Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Real rabbits - Minefield

This is typical of what greets me most mornings when I first get up and head out onto the sunporch to feed the bunnies before work. Missy and Freckles live in the white lattice pen that you see there, but Boomer and Cricket are loose at night. I used to have a makeshift fence to keep the big bunnies from getting too close to the other pen, but I got tired of hopping over it and bruising my shins so I took it down. This is the result of that choice. Instead of hopping a fence I have to walk this minefield, sleepy and barefoot.

Rabbits are territorial and those that live close together, like mine do, need to mark their territory, just like a dog does outside. When I had the barrier up, the Flemmies would mark the *fenceline* but that was easy to control by placing a litterbox in front of it. Despite the two litterboxes in this tiny area, the Flemmies still feel the need to leave poops everywhere else.

Thank goodness they're easy to clean up and make good fertilizer. I always have plenty of it! Bunnies are very efficient recyclers.

Just so you don't get the impression otherwise, these bunnies are box trained, just not on that side of the room! They keep their own pen very clean. Peeper, who lives alone in a different room, has perfect litterbox habits, and never poops anywhere but in one of her boxes. The key to that is that she doesn't feel any competition or the need to make a point of her ownership of the space. It's all hers and she knows it!

9 comments:

Mary said...

I get such a mental picture of you tip-toeing through the remnants early in the morning! I am laughing...can you hear me all the way down here? Your bunnies are sweet and entertaining. How does Buddy regard the bunnies?

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Thank goodness those are rabbit pooties and not dog poops!! Not stinky, not squishy. I'm embarrassed to say I've never thought about them making good fertilizer. Off to the flower beds!

Susan Gets Native said...

I thought cats were bad...

Things to get Laura for Christmas this year:
1. "Bunny" slippers.
har har

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Susan beat me to it-- you need some "bunny" slippers!

KGMom said...

I have no rabbit experience at all. I do observe, however, the general tendency of animals to mark territory. When my son brings his dog to visit, our dog feels compelled to pee on every single spot where the visiting dog has gone. It gets quite funny. Thankfully, all this is happening outside!

Anonymous said...

Orlando likes to leave a single line of doots in front of the bathroom door to keep out the cat. She, of course, ignores it.

dmmgmfm said...

That's not as bad as what my cats do to my furniture (shred, shred) and I still think they're worth it.

silverlight said...

oogie! minefield is right. But at least it's contained.
But, that's what animals doo.

R.Powers said...

Okay, this and chewed lamp cords is kind of how I pictured the whole house rabbit thing.
I guess you have away to deal with that too?
This rabbit in the house deal is such an eyeopener to me.
We've had bunnies when the kids were small, but they lived in an outside pen and just came in for supervised visits.
Thanks for the view into house rabbitdom.