Baby Bunny: Inside and 0ut

 

While it was still winter, we introduces Kenji to different rooms in the house:  

The Living room

Our youngest daughters bedroom 

Our bedroom

He liked to explore the bed's soft blankets and lay down.  He would sometimes do burrowing on the blanket.  Then settle to rest in a spot.

Once on the floor he'd go under beds, zooming in and out.  He was using those long back legs to move. "And Boy, Could he move."  

We set up pillows and cushions so he could climb up on the couch or a bed.  He was excited to explore.

Once the weather warmed up we decided to introduce him to our yard outside.  

The first harness leash we got was soft rope.  

He wasn't so sure about it at first.  

Rabbits do not like being picked up really.  

Even when we got it on him, he managed to get out of it.  

We order a different harness leash that had Velcro and a click.  We did eventually get that harness leash on.  The smoother and faster we did it the more he was able to be OK with it.  

Then we opened the door.  As with any new thing, he hesitated.  We placed him in his carrier and carried him outside.  We unzipped the carrier bag.  He came out slowly to explore.  He would venture out farther and farther around the yard.  

The small garden plot

The longer garden plot

The playset

We noticed he would mark things with his outer cheek.  

A Branch

A small log

An old tire

The Maple tree: touched with a foot

His walks in the yard consist of stop, look, surge ahead hopping.  Then stop again. Sit for a time.  He  could sit for 5-10-15 minutes.  Look around, then clean himself.

He noted dogs barking behind the fence.  When he moved to the front of our house, he noted cars going by.  At first he bound off and we'd steer him to the back yard.  Yet he started to become accustom to cars going by...he would flatten himself until it was gone.  

We try to mostly stay in the back yard.  

He found a small dirt pile near a bush he likes to sit on.  He marks things around the yard.  

He did do a little burrowing in the dirt in the yard, but nothing to be concerned about.  

He likes the bushes too, for he feels safe there.  

  

Baby Bunny: Burrowing and Boxes

We started out with shaving for bedding.  But we found disadvantages to shaving.  They seemed to end up every where and on everything it was near.  

Granted with any pet you're going to have to clean and refresh bedding, water, cage.  

Yet we looked to another way.  

We tried newspaper.  Kenji shifted the paper around and gnawed on it.  So we got rid of the newspaper.

In the end we just chose to have hay so he could graze through out the day.

As far as peeing and pooping, Kenji chose specific spots to do his duty.

Rabbits do burrowing activity and like a den like place.  It is a natural instinct to burrow.  His cage has a covered area that is similar to a burrow.  It makes them feel safe.

Kenji became fond of a red soft towel.  He'd do a little burrow movement, then stretch out to relax. Sometimes he'd fall asleep for a time there.  

We discovered that Kenji also loves Boxes.  They're are den like. Yet they are also a place to hop on and off of.

We started with just a couple of boxes.  Kenji checked them out first.  Then he would hop on one.  And hop off .  

There was a ottoman in the room.  Kenji found he could jump on that.  

It was a soft place to rest, too.  

There was the time I ordered a new comforter for our bed because it was getting worn.  I ordered it online.  When it was delivered I brought the package in.  Kenji had been hanging out in the living room. As soon as I came in with this package, he came over to me and sniffed the box.  :D

My daughter brought the box up stairs and made a bunny box house for Kenji.  She placed the soft red towel inside.  He loved it.  

It was entertaining to watch him move around the room to different spots.

Kenji would hop back and forth with excitement.  

Baby Bunny Kenji

 

My daughter set Kenji's cage up stairs in her room.  

We put shaving in the cage and a water bottle on the side of the cage.  It seemed OK, yet we knew he would grow.   

We looked around at cages in a couple of stores.  We couldn't find a larger cage in stock in a store, so we order a larger rabbit cage online from chewy.com.  

When the large package arrived we brought it in and opened it up.  It took a bit reading instructions and setting it up.  We called the support line to help us.  They helped and we were finally able to finish putting it together.  Whew.  

Kenji seemed to like the bigger cage, yet still went to the other cage to drink water and poop.  So we kept the other cage.

A little bit about Kenji: 

In the beginning Amanda and Jan watched Kenji. He didn't really do much at first, and didn't step out of the cage. After a few days, he finally stepped out and explored. His personality is friendly, but little timid. 

He loves running around, hiding, and exploring. He would mostly hide under the bed, and sleep. 

He has an energetic side, and a calm relaxed side to him. When he's energetic, he would run around a lot, and be entertaining to watch as he explores the room. When he's calm, we are able to pet him, he usually sleeps when he is calm. 

He eats Timothy and  Alfalfa hay, and pellets which is his main meal. We give him bunny biscuits, bananas, and salad as a treat. He especially loves bananas.  

We looked up breeds of rabbits to learn more.  

There are 49 breeds of Rabbits world wide.  We looked at the different breeders of rabbit to find what Kenji was.  He is part Lion Head.  They have hair that is similar to a lion's mane, hairs fluffs out around his head.  He is very fluffy and soft.  The description of his breed mentioned that they are good family pets though a little timid, as he is.  They mention not so good with young children who's energy is very high.  

Our girls are teens and love learning about their new pet.  

Illustrations of Kenji eating.  

His ears were small, as he was just a baby.  

He does seem to like to put his front paws on the edge of the  bowls.  

A Bunny and A Beardie

Our daughters wanted a pet.  

When they were younger we got a Beta fish (Japanese Fighting fish) for our oldest daughter.  It was a dark reddish fish.  She named it Sophie.  It was nice.  We saw to it she fed it every night.  I cleaned the bowl each week.  Sophie lived for about 2 yrs.  They don't live very long.  

Next we got our youngest a Beta fish.  This one was blue.  She named it Bluey.  The fish lived for about a year.  We enjoyed it for the time.

But now they wanted a different pet.  

Cats were out.  I'm allergic to cats.

Dog.  We weren't sure...lots of "hmmm, we'll think about it."

It would be a new member of the family, care, expenses, food.

Guinea pig. no  

The subject kept coming up here and there.  

My oldest daughter started working PT and earning some money.

Then one day she told us she's getting a bunny.  

I was like "hmm, OK."  

I didn't know about rabbits.  Yet we could do our research. 

A friend's sister had two rabbits, male and female.  They had had a litter.  

So we jumped into researching about Rabbits.  Breeds, Cage size, food, needs, etc.  

One day in January, her and a friend went to pick up her new pet, a 6 to7 week old baby rabbit with a cage.

They came home and brought in the cage with this little fluff ball of a baby bunny. He was so cute. 

We sat with him in the living room for a short, before she brought him up to her room, where the cage would be.

Of course the rabbit was a little nervous being in a new place.  We let him just see and hear us.

Over time we got to know him and he got to know us.

They came up with a name, Kenji.  It was a start to us embracing our new member of our family.

To be continued...:)