Recently Liesbeth moved Rocco and Ashley into larger living quarters at her bunny utopia in Eindhoven, Holland (see http://www.opvangfranky.nl). My furry kids love their new home, which they will share with another bonded pair on an alternating basis, month about, rotating between the pen pictured left and the enclosure next door.
They will be especially pleased because in one of the pens, Liesbeth has constructed a system of underground tunnels which they can run through and hide in to their hearts content. She’s also buried a layer of wire mesh about 60 cm underground so that bunnies can’t dig out completely (important unless you want your bunnies to move to the neighbours one night). She calls it ‘Colditz’ for obvious reasons. They have plenty of opportunities to dig, which is my bunnies idea of heaven. Apparently nothing is quite so satisfying as getting your claws into the dirt and sending it flying out between your back legs, sending it shooting at least a metre in all directions. Digging is what rabbits do. OK not all rabbits, but I reckon that given the chance, almost all bunnies would love to dig regularly. After all, in the wild it’s what provides them with shelter, exercise, and a chance to impress to the girls.
My very first bunny was Fudge, a magnificent glossy back lop-eared male with a cute flat nose and a passion for digging. This was a little unfortunate because we lived in a third floor apartment at the time. However he was nothing if not innovative and fairly early on he found a favourite spot on the linoleum that he started to dig at. When he was very young he could squeeeeeeeeze under a radiator in a corner of the kitchen, but as he grew he no longer fitted. Solution? Simply dig under it. That rabbit would dig dig dig dig for half an hour at a stretch, the steady “scritch scritch scritch” of his claws announcing that he was hard at work. He had the shoulders of a street fighter and probably the cardiovascular fitness to match, but alas he never did succeed in digging a hole under the radiator. Being three-legged for most of his life Flopsy was never a digger, although he would attack things like carpet, wallpaper, lino, telephone wires, speakers etc with his teeth to great satisfaction. That’s his satisfaction obviously, not ours.
Once we moved to our house and the bunnies were given the run of the garden, their true natures emerged. Flopsy’s new mate Coco (who succeeded Fudge when he died), and subsequently Rocco and Ashley have all proven to be fanatic diggers. Apparently that was the reason why Rocco was dumped by his previous owners; he “messed up the garden”. Personally I find that a couple of burrows add character to the back lawn and for entertainment value few things in life compare to watching two rabbits work in turns like a professional tag team to construct an underground fortress in the kids’ sandbox. So come on all you bunny owners, let your bunnies mess things up a little, it will be worth it for all of you.
My very first bunny was Fudge, a magnificent glossy back lop-eared male with a cute flat nose and a passion for digging. This was a little unfortunate because we lived in a third floor apartment at the time. However he was nothing if not innovative and fairly early on he found a favourite spot on the linoleum that he started to dig at. When he was very young he could squeeeeeeeeze under a radiator in a corner of the kitchen, but as he grew he no longer fitted. Solution? Simply dig under it. That rabbit would dig dig dig dig for half an hour at a stretch, the steady “scritch scritch scritch” of his claws announcing that he was hard at work. He had the shoulders of a street fighter and probably the cardiovascular fitness to match, but alas he never did succeed in digging a hole under the radiator. Being three-legged for most of his life Flopsy was never a digger, although he would attack things like carpet, wallpaper, lino, telephone wires, speakers etc with his teeth to great satisfaction. That’s his satisfaction obviously, not ours.
Once we moved to our house and the bunnies were given the run of the garden, their true natures emerged. Flopsy’s new mate Coco (who succeeded Fudge when he died), and subsequently Rocco and Ashley have all proven to be fanatic diggers. Apparently that was the reason why Rocco was dumped by his previous owners; he “messed up the garden”. Personally I find that a couple of burrows add character to the back lawn and for entertainment value few things in life compare to watching two rabbits work in turns like a professional tag team to construct an underground fortress in the kids’ sandbox. So come on all you bunny owners, let your bunnies mess things up a little, it will be worth it for all of you.
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