Saturday, September 1, 2007

Stella

Meet 'Stella' Our new 8 week old rabbit.
I have seen lots of rabbits being offered through freecycle and I wasn't sure about it, but I jumped for some reason on this one. I am unsure if she is a 'he' or a 'she' how do you tell?
The people I got her (we are referring to her as her for now) breed their rabbits for food for their snakes! They do let the mother keep and feed 2-3 each litter then give them away to people who want them as pets.
Stella is currently living in our bathroom. I pick up a hutch from a friend who on Monday. In time we will build a bigger one for her and will also build a run in the yard for her, thinking along the lines of a chook tractor with a wire floor, something we can move around. If I can secure the yard i will let her roam also. So far the dog is fine with her, had a sniff and then left her to it.
Her name is courtesy of the girls, Liam anted to call her Josh.


Now to teach the kids to stop picking her up! Hope she survives their over enthused love for now!

9 comments:

Broad Betty said...

How Beautiful! I would have jumped on her as well (well not acctually ON her ) She is divine.

Unknown said...

how cute! My daughter asked yesterday for a pet guinea pig or rabbit but here in Qld it's illegal to have rabbits! We may get a couple of guinea pigs as well as chooks :)

Susan said...

She is just very sweet.
Its a good lesson for the kids too, we have been learning to 'watch' the bunny rather than handle her, shows great restraint for the kids.
I found a website that showed me how to tell if she is actually a she and I am 99% sure she s a she now.
I have an old wooden playpen in the shed and lotsof wire around so am hoping to make a run for her so she can get outdoors for a while today.
I bought her aharnes and lead too so the kids can walk her around the backyard too once she is more settled in.

casso said...

Glad you got that gender business sorted out! She looks so sweet. One of the main rearing issues I've found with rabbits are:
* teeth needing to be clipped
* conjunctivitis (due to substrate choice)
* nails being clipped

I'd encourage you to get her accustomed to being cradled on her back gently so that a lot of things can be performed on her without stress, like nail clipping and eye drops. ;o) Obviously not straight away though, probably best you get on a first name basis to begin with. :o)

Cheers, Cass

Lucy C said...

Be careful when you get your chooks.
Chooks and rabbits can both suffer from coccidiosis.
Cocci will kill a rabbit and may kill a young bird.
Chick starter is medicated for coocci and you can get stuff for rabbits but you are better off keeping Stella (great name and gorgeous bunny) far away from where the birds will be kept.
If you need more info come over to BYP and the experts will help better than me. grin.

Susan said...

Thanks Lucy thats really good to know.

We built a small run for Stella today and plan to move her round the lawn. I dont think we can secure the place enough to have her roam free, but the chooks will be able to roam. I will keep in mind ot kleep them seperate, the plans so far for where they will both be kept is a decent distance apart.

Polly said...

Little Stella is beautiful. I didn't know that about keeping rabbits and chooks apart. Interesting.

Lucy C said...

Susan, I might PM you via BYP with some links when I get a chance to look for some.
Lucky keeps rabbits and chooks and doesn't seem to have a problem.
I will go looking for some info.

Lucy C said...

BTW, I bought my first dSLR on the weekend. A Nikon D80.
Haven't used it yet. But the bag looks good! Really, it is all about the bag.
Think I will post about it on my blog soon.