Did you know that a bank check will be good as long as its key fields are intact? No matter how mangled or missing the rest is, if the date, recipient, amounts, signature, and check number are there, it’s still negotiable. One of my rabbits, Sammy, taught me this little financial factoid the hard way.

Dark-eyed and Holstein-patched, the late Sammy had an uncanny knack for locating and snatching paperwork off any horizontal surface he could reach. Everything from gift certificates to work notes were nibbled into impromptu doilies by his busy choppers. (I sometimes took advantage of this, employing him as a whisker-faced document shredder.) And yes, one time he chewed the number off a refund check before I could stop him, making that one unrecoverable.

Rabbits have unforgettable ears that twist and pivot like a pair of ballerinas above their large, languid eyes. Their sweet puff tails are as irresistible as spring flowers in full bloom. But the feature that literally leaves the longest-lasting imprint on bun owners has to be their teeth.

Continue reading “Toothmarks on my Sole – How Rabbits Have Left their Mark on My Life” →

One day my husband, David, was singing the praises of our beloved bunnies to a friend whose son had had a rabbit.

Though normally humorous and erudite, the guy went quiet. Then he replied, in a grim tone suggesting traumatic tales of chew-marks too bitter to relate: “They can be very destructive.”

Sadly, I think too many people may feel the same way.

True Confessions Regarding Rabbit Destruction

1. Moraea ate the walls. 
2. No other rabbit I’ve ever owned has eaten the walls. 
3. She’s worth it. (Look at that face!)
4. She stopped.
5. I now have a full arsenal of strategies for dealing with a wall-chewing rabbit.  Just ask me.

Continue reading “Rabbit Proofing 201” →

Behold the “naughty rabbit”!  He (or she) who chews, digs or makes a mess where it’s not wanted!  How can you make your rabbit “be good”? 

Rabbits are natural chewers and diggers.  When a rabbit enters a space, she may see the same objects you do, but to her, their purpose is different.  It generally falls into one of these basic categories: eating, chewing, digging, running on, climbing on, or useless. When the space in question is your home, you may not be very pleased about her conclusions!  But she is not being naughty. You and your rabbit just see things differently.

Luckily, rabbit behavior can be managed, using a combination of: 

1. Enrichment – providing safe, human-approved ways for bunny to do the things she enjoys
2. Prevention – making unwanted activities impossible or unsatisfying

Rabbit-proofing is the prevention part. 

This post will be about the basics of rabbit-proofing. This is a to-do list for anyone who is bringing a new rabbit home, or who wants to expand the free-running time or range of their rabbit.  The goal is to make it safe for your whisker-nose to roam around without constant supervision.

Continue reading “Rabbit Proofing 101” →