Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[new_minilops]

Hello!!

 

I just got two baby girl mini-lops last weekend, they will be 9 weeks old on saturday. They are super cute and i love them to bits but am being a bit of a paranoid new mum!! Is there any advice anyone has on making sure they are totally happy bunnies?

 

They are currently spending the day and night outside in their hutch and spend lots of time just sitting and cleaning each other, they get a cuddle before work and then play in their indoor run after work. The first two evenings we had them they sat on our knees and fell asleep, now they just want to run around and are more jumpy, i thought it would be the other way round?!

 

Eventually i would love them to be house rabbits and am trying to train them to use the litter tray but they poo every 5 seconds everywhere so letting them stay indoors 100% is just not practical at the moment!

 

Any advice would be great, hopefully the bunnies are happy! The other thing i noticed is that the larger one now always has one ear up??? Is that normal?!!

 

Paranoid bunny mum!!!

[victoriabunny]

Why don't you keep them indoors in an indoor cage? You need to be careful bringing them in and out all the time - as the weather gets colder, they need to stay outdoors all the time if that's the main place they live as otherwise they won't build up thick enough winter coats. It might be worth adding a run to their hutch as it's very important that they get sufficient exercise whilst they're growing or their bones won't develop properly.

 

Littertraining: keep the rest of the cage completely bare and put woodshavings in the tray. Put hay in it - bunnies like eating and pooing at the same time. Sweep up any poos from the rest of the cage and add them to it. If the buns persistently wee in another area, move the tray there - no point fighting them! Be warned though that whilst you will probably get them weeing in the tray most or all of the time, buns do scatter dry poos as a way of marking their territory so it's unlikely they will do all their poos in the tray.

 

Get them vaccinated if you haven't had this done already and get them spayed when they are 6 months old. The ear will lop as bun gets older. Don't give them any veg until they are 12 weeks old and then introduce it very gradually - unlimited hay and dry food only for now (it's fine to give growing youngsters as much dry food as they want, but once they're 6 months old start weighing it per advice on the packet or they'll get fat). Enjoy them!

[jenuk99]

My bunny mac is a house rabbit and was doing the same with poos all over the carpet and sofa. She has now been spayed and only poos in her cage and litter tray.

[new_minilops]

I'm glad i'm not the only one!! We are currently sourcing an indoor hutch (and a space to put it!) which is why they went outside initially! Once they are old enough to be spayed then i'll be the first in the queue...! How old do they have to be?

 

Still trying the litter training, thought i was getting somewhere until last night when they decided to pee 10cm away from the litter tray...!!

 

When we got them the breeder said they were used to greens so have been giving them celery and carrot here and there, am i best stopping untill they are older?

 

Thanks for your replys!