Treat tubes!

Thanks to those lovely folks at Fergusons Pet Supplies the bunnies are now hooked on Fibafirst sticks.  We thought it would be a good idea to get them to work for their treats, so we decided on the tried and trusted method of treat tubes:

First, buy a box of Fibafirst, then break the sticks up into thirds

Scatter the segments through some hay (yes I know it looks rude!)

Start stuffing the cardboard tubes...

...then watch your bunnies have fun getting to the treats!

(Biscuit's rocking her gingery summer coat)

The good thing with treat tubes is that you can stuff pretty much anything in there for forage, plus it keeps your bunnies entertained.  It really is important to give them something to play with as they do get bored and bunnies just love to throw things about, so cardboard tubes are perfect.  Treat tubes are low cost, environmentally friendly, easy to make and they will make you very popular with your buns!

Rain, rain, go away

Today our weather has been pretty bad, even for a Scottish summer.  Since about 9.30 am we've had one thunderstorm after another, with enough rain to make me consider knocking a boat together.  The bunnies were looking really miserable despite their nice cosy hutch and waterproof cover over their run, so I brought them in.  Biscuit hates people so instantly ran off to shake herself dry under the kitchen, table, but poor wee Sampras needed a helping hand:

 "Ahh, this is nice!  I bet I get a cuddle after I'm dried off too"

 The ever suspicious Biscuit

Improvisation ftw

Your average Scottish summer x 10

Dandelion frenzy!

My mum had an impressive infestation of dandelions in her garden after the rain.  Ever the opportunist, I decided to harvest them as a wee treat for the bunnies, who nommed the lot in record time:

 DANDELIOOOONNNNSSS!!!

  .....30 seconds later

What do you mean, there's no more?

...meet Sampras!

Sampras is Biscuit's new friend and I'm happy to report that they both get along really well - possibly a little too well!  Let's just say that despite Sampras having had the snip, he has earned the nickname Quagmire due to his antics (video clip probably NSFW).  However, he is a lovely little thing and settled in very quickly.

The weather was gorgeous at the weekend so we decided to let them out of their run to go nuts in the garden:

 Sampras

 Venturing out of his run for the first time

 FREEDOM!!!

 Sampras and Biscuit cutting the grass for us

 "I was just about to burrow under the garden shed, go away!"

"Hmm, is this thing edible?"

*Creeps in looking all ashamed* Ohai thar...

It's been a while, eh?  Real life happened and I've just not gotten around to updating this and there's so much to tell!

First, we found out that Cookie and Biscuit are both female so both had their wee op.  The fact they're both girls went a long way to explain why they were constantly fighting (we had to separate them when they were around nine months old) so we had to separate them.  Unfortunately the double decker hutch just wasn't designed to house to massive French Lops so we decided to rehome Cookie, who is living with a lovely couple in Musselburgh as a house rabbit now.

As for Biscuit, we got her a new playmate when my cousin needed to rehome one of her buns, so.....

The Crying Game

We were concerned about Biscuit being so listless after the fight so we took a trip to the vet.  All is well, the ear is healing as it should...but Biscuit is a girl.  Uh-oh!  It seems rabbit vulvas look a lot different from human ones, but we had a good laugh at my failure of working out the sex of bunnies.  When we got home I thought it would a good idea to check Cookie's sex.  Turns out he's the boy - phew!


I thought people might like to learn from my fail so here's some advice on rabbits' private bits: female rabbits have a deep red vulva that protrudes when you press on their genital area, as will the boy's penis.  Rabbit testicles are hard to locate but once you find the penis, you'll find them on either side.

Saturday afternoon's alright for fighting

So we let the bunnies out for their daily exercise in the garden when 20 minutes in we find fur all over the place.  We think it strange so keep an eye on them, then they start fighting again.

Poor Biscuit now has a huge scratch down his ear and seems terrified of Cookie, so we got them into their hutches and Biscuit will be receiving some extra TLC.  A few minutes before, Biscuit was seen hopping into Cookie's hutch so it seems she wasn't too happy about that!


We weren't expecting them to fight as they are brother and sister and previously seemed so close, but we've had to take the sad decision to separate them for now.  The vet will be getting a call on Monday as Biscuit is now old enough to be neutered.  Cookie will have to wait until she's six months old to be spayed, but if we keep them apart for now hopefully we can avoid more fights.