Animal Lovers Web Blog

Wow, what a day we’ve just  had! My daughter and I went to the Bradford Small Animal show in Harrogate in the  UK today. It is an annual event where they competetively show rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and some other animals. We had never been to a small animal show before so we didn’t know quite what to expect, but we really enjoyed the day and we had an absolute ball.

It was held in two massive halls where around 3000 small animals, mostly rabbits but with a fair number of guinea pigs and much fewer hamsters were on display. We were free to walk around and view all of the animals and  we could also get up close and handle the animals, when they were on the judging tables. The animals owners and the judges were extremely approachable and willing to chat and give information regarding the animals, which made for a real friendly and informative atmosphere and they were also happy for people to take picture of their animals.

As well as the show animals themselves there were a number of trade exhibitons with animal feedstuffs, housing and various other animal related bits and  pieces. Around the perimeter of the halls there were also stalls manned by various animal breed clubs and societies, where the club members were happy to discuss their particular breeds of interest. There was even a television celebrity vet, Matt Brash from ITV Yorkshire’s Zoo Vet At Large who was also very approachable and happy to chat with the attendees including ourselves and my daughter even had her picture taken with him, and, of course, we had to buy his book, which he duly signed!

Although rabbits outnumbered all of the other animals by some margin and there was a fantastic array of beautiful rabbit breeds of all sizes shapes and colours, I particularly enjoyed the guinea pigs. I saw for the first time a number of guinea pig breeds that were new to me, including my personal favourite the Lilac Fox. This was a stunningly coloured smooth coated guinea pig with lighter eye circles and a very light coloured belly. I spoke in some detail with the breeder and look forward to hearing more about this breed from him and quite possibly acquiring one or two to add to our current pair of guinea pigs.

The only dissapointment for us was how few hamsters there were on show and nearly all of the Syrians were just curled up in a ball in their cages trying to get some sleep. Maybe what the Syrian hamsters need is a nocturnal small animal show to really shine! There were quite a few dwarf hamstes and a few long haired Syrians, which were nice as we hadn’t seen to many of them in the flesh before. Anyway it certainly made a great day out and we have already pencilled in it in the diary for next year and plan to find a few more similar small animals shows to attend in the spring and summer.

John 

Animal Lovers Web.com

The on-going saga of our male dwarf lop rabbits reluctance to get on in a civilised manner has finally been resolved and all parties seem to be happy at last!  Despite three costly castrations and our many attempts to integrate our male rabbits, we were resigned to the fact that our bunnies just preferred the single life. 

For the past four months or so, the rabbits have had to put up with less than perfect accommodation, rotating between hutches, our dog run (minus the dogs!) and one of the stables to ensure that they all had equal access to grass and a good run around at some point each day.  Like most rabbits, they really didn’t enjoy constantly being picked up and moved and we realised that, once it became clear that integration was not on the cards, we needed a more permanent solution to our rabbit housing problem.

Over the Christmas period, we have invested in three really spacious rabbit runs, complete with their own little houses for sleeping quarters.  Two of the runs arrived just after the new year and our rabbits Charlie and Snowy have enjoyed their new accommodation, much to the annoyance of poor Phil, who had to wait for delivery of the final run until today.  The rabbits still all get to see each other as the runs are housed together in one of the stables but they (and we!) no longer have to endure the thrice-daily ritual of trying to avoid being caught - even if it was for their own good.

Our rabbits seem much happier (well as happy as a rabbit can look) with their new living arrangements.  The rabbit runs  are spacious enough for us to sit in with them and it’s great seeing how much more relaxed they are in our company.  It’s lovely to see them hop over and take a carrot from our hands or have the confidence to jump over to sniff us out! 

Each rabbit has their own corner litter tray, although Charlie seems to think his new wooden house makes a much better toilet at this stage.  Phil and Snowy have obviously read the rabbit care book and realise that rabbits can be toilet-trained and are really good at using the tray.  It’s going to mean that we get to spend much more quality bunny-friendly time with our rabbits as cleaning out will be less time consuming, not to mention the many hours over the past few months of rabbit catching that can be much better utilised for rabbit cuddling.

Diane

www.AnimalLoversWeb.com

Our experience of having more than one male in any of our animal types has not been good. It has usually led to aggressive behaviour and fights of a serious intensity sooner or later.
We were somewhat perturbed then, to discover recently that our 3 lovely dwarf lop rabbits were all male at about 4 months old. Both the pet outlets and the vet had wrongly identified them as 2 females and a male.
They had gone from a lovely group of friendly rabbits playing around and feeding
together, to 3 very separate individuals who, even when hungry would not go near the food bowl if another rabbit was already there. Even worse, we realised that they had started to fight as they were showing signs of minor injuries on their ears and noses on a regular basis.
We had no choice but to separate them as soon as we were sure that they were fighting. So it was off to the vets and a hefty bill of over £150 to have the three rabbits castrated. We then waited for 6 weeks before trying to see if they could possibly live together again.
We had gone form having the rabbits all together in one run, which was very spacious, to having them in 3 separate housing areas, always withing view of each other so that they remained familiar. This looked less fun for the rabbits and was certainly more onerous on ourselves in maintaining and cleaning their living quarters, so we were very hopeful that after their ops they would again be able to get on with each other.
Over the last week or two we have cautiously tried to re-introduce them to sharing the same living areas. Unfortunately, other than brief spells when distracted by food it has invariably led to them fighting fairly ferociously and us having to separate them. I accidentally even got bit by one of the rabbits on one occasion! We have tried about 6 times under close supervision and have now accepted that it is not going to work. For their own good we have had to continue to keep them apart. It is such a pity as they were so lovely together.

John
www.AnimalLoversWeb.com