Molly our #FlemishGiantRabbit and #TICK Problem

Over the course of Winter, two of our Lionhead doe rabbits  got  pregnant because  I had to put them inside and the   Bucks  somehow snuck inside their   space and voila, we had 5 additional  rabbits.  So while I am busy looking for  some  people  who can take some of these rabbits, my husband came home with  another one.  He said that he could not say No to this Flemish Giant.  So now we have 9 lionheads and one fleming giant rabbits, it's crazy.    We are being overrun by rabbits here folks!

Her former owner  named her Darla but we decided to  change her name to Molly.  She used to live in a farm but  the owner is going back to school so she could no longer care for her.

I was against it at first but now I changed my mind.  She is actually  a pretty chill bunny.  I found out that the  bigger the size of the bunny, the more calm and relax they are.  That's how Molly is, while the lionheads are busy running around in the yard, she is just  on the yard laying on the grass. 

My kids are crazy about her, she love being pet.  I was worried that  she might have  ticks when she first came so I  looked  and inspected her on the first day and did not find any.  The next day though, I found one  latched onto her  eyelid so we immediately  removed it with tweezer and killed the tick.  Then the same day we found one  on our Jack Russell Terrier as well.  Ugh, now I am panicking about ticks, I am kind of paranoid everytime I go outside.   

So far, those are the  last two ticks we found.  According to the news, ticks will be heavy this year.  We are buying a tick collar for our dogs

It said that there are plants that can help deter ticks such as garlic, mint, rosemary, rue, wormwood, fleabane daisy, chrysanthemums and pennyroyal.  Glad we have so many mints where the  rabbit  house is.   

There is also a plant that it is a magnet to ticks which if you have it in your yard, you might want to   think about  removing it.  I used to have it at our old house but thank goodness, we don't have it here in our new home.  The plant is called Japanese   barberry, it's a thorny   and invasive plant.  It's gorgeous though when it blooms  especially when the fruits are out during winter but yes, it is  believed to be a tick magnet.  There's a lot of it  in the woods so if you are wandering in the wooded area and see  Japanese barberry, be very aware of ticks.

Anyway, despite of tick   scare,  my kids can't  stay away from Molly, she is really a darling.  I decided to put her  in a  house rabbit for now because my  vegetable garden is just starting to grow  and  I did not want her   eating the new plants.  

Molly weighs around 15 pounds, she is heavy!  The former owner said that she is 6 years old and had 8 kits.

She love  mowing the grass.  Now that she is inside the rabbits house, I cut fresh grass and  give it to her  every morning.  She also love  carrots.  We stop buying  lettuce for now because of the  bacteria outbreak recently.  I  planted some lettuce and still waiting for them to get thick, maybe I can give them some when it's ready to harvest.  

Molly's droppings are huge compared to the lionhead bunnies.  I used the rabbits droppings  as fertilizer in the garden.  

 I like it that she is not scared of the dogs.  The former owner said that she's used to being around dogs in the farm.

We used the other side of our yard to  put the rabbit house.  The kids call it the BunnyLand.  We put together all the female in one house, the new one that we just built.  Female rabbits can  get along well but the males are needed to be  separated because they fight with each other.

We  tried to sell  our lionhead bunnies to a local pet store here but  they said nobody wants lionheads, bohooo.  I don't know why because they are so adorable.  It's true that they  are a lot of work but then again every pet  is a lot of work so I don't see why.  For now, I am looking for some who would adopt some of them, we had so many already!

Rabbit House for our Four Lion Head Bunnies

When we got  the two lion head bunnies back in  January, we didn't anticipate that we will have new babies five weeks after that, whew.  Pippin (our doe bunny)  actually had four kits but two did not survived.  

I am not sure if it was the first time  she gave birth but we assumed  it was because  she seemed to not know  what to do.  She took care of them really good though and we did what we can to help  her out.  We named the two that lived, Lilo and Stitch.  A month after giving birth to the first babies, she got pregnant again and gave birth to two kits but they unfortunately died.

LILO and Stitch are getting bigger. They are now 7 weeks. #bunnies #rabbits #pets

A post shared by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Apr 19, 2017 at 4:54pm PDT

Since we have four now, we thought it would be  appropriate to make them a proper house .  My husband and daughter  built a new house for them.

We used to have two bunnies at the old house  so we also built them a house but it was smaller than this one that they newly built.  We tore it down when our bunnies died and  thought we will never have bunnies again because losing them was painful.  However, when we saw the lion heads, we couldn't resist.

The good thing is, these two love doing projects together so a house for them isn't a problem\.  It is just a little challenging to keep them inside during the winter but  our basement is  pretty big so they will have room.

It took a while before the project got done but it eventually got finished.

We couldn't figured out what to put underneath at first so I  used  some cardboard to trap all their waste.  Then we went to Home Depot and found some of these Utility tubs and thought it was  a perfect size  to  put under their shelters.

The cedar wood chips  helps in killing the odor of the  urine and  poop.

So now, cleaning their  waste is  easier with those  utility  tubs in there.

We used a thick  plywood for the roofing because  we didn't have  shingles.  We treated it  so that when it rains, the water  will roll off.  Whenever there's a storm, we  put a tarp over it so they won't get wet.  Now that our fence project is almost finished, we let them run around inside the backyard which they love.  They also love to nibble on my vegetable garden lol.

Critters Death: Rest in Peace Wubzy

I just posted an article about our bunny, Wubzy, being house trained just a month ago.  We are so proud of him of how quickly he learned  to use the litter box we have  prepared for him when he was staying inside during the Winter season.  The day after the Easter, we went outside and did some gardening.  My daughter  let him out of his house so they could play with him on the yard.  She took these photos of him relaxing.

We did not know that it was the last  day we were going to spend time alive with him.  He died that night and the kids were so devastated.  I have never heard my kids cried  so pitiful  like they were mourning for a person they love who died.  I wanted to cry while they were crying but I controlled myself.  That night however, I lost it, I cried myself to sleep.  I was very much affected  because I was basically the one that cared for him everyday when my kids are in school.  This is the part of having pets that I don't like, when they die, especially  when it's  unexpected.  We laid him to rest in our backyard as the kids requested.  We buried him to his favorite spot.  As you can see, my kids are crying.  Wubzy was a great pet, he was with us for four years.

#RIP Bunbun! We laid Wubzy to rest. The kids shed tears again. This is one part of having pets that I don't like, when they die..

A photo posted by Chubskulit Rose (@chubskulitrose) on Apr 7, 2015 at 3:25pm PDT

The next day after we lost Wubzy, I wanted to shake off  the sorrow feeling I had for  him so I went for a long walk after I dropped off my kids to school.  I felt sick seeing this  dead deer on the side of the road.  It was awful.  I had to go home and and laid down as I did not feel good after seeing it, it reminded me of Wubzy's death again.

I am telling you, death is something  I don't  take very well even on pets/animals.This morning, we took our daughter for a walk while our son was attending his Experience day.  When we came back, I saw a bunch of  dove feathers laying in our backyard and I immediately looked on the dove's nest at our back porch.  I felt  horrible seeing it as I know, she just hatched her egg/s on the nest.  

A black hawk has been terrorizing the  birds at our backyard recently  and he managed to swept off  the dove  that was always sitting in her nest.  I am not sure if the  little dove will survive without the Mom.

Hubby believe that things happen in threes so hopefully,  this is the end of it.  The first two weeks of  April for me was really awful seeing these living things dying.  I was telling my husband that it feels weird that I am feeling this way because when I was younger, all I care about is our dog, our pig, and our carabao but now, it seems like I am affected with  everything that does.  It might be because I am now a Mom that I am feeling this way.  How about you, do you get affected with  things like this?

Baby Wild Bunny

This little bunny has lost its way. 

She couldn't find her Mommy

I stopped from my jog 

watch her for  a while and 

took some snapshots.

She was shaking as she stared at me

Seems scared and keep her guard

So after taking photos

I left her alone.

Sutton Rabbits

According to the Rabbit Ranch owner where we bought our bunnies, Wubzy and Matilda are called Sutton Rabbits.  Their fur are so soft.

If you will notice above, the neck of our female rabbit, Matilda, is huge, it is because she is pregnant.

Matilda is  kind of aloof but  Wubzy love to be pet.

Here are some Interesting rabbit facts that I found at Three Little Ladies Rabbitry website

(www.threelittleladiesrabbitry.com/rabbitfacts.php)

Rabbit Facts - 40 Interesting Facts About Rabbits

1. Rabbits are not rodents, they are lagomorphs.
2. A male rabbit is a buck. 
3. A female rabbit is a doe.
4. A baby rabbit is a kit.
5. When the doe gives birth her babies are collectively refered to as a litter.
6. The gestation period for a rabbit averages 31 days.
7. A rabbits teeth never stop growing. 
8. The American Rabbit Breeders Association has 45 recognized breeds of rabbits
9. The ARBA has over 30,000 members
10. Rabbits can be litter trained
11. A pet rabbit can live as long as 10 years
12. Bunnies get weaned at about 8 weeks old
13. Adult bunnies can weigh between 2 lbs - 20 lbs depending on breed
14. Rabbits can purr similar to a cat
15. Domesticated rabbits are born without fur
16. Domesticated rabbits eyes do not open until they are about 2 weeks old
17. Rabbits cannot vomit
18. Rabbits need hay to assist the digestive system and prevent fur balls in their stomach
19. A group of rabbits is called a herd
20. A group of rabbits live in a warren
21. Mothers typically only feed their kits about 5 minutes a day
22. Rabbit meat is lower in fat, cholesterol and calories than chicken, pork and beef
23. Rabbit meat is all white meat
24. Rabbit droppings make an excellent garden fertilizer
25. Rabbits have 28 teeth
26. A 4 pound rabbit will drink as much water as a 20 pound dog
27. Bunnies love to chew
28. Rabbits do not hibernate
29. Rabbits can jump 36″ and higher
30. Rabbits can suffer heat stroke
31. Rabbits can see behind them, but have blind spot in front of their face.
32. When rabbits are happy, they will jump and twist, this is called a binky
33. Rabbits can start breeding as early as 3-4 months of age
34. Predators can literally scare a rabbit to death
35. Does will pull fur when pregnant to assist in the building of their nest
36. Rabbits can have false pregnancies
37. Rabbits groom themselves
38. Domestic rabbits cannot breed with wild rabbits
39. The only place a rabbit sweats is through the pads on its feet
40. Rabbits eat their own night droppings called cecotropes