Can't Touch This

Our rabbit Kenji is very fluffy and cute.  Almost like a stuffed animal, but very Alive.

Looking at him, you just want to reach out and hold him and hug him.  Yet Kenji has other ideas than being hugged.  He'll move away.  "nope,  Can't Touch this."

He does like to play and hop around a lot. Lots of energy.

When our bearded dragon, Hagrid, has energy she doesn't want to be held either.  Go, go, go.  

Yet because she's a reptile her body will cool down and she will slow down.     It is then that she likes to be very close to warmth.  She  is very happy when we share our warmth with her.  She'll lay on us for warmth and comfort for a time.  

It's sort of interesting: 

The fluffy cute rabbit wants private space to himself  

The scaly reptile wants to enjoy close time with us for warmth. 

All Kinds in this world.

Here's a pic of Hagrid resting on me. She relaxes and closes her eyes as she feels my warmth.

And here's our sassy sweet Kenji on his tunnel boxes.

How About Them Apples

When watching Kenji eat,  we'd notice that he takes little bites.

I cored an apple, peeled it and cut it up in small pieces

Then I brought it to him on a paper plate.

Not every piece was the same size.  Some were smaller than others.  

Well, Kenji looked it over.  Then he went and grabbed the biggest piece on the plate.

Since then I don't bother cutting apples up in small pieces.

Nail Clipping

 

Clipping our pets nails is an important part of pet care.

It can take practice to get it done.

When I first attempted to clip Kenji's nails, he zipped away.  My daughters would try to hold him. Yet it was still challenging.  Kenji seemed to find a way out.   

I asked the vet about how to hold and cut his nails.  She demonstrated that he tends to need to be held like a football.  

OK 

Yesterday I bought a new pair of nail clippers, because I couldn't find the one we had. 

Supplied with new nail clippers, a banana (his favorite treat) and towel, my daughter and I went to it. Kenji was held in a football hold, while I clipped each paws nails carefully.

He was happy with his reward treat.

Hagrid gets her nails clipped too.  

She, being the Queen of chill, wasn't initially hard to work with.  

Yet she would shake her hand after having her nails cut. Her way of letting us know she didn't care for it.  

Water, please. TY

Kenji enjoys his upstairs "pad" with Emily.  

He is a free roaming bunny.  

He has:

a place to go-to-the bathroom 

a food place and water dish

 towels, pillows, rugs

a tunnel to run through and boxes 

He's a happy bunny.    

He gets checked on throughout the day.   

As far as roles, I seemed to have taken on cleaning his water dish and refilling it. And he knows it.

I know he knows it because when he wants/needs more water, he looks at me and then the water dish.

"Water, please, TY"

I pick up bowl and go down to clean it.  

He sits in a spot and waits for me to come back.  

I come back and fill it.  

He gets excited and does his zoomies (hopping around in circles) and then nuzzle me (TY)

Kenji's Gotcha Anniversary

 Jan 9, 2021

That morning we put together the cage.  Later that afternoon my daughter and her friend placed the cage in the back seat of the car and drove to the house to pick up her new 6-7 week old rabbit.

They brought him home. They carried in the cage with this small fluff ball of a bunny.  He was so small and cute.

We open the cage door.  It took a while for him to get comfortable enough to come out, yet he did.

My daughter and her friend came up with his name, Kenji.

Jan 9, 2022

It's been a year now since that first day. We celebrated his "Gotcha Home Coming" day by treating him to his favorite treat, a Banana and sitting with him and praising him.  

It's been an experience having a rabbit to care for and there have been many joys.  Lots of learning and engaging.  

Love

Curtains

 

My oldest daughter was changing up her room.  She moved some things around to suit her better.  She added a couple of new items.  One of the items was a set of new curtains.  

I helped her put up the new curtains.  

The curtains were full length curtains and would touch the floor.  I brought up a long curtain rod.  

Kenji's enclosure is in front of the window.  In order to put the curtains up we had to move his cage forward. 

Kenji seemed uncomfortable about the cage being moved.  Yet watched to see what was next.  

We moved the cage a few inches from in front of the window.  

I then laid out the long curtains to start to pull each one through the curtain rod.  

Kenji saw the curtains and came over to investigate.  He sat by some of the curtains.  

Once I put the curtains on the rod, we put them up.  

Kenji went to the curtains.  He moved through the curtains and then sat admits them. 

Since that day, he has hopped through and slept among the curtains.  

Hide and Seek

Children enjoy playing Hide and Seek.  There's mystery and surprise in the game of Hide and Seek.

There are are advantages to the game that are vital to an animal out in the wild.  The instincts are strong in animals.  Hiding to protect oneself.  Hunting for the next meal. It is ingrained in their DNA.

Kenji, a domestic rabbit,  does play Hide and Seek.  He is drawn to places that are like a den.

under the bed

in a box

in a corner

Yet because he has gotten to know us, he does come out to see us.  

I go upstairs and he may or may not be visible.  If I don't see him, I call his name, "Kenji, Kenji bunny".  
I look in the places I know he goes: under the bed, in a box.  

Then suddenly he comes out.  

"There you are."  I say.  

I let him smell my hand and pat him. 

We can be sure he will come out when we have his favorite treat, a banana. 

Hagrid, our Bearded Dragon  is a predatory animal.  

She will move as a predator does like in the wild. She will stay really still and keep low and hide behind a plant or branch to approach her prey, crickets.  Stealth and timing is key.  

Around the Yard with Kenji

 

At first, Kenji wasn't sure about going outside.  

But once out in the yard he really enjoyed

himself.  

We would follow him with the leash around the yard.  

He would check out things around the yard.  

Rub the short log.

Smell the grass.

Exploring the yard was intermitted with sitting in one spot.  

Under the playset near the old tire.

A dirt mount under a bush. 

Hiding in the leaves at the maple tree.

Spurts of hop hop hopping, covering lots of ground.

Burrowing in the soil.  ( the house sparrows use his little hole in the yard to take a dust bath)

Surveying the area.

Good Morning, Kenji

 

Our family's routine has changed a little since getting pets.

It has become common for us to go see Kenji Bunny upstairs in my older daughter's bedroom.

The girls liked to have Kenji on the bed to pet and talk to in the morning.  We set up pillows so he could hop up on the bed easier.  

Kenji found pillows very comfy.  

He would sit on one on the bed and let us pet him and say "Hello".   

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...:)

Off to the - Bunny- Races

I now have a paid part-time job at LAH farm. Woot

First task in the morning was to check water troughs and stall buckets. 
Ann had made out a schedule so everyone knows what tasks to do and check off.

Ann decided since I was in the aisle with the Rabbits that we'd check the rabbits water and food.
The rabbits currently live in two horse stalls.  
I stepped in the first one and made sure I stood near the door so none of them would venture out.
The second stall has more rabbit and small young rabbits.  There's a box near the stall door when one opens it to again prevent any venturing out.
I made sure to let some of them smell me to "get to know me".  One rabbit looked toward water bowl, perhaps in anticipation of new water and food.
Together Ann and I refilled water bowls and food bowls.
Some rabbits will just sit in a spot for a time.  While others will go a Hop-in.
At one point a few of them decide to go scampering around.  "My",  they are fast.  It felt like "Off to the Races".
OMGosh, they are so cute. 
White ones, brown ones,  black ones.  And a very cute grey and white one that the girls have seen and commented on.
Eventually they will be moved to what was a dog kennel.  The Kennel is to be converted into their living space. 

I like the work though it's physical.  I get a chance to be on a farm and around animals.

I am a country girl at heart.