New rabbit
What about it?
Accidentally inherited a roughly 8 year old so thought I'd join this sub.
Some info:
His name is Chaplin, Chaps for short.
The original owners called him male, so at the time of posting I'm assuming this is accurate.
Pretty sure he's a rescue, they're supposed to be sending me his papers.
They have had him roughly 7-8 years.
This rabbit has lived everything from a full house free roam with litter box in the bathroom, to basement dwelling, to outside hutch, to alone in a garage.
The owners recently moved and were advised by a vet that he wouldn't survive the trip, so we tried to help find him a new home. Every new home fell through, and here we are.
A quick rundown:
He's been in his cage since we got him, my mom cleaned the whole cage once and has been spot cleaning and dumping the litter box every day once or twice. She wanted to give him time to acclimate to us before trying to hold him or take him out of the cage. He's more used to her than me, but I'm the only one with space to let him roam free. Except I have a dog.
They sent him without hay and she assumed it was for a reason, I told her that they're supposed to eat hay not just pellets so to be on a hay free diet sounded extreme. The owners are hard to get in touch with because they're very busy so it was awhile before I got confirmation that they didn't stop feeding him hay she just ran out and forgot to order more.
We're not sure how much he weighs exactly, but he looks like a California white and seems roughly 8 pounds. I've been slowly introducing hay back into his diet to avoid digestive upset from a quick change.
I bought him several things from Amazon on Prime Day, so a quick rundown:
Toys like balls and pine cones
Cups to put food in for enrichment
Chews and treats
A hay "house" he's torn apart before the fresh hay was delivered
A hay feeder to hang on the inside of the cage
A big cat litter box that uses pellets so it should be compatible with his pellet litter
A small fabric playpen for temporary setup
A new soft plush bed
Two x pens that can be joined together to make a bigger or smaller space indoors or outside. We're hoping to get a floor mat and top to make trips outside safer, too.
I will take pictures when everything is here, I'm still cleaning out my room to give him a space to go in. The current plan is to take him out twice a day during his peak activity hours so he's not in the cage all day and night. Right now, that's the best we can do as it isn't safe to free range in this house and we are not equipped to change that. He will spend nights in his cage and during the day when his "downtime hours" come that he prefers to nap. Probably 16 hours in the cage, 8 in the pen/out with us.
The major benefit of the cage is that it's in a high traffic area so he gets a lot of social interaction with us talking to him and each other. He's in the main room of the house and is pretty much never alone except when we sleep. This will change as we go back to work but he happened to arrive during a slow month for me.
I also have a soft blanket and some dog toys that might be appropriate for him. My dog gets monthly deliveries from BARK so right now he has a temporary cave in his cage from one of those boxes.
I welcome feedback (and fun suggestions!), but this is our first rabbit so please be respectful of the fact that we're still learning and very new to this.
