INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Mother2Hens]

Originally Posted by wheezy50
Non chicken related question, do any of you have pet rabbits?
Wife and I have been kicking around the idea of a pet rabbit, juct curious if anyone has experience with them? I like the look of the Holland lops or mini lops. I keep reading that , mini rabbits tend to be more high strung so I'm leaning towards the fullsize.
I would like to keep it in the house, but I think we might have to do a combination indoor/outdoor. I have some leftover wood for a hutch anyway.
Anyone have pro's and cons?

wheezy ~ We've had three pet rabbits over the years. They all were large, cuddly, and sweet, but I always wished they would purr or wag their tails or give some sign that they were happy!

One of the "cons" of rabbits is that they pee and poop a lot. If I got another pet rabbit, I would litter train it. Apparently it is easy to do. One reason I didn't is because we always had cats that had litter boxes. I had a friend with a litter trained pet rabbit that would go in and out of the house like a cat would. It wouldn't stray far like cats do, though, but it knew where it lived and where the door was.

Another reason that I didn't want a rabbit roaming the house like a cat is because they like to chew -- important wires, the tassels off of DH's loafers (happened twice), or whatever looks interesting. I'm sure Pet Rabbit sites would have good advice about training them not to chew.



I've always hated to see rabbits living in a small wire cage or hutch. Your idea of building one is great. We made a chicken tractor kind of a cage/run for nice weather and also predator-proofed/weather-proofed an area under our deck for cold weather. Plus, we would get the rabbit out to pet/play with, etc. Once during the winter, a stray kitten adopted us and would sleep with our rabbit-- both would nestle together in the straw. Unfortunately, a month later the kitty was killed by a car.

Our last rabbit was around five years old when he suddenly started falling over when he tried to hop. The vet said that mites can cause neurological problems. We tried treatments, but he ended up having to be put to sleep. We had kept his bedding clean and had done visual check-ups, but some problems just aren't obvious until it's too late. Compared to all of the health issues that chickens can get, rabbits seem way less complicated!

Btw, we have relatives in Germany where having a rabbit for a pet is very common. They're litter trained house rabbits.

We had one rabbit at a time, but they are social animals that would benefit from having a buddy-- two young ones that can grow up together. A neutered male and spayed female are the best combination. Hopefully there are people on this thread who know about specific breeds and can share their experiences.

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Non chicken related question, do any of you have pet rabbits?

Wife and I have been kicking around the idea of a pet rabbit, juct curious if anyone has experience with them? I like the look of the Holland lops or mini lops. I keep reading that , mini rabbits tend to be more high strung so I'm leaning towards the fullsize.

I would like to keep it in the house, but I think we might have to do a combination indoor/outdoor. I have some leftover wood for a hutch anyway.

Anyone have pro's and cons?

My thoughts on the matter.

We did the rabbit thing when the kids were little. Like all those kinds of projects, the kids lost interest by the time the bunnies were half-grown. I knew I didn't like to eat rabbit from when I was a kid and talked my dad into them. So, not knowing better, I turned them loose in the chicken yard. They mated and we had baby bunnies running around loose.

They burrowed under the wire and got out. The local cats found them and cleaned out most of the young. That winter, hard snow kept the rabbits from the grass, so they ate the bark off all my apple and crab apple trees. The coyotes cleaned out most of them. I finally had to shoot the last 2 or 3. No way to catch them.

Now my granddaughter has some that they keep in a cage in their barn. Oh, well.

I recently saw a youtube video of someone with a pet rabbit kept inside. I noticed that all the legs on their furniture were chewed up. When caged, any exposed wood is immediately chewed up. They live on 1/2 x 1/2 hardware cloth. The area underneath is covered with rabbit "pellets" caked together with vile urine. I wouldn't have the nasty little buggers in my house.

The upside is that I learned how to graft trees. I read up on it, cut each of the trees to remove the damaged part of the trunks and spliced them back together. No one was more amazed than me when it actually worked. I only lost one of the 9 trees. The trunks were about 2" in diameter.

John

 

[hogster160]

Non chicken related question, do any of you have pet rabbits?

Wife and I have been kicking around the idea of a pet rabbit, juct curious if anyone has experience with them? I like the look of the Holland lops or mini lops. I keep reading that , mini rabbits tend to be more high strung so I'm leaning towards the fullsize.

I would like to keep it in the house, but I think we might have to do a combination indoor/outdoor. I have some leftover wood for a hutch anyway.

Anyone have pro's and cons?

Years ago, we had one rabbit. The kids wanted it. He was indoors and we had him for a year maybe a little longer. He had matured and would hump everything and every body! He was lonely. We found a nice older gentleman who raised rabbits in an outdoor coop type home and gave him to him. The last I knew he had been neutered and was living indoor with him. Went for car rides and was having a wonderful life. We had no clue what to do with him, what kind he was. This was back when you had to buy books or go to the library. No internet lol. So we did the best we could for him. We sold him when we got out of the military and moved home. It was messy and smelly but, he would go to his crate to use the bathroom. He got along with the cats and roamed the house, and was locked up when we left. Friendly little guy. But lonely, he needed a girlfriend. Yea, I don't think I will do rabbits again. And definitely not in the house.

Ok this story is completley unrelated to chickens and dogs lol. Yesterday was my sisters birthday and her husband let her pick her own present, For his birthday he got $400 worth of cowboy boots. So she decided she was going to get an iphone 5, it cost a little more lol. So i went with her to get it. We spent an hour having someone set it up. Iphone 5's have siri. I have wanted to try siri for a while now. and she wass nice enough to let be the first one to use it one her new phone!!! I said serach for backyard chickens, brought up this website, then gas stations and it brought up ones near me. Of course i'm over there giggling, because I was thrilled I got to use siri. and i didnt realize I said it into the phone and I said I bet it isnt as cool as the epsisode on the big bang theory. It heard it and looked up the show! I went to breakfast with her this morning and asked if i could talk to siri again. She let me. I said hi, and siri said good morning. I carried on a conversation with it. Which i just find amazing that people made some elctronic capable of doing something like that. Then my sister told me what she said to it last night. She asked wether siriwas a boy or a girl (voice sound like a girl more than boy). Its response was I was not programed with a gender. Now I want an iphone 5!. Apparently siri comes on ipads, but I would use it way more on a phone. O and BTW if you didnt already realize this from my story, I am a geek. lol

I have Siri on my ipad. Hubby won the ipad from a radio station. Month of May Give Away. 30 Ipads in 30 days. He was lucky enough to be caller 30 on day 3 and won it, otherwise I would not have it. Too much money imho for what it can do. My mom on the other hand is legally blind from diabetes. She does have some vision, although slight. She has an Ipad. It has allowed her to be able to read again. She can talk to siri and find out tons of information. So for that reason, the ipad is worth so much more! And since we both have ipads, we can face talk live which allows me to see and talk with her daily, which I find priceless. She lives several hours away. So I will probably always have one.

Siri can be a lot of fun. check out this site, there are tons of funny questions and even more funny answers. I've tried several lol.

http://appmodo.com/57164/fun-things-to-ask-siri/

 

[Webechickens]

Non chicken related question, do any of you have pet rabbits?

Wife and I have been kicking around the idea of a pet rabbit, juct curious if anyone has experience with them? I like the look of the Holland lops or mini lops. I keep reading that , mini rabbits tend to be more high strung so I'm leaning towards the fullsize.

I would like to keep it in the house, but I think we might have to do a combination indoor/outdoor. I have some leftover wood for a hutch anyway.

Anyone have pro's and cons?

Hello. We've had a mini lop for over a year. Very sweet rabbit, which we got when he was 6wks. old. I would get a female or male and have him fixed (if he won't be shown in 4H). Males that aren't fixed can become territorial and aggressive. I would think twice before having it in the house all the time. Their poo isn't all that smelly, but their urine is very high in ammonia. Smells terrible. They can be litter box trained, but we never tried it. That's the way to go for sure if you do decide to keep it in the house. They do very well in the cold. In winter, we put wood around the sides and top to block out the wind. A nest box is great, too. They like to be cozy in a small space. It's the high heat and humidity that they don't like. We freeze 2 liters of water and place in cage in the heat. They should have 24/7 availability to rabbit pellets and Timothy hay, not alfalfa, as it is too rich to feed continuously. If you do keep it outside, they make heated water bottles that work great. Mini lops are great fun !

 

[Webechickens]

Quote:
Forgot to add something. If you're going to use any shavings in it's pen, make sure to only use pine shavings and not cedar. The cedar gives off fumes are bad for rabbits.

 

[racinchickins]

I think he probably should have done that a whole lot faster than that. Hundred bucks is a lot of money to be floating around with not much happening with it.

Would those wonderful Legbar give me a ton more EE's next year?

The short answer is yes.

Longer answer (for specifics) -
Blue egg color is dominant to white, so
Blue x Blue or Blue x White would give you at a minimum, mostly blue egg layers. You could get some white egg layers if your blue egg layer had only one blue gene.

Brown x Blue is different because the brown color is applied on the shell surface before it is laid (blue and white are actually all through the shell)
So Brown x Blue depends on how much brown is applied to the blue shell. Light brown will give you a more minty green, and dark brown like a Welsummer or Marans will give you an olive egger.

So if you have all three types in your flock (bl, br, w). You can have lots of mix and match fun!

 

[EmSteele]

Rabbit input- my son currently has a male minilop (Ironman). He's a great OUTDOOR pet. He gets a little jumpy when too many crowd him but is AMAZING with both of my kids. I'd go for a 3 month old, young enough to be raised YOUR way, old enough not to be babied. I had a female mini lop years ago that I LOVED as well. If you have kids, look into a MINI REX. Docile, sweet breed for sure! Talking my sister into this breed for my niece right now!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I must have the latest one with fingerprint recognition because I kept finding dusty fingerprints on my former phone. They turned out to be from someone who uses Sevin dust on a daily basis. Hmmm
CCCHICKENS~ Google: Questions to ask Siri.
browncow posted: I just upgraded to an iPhone 4S that has suri on it, you can actually program it wether you want a male or female voice

browncow~ If you ask Siri, "Are you a boy or a girl?," she replies, "I was not assigned a gender."

I will, I am curious as to what is going to come up

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

Years ago, we had one rabbit. The kids wanted it. He was indoors and we had him for a year maybe a little longer. He had matured and would hump everything and every body! He was lonely. We found a nice older gentleman who raised rabbits in an outdoor coop type home and gave him to him. The last I knew he had been neutered and was living indoor with him. Went for car rides and was having a wonderful life. We had no clue what to do with him, what kind he was. This was back when you had to buy books or go to the library. No internet lol. So we did the best we could for him. We sold him when we got out of the military and moved home. It was messy and smelly but, he would go to his crate to use the bathroom. He got along with the cats and roamed the house, and was locked up when we left. Friendly little guy. But lonely, he needed a girlfriend. Yea, I don't think I will do rabbits again. And definitely not in the house.
I have Siri on my ipad. Hubby won the ipad from a radio station. Month of May Give Away. 30 Ipads in 30 days. He was lucky enough to be caller 30 on day 3 and won it, otherwise I would not have it. Too much money imho for what it can do. My mom on the other hand is legally blind from diabetes. She does have some vision, although slight. She has an Ipad. It has allowed her to be able to read again. She can talk to siri and find out tons of information. So for that reason, the ipad is worth so much more! And since we both have ipads, we can face talk live which allows me to see and talk with her daily, which I find priceless. She lives several hours away. So I will probably always have one.

Siri can be a lot of fun. check out this site, there are tons of funny questions and even more funny answers. I've tried several lol.

http://appmodo.com/57164/fun-things-to-ask-siri/

My dada constantly wins stuff on the raido, but never anything that big mostly just concert tickets and cds. I .would never buy an Ipad, I already have an ipod. Sounds like the ipad is very helpful to your mom. I have never used face talk before. I dont like talking on the phone, I would much rather talk on person.

Now my granddaughter has some that they keep in a cage in their barn. Oh, well.

I recently saw a youtube video of someone with a pet rabbit kept inside. I noticed that all the legs on their furniture were chewed up. When caged, any exposed wood is immediately chewed up. They live on 1/2 x 1/2 hardware cloth. The area underneath is covered with rabbit "pellets" caked together with vile urine. I wouldn't have the nasty little buggers in my house.

The upside is that I learned how to graft trees. I read up on it, cut each of the trees to remove the damaged part of the trunks and spliced them back together. No one was more amazed than me when it actually worked. I only lost one of the 9 trees. The trunks were about 2" in diameter.

John

My current rabbit is in my barn. When I had rabbits inside we did have to clean their cages a lot. Around once a week, but it really wasnt that bad because it just had a pull out tray. my rabbits liked to chew on stuff, once i got them a little mineral block, for the most part they stopped chewing on stuff they werent suppose to. Sounds like the people in the video need to clean their rabbits cage more. Or they could litter train it. They have these little corner boxes you can put in cages, put some litter in it and the rabbits figure the rest of it out on their own. If you are busy and dont have the time to clean their cage and stuff, definatley not a good idea to have in the house as it can get smelly.

 

[toodlesmom]

Watching my mousers at work, stalking a victim. It's that time of year when field mice come looking for a cozy winter berth. With this old house, it isn't difficult to find a way in. The mice probably have directional signs pointing the way to our place. They won't find a home here though, with Joey, Leo, and Macaroni on the job!