This past weekend, I apparently suffered some sort of psychotic break, and adopted an 8-month-old Brittania Petite/mix rabbit from a shelter, and brought her home on the subway, and now I have this rabbit living in my room. Her name is Thomasina, and her Hebrew name is She’era (courtesy of her Godmother, Robin). Here are just a few things I did not previously know about rabbits:
- They require a gigantic cage environment, which can comfortably accomodate a litter box, food and water bowls, a hidey-hole-type box and a variety of toys and towels and crumpled newspapers. (Ideally, they should have shelves and ramps, as well, but we all make sacrifices to live in NYC, and Thomasina must do her part.)
- They pretty much litter-box train themselves. Their litter box must be changed daily, and filled with fresh timothy hay, which hay forms the mainstay of their daily diet (I know, totally gross).
- They also need a large fresh salad every day, and a small amount of pellets.
- It’s better for them to be relatively cool than to be hot.
- They don’t like to be picked up at all. It really, really makes them uncomfortable. When you do pick them up, there’s a special way to do it.
- They can die in a matter of hours from intestinal gas. The way to prevent this is to catch it in time, stick a thermomenter up their butts to determine if their temperature has dropped, and then give them baby gas meds. Then they’ll be fine. I dread the day I have to deal with this.
- You have to clip their toenails. I dread the day I have to deal with this.
- They can be put into a trance by being tipped gently onto their backs.
- They need carpeted surfaces to run and jump on; hard surfaces can give them sore hocks.
- If they’re happy, they do ‘binkys’ all over the house, which are giant, leaping, backflip-type moves. If they do not do these, you are a terrible rabbit-parent, and your rabbit is miserable.
- They get really furious when you leave them, and super excited and lovey when you return, like a dog (or at least, mine does).
- Their life span is 10 years. I still don’t really believe this, nor can I envision myself being in possession of this rabbit for a full-on decade.
Here is what I knew about rabbits:
- They are very cute.
- You have to cover all of your electrical cords before you let them run around the house.
So, it’s been a real learning opportunity. Since bringing Thomasina home, I have mostly occupied myself by worrying insanely about her wellbeing. When I am not hovering over her, making sure she is eating and breathing and pooping and not gnawing on an electrical wire, I am at work or karate worrying about what she’s doing, and whether or not I have somehow brought about her early demise through neglect or stupidity, and googling various behaviors to make sure I am not missing anything crucial (she had a mild attack of the hiccups today, and damn near gave me a heart attack). Hopefully, this worrying will abate somewhat as I get used to owning her, and I can resume my previous life, which consisted largely of worrying about my own health, and searching rare conditions on Web MD.
Anyway, I’ve built her what I think is a really kick-ass cage/playpen out of Neat Idea Cubes, and have put some cheap mats down on the floor and everything. I let her out in my room when I am home. As soon as I cover all our cords and obtain an area rug I can roll out in the living room, I’m going to let her explore the rest of the house. My main problem right now is that I don’t know how much to feed her, and I’m afraid I’m starving her. According to the people who walked me through her adoption, she should be having one or two large, leafy, mixed salads a day, in addition to her hay and pellets, but everything I can find on the Internets says that rabbits should have two cups of greens per six pounds body weight. Thomasina is two pounds max. So, last night I gave her a tiny salad, and I had a big salad, and we sat on the floor and watched Buffy on my laptop, with some magazines laid over the cord.
So, I guess I’m this crazy person now. Also? I may be a little biased? But I’m pretty sure that Thomasina is the coolest rabbit that ever lived, and is vastly superior to all cats and even a fair amount of dogs.
