NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/pets/4125

Text File | 1992-12-24 | 3.3 KB | 64 lines

Newsgroups: rec.pets
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!spool.mu.edu!torn!nott!bnrgate!bmerh85!myhui
From: [e-mail] (Michael Hui)
Subject: Re: bunny questions
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet News)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa, Canada
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 20:41:33 GMT
Lines: 52

In article <[e-mail]> "Amy Young Leith" <[e-mail]> writes:

>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (LaRocheNJ) writes:

>>However, if he never frisks when let out of his cage, something is wrong.
>>I would suspect some malnutrition--vegetables and fruits are not good
>>nutrition.  I don't give a rabbit more than about 1/2-inch of carrot a day
>>or the equivalent in other vegetables and fruit.

>1/2 inch of carrot???  Whew, I'm doing something wrong.  Dink will eat
>a WHOLE carrot in a flash if given to him.

I have started to wonder about this too.

Big Wig, the Big Bundle Of Bun, at 15 lbs and gaining fast, has
graduated in a matter of six months from two thin carrots with tops per
day (1 cm diameter, 15cm long carrot, 20 cm long greens), given one in
the morning and one at night, to four such carrots per day, to six such
carrots per day, and lately, he's done the totally unimaginable: he ate
two huge sticks of carrot a day, the kind without the attached green on
top, the kind meant for humans, the kind that's one big log of carrot
at 3cm diameter and 30 cm in length, PLUS a handful of super-green
parsley to substitute for the carrot greens, and then, he went AT IT at
his food dish and ate about two table spoons of pellets, and then did
his twirl, and ran about three circles around me. I now know he wants
to run circles whenever he twirls, because he's lately managed to
trained me to his every whim. Then, overnight, he eats more pellets,
and once in about every three nights he eats a 1 cm cube chunk of his
hay chew block in addition to everything above.

Now when he lies completely flat on the floor his tummy does spill out
a bit, and when I do the "fat test" on his tummy, by pinching the
skin to find out how thick the fat is underneath, I find that he
doesn't actually have a thick layer of fat, but his skin is indeed
loose. So I then tried to feel whether he's got a drooping belly by
reaching in underneath the Bun when he's all self absorbed into
finishing his big carrot, and I was surprised to find that there
isn't actually a droopy tummy underneath there at all.

Needless to say, all this does result in a copious amount of droppings
from this big guy every day.

I guess I better start to moderate his carrot intake.  Unless proved
otherwise, I believe the carrots, rich in vitamin A, probably healed
his eye infection, since this vitamin prevents night blindness and
helps the body resist infection. BTW, the Bun certainly has excellent
night vision: his circle running does not decrease in speed late at
night, when I turn off all the lights, when I can hardly see the Bun
(but he's pure black ...), yet he seems to be able to see everything
just fine.
--
Michael MY Hui  ~{╨φ├≈╢≈~}  [e-mail]  Ottawa Canada