Nibbler’s Story: The Beginning
Unlike my
beginning with many other pets, this story doesn’t start
out with a bad experience in a pet store, but with my
loving and caring fiancé in search of a rabbit to bond
with her long time companion Oreo who had been alone for
quite some time after her bonded life partner Chip had
passed away over 2 years earlier.
At that
time I really never thought much about rabbits, I had a
few pets already and I really wasn’t looking to own any
new ones. At that time we weren’t living together, so the
rabbit was going to stay at her place with Oreo.
So, one
day we decided to go out and find a companion for her
Oreo. One day after work. I went out to check out a lead I
found on the internet that had rabbits to adopt. When I
got to the place it turned out to be a veterinarian
office, and they looked at me like I was crazy because
they never adopted out any pets, and were wondering where
I got the information. Later to my surprise, I checked my
search history but couldn’t find the page where I found
the article. However, in a twist of fate, they gave me the
name of a nearby local rescue where someone had just
recently in the past week dropped off a dog at the guys
house while he was away.
So I
searched on the internet, and found the guys website.
Later my fiancé and I browsed the site and found one we
liked, and best of all it was already neutered like she
wanted (that saved us a lot of money). When we got to the
rescue, he had 2 rabbits in 2 different cardboard
carriers. The first was a black rabbit that shied away in
the corner, and after quickly dismissing it, Kayla opened
the next carrier that had a little gray rabbit in it that
hopped up to her to be pet and to smell her. Though it
wasn’t the same one we saw on the site, she picked the
gray rabbit to be her new furry friend.
When
going to pick up your rabbit, whether it be from a pet
store or a shelter, be prepared to have something to take
your new furry friend home in. Usually the store or
shelter will provide you with something, but just to be
safe you should really bring a carrier or a box or bin
with you. Make sure you line the bottom with a towel
either paper or fabric just in case your new buddy gets
scared and accidentally goes to the bathroom in the
carrier. On our way home Nibbler went to the bathroom and
boy did his pee smell. It didn’t take long for people
sitting across nearby to get a whiff of this unpleasant
odor, but these things do happen so just be prepared.
Initial Housing
When we
first got home, me and my fiancé set up Nibblers temporary
housing. Since he was going to go home with her after the
weekend we figured he would be ok in one of our big filing
cabinet boxes for a day. Apparently little Nibbler did not
approve, and I’ll tell you why in a second. The box was
set up with a litter box on one side and a towel on the
other so he could rest comfortably. He had a little food
bowl in the corner, and a water bottle taped to the box
side. We were all happy, had everything set up nice and
neat so we put the top on slightly elevated but secure and
got ready to go to sleep. As I sat down on the bed the
first problem had arisen. The box had little holes for
handles, and Nibbler started biting the cardboard hole
out, and just ripped a whole chunk out of it, and the next
thing I see is this little gray fur ball shoving his tiny
head through the hole. That was the day I learned how much
rabbits love to chew and play with cardboard. So, we
patched up the whole and fixed things up and decided we
were to get us a small cage tomorrow. So we made it
through the night, and the next day we got him a cage.
Handling Little Nibbler
When
Kayla and I first got Nibbler I was a little afraid of
handling him. He was so active and loved to hop all around
all over the place. When I first started petting him, he
started sniffing me and then he bit me. Not hard, just a
little nibble, and that’s how he got his name. He was a
semi-aggressive rabbit when we first got him, very
dominant, and loved to show it. But with time and patience
he has become a very sweet bun, and loves all the
attention he can get.
The
Weekend Was Over
After the
weekend was up, Kayla was on her way home to bring Nibbler
to Oreo to try bonding them. Now not every rabbit will
bond with each other, it also takes patience, and time.
So when she first introduced them to each other they did
their little dominance thing (I’ll talk more about this a
little later), and things seemed fine for a little bit.
After a day or 2 of being together he was still stating
his dominance, and poor Oreo wasn’t handling it too well.
On top of that it turns out that little Nibbler had a
little bit of an ear fetish. He had this thing where he
would bite the hair off her ear, as well as the inside
part of it too. Kayla decided at the end of the week that
the bonding really wasn’t going too well. Since Oreo was a
special needs rabbit, she figured she needed to get a less
aggressive companion for her.
When
Kayla told me what had happened, and that things were not
going well, I told her to bring Nibbler over and that I
would hold him for a little bit and see if I could get him
to be a little less aggressive. In a course of over 2
weeks not much had really changed, actually he started
biting more and harder, and we were getting close to
taking him back to the rescue to exchange him for another
rabbit.
The Zoo Begins
Though I
wasn’t a huge rabbit fan, I did grow very attached to the
little guy. So it turned into one of those things where at
the end of the week, I’d tell Kayla: “Just give me one
more week hun”. I mean I felt bad for the little guy. God
only knows where he was before and what he went through to
end up in the shelter. Kayla felt bad for Nibbler too, but
both of us weren’t really sure of what to do. Kayla
originally set out on this venture to get a companion for
her Oreo, and we both didn’t want to have too many pets.
However, I grew too attached to little Nibbler, and I told
her that we would keep him at my place.
Now that
I had decided to keep Nibbler the question was, what’s
next for Oreo? We couldn’t simply forget about her. Kayla
said Oreo hadn’t been the same since her Chip passed away.
I continued to work with Nibbler for a while and got Kayla
to hold off on getting another rabbit for a while because
we were planning on moving in together in a few months. My
brother whom I lived with at that time would not be too
fond of all these pets. After about 2 months we tried
slowly introducing Nibbler and Oreo again, but it didn’t
work out. So, I told Kayla that if she still really wanted
to get another rabbit to try bonding Oreo with, I would
let her.
Another Visit to the Animal Rescue
So,
another visit to the animal rescue led to another rabbit.
To make a long story short, after many, many tries they
ended up not getting along too well either for more than
one reason and we had to find that rabbit another home.
The rescue was full, so finding another home was our only
option, and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. As you can
see, bonding rabbits isn’t always an easy process (Later
on I’ll go into more detail about bonding rabbits). It was
looking hopeless for a long time. Now, we had 2 rabbits,
to care for, two separate cages to clean, two different
playtimes, etc. It turned into a lot more work than I
thought, and really took a lot more time out of my
schedule. Kayla and I decided to try bonding Oreo and
Nibbler one last time to see if anything had really
changed in the past few months. It took a lot of
monitoring, a lot of patience, and a lot of holding back,
but we eventually got them to become a bonded pair. I’ll
tell you a little more about holding back in the bonding
section of this e-course.
For the
most part they seemed to get along. Sure he’d irritate her
occasionally, but for the most part they would cuddle
together, clean each other, and just all in all enjoy each
others company.
The inevitable Hardship of Being a Pet Rabbit Owner
For quite
a while Nibbler and Oreo lived pretty much peacefully
together, but time had been harsh on poor Oreo. She was a
special needs rabbit, that suffered from a head tilt that
came about shortly after Kayla adopted her from a shelter
that was getting ready to put her and Chip to sleep.
Rabbits are very good at hiding illnesses, and the
veterinarian told her that Oreo had a bad ear infection,
and had developed a head tilt as a result. The head tilt
may have been avoided if the first veterinarian she took
Oreo to didn’t give her the wrong medicine. This was a
harsh lesson Kayla learned the hard way about finding a
veterinarian that specializes in rabbits. So,
unfortunately Oreo had a head tilt, and due to old age she
started battling arthritis. Oreo was about 10 years old,
and was a real trooper, but each day she appeared to be in
more and more pain. Eventually it came to the point that
it was her time. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but
to keep her alive and suffering was just as hard of a
decision. So we had helped her over
Rainbow
Bridge,
and had her put to rest.
After
being with Oreo for almost a year, the loss of her made
Nibbler quite depressed for a while. He didn’t want to
play with other rabbits, didn’t eat much treats, and even
lost his desire to play his dominant role. After a few
months, we finally got Nibbler a new friend whose name is
Chocolate and they are still together today. They get
along great and love to play together, and Nibbler has
even regained his confidence and appears as dominant as he
did way in the past.
Now, this
story above was about my initial experience as a rabbit
owner. There was a lot of joy, and a lot sadness too. Many
other experiences happened during this time too, like
rescuing other rabbits (and other animals), having and
caring for baby rabbits, rabbit information drama, etc.
All of these topics will be discussed so
don’t worry, there is a lot more coming.
Now that
I’ve shared with you my initial rabbit ownership
experience, from here on out I’ll be talking about the
in’s and out’s of proper pet rabbit care. So, here we go…
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