We are moving!

I can’t wait!

I can’t wait to move to our new place so that I can start setting up a NIC cage for the duo.

Hubby bought these wired cubes from Carefour in KL, brought them all the way back to NL and that box has been sitting in a corner for a month!

I have in mind already what their cage will look like, and I plan to setup an area with the NIC cage inside. The 2 floors NIC cage will be sitting inside a playpen. The buns can go in and out of their cage as and when they like.

It is unfortunate that we still can’t move into a house with backyard. By then, I will definitely let them run free in the garden.

So I told my buns, have a bit of patience and wait for a little while longer buddies

How to toilet train your rabbit

My friends are so surprised when I told them that my bunnies are all toilet trained. Meaning: they know when to go and where the toilet is when they want to pee or poo. I have to capture that unbelievable expression on their face to really show you what I mean.

Rabbits are more intelligent and more sociable than what we think they are. Having them toilet trained is easy and they pick up very fast. Some takes a day or two, some takes longer. But it can be done with a little bit of patience.

Here is what you need:

1) Litter box – the normal cat litter box is fine. I prefer those that has a higher edge. Some bunnies raise their butt too high and they overshoot. It happened to my previous bun.

2) Hay – the hay that your rabbit is currently consuming

3) Bathroom mat or wire mesh – to cover the litter material to prevent the rabbits from consuming them. I have also tried wired document tray with holes before. All of them work well as long as you can separate the rabbits from the litter material.

4) Litter material – Paper based/Organic litter material is recommended. Newspaper or plenty of hay is fine too but you will need to be very diligent in cleaning the box. I avoid crystalite type of cat litter, corn cat litter, or other type of litter which are very dusty – they are not good for rabbits respiratory system.

5) Balsamic vinegar – to clean up any unwanted pee outside of the litter box to clear away the markings and odour. I find this vinegar works the best compared to white vinegar. It’s strong.

6) A bun that is already spayed/neutered. I would say this contributes 50% of the success rate!

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Let me share my litter training experience with you:

1) First, lay your litter box with the litter material, the bathroom mat/mesh, and then the hay on top.

2) Put your bun into a smaller area, and put the litter box in the same area as well.

3) Pick up any poos that are outside of the box. This action will move his/her ’smell’ into the litter box. When the bun pees outside of the litter box, wipe it away and use the balsamic vinegar to wipe on that spot. Talk to him in a gentle voice saying something like, “No no, not the right place buddy”.

4) If the bun keeps peeing in the same area, eventhough you’ve wiped the balsamic vinegar in that same spot many times, then move your litter box to cover that particular area. It is easier to accommodate him than he accommodates you. If you find that the bun is peeing in more than one area, no matter where you put the box, then you can try this:

a) Clean up the whole area by washing it thoroughly with cleaning products to wash away his ’smell’ and start again OR

b) Put another litter box OR

c) Reduce the size of the training area OR

d) Change the rabbit, this is a stubborn bun! (just kidding… )

5) If you see him poos inside the litter box, praise him by giving him a gentle pat on his head, or give him a treat that he likes.

6) When trained successfully, you will get zero pee and 2 or 3 poos outside of the box. Do expects a few poos outside of box now and then because that’s rabbit’s way of marking his territory.

If your bun is too young to be spayed/neutered and you need him/her to be litter trained, no worries, you can still do it. But do expect more peeing outside of the box (especially for male bun), and there is a possibility that your bun’s toilet habit might change after spaying/neutering. So you might need to retrain him/her after that. In any case, they all can be litter trained.

Once you reach zero pee stage, start to expand the bun’s area. Do it step by step. If you plan to let your bun free access to a big area, make sure that you prepare another litter box to cover the area. Some buns need extra litter boxes, some don’t.

In my experience, Kenji has a whole apartment (1000 sq ft) to himself then, and he knows exactly where to go to when he needs his toilet. He can recognise the way back to his litter box.

Enjoy the litter training experience!

Resting side by side…

Kenji:”See, mama is taking pictures of us again…”

Yuki:”Yeah… but I’m not going to move to show off my butt.”

Kenji:”Well… just lay still. I’ve been through this thousand of times. She will go off…”

Good progress…

Kenji and Yuki’s bonding process is progressing well! Better than I expected.

When I brought Yuki back from the holiday home, I’m slightly concerned because the playpen at home is Kenji’s territory. When I first put her in, she obviously found it a bit difficult to accept because when Kenji stayed in the holiday home, he was moved into HER hutch, after the introduction is made. Now, it’s the other way round.

Kenji is definitely a big man and he can’t share his space with his newfound love. I knew, both of them need to find a common ground. So, I’m fully prepared before letting them into the playpen. Water spray and broom both within handreach distance.

Yuki was forced to only stayed in the litter box, and Kenji basically dominated the other areas. She can’t go near Kenji, even though she tried. Kenji will instinctively want to nip her when she is about 10cm in range.

No sign of fight or attack. Kenji just ignored her. And this poor little girl was trying to make up and wonder what happened. However, Kenji can tolerate her by sharing his toilet and eating together with her. Definitely a very good sign!

After one day, they can get as close as nose to nose.

Two days later, I see Kenji demanded grooming from Yuki and she happily obeyed.

Three days later, they are side by side.

Just yesterday, I saw Kenji started grooming her as well. He finally released his love.

A new family member

Hubby and I took a holiday break last week, so I sent my precious bun Kenji to a holiday home for one week.

This holiday home is run by a Dutch girl who loves bunnies and she also runs an adoption center for rabbits. When I visited her place, I was amazed at how generous she allows the bunnies to run around in a corner of her garden, separated from other animals in her garden like dog, goats and chickens. I did mention to her that if possible, do help Kenji find a girlfriend. I noticed he is getting very quiet and bored these days especially during the time when I went through my initial pregnancy days struggling with morning sickness and tiredness. Though my hubby does play with him, he is still closer to me than him. He is obviously happier after my first trimester days but I still feel that he needs a REAL rabbit companion, which gives him the type of love and care that we human can’t provide.

When I returned one week later to collect Kenji she happily told me that she managed to bond Kenji with another baby girl!
“It was love at first sight!” she told me. I was thrilled!!

I bonded rabbits before and I know the kind of process that a rabbit owner and the rabbits need to go through. It can take a few days up to a few months depending on the gender and temperament of the rabbits. Love at first sight kind of bonding is rare! Of course I won’t let her go!

She is a beautiful, tortoise otter (fox) colour lionhead, 10-week old, and she is visibly smaller in size compared to Kenji who is coming to 2-year old.
I pet Kenji’s head and told him that he has a good taste!

Kenji’s journey to Holland

I was extremely amazed that Kenji was still so active after a 13-hour flight from KL to Amsterdam. When I picked him up at the baggage area, he was happily munching his celery!!

The whole process of transferring him over took me a month! It was longer than what I expected due to the Chinese New Year holiday and mainly caused by misinformation, at least from my point of view.

The initial response from KLM airline surprised us because KLM said they can only handle dogs and cats. The reason why we called KLM first is because my hubby return flight was with KLM, and we thought since The Netherlands is known for exporting rabbits, it did not cross our mind that KLM cannot handle rabbits. So, our attention turned to MAS naturally, because my return flight was with MAS.

Hubby called up MAS Customer Service and ask them about pet handling. They passed us the number to call MAS Kargo, the air cargo division of Malaysia Airlines. So we spoke to MASKargo and MAS Pet Hotel, everything went well, till the last minute when the MASKargo staff wanted to process a Booking ID for Kenji. From then on, everything went downhill. It was only by then they realized that they cannot transfer a rabbit for us because there is no inspection facility available in Amsterdam!

It was a day before Chinese New Year. I panic, and went crazy researching online for any possible routes or other possible cargo agents that can handle a rabbit for us. Local offices were closed, I can only wait till early next week to get any possible reply. By then we were only 4 days away from finalizing the transportation for Kenji before we return to the Netherlands.

My husband had to return to the Netherlands first due to his work. I stayed, hoping that I can find a way to bring him over, if not, a new owner. Things were still dark and I was exhausted asking, repeating the same questions again and again, and I was tired hearing no. But I told myself, just give it one more try, and I bumped into a write-up about another rabbit owner having a similar experience transferring her rabbit from Singapore to Israel. Plus another one where she shared her experience transferring her rabbit to France. It was the first time I found out that Lufthansa and Air France can handle rabbit by checking them in as baggage!!

I picked this detail up and I called MAS Customer Service again. This time, I chose specifically to speak to someone under the Arrival and Baggage information. And Hola! MAS said I can check my pet rabbit in as an excess baggage and they will put him in a temperature-controlled cargo area. I was full of joy, and shocked at the same time! The only thing I need to do is to let my travel agent know so that she can write a note in the reservation system.

Well, this is MAS Customer Service having 2 different versions of story about handling pet! You can imagine how annoyed I was, not forgetting to mention the extra money I need to pay because I reschedule my flight, getting the health certificate again from the vet (each health cert is only valid for 7 days) and the stress and anxiousness that I went through throughout that 2 weeks.

It was such a relief, but I wanted to be 100% sure because I do not want to take ANY chances. So I called MAS Customer Service again, this time I spoke to a different person under the same department. She said yes. I called up a friend of mine who is a MAS pilot and he managed to speak to a ground staff in KL Int’l Airport and he said they can handle it. In fact, I spoke to another 2 staff across 3 different days. I counted, I have a total 5 yeses – talk about being paranoid and lack of trust.

Finally, the day of departure arrived. Me and my girl friend, SH brought Kenji to the check-in counter and I put Kenji on the luggage belt, and told the staff that I have noted a pet rabbit in the remarks and please help me to handle him, safely! From then on, the MAS ground staff took over the whole process and it was a breeze! I only need to pay the excess baggage charges.

Throughout the check-in process, Kenji attracted so many macho men bending over saying hello to him (can you imagine?), asking me questions about why is he so big-sized, how long have I had him etc…

Thank God that everything went well. I now get the chance to walk Kenji around my neighbourhood. It is such a joy to have him around. After we went through so much to get him over, we can’t deny that Kenji IS a precious one.