Remember the "evil bunny" I wrote about a few weeks ago? My friend called her Arvienna.. That's quite a name for a rabbit, but my friend loves fantasy stories and movies, hence the name. And it's useless to prove that a rabbit has nothing in common with elves.
Arvi was doing ok till today when my friend called, very ancxious. "I think Arvi has a big problem. Probably she has damaged her backbone!" Fifteen minutes later I was at my friend's place, looking at the supposedly sick rabbit. But she didn't look sick at all to me. I asked what was wrong. It turned out Arvienna started to gnash a teeth when my friend stroke her back. She read on some message boards that this is a sign of pain.
"So, you think her back hurts," I asked? "Can I touch it?"
"No, no, don't, I'm scared. I think she needs a vet."
"Don't you think she just doesn't like it when you touch her?"
"No, before she didn't mind."
The rabbit was eating peacefully without paying any attention to us and my friend took an address book to find the closest vet. I was puzzeled by Arvi's normal looks. I googled "rabbits teeth gnashing" and looked through the first few pages. I learnt that rabbits gnash a teeth loudly when they hurt, and a slight gnashing means that the bunny is pleased. After I shared this information with my friend everything started to make sense.
"Why didn't you even try to do more research before panicking?" I asked?
"You know, I feel so responsible for her life", she said, "If something happened to her and I could've prevented it from happening, it would really suck."
Can't argue with that. And here is a lot of useful information on rabbits' health for beginners like my friend.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
100 years old bunnies
It's interesting why animals' life is so much shorter than human life. And most animals are born by 2-3+ at a time, while for a human woman it's very uncommon to give birth to 3+ children at once. So many generations of rabbits will pass while a human generation lives on. It seems that life of an animal was created to be more transient than human life. That's a pity.
Talking about rabbits, usually they live for 6-8 years. And here is one of the oldest rabbits - George. In 2008 he was 14 and was acknowledged to be the oldest rabbit alive.
The oldest rabbit ever was about 18 years old and lived in 1960s. That's amazing, when a life span of an individual exceeds the life span of the whole species by 2 or 3 times. For example, a human with a life span 3 times higher than his kind would live for 160+ years.
It's good to know that house rabbits live longer than rabbits in the wild. Yeah, people can have at least SOME positive effect on the nature of this planet - like keeping bunnies away from danger and stress!
Talking about rabbits, usually they live for 6-8 years. And here is one of the oldest rabbits - George. In 2008 he was 14 and was acknowledged to be the oldest rabbit alive.
The oldest rabbit ever was about 18 years old and lived in 1960s. That's amazing, when a life span of an individual exceeds the life span of the whole species by 2 or 3 times. For example, a human with a life span 3 times higher than his kind would live for 160+ years.
It's good to know that house rabbits live longer than rabbits in the wild. Yeah, people can have at least SOME positive effect on the nature of this planet - like keeping bunnies away from danger and stress!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
What can rabbits do?
How smart are bunnies? Can they be tamed and trained? What can you teach them do?
A rabbit can...
...be trained to jump over small obstacles;
...be very smart when it comes to "communication" with people;
...be completely tamed and sit in your arms for a long time;
...stand on their hind paws when you offer them something yummy;
...run to you when you call it by its name;
...play football;
...be trained to use "toilet";
...understand simple commands when properly trained;
...understand your intonation (like aproval or disaproval);
I'm sure this list is far from being complete. That's natural, because bunnies are full of surprizes!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The world in the eyes of a rabbit.
What does the rabbit's environment look to him? Does she see colors? Is their eyesight good? Do we look to them like some creepy monsters?
First of all, the rabbit's eyes are placed on the sides of his skull. That allows them to see almost 360 degrees. It's handy when a little animal needs to beware of preditors. The rabbit sees whatever we do at his side or even almost behind him. If he considers the action dangerous or threatening it causes fear and stress.
However only a small portion of these 360 degrees (in front of the rabbit) allows bunnies to see the distance between themselves and other objects. And a part of this area in front of the bunny if a blind spot, so rabbits have to use other means to detect if objects are far from them or close.
Another interesting fact - rabbits have a small blind spot right in front of them because of the way their eyes are placed. Sometimes they can't see what' right in front of their nose.
Rabbits can see in the dark much better than we do. However the picture they see isn't very clear.
The rabbits ability to see colors is still argued. According to some research the rabbits can tell the difference at least between green and blue. There is not much other information about them.
In conclusion, it turns out that rabbits see ALOT at the same time but not all of it is a 3D picture like the one we see. And most likely the picture is black and white for them.
First of all, the rabbit's eyes are placed on the sides of his skull. That allows them to see almost 360 degrees. It's handy when a little animal needs to beware of preditors. The rabbit sees whatever we do at his side or even almost behind him. If he considers the action dangerous or threatening it causes fear and stress.
However only a small portion of these 360 degrees (in front of the rabbit) allows bunnies to see the distance between themselves and other objects. And a part of this area in front of the bunny if a blind spot, so rabbits have to use other means to detect if objects are far from them or close.
Another interesting fact - rabbits have a small blind spot right in front of them because of the way their eyes are placed. Sometimes they can't see what' right in front of their nose.
Rabbits can see in the dark much better than we do. However the picture they see isn't very clear.
The rabbits ability to see colors is still argued. According to some research the rabbits can tell the difference at least between green and blue. There is not much other information about them.
In conclusion, it turns out that rabbits see ALOT at the same time but not all of it is a 3D picture like the one we see. And most likely the picture is black and white for them.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Why rabbits?
I would like to say a few words about why I started this blog about rabbits. I love animals, especially furry mammals. Sometimes one of them grasps my attention and I start looking for information on a particular species. It is very interesting for me to learn about various pets and their ways of life, habits and to read first-hand accounts on the community forums of animal lovers.
Two years ago I became very interested in shinshillas. The Internet was a great source of information about them. I looked through lots of sites dedicated to shinshillas and especially enjoyed forums of shinshilla owners. As a result I bought a beautiful shinshilla a year ago and I am really happy about it!
So, the fact that I'm looking into rabbits now will probably lead me to become a proud owner of a small bunny. For some time I've been researching different breeds of rabbits in case I will want to get one someday. Not sure if I will, but it's just nice to dream about it a little.
For some reason I like small rabbits. I don't know why, because with other animals their traditional size is good enough for me. Maybe it's because of the two delightful baby pygmy rabbits I saw in our pet shop the other day.
Here are a few breeds of small rabbits I have put my eye on.
1) Brittania Petite, also known as Polish. They are tiny and cute. However they are said to have a wild temper and may not the best variety for someone who's never had a rabbit before. Peeole who want to buy a rabbit of this speicies need to be well prepared and ready to be patient.
2) Dwarf Hotot is a rabbit about 2,5 lbs. They are playful, affectionate and fond of attention. Sounds awesome to me! They can be white, black or chocolate color. I'd have it black if I can. But whatever, when you get an animal and start taking care of it, its color and breed will become your favourites anyway! :)
3) Lionhead. Here it is, the picture speaks for itself.
In addition to being too cute to look at, they are aslo active, energetic and have a nice temper.
Anyways, there are so many varieties, and I liked them all while looking through their pictures. But if someone has an advice on which compact breed is the best for a beginner, you are welcome to comment.
Two years ago I became very interested in shinshillas. The Internet was a great source of information about them. I looked through lots of sites dedicated to shinshillas and especially enjoyed forums of shinshilla owners. As a result I bought a beautiful shinshilla a year ago and I am really happy about it!
So, the fact that I'm looking into rabbits now will probably lead me to become a proud owner of a small bunny. For some time I've been researching different breeds of rabbits in case I will want to get one someday. Not sure if I will, but it's just nice to dream about it a little.
For some reason I like small rabbits. I don't know why, because with other animals their traditional size is good enough for me. Maybe it's because of the two delightful baby pygmy rabbits I saw in our pet shop the other day.
Here are a few breeds of small rabbits I have put my eye on.
1) Brittania Petite, also known as Polish. They are tiny and cute. However they are said to have a wild temper and may not the best variety for someone who's never had a rabbit before. Peeole who want to buy a rabbit of this speicies need to be well prepared and ready to be patient.
2) Dwarf Hotot is a rabbit about 2,5 lbs. They are playful, affectionate and fond of attention. Sounds awesome to me! They can be white, black or chocolate color. I'd have it black if I can. But whatever, when you get an animal and start taking care of it, its color and breed will become your favourites anyway! :)
3) Lionhead. Here it is, the picture speaks for itself.
In addition to being too cute to look at, they are aslo active, energetic and have a nice temper.
Anyways, there are so many varieties, and I liked them all while looking through their pictures. But if someone has an advice on which compact breed is the best for a beginner, you are welcome to comment.
All about the rabbit size
Our local pet shop had two little rabbits for sale. The title said "pygmy rabbits". They were the same size as kittens. Those were the cutest rabbits I ever saw. As a newbie at rabbits, I wondered if the name "pygmy" implied that they would remain tiny forever.
I asked the shopkeeper how old the rabbits were and how big they would grow. It turned out the rabbits were very young and — to show how big they would grow — the shopkeeper spread her arms about 50 cm wide. "And you call THAT pygmy!", I thought.
A bit of googling showed bunnies can be hilariously huge. According to Guinness World Records, the largest rabbit was observed in Spain in 1980, with a weight of 26.4 lbs or 12 kg.
Other huge rabbits were a bit smaller, but not by much. In the picture to the left, you can see a French lop-eared rabbit Humphrey, 25 lbs, 42 inch long. The owner looks quite happy to me. Read more about this bunny here.
And two other famous giant bunnies: a 18 lbs rabbit from Scotland named Bodmin and a 22 lbs rabbit called a German Giant. More pictures and information on these mega rabbits here.
What about tiny bunnies? Guiness World Records shows that Dutch and Polish varieties of pygmy rabbits weigh only about 1 kg. Which means they're about ten times as small as the huge rabbits in the pictures above. I guess I'd buy one of these cuties if they were sold in our local pet shop. :)
I asked the shopkeeper how old the rabbits were and how big they would grow. It turned out the rabbits were very young and — to show how big they would grow — the shopkeeper spread her arms about 50 cm wide. "And you call THAT pygmy!", I thought.
A bit of googling showed bunnies can be hilariously huge. According to Guinness World Records, the largest rabbit was observed in Spain in 1980, with a weight of 26.4 lbs or 12 kg.
Other huge rabbits were a bit smaller, but not by much. In the picture to the left, you can see a French lop-eared rabbit Humphrey, 25 lbs, 42 inch long. The owner looks quite happy to me. Read more about this bunny here.
And two other famous giant bunnies: a 18 lbs rabbit from Scotland named Bodmin and a 22 lbs rabbit called a German Giant. More pictures and information on these mega rabbits here.
What about tiny bunnies? Guiness World Records shows that Dutch and Polish varieties of pygmy rabbits weigh only about 1 kg. Which means they're about ten times as small as the huge rabbits in the pictures above. I guess I'd buy one of these cuties if they were sold in our local pet shop. :)
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