Our family just got bigger with a 4-month old Holland Lop last Thursday! It’s been in the works since early March, but we had lots to prepare for his arrival, like making space for his cage and supplies, building the cage, buying the hay and litter from a feed store, and finally picking him up.
His name is Teddy, named after the nickname of our favorite English pop singer, Ed Sheeran. Lol. Kids thought it was the perfect name since Ed Sheeran is a ginger and our rabbit’s color is orange.
Teddy is 3 pounds and very fluffy. HIs maximum weight is 4 pounds. He’s still getting used to his new home and his new humans. When he first came home on Thursday evening, he would dart the moment any of us tried to pet him. That went on for about another day until we lured him out of the cage with mini shredded wheat treats. It’s safe to say that I was disheartened those first few days, because I had this romantic notion that he would love us right away.
- Kids and I have had many heated discussions about how to best care for him, but it’s the blind leading the blind. We came to an agreed conclusion about our relational dynamics: we argue the most when it comes to pets. This happened when we first got Dart and didn’t know how to best care for him and thought he was going to die when he turned pale before shedding and when he didn’t poop for days. Same goes for Teddy. Since we are aware of how our patience and frustration levels are all out of balance, we are trying to be more understanding of each other and telling each other to “chill out” when we get into that mode.
When we let him out of his cage, he’ll hop around exploring and sometimes stand on his hind legs, almost flopping over backwards. When he scratches the floor, stands still, and looks focused, that means he’s going to do his business. He loves to chomp on 1 or 2 of his dried papaya cubes a day and snacks on hay. Today he suddenly got the zoomies and started running around, which freaked us out because this was new behavior to us. We texted one of our 4-H friends about this behavior, and we were reassured that our bunny probably had an extra surge of energy.
Things we have learned so far about rabbit care:
- rabbits cannot vomit, so giving them a piece of dried papaya a day helps with their digestion of ingested fur
- a handful of hay per day helps with digestion, prevents teeth from overgrowing, and encourages natural tendencies like foraging and nibbling
- changing their food suddenly can lead to serious health issues
- rabbits are clean animals and they will find a eventually find one spot to pee and poo (this is not the case with Teddy yet!)
- to litter train, place some of his waste in the litter tray to help them know this is where they potty
- rabbits are prey animal, so they are extremely wary of new people and places and do not like to be picked up
- a show rabbit must get a tattoo of its identification number on its left ear before entering a show
It’s been a rocky start, so I’m hoping that we are able to get into a smoother swing of things soon!
21 responses to “Introducing our new fuzzball rabbit”
He is very cute.
Thank you!
Very Smart & cute.
Hi, Teddy! Welcome to your new family. 😁
Thank you!
It will take time. Think of all the new things he has to get used to — even your scent, let alone all the new things in his environment. Consistency will help. I do remember that friends in Kansas who had a pet rabbit for years mentioned that when they brought theirs home they stopped wearing perfume or after-shave so that the rabbit could smell ‘them’ rather than the artificial scents. Whether that’s a real thing or just something they decided on, I don’t know. Teddy sure is a handsome one! (I’d never heard of Ed Sheeran, but when I looked him up, the resemblance was clear!)
Thank you, Linda, for your supportive comment and encouraging example! We were in the midst of a meltdown thinking that we were terrible rabbit caretakers. I had this assumption that he would love us right away and liked to be petted. But it’s true; he has a lot of familiarizing to do with us and with his environment.
Oh, I’ll tell the kids that you looked up Ed Sheeran and that you see the resemblance. They’ll be so happy!
🥰💛🤗
QT!
It’s good to meet you, Teddy! Please be gentle with your humans.
“Nice to meet you too, auntie Liz!”
Your comment have me and the kids a good chuckle…it’s so true. We read your comment the day that we decided to strictly follow the expert’s advice and not let him out of his cage. It was reassuring that we are doing the right thing. Teddy needs to be gentle with us humans; we’re learning and we don’t speak rabbit language.
I have every confidence you humans will do right by Teddy.
Thank you for your belief!! We need every bit of that confidence moving forward with our 3 pounds of fur ball.
You’re welcome!
Totally understand the tension on all sides. Lots to get used to for Teddy and his humans! It takes time, gentleness and consistency.
Thank you! I was so encouraged by your comment in the reminder that this process will take lots of “time, gentleness, and consistency.” We’re all getting used to each other.
What a cutie-pie Teddy is and you’ve had some practice already when taking care of Diamond, or were her needs different since she is a different type of rabbit? I love those chubby cheeks. Speaking of good looks … congrats to Elliot on getting his braces off. Look at that smile. 🙂
We’re getting into the hang of taking care of Teddy! The first few days were the worst, because all of us had little idea of how to handle him. We let him free roam the first few days, but that’s not good for training. The 4-H rabbit expert told us that under no circumstances should we let him out of his cage until we know how to handle him or else he will be difficult to handle in the future. We don’t like him being in his cage, but thankfully the cage is big enough for a 9 pound rabbit and he’s only 3 pounds.
We were not able to pick up Diamond except for her last visit when we could pick her up her upper body, maybe for 5 seconds. For Teddy, to enter the showmanship activity, he has to be comfortable with sitting still and being flipped over for body check by one of the kids. We have a very long way to go!! Now that I’ve resigned to keep him in the cage, it’s much better. He’s more docile this way.
Thank you for noticing!! This month has been so crazy that I forgot to mention that Elliot got his braces removed. He wears Invisalign retainers now. Ellis is next! Her baby teeth are staying put…there’s 2 wiggly ones now and that should bring down the number of baby teeth to 6.
I didn’t realize there was so much involved with holding and picking up a bunny. Diamond is much bigger, maybe sleeker looking due to her breed, so is she more a 9-pound size? Will you still be able to take care of Diamond when her pet parents are away? Will you have to keep her in a separate area than Teddy, even if the two are in cages?
It is exciting getting the braces off – so the retainers don’t even look like he has braces then. I had wires for the bottom and top retainers, but the bottoms were only for four teeth and I didn’t wear it at night as it never fit properly. Ellis will know the ropes when she gets her braces on … with modern braces, there likely isn’t the same kind of pain for the monthly tightening of the braces. I had a metal jacket wrapped around each tooth then strung together and had to wear spaces between my teeth for a month before that was even done to make some space to fit in the braces – ugh.
Orange Dreamsicle Teddy has very important long floppy ears!
He loves to eat treats and stay hydrated!