Sweet, cute, fluffy, playful, and mischievous. That's Bou, my pet bunny. She came into my life a year and a half ago when she was only a month old and I can't picture my life without her now.
Living alone is great and one of the reasons it is so, is because you can have pets! If your landlord is cool with it of course. Bou makes living on my own way more fun but also way more complicated.
It's a lot of fun times but there are also a lot of hard times when you are responsible for a bunny. This is coming from someone who has owned three massive dogs!
If you're thinking of getting a bunny as a pet or if you're just curious about what having a pet bun is like, let me break it down for you.
1. Bunnies are VERY independent
They pretty much take care of themselves, kind of like cats. There is no need to bathe them because they do that themselves about 6 times a day. They have fun on their own but you can join in sometimes. They don't like to be picked up or chased so don't do that!
2. YOU live with a Bunny, not the other way around
Bou chose where her toilet was going to be. From the first day she came home she has pooped and peed in the same spot whether her toilet is there or not. I've tried changing her bathroom to a more convenient place (for me) but she doesn't care. I've LITERALLY picked her up while she's doing her business and taken her to my preferred place and she has run right back to her corner. So yeah, you're not the boss.
3. They eat ALL the time
Mostly hay.
Bou's favorite place to hang out is her box of hay. She jumps in there and spends like an hour straight just chewing on her hay. When she's done, she hops out and flops on the cold ground. In the morning I like to feed her some leafy greens which are also important for bunny diets. Nothing fancy though, just a fist full of the same spring mix I use for my human salads.
4. Bunnies BITE!
Can you believe it? I've been nibbed a couple of times by Bou and let me tell you that IT HURTS. She's like a pitbull! She clamps down and LITERALLY hangs on. It doesn't happen often, mostly when my hand startles her. Rabbits can't see well up close might confuse your hand with something threatening.
5. She goes EVERYWHERE with me
Even to work. I'm lucky that I have my own office and my bosses are cool with a bunny hanging out all day while I work. When I visit my parents she also comes along and gets to hang out all day in the Florida room. She almost never wants to leave. She was banned for a couple of weeks due to chewing on some A/C insulation, but grandfather has taken care of that and she has since been allowed back.
6. Bunnies Love the Head Pats
Bou loves to jump on me and nudge my hand to get pets from me. My favorite thing is to see her turn into a loaf and chatter her bunny teeth as a sign of pure bliss. She decides when the petting session is over by leaping away and proceeding to lick herself clean of the human scent.
7. Trouble is a synonym of bunny
I've lost many iphone chargers to Bou's sharp incisors. It's not so much that she LIKES to chew on cables, more that they were in her way when she was trying to hop through. There was also that A/C incident at the grandparents' house. There have been poops in places there shouldn't be. She chews books. She jumps in hampers. She digs. She's a lot.
8. Don't scare bunnies
Because they can literally die of fright.
9. Spay/Neuter
If you don't want sprays of pee lining your walls, furniture and self.
10. Adopt a bunny
Instead of buying a new one. Bunnies are getting turned into to local shelters all the time because once people see how much work they require, they're not up for it. Check your local shelter right after Easter. By then the bunny novelty fades and the reality of the maintenance sets in. Also, bunnies are not pets for children! Kids are not prepared to care for rabbits.
Is there anything else you would like to know about Bou or what life is like with a pet bun? Tell me in the comments! I'll answer all the questions :-)