeshift nest for her using an old shoe box since her regular wooden box I found wet under the langka tree. I noticed a wide gash, though on Whitey’s left cheek, maybe she hurt herself while she was removing hair from her body to place inside the nest. I touched it a bit and saw it wasn’t bleeding and so I just let her be lest I agitate her further.

It was around 10am when Whitey started giving birth and at that time, Ace counted three kits all at the same time. I thought then that it would be the end but when we lifted her out of the box, it seems she was giving birth to one more, in fact, five more! But it was just too bad that two of them died quickly. I guess they were just too small when they came out – seemingly premature and unable to move so they can’t nurse properly. Or maybe mother rabbits have only six nipples??? I don’t really know, I never got around to checking but what really got me so excited was seeing Whitey give birth to eight new baby bunnies - hurrah for Whitey! Here are pics of her new babies.

P.S. Another one died a few more days later, so I guess it's now just down to five...

BRINGING BUNNY TO THE VET

It’s now Bunny’s turn at the vet and I do hope he gets cured soon. He’s been sick for so long. I would have wanted to have him injected since June but the budget and schedule does not allow it. During the rare times that we are at home, it seems we do not have any extra money to bring him to the vet and now finally, we had the time and the money to do so. I just hope he gets back to his old form soon enough.










P.S. Too bad that I was unable to get a pic of Bunny when he was finally cured of his mites. The last pic was taken Sept 9, about two weeks after he was vaccinated and he is healing here quite nicely. We brought him to BP when we went home last Sept 24 and our nephew, who resides in Tondo, asked for a rabbit and we decided to give Bunny to him since there were new kits that needed to be housed in Bunny’s old cage. Now I won’t be able to see him again… boohoo!

THIRDY AT TWO MONTHS (well almost!)

Our little bunny is not so little anymore - he’s almost two months old and getting quite big and fat. Well, it’s understandable since he’s still the only baby bunny here and therefore the most pampered. We played with him inside the house again today and we had fun letting him run around the sala. I guess we’ll miss him when he finally leaves because we intend to give him away soon. We cannot keep on taking care of every bunny that comes out of Whitey so we’re gonna have to wean ourselves away from him eventually. Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy the little time we have left with him (and take pictures, of course, to preserve our memory of him)












P.S. We eventually gave away Thirdy to Daniel, Annie’s BF and I just hope he would take care of him well!

THIRDY AT ONE MONTH

We were supposed to go to vet today but we lacked the time, so we postponed Bunny’s treatment for the meantime. This was just too bad since it’s so seldom that we get to stay home here at our house in Bulacan. And what’s worse during the times that we do stay we don’t have the budget for it naman, so it’s really an opportunity wasted talaga! So, instead, I just cleaned their cages and decided to play with Thirdy for a while. After all, he already turned one month today and is now quite playful and makulit. Unlike the last time when we borrowed him and he still found it difficult to move and was just sleeping. Here are some of his cute and cuddly pics.

WHITEY’S NEW BABIES

Last night upon arriving home, the kids told me that Whitey has started to tear off some hair from her chest, a sure sign of nesting, in preparation for childbirth. And I was suddenly taken aback because I have seen that her tummy is still way too small to be pregnant. I began counting back to May 10 and indeed today is 30 days after they mated. Still, I watched her closely and I saw her exhibiting the same signs like the last time when she gave birth – digging the floors of her cage as if she wants to bury something and tearing off hair and carrying them in her mouth to a corner of her cage. I helped her make a nest of shredded newspaper. Then, I monitored her progress at 1 am and then again at 3am and finally at 5am but she still hasn’t given birth. So I thought for a time it may be a false pregnancy!

Then today, just as we were leaving for AFPOVAI at 10 am, I saw that Whitey had finally given birth to only three kits (so that’s why her tummy is too small!) But the sad thing is the other two babies died, I am just not sure why??? Maybe she stepped over them because one was so bloodied and seemed squished but maybe they were not really properly formed so that’s why they were too small. I would have wanted to properly nourish her first after her first childbirth that is why I didn’t want her to get pregnant yet. I guess her body just wasn’t ready to nourish another litter of bunnies just yet - so now we know! Next time we better wait a few months when she’s ready before letting her mate again.

HEALING WHITEY

Just an update, after about three weeks since she had her ivermectin shots at the vet clinic, Whitey’s healing nicely - all her sore spots are gone! No more wounds in her nose, or her ears, and her feet. All we need to do now is make her eat more so she would be chubby again, like Brownie, and so that she would go back to looking her cute and cuddly bunny self. In a few weeks time, it would be her other bunny (Vanilla) that we’d be bringing to the vet for her shots. I just hope the others who are in their new homes would get the same treatment they did for them to be cured of mites and look good and cuddly once again.

WHITEY’S GONE!

This morning, when I went out as part of my regular routine to check on the rabbits to see if they still have water and feeds, I got the shock of my life when I saw Whitey’s cage was empty! I panicked and tried to search the garden to see if she was just around somewhere. Then I also checked the screen to see if it’s broken anywhere and I can’t see any tear or hole in it??? So I wonder how she was able to get out? It would be impossible that she was able to push her way upwards using her cage door because it would be too heavy for her to push.

After sometime, Jun went out of the bathroom and helped me search and finally he found her. The only thing inside her cage at that time was a round PVC pipe (about two inches in diameter) which the bunnies used to play with (like a tunnel) when they were still a month old. When they left, I forgot to remove the pipe but I never would have thought to look inside it because it was too small for her to fit in. So I just wonder why and how she was able to get inside??? In fact, I had a difficult time getting her out so I had to push her gently because she won’t easily slide out when I tried to place the pipe upright. I guess she was just missing her babies and figured she may find them inside the pipe. It had just been five days since we took the bunnies to their new homes in BP and maybe she was still feeling the pain …poor Whitey!

BTW, here’s the latest picture taken of Whitey - she’s cured of mange already but still a bit thin due to her pregnancy. I sure hope we could make her a bit chubby once again!

WE’RE GIVING THEM AWAY…

I guess we have to face the inevitable, it’s time to give the bunnies away! Huhuhu! Now that they’re more than a month old already, well exactly 42 days old and since they have long stopped nursing from their mothers I guess it’s now time for us to be weaned from the baby bunnies too. Even if we don’t really want to part with them and even if admittedly, they’ve been such a drain on the budget because before with just the two rabbits, we only buy 2 kilos of pellets per week and 2 bundles of camote tops per day. But now with the addition of five voracious bunnies, we need to buy 4 kilos of rabbit pellets and countless bundles of camote tops. In fact, we may soon earn our neighbor’s ire because we’re on the verge of using up and even killing their camote plants with our frequent picking! So I guess it’s just practical to give them away but only to people close to our hearts so we can still come to visit them and see how they’re doing every once in a while.

Since the bunnies are two brown-patched and three whites, we decided to give one pair (with a white and a brown-patched) to Yana and Nog-nog (a niece and nephew from the hubby’s side of the family) while another pair to Chi-chi and Sam (my brother’s kids), and the remaining white bunny to Monica (another cousin’s daughter). So there’d be no more bunnies left with us… boohoo. But that’s OK coz soon enough, Brownie and Whitey will have new kits again and next time, we’ll surely keep even just one for ourselves…

POSTSCRIPT: Well, it seems the owners of the bunnies changed a bit since Chi-chi and Sam will be gone for a month (to join their Mom in Bangkok) so they can’t take care of the rabbits. So we just gave one brown-patched bunny to Monica so that her white bunny will not be lonely. The other white bunny remained with us and we named her Vanilla. Meanwhile Chi-chi and Sam will have their bunnies during the next litter.

WHITEY’S TURN AT THE VET

Today, it’s Whitey’s turn to be taken to the vet. She’s ready because she has long been weaned from nursing her babies and we’d be giving the babies away this weekend. I know she’s scared…I can feel it.






But she has to go through with it – her Ivermectin shots for her mange because it’s for her own good. So that in two weeks time, she’d look as good as new once again - just like Brownie!!!

PLAYING WITH THE BUNNIES

Today is our day to stay (and relax!) at home since the hubby is on duty at the office. So we got up a bit later than usual and took our time to go to the Tiangge first so we could market for our food and ask for scrap gulay for the bunnies. Lately, we have resorted to asking for scrap gulay not just from our suki in the neighborhood talipapa but also from the weekly tiangge since with seven voracious rabbits, even if five are just bunnies, our gulay supply almost always runs out by midweek so we need to seek more sources to supply their ever-increasing appetites.

After we’ve had our breakfast, we decided to bring in the bunnies, two or three at a time just to play with them and find out their gender (that is, if we can!) We first took inside the brown patched bunnies (we have decided against naming them so that when the time comes to give them away, we would not be too attached) and found them quite a playful pair. But it turns out though that their gender still can’t be fully seen since their genitalia still hasn’t fully developed, after all they just turned a month four days ago.












Then, after some time we brought in the three white bunnies and boy were they ever so cute and playful too! The kids had fun playing with the bunnies most especially the baby, Juslin. She was not at all afraid of them as she probably thought they were toys (heheheh)








After a while, we brought them back to their cage and I took a picture of all of them together cuddling close like how brothers and sisters are supposed to be. This may be, after all, the last time I could have them together because we would soon be giving them away.









By the way, here’s an update of how Brownie looks like now, exactly two weeks after his mange treatment. He’s looking so much better now! Thank God!

Bringing Brownie to the Vet!

Last week, I finally found what I have long been looking for – a vet near our place! You see I have wanted to bring the rabbits for so long to a vet to get treatment for what I suspect is mange (that has been affecting their skin like crazy so that no matter how much I bathe them, they don’t get cured!) It was a small shop, immediately after the rows of metal shops and other repair shops so it was quite unnoticeable so it may not exactly be new but I just didn’t see it. I told the hubby to drive a bit slower so I could get its number and when I called them up, I learned that the vet is available on Saturdays. And so without much prodding and with only a bit of money to spare, I went there with Kit and Myk (coz the hubby and the others went home to the province) with Brownie placed in a box. We rode the jeep going there and expectedly when we took Brownie out, he was shivering maybe in fear because of his new surroundings. The doc weighed him up first and then gave him two shots for his mange…ivermectin shots(like what I have been reading in the internet) He was also given some ointment to rub on his wounds (to help hasten its healing) and his nails trimmed. I paid a total of 650 for everything (250 for the shots, 250 for the ointment and 150 for the vet’s consultation fee) He was slated to return after two weeks (April 9) for a follow-up check up, though probably not anymore an injection because often animals get cured after just one shot. I sure hope he would get cured. My only problem now is Whitey because the vet said she can’t be injected while still nursing so I have to wait until the bunnies get weaned before I could bring her to the vet and that would be by the end of April…oh well, at least what matters is that they will hopefully get cured!

New pets…and more cute bunny pics!

When the kids went home after our beach trip to Bolinao, Pangasinan they also brought home with them some new pets which they intend to take care and even sell – hermit crabs! One time we saw these tiny things being sold at a stall in SM – for 150 each! The only difference was that those sold at SM had Sponge bob or Spiderman characters painted on the hermit crab’s shells… so, how’s that for over-pricing huh! Kaye and Denise were able to take home so many big hermits and even numerous small ones…their only problem is that they wouldn’t know if the seaweed they brought home would be enough to feed the hermits and if it runs out…what more could they use to feed them???











Meanwhile, here are more pics of the baby bunnies at 16 days…they are definitely getting much cuter now since they have more hair and are truly quite playful! But we’re still afraid to touch them still although we did take out one of them and took it inside the house to play with.

MORE BABY BUNNY PICS

Today, I cleaned out again the rabbits cages and since I had no other place left to put them in, I just left them inside their cages while I cleaned one and then the other. What I did take out were the baby bunnies because I was afraid to get them wet and so I placed them on the floor of our garage while I cleaned out the cages. Anyway, there is no danger yet that they may wander about and get out since at seven days they still cannot open their eyes yet and move about as much as they want. So instead, my daughter looked over them (though she was still quite afraid to touch them!) and took pictures of them still sleeping in their box/nest...here are the pics she took.

BABY BUNNIES!

Last night, as we were eating (my birthday) dinner Kaye suddenly came in the house asking about the presence of cotton balls inside Whitey’s cage!?! I immediately stood up, went outside and saw her pulling hair from her tummy and knew--- she’s in labor! After our dinner, I set about fixing her nesting box, Jun already made the wooden box about a month ago, but I procrastinated with buying/looking for hay or straw for the nest itself. Instead, Kaye and I shredded newspapers and placed the box inside her cage and waited. She kept on digging and digging her way under the box and I knew she was agitated – maybe its because she felt a bit of pain… all night I waited with her but she showed no sign at all of giving birth. She just kept digging inside the box and pulling hair from her shoulders and her chest which she would add to the newspapers already inside the nest. I decided to sleep at 12 and set my alarm at 2 am then when I came down – lo and behold! I saw four cute bunnies in the nest while one lay forlorn beside Whitey outside her cage! So I immediately carried the tiny one and laid him/her inside the nest alongside the others. I was so excited but I very well couldn’t wake anybody else because they were all sleeping and so I just decided to take pics of the newly-born rabbits and hoped they would all survive and grow up to be cute little bunnies!

IN THE HOPE OF CLEANING AND CURING THE RABBITS

Yesterday, my daughter and I embarked on a very important project. You see it has been our problem for a few months already concerning the rabbits but we never really got around to fixing the problem, well, until now. I cannot remember anymore when it was that we started noticing some crusts forming on the noses of our cutesy rabbits and then it spread to their ears. After some research and browsing at pictures I have come to realize and diagnose that our rabbits had mites (small garapata like insects) and they are infected with ear mange. I tried to find some remedies for it but all the resources I found on the internet recommended giving them some ivermectin injections from a vet. But since there is no nearby vet available to see them, I tried to find some other solution – I finally found some home remedies this week and so during the weekend, my daughter and I decided to try them out.



First, we cleaned and disinfected their cages. This was a bit difficult for me since the cage was so large so I had my daughter go inside the cages to scrub it clean with detergent and bleach. This we shall be doing for about two months – to ensure that the mites (in case they would be cured will not be coming back!) Then afterwards, a solution of borax and hydrogen peroxide was wiped on the rabbits’ affected areas. I earlier bought borax from the hardware (it’s a natural cleaning agent so there’s not much danger to them in case of ingestion, or so I’ve read) but putting it on them is a different story altogether coz they didn’t like it much when I touch or much less place anything on their ears. I learned the trick though to wipe the ‘solution’ on them while they’re inside the small cage – so they’ll have less room to run away from me. I also petted them on the head to soothe their frayed nerves so that I was able to successfully apply the borax-peroxide solution on their ears and a bit on their noses. Hopefully, they will be cured of the mites (hopefully before the babies come so they won’t get infected too!)