The rabbit’s favourite thing about Christmas has to be the big pile of veg. Although even Scamp isn’t that keen on brussel sprouts!

That’s carrot, sprouts and parsnip, then there is broccoli today to add to that. The parsnips are home-grown, my first try at parsnips, so we saved them for Christmas. It dig take a bit of work to get them out of the frozen ground but they tasted great. Here’s a piccy, yummm….

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your having a good time

Snow is a great enrichment opportunity for rabbits to dig and forage; but, my garden is not Scamp proof. So, if the bunny can’t go to the snow, the snow has to come to the bunny. Cue one washing up bowl full of snow, laced with rabbit food…

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Rabbits, even those safe indoors, need a place to hide in case something scary happens. Scamp’s is an A4 paper box. My dad brings him new ones regularly from work, as he likes to customise them until there’s no walls left to hold the lid up.

After much faffing about I managed to get a video uploaded of him adding a door to his latest box. It’s sped up because 5 minutes of chewing can get a little monotonous when you can just see a nose, cute though it is.

It’s just the right size for curling up for a nap too:

Scamp got a new litter tray today. Unfortunately the customisations he had made to his old one made it a bit impractical as a litter tray. High sided tray with no corners anyone?

It’s not too bad though, his new washing up bowl.. err litter tray.. was only £1.60 at Tesco.  It is exactly like the old one, except whiter, but he wasn’t entirely convinced.

An application of hay seemed to settle the matter though.

I’ve never been that impressed with pet store litter trays. They seem to underestimate either the height a rabbit can lift its tail or how much extra space is needed for hay/napping. Washing up bowls and storage boxes provide a much better choice of sizes.

Anyone want to place a bet on how many corners will be left by tommorow morning?

I had an email about the difference between hay and straw earlier this week. It’s a topic that confuses a lot of people.

Hay

Hay is fed to rabbits as a substitute for fresh grass. It is grass that has been cut and left to dry. Good hay should be green and smell sweet, not be dusty or smell musty (excuse the pun). The greener hay is the closer it is nutritionally to grass. Old brown hay will have plenty of fibre but is not so good for providing all the other nutrients a rabbits needs. It’s also less tasty… not that I’ve personally tried it.

There are different types of grass such as Timothy, Meadow and Orchard. Sometimes grass is also grown with legumes like Alfalfa. This increases the protein level which makes it too fattening to feed as the main diet for the average adult rabbit, although it can be good for growing youngsters or putting weight on an older rabbit. Alfalfa is also higher in calcium, again good for growing youngsters but too much can be bad for adults.

Straw

Straw is the stalks from grain crops after the grain heads have been taken off. It’s yellow and the stalks are hollow like a drinking straw. Straw is great for insulating so it is used for bedding to keep rabbits warm on cold winter nights. Straw has a lower nutritional value than hay so it’s not suitable to feed as a replacement for grass. If you use it for bedding, add some hay on top for your rabbit to snack on. It’s perfectly safe if your rabbit does nibble the straw a bit too though.