Dora leaps and dances when I come with her salad in the evening. I think she’s leaping more for the little bits of carrot and apple the salad is laced with, rather than the greens. Like most of the bunnies here, she goes for the sweet stuff first. She hates dill for some reason and leaves it behind to wilt at the bottom of the bowl. She’s not a big fan of cilantro either and will only eat it after it sits in the bowl for a few hours and there’s nothing left but the dill!

I used to feed the bunnies huge mountains of salad twice a day, but in the last two years or so have greatly reduced the amount of greens I feed. They still get them twice a day, but in much smaller quantities. I had one bunny who loved greens, but always was gassy from them, so now I’m afraid to feed too much.

Hay is the most important thing for a house rabbit to eat, but like anything that is *good for you*, it often is a challenge to get the bunnies to eat it. Every bunny has their particular likes and dislikes (which change from day to day, it seems) and they’d much rather eat pellets than hay, but too many pellets lead to fat bunnies and other problems.

I buy 50 pounds of 2nd cut timmy hay by mail order every three months and use this as *treat* hay, because it is expensive and 2nd cut is soft and green and lovely – and fattening. I also buy small bags of 1st cut timmy from the petstore each week. In addition, I order a less expensive mix of timmy and oat hay from a small farm in Massachusetts that I use to fill their litterboxes each day. As a result, my basement looks like a hay barn most of the time, but this way I always have something on hand that the bunnies will eat, regardless of how their tastes change from week to week.

Dora, so far, is not a good hay eater and this worries me. She loves to shred and eat willow and newspaper, but only nibbles at the hay in her litterbox and the baskets I keep scattered around my office. I’ve tried every type of hay I have in the basement, but she’s not nuts for any of them. I may have to try a bale from a local horse farm to see if maybe she prefers a more stemmy, brown hay.

This post on the Birdchick Blog today got me thinking about the many ways I invade the bunnies’ privacy by trying to get cute pictures of them. It seems that Birdchick’s bunny Cinnamon disapproves of my posting a photo of Boomer’s butt.

Cricket will not make any comment about how large Cinnamon’s butt appears in this photo, but she certainly disapproves of Cinnamon being so near to a Golden Eagle. I, however, find the Golden to be very cool. Sharon has a great blog and the coolest job (and a very cute rabbit)!

My bunnies are not easy to photograph, so I tend to sneak up on them with the camera when they are otherwise occupied. For example, this photo of Missy playing in her cardboard castle on the patio. The cardboard castle was probably her favorite toy, but the Flemmies destroyed it. Bunny toy manufacturers listen up – there ought to be toys designed for big bunnies! The flemmies were too heavy for the cardboard castle and can’t fit into the cheese house.

I snuck up on Boomer and Cricket to take this picture of them snuggling together in their hidey-box. They sleep their day away there while I’m at work. They really seem to like the fleece bed to sleep on, but it accumulates huge amounts of their shed fur. If I try to brush away the fuzz with my fingers (or heaven forbid the vacuum!) Cricket nudges me away with her nose and tries to nip me. She is very protective of her hidey-box, but only when she is in it! Today I brought the two of them into the petstore for a nail trim, which was quite an ordeal. They both disapprove of nail trims.

Lastly, I have this photo of Freckles peeking out at me from her cheese house. Why she loves this thing so much I can’t guess, but she sure looks cute in it. She’ll scramble around in it for a bit and then flop on her side for a nap. She is a pro at the *dead-bunny-flop* that gives me a small heart attack on a daily basis. She also loves to throw stuff to make noise, like she’s doing right now because her dinner and treats are very late!

I don’t have any embarassing or indiscreet photos of Dora yet, but she’s only been here a few months and is too wary still for me to sneak up on her.

Here’s Boomer showing off his fluffy white tail and just *begging* for me to pet him. Isn’t he gorgeous?

I can’t imagine a life without bunnies.

It occured to me today that I hadn’t yet posted a photo of my first bunny, Miss Buns. Boy would that make her mad!

I’ve had Missy for just over 4 years now. She and Freckles came from the same pet store, before I understood that rabbits are better obtained from rescues and shelters.

Missy is a very bossy rabbit, like many girl bunnies. She has definite opinions and is not afraid to express them by thumping or nipping! She and Freckles lived together (both spayed, of course) for 4 years and Missy terrorized sweet Freckles for most of that time. They were generally loving with one another, but not bonded or in love like Boomer and Cricket. Missy would get in a mood and Freckles had to put up with being bossed and chased around their habitat. Ever since Missy got sick this summer and had to spend 2 weeks at the vet getting better the two have lived apart. Freckles aparently has decided she would rather live alone.

Missy is doing well, but has slowed down a lot. I wonder how much of that is due to the heart condition and chronic respiratory infection or if it is simply that she is lonely and bored. She eats very well, but spends most of her time napping. She continues to do binkies (although wobbly ones) in her pen sometimes in the morning when I bring her salad – especially if there is lots of dill – that is her absolute favorite!