Night Free Roaming

By the time this blog is written and posted, Cotton and Charcoal have free roamed during the nights for more than a week now. 

It's tough to take pictures at night without flash, hence this post is going to be pictureless and I try to be as descriptive as possible.

After they were bonded, they were given day roaming on weekends at our supervision. This was on-going for 2 months and they both showed consistently excellent potty behavior without stray pee and poops. Hence I decided to try giving them night free roaming while we hoomans asleep. 

On the first night, they were super excited and happy that Cotton "made" a lot of noise with his cat collar kept ringing when he hopped around. The first night was a great success - no stray pee, poop or any nuisance chewing. This was going good until on the 4th night that I caught Cotton chewing one of my boxes edge. In a fit of anger, they were locked back into their pen for that night. I had to tape the damages done. :(

So I think back what I did incorrectly and why Cotton was destructive in behavior. He is usually very obedient and an intelligent bun who knows exactly what I want. Then I realized I did not kiss both of them goodnight and warn them No Stray Pee or Poops or Chewing! Unbelievable, right? Since then, I have to kiss them goodnight and warn them the same thing and they would be well-behaved. No more chewing incident since then for now. *finger-crossed* 

Every working weekdays' mornings, Cotton and Charcoal would return to their pen at 5:30 ish am to await for me to wake up to bring them pellets for their breakfast. Pignic (our guinea pig) would wheek happily for her pellets too and she too another intelligent rodent! 

On every weekends' mornings where I have a tendency to sleep longer, Cotton would hop into our bedroom to check me out. Sometimes he would hop in his bunny 500 speed noisily with his cat collar to seemingly trying to wake us up. Take for this morning as an example, Cotton attempted twice to wake me up and check on me at 5:16am and 7:15am. Such a nuisance..... a cute and adorable nuisance. 

Charcoal is happy with the night free roaming arrangement too. She would hop next to me whenever I was cleaning their pen. Yes, that close to me now. Pets understand the love we have for them, I feel. They understood my warning and kissing given to them every night. This shall be the arrangement for the next few months and when I think they are ready, the fence will be torn down - penless. :D 

Project Fat Fat

Charcoal: my mummy current obsession on us now is making me fat. Her targeted weight set for me is 1.3kg :O

Last weighed in 14-July, I was 1065g. About close to 3-4weeks later, my mummy weighed me again. 

11-Aug: 1123g. It's a jump of 40g!

She weighed me again on 17-Aug: I was 1135g - a mere 10g more within a week. 

So now my mummy knows the way to fattening me up without syringing me daily - feed us with veggies daily. 

My mummy is a weird person because she used to control our pellet diet too and now she would fill our pellet bowl to let us eat till to our hearts' content. This means to say she will give us an amount which husbun and I will finish and stop eating further in that one feeding timing in every morning. If there is any excess, she would clear away. So you tell me, how not to get fat like that???? It just a matter of time that I will reach her targeted weight.

23-Aug-2015 weight update:

Another 10g more within a week! Another baby step closer to the ideal 1.3kh target!

My mummy has stopped syringe feeding me for a week now. She said I should be able to gain weight through the normal diet provided - hays, veggies, supplement and pellets. She forgot to add: a dose of love and happiness too! I want to be a happy fat doe if she desires my weight to be increased. 

29-Aug-2015: In just 6 days, I'm 22g heavier! No way!!! I am now 1167g! 

My mummy has stopped syringe feeding me and served only vegetables, more pellets and plenty of hays. Somehow with the free roaming at night, husbun and me tends to eat more hays at night too. My mummy now needs to top up twice a day - morning and evening. 

My weight gained also resulted my spine bone less easily felt than before. I am also more chubbier to be cuddle. However, I am still far away from my targeted 1.3kg weight so my mummy is not giving up! :O 

7-Sep-2015: She weighed 1230g!!! 70g away from the targeted weight! Woohoo! 

Till then, watch this space for more updates! 

Random Pictures X: Chillax in AC room

Weather has been horribly hot and humid these days and so the bunnies know air conditioning is their best friend now. Hahaha

Cool air sure beats the weather heat away. :) 

Changing Floor Mat

Before: 

Changing in-progress! First time seeing our bare floor after such a long time. 

Installing the new mat. We tried green colored for the first time to give an illusion of golf course. Hahahha but this looks like a billiard table! 

Ta-da! Finally done! 

Burrito and Syringe Feeding

Charcoal: "My mummy said I have not been gaining much weight for the past 7months despite I have been eating my hays and vegetables as normal. My poops have always been smaller size than husbun, just like our body sizes, hence there is no sign of ill health.

However my mummy felt that I needed to be pumped up as many bun parents also felt I'm on skinny type. So my mummy decided to syringe feed me with critical care (Momi Complete Care). For some strange reason, when I'm placed upright, I will not swallow down the CC paste down my throat. I'll spit out instead, so my mummy has to place me at sitting position to syringe feed me.

Since Daddy is not helping mummy so she has to use her pair of hands as optimally as possible. She decided to use a towel to burrito around my body to mimic I'm being carried and secured. She laid a pee pad so that any mess can be contained. 

Look at my already blackened face. 

Before my mummy started syringe feeding me, she weighed me and found my weight to be 980g. After syringe feeding for 6 consecutive days, she weighed me again and I gained 42g with a final weight of 1022g! 

The gain in weight really makes my human very happy and so she will continue doing that. My mummy also adds in half capsule of powdered spirulina into my CC paste. She read in a scientific journal published in 2010 that spirulina may be helpful and beneficial for rabbits. 

 Well I feel like I'm like an animal tested experiment. 😁 

Even husbun not spared from the spirulina mixed in CC feeding! Mummy said Cotton will get to eat once a week basis though. 

I hope to gain more weight and then don't have to trouble my mummy to syringe feed anymore. Sometimes my husbun will look at us suspiciously too. Scary! " 

Added on 14-Jul-2015:

On weekends, my mummy syringe feed me twice a day with Spirulina mixed in. 3 days later, I grown 43g heavier and becomes 1065g! 😱

My mummy said she will continue to syringe feed me further. Omg! 

Love Bears a Fracture & a Fruit

Charcoal: "How much time has passed by and I have a family for 7 months already and still counting! I was a very shy doe and still is, hence I open up my heart slower than my husbun, Mr Cotton. I was told my husbun settled in this family within a month or less.

I took a longer time may be because of my past encounter with humans. Not easy to build back trust when one has post trauma experiences. It did not help when my mummy does not know what I had gone through previously. Luckily for her, husbun shown me the way. I was able to know my new family better through husbun's eyes. 

Initially, husbun and I were also not in friendly term. He was simply overly friendly and curious to my comfort. My mummy took 3 months or so to neutralize the animosity between me and Mr Cotton (see previous posts) before we could be bonded as a pair within 7 days. 

We have bonded for more than a month now and even at the first 2 weeks of bonded together, husbun would hump on me at times. There was once I struggled to shake him off and resulted me to fracture my left leg. My mummy saw me limping while hopping to escape from Mr Cotton when I managed to break free. I have since recovered and hopping well. No surgery, no bandage or medication. Purely self healing as per Dr Hsu (TAC) advised. 

I was separated and isolated to heal my fracture. This was my first 2 days posture. 

On next few days, I could slowly lie down. Amazing, isn't it? 

Almost a week later, I could almost stretch and lie down!

On my 8th days from fracture, my mummy decided to put me and husbun back as she afraid we be unbonded. I was still limping then. 

My mummy monitored us closely. Mr Cotton did attempt to hump me again despite my limping condition. My mummy instantly stopped him. This repeated for a while and then we decided to snuggle together again! 

 

My mummy does not understand us either. Indeed our love bears a fracture and a fruit later. " 

6 months to melt the Ice queen's heart

You can say she is shy, or autistic as another bunny parent described. Whatever it is, she took close to 6 months to be readily relax fully. She been stretching herself straightly and oftenly for the past 1 week. 

She won't even budge much if i snap picture quietly. It is indeed a big deal for me because it means she has come to trust me and accepted we are one family. 

I think bonding her with Cotton also helps to outreach her heart faster too. She observes quickly how Cotton interacts with us and learnt quickly which behavior is acceptable and which is not in this family. Clever bun indeed. 

One more plus point is that she is as super clean as Cotton. Look at her butt furs - so cottony white! 

She Binky once before but it was too fast to be captured. I hope I be lucky to capture her binky moments eventually. :D