The Daily Bunny
February 26, 2010 3:31 AM   Subscribe

 
No recipe section?
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:41 AM on February 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


()()
(--) don't eat me.
(")(")
posted by nthdegx at 3:59 AM on February 26, 2010


Be vewwy, vewwy quiet...
posted by three blind mice at 4:22 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Very cute, yes. But I baby sat a bunny for two weeks, and in truth my pet turtle is both more affectionate and more interactive. And it has a brain the size of like half a pea.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:30 AM on February 26, 2010


The other place is over here.
bea....with onions. yum. I'm going for lunch now.
posted by adamvasco at 4:52 AM on February 26, 2010


No thanks, distinct lack of pancakes.
posted by Pollomacho at 4:54 AM on February 26, 2010


When I came home from work the other day, I found that one of our rabbits had hopped out of his cage and was surfing the internet. He quickly clicked away from The Daily Bunny, but it was too late. I saw what he was doing. This is bunny porn! So I grounded him and put him back in his cage without any carrots. This made him sad.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:48 AM on February 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


So robocop, I've always wanted to ask - what's owning a bunny like? I've always been told they're standoffish but I have no experience . What's it like to be a rabbit wrangler?
posted by The Whelk at 6:09 AM on February 26, 2010


Squeee! OMG!

Naturally, I will favorite this link and be sure to look at it every day. Which reminds me, what's going on at the Puppy Cam?
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:28 AM on February 26, 2010


WABBIT TWACKS!
posted by davelog at 6:36 AM on February 26, 2010


what's owning a bunny like?

I have two giants, and they're pretty cool. They're about as smart as cats, mostly litter-trained, and they quickly get used to routine. In many ways they're like small dogs.

There are two problems - the first is that a bored bunny is destructive, to the point of stripping the plaster from the walls or eating the plumbing fixtures. The second is that, while they look cuddly, they're not. They're affectionate but it's always on their terms. Stroke and pet, rather than pick up and cuddle.

Everyone's lives improved a lot when they stopped being house rabbits, and started being mostly-garden-but-we-leave-the-back-door-open rabbits. Helps that there are no cats nearby.
posted by Leon at 6:38 AM on February 26, 2010


The Whelk, I owned a rabbit, whose breed escapes me (they generally call them meat rabbits, white with red eyes, large breed). At first, she was very standoffish. Skiddish, etc. We were training her as a house bunny. We found that if we laid on the floor, she would come up to us, slowly, and lick our ear, or hand. She'd wait to be petted.

Over time she got to be very, very affectionate.
posted by Malice at 6:47 AM on February 26, 2010


Can you yell "fuck off!" at a bunny and throw water at it and it still keeps haranguing you anyway? If not then it is not as interactive as my primary cat.
posted by Mister_A at 7:16 AM on February 26, 2010


(Disclaimer: Not a bunny owner, but a knower of bunny owners.)

I think the big disconnect happens because people expect rabbits to be like dogs or cats. As a fellow who grew up in a house full of Siamese cats, there's little doubt in my mind that rabbits are different in almost every way. See The Language of Lagomorphs for example.

My favorite rabbit experience was with a big wonderful French lop named "Chester." Someone just handed me this huge pile of floppy warm bunny, and he was so mellow and cozy that he just went to sleep in my arms, making that bunny purring sound and exuding love-waves. Must have been like 20 pounds of pure cuteness. There's not much in the universe more adorable than a drowsy rabbit.

Also: Sproing! (via Ele B.)
posted by SteelyDuran at 7:21 AM on February 26, 2010


Yep, I strongly agree with Leon. (Chester was anomalous.) Then too, rabbits differe wildly from each other, too, and while some might be keen to cuddle slightly, others don't want you near them and will stick to the protocol. Some bunnies are silly, others are VERY VERY SERIOUS. Perhaps they have serious bunny work to do, and they don't have the time or inclination to participate in your human shenanigans.

Also: bunnies eat wires. Big-time. Now, just imagine if you were a bunny and had those awesome teeth and desperately wanted to try them out on something. Think of how delicate and delicious those wires would seem! The wonderful chewy texture! the crunchy chips of insulation! Heaven! But at best it's very destructive, and at worse it can be quite deadly. So keep the little ones from your wires.

Also: watching a bunny eat a leaf of, say, delicious romaine lettuce is a fantastic thing. They suck it right in like a shredder in one continuous pass chewing quickly, which makes their cheeks wiggle. Ah! Romaine. That's one thing about bunnies I can understand.
posted by SteelyDuran at 7:31 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


I think the big disconnect happens because people expect rabbits to be like dogs or cats.

Very true. I now have trouble interacting with dogs because all my small-mammal body language filters are calibrated for rabbits. (Try making a fist under a rabbit's chin - that's a request for grooming. Chances are the rabbit will whip its head away and turn its back on you ("how dare you be so presumptuous"), but occasionally it will groom you. Rabbit society is all about grooming and nudging.)
posted by Leon at 7:33 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


what's owning a bunny like?

Like most pets, it varies by animal. We have three rabbits, each with their own personality:

Grendel is pretty much Lucy straight out of Peanuts. She is selfish, opinionated (she's usually the first one to stomp at something, like the vacuum), and generally assumes the world exists for her pleasure. She's reasonably clever, having learned how to unlock her own cage, and is friendly enough provided she approaches you (usually because you have food) rather than the other way around.

Robocop was once the explorer bunny. When he got his out time, he'd run about the house checking everything out, seeing where he could squeeze in to, and generally getting in to thing. He was pretty brave and would hop up onto the couch to to get pets while we're watching TV. Sadly, he's over ten now and is pretty much blind due to cataracts. He'll still try to explore, but that involves a lot of him bonking into things which is heartbreaking. He still likes his pets on the couch, which we call 'Snuggie Time' as he'll fall asleep wrapped in a snuggie getting nose rubs, grinding his teeth happily.

Dr. Beef Wellington, MD is a spaz. He really wants to make friends with the other bunnies, but is kind of socially awkward so just usually ends up pissing them off. He and Grendel never get along, so can't be out at the same time. Once he was trying to get her attention by jiggling the front of her cage, which enraged her to the point that she unlocked her cage and charged out to beat the stuffing out of him. Beef usually likes to be held and loves attention. If he doesn't get attention, he'll have a tantrum and knock litter out of his box, so every day when I get home I need to give him a nose rub.

Generally, they all are very routine oriented. Mornings mean papaya tablets, breakfast, THEN hay and they get huffy if you do it out of order. They're all pretty well litter trained, except for Robo who will sometimes have accidents in his old age. They're happy to chill in their cages all day, but we try to give them outs every evening. When they're out and about, they'll bink and popcorn or just generally snoodle about. They all like me much more than my wife, which is weird as she's the one that feeds them. They live in a cage/condo/hutch complex I build for them that takes up a 6' x 4' chunk of our living room. Each has their own private quarters.

We've supplemented their personalities with imaginary jobs and opinions, but that's more our insanity than theirs. Grendel is a lazy layabout who keeps getting fired from a string of service jobs, usually because she either 1) fell asleep at a crucial time or 2) ate all the product to be sold. She has an imaginary boyfriend bunny named Raffles and a fake website called ihatemommy.com. Robocop used to run with a crew of criminal critters pulling heists, but is now retired and hangs out at a local dive bar (ala Achewoods' The Smoke). Dr. Beef Wellington is totally a doctor, you guys ("I prescribe more nose rubs!"), but is also amazingly naive (We blame him for the mice in the laundry room - he unlocked the door for them thinking they were delivering a pizza.). They each have their own voice and we can have entire conversations on their behalf.

We first got them when we were apartment dwellers and our landlord wouldn't let us have a cat due to his allergies (which is weird because he didn't live in the building, but whatever). Now that we own our own house, I don't know if we would get bunnies again. I mean, we're pretty much locked in to a cycle of bunnies (We're constantly tempted to adopt more from local shelters, but do not want to break the 'IF # of Pets > Number of Humans +1, THEN the Humans are crazy pet people' rule) now, so there'll probably be more in the future, once Robo passes and receives his burial at sea, but if we did not have them, we'd probably be looking at getting a pair of cats.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:35 AM on February 26, 2010 [16 favorites]


> Dr. Beef Wellington, MD

...is the best bunny name I've ever heard.

I long for the day when I can introduce myself and three bunnies something like this: "This is Rufus Cavendish, and his assistant Willoughby, and *his* assistant, Wigglesworth. Wigglesworth doesn't have an assistant." Then I'll pause for just one beat, shrug slightly at this last notion, thinking to myself, "She doesn't seem to need one, come to think of it," and we'll all just go trotting off to solve mysteries, study quantum mechanics, etc.
posted by SteelyDuran at 7:46 AM on February 26, 2010 [5 favorites]


Quick someone tell youngamerican now every day can be New Bunny Day.
posted by edbles at 7:57 AM on February 26, 2010


Ours is pretty low maintenance. Like others have said, he's a creature of habit. First thing in the morning he wanders over and lies in front of the fridge until he gets a piece of lettuce. Then he'll charge around for a bit until he wants breakfast, at which point he heads for his cage. Evenings he'll run around happily for a couple of hours and then come begging for papaya or raisins around 7:30. He'll sit with us for a while until he's ready for bed. Some days he'll let us pet him, some days he'll utterly refuse any contact.

Our rabbit's easy life was complicated by our kid learning to walk 9 or 10 months ago. The rabbit seems to enjoy the extra attention, he follows my boy around quite a lot and encourages him to chase by running just far enough away that my son doesn't lose focus. When he wants quiet time, his hidey holes are not as secure as they used to be, but his treat quota has improved vastly in the last couple of months since my kid figured out how to open the jar.

The biggest pain is if we're going out of town for a while. There aren't any places around here that will board a bunny. Luckily we have a couple of friends with pre-teen daughters who demand as much time as possible.
posted by IanMorr at 8:15 AM on February 26, 2010


Bunny porn.
posted by Tlery at 8:27 AM on February 26, 2010


My wife doesn't understand my need to look at bunny pictures on the interwebs even though we have a perfectly good bunny at home.
posted by tommasz at 8:38 AM on February 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


They all like me much more than my wife, which is weird as she's the one that feeds them.

Social hierarchy. Nose rubs from the boss are the best kind of nose rubs.

When we first got her, one of ours would lay for hours outside our youngest son's bedroom, waiting for an opportunity to bully him (which is no joke - she can put her front paws on my waist). We think she was trying to supplant him in the family hierarchy.
posted by Leon at 8:47 AM on February 26, 2010


Not as cute as The Daily Otter.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 9:04 AM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


what's owning a bunny like?

Our bunny, Bean was pretty standoffish, as far as being picked up or petted goes. I found him in a garden I was working in. He was a brown Netherland Dwarf, sitting in the flowers. (I had been wondering that morning why some of the plants looked strangely mauled). I could see he once had an ear tag, though it was torn out, and his coat was sort of rough. It was forecast to rain that night, so at lunch I bought a cardboard pet carrier and we spent 45 minutes trying to corner him while he ran merrily around the garden. We finally gave up when he disappeared. As we were packing to leave, he suddenly appeared lounging next to the birdbath, and I was able to catch him. Took him home, he turned out to be so amazingly litter box trained that he just wouldn't go at all in the little pen I made until I gave him a box. He would sleep under our bed at night, getting up early in the morning to do his rabbit exercises of racing madly around the living room. When we all got up, he'd follow me into the kitchen for his morning cranberrry while my dog, Soda, got her GCL square. He spent a lot of time with Soda: lying in the sunbeams next to her, or running around her in smaller and smaller circles until she finally barked at him and then he'd dash away. One time he got inside the couch when I was sitting on it, and proceeded to gnaw on the frame while I fruitlessly smacked the cushions. He was awesome, and I still miss being able to just toss my apple cores and carrot tops across the room for him to find. I never minded too much that he didn't care to be petted- I don't know what his life was like before, but I don't think it was all that great (he had scabs inside his ears when I found him). I was just happy for him to do his rabbit thing and to hang out with us when we were sitting on the couch. I've had other bunnies that were more friendly, so their personalities vary quite a bit.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:10 AM on February 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


Also: bunnies eat wires. Big-time. Now, just imagine if you were a bunny and had those awesome teeth and desperately wanted to try them out on something. Think of how delicate and delicious those wires would seem! The wonderful chewy texture! the crunchy chips of insulation!

Bean LOVED the outrageously expensive Apple cables (the big fat juicy ones that the Magsafe adapter plugs into). We covered all our other cables, but we'd move those around and he'd sometimes get to them if we weren't careful. Most of the time he was pretty good about not chewing on things we scolded him about, but he couldn't resist those particular cables. Or the little plastic aiglets on shoelaces. Um, and when we moved our bed months after he had died, we found that he had neatly severed the ends of a pair of cords for the venetian blinds we never opened. They were just lying there with the little plastic knobs and about six inches of cord, right under the dangling cut ends.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:26 AM on February 26, 2010


Rabbit society is all about grooming and nudging.

...except for when it's about epic quests for utopian warrens led by a clairvoyant, along the way encountering authoritarian regimes and all the while sharing stories of El-ahrairah.
posted by hippybear at 9:28 AM on February 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


no no no noNONONONONONO GET THE BUNNIES AWAY CANNOT STAND THE BUNNIES MUST MAKE THEM GO AWAY.
posted by eyeballkid at 9:57 AM on February 26, 2010


Anya?
posted by The Whelk at 10:03 AM on February 26, 2010 [4 favorites]


We have two Rex rabbits, an albino and a mini black one. Their names are Alice and Cooper, respectively. Alice is bossy. She will chew on your pants leg if she thinks she's being ignored. She grunts when she wants something. Like a little piggy. She will bite you if you dare pick her up, and god help you if you try to trim her nails. Cooper is our little gentleman. He doesn't mind being picked up, and will demand it if you are in a scary place. I can't put him down at the vet's. He will try to climb on top of my head to get away from the scary lab-coat woman. He chitters happily if you rub behind his ears while you hold him. He will dig on you if he wants to be put down. If you fail to put him down when he doesn't want to be held, he will flip you off as he runs away by giving an exaggerated kick of his hind feet. You laugh, but his intentions are pretty obvious when he does it.
posted by domo at 10:37 AM on February 26, 2010


Oh, and if you are ever in a position to get a bunny - try to adopt one from your local House Rabbit group. Robocop is our sole adoption and he's been by far the best behaved of the three. Grendel and Beepers were each bought in moments of weakness (Baby Grendel's cage had no water; Baby Beeps was the runt of his cage and got no food plus was about to be bought by a slouching teen because he 'looked like ah bunny I had named Oreo who died') and they're socially awkward because of it.

Robocop is missing some toes because of whatever happened to him at his first home before he went to the shelter. I'm not sure if it was his previous hardships or the care and attention of the House Rabbit people that made him good, but it's worth it to look at the shelters first. Also, spaying a female rabbit is necessary and expensive - the House Rabbit people tend to subsidize the cost. Plus, you'll never have to go through what my wife went through when she tried to adopt Senior Puffkins from a non-rabbit specific shelter. He died on the operating table, bereft of his nuts.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:41 AM on February 26, 2010


Should I be distrubed that robocop is bleeding has a rabbit named Robocop? should I be calling the SPCA?
posted by hippybear at 12:12 PM on February 26, 2010


I've like Disapproving Rabbits for a long time.

but do not want to break the 'IF # of Pets > Number of Humans +1, THEN the Humans are crazy pet people' rule)

There are three people and three cats in our household. At one point, we had three people and five cats. We decided that this was too many cats. We feel that the optimum number of cats for a household of three humans is four, but we're not there. Yet.
posted by rtha at 12:21 PM on February 26, 2010


On the odd occasion, rabbits can be very cuddly animals. I had a holland lop who wanted nothing more than to be held, wriggling her way under whatever limb she was near or forcing her head into our hands to give her nose rubs. Even when she was a baby, she just liked to be held. Only fussed and dug when she needed to go relieve herself. She also cuddled readily with any animal who was willing to be friends, never fussed around kids who would be gentle either. Best bunny ever.

She was a very slow bunny too. I've had other rabbits who were regular speed demons and they hated running on slippery floors so they'd only ever stick to carpeted areas. But Coco would just slowly swim across the smooth surface, and as a result she could get into far more trouble than any bunny I had before her. Taking her outside on the lawn, she was still lazy: hop hop hop :pause: hop hop :binky: hop hop hop :pause: hop hop :lay down for 10 minutes. Repeat.

:sigh: the bunny blog actually hurts just a little bit to look through, I can't have one anymore :( I had to give my cuddle bunny up for adoption when my sudden escalation of allergies to her meant I couldn't hold her or clean her litter box without inducing an allergy and asthma attack, regardless of what meds I tried. Someone give their bunny a nose rub for me.
posted by lizbunny at 2:25 PM on February 26, 2010


This link totally made my day. Yay, bunnies!
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 2:39 PM on February 26, 2010


"Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses
And what's with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!"
posted by dchrssyr at 3:53 PM on February 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


Awesome link!

Our first bunny was Meda, who was a cranky old Netherland dwarf. The cat used to chase her around, and I always assumed it freaked her out, until I caught her nipping the cat and then running away. Oh, a game!

Then we had Bun Bun, a mini Rex and comical little guy who destroyed many a set of headphones. He just passed away a few months ago at a ripe old age.

Now we have only one bunny, Freckles. He had a partner, Pete, at one time. Yes, both male, which is really weird for bunnies. Freckles keeps to himself mostly but comes to us for petting every once and awhile.
posted by cabingirl at 4:27 PM on February 26, 2010


WABBIT TWACKS!
posted by davelog at 9:36 AM on February 26 [+] [!]


What's up doc?
posted by wabbittwax at 7:19 PM on February 26, 2010


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