Update
Well, the boys are doing fine. We had to have a Magnolia tree cut down in our yard, so we saved some of the larger branches and made a bunny amusement park.
Notch is definitely the hungry one. He will eat most anything. My daughter has one of those tent things that you can put up in the house. Notch has taken it over as his own. He sleeps in the corner right next to her doll house. He loves Crasins, banannas, Romaine lettuce and raw, skinned peanuts. I use those as training rewards. Notch likes/will trance easier if held against your body in a cradled position. He is still uneasy about the whole flipping over thing. He still gets scared and his little back feet quiver. It is vital at thispoint that all of the other animals and children be out of the room for him to relax when on his back. Both of them are in the routine of evening petting. Notch is probably better with children and big dogs than Turner as he is more submissive. Both of them have started coming out into the house and exploring. I have extra deep litter boxes and will often find them hunkered down in them and peering over the side.
Turner is more easily spooked, and the more athletic of the two. He does not really like being sniffed by big dogs (and if your dog thinks a fast-moving critter is playing with her, it is a bad scene). Inside it is not an issue, but outside, if my big dog sniffs him, he will take off leaping and bounding all over the place. He will relax if laid backwards on your lap, facing you with his back feet against your belly. He likes raisins and banannas, but is not as easily coaxed with food as Notch is.
I am not sure whether you want to say I do not speak fluent Bunny or they do not speak fluent human, but we have had our share of communication issues. The main ones we are working on right now are coming when called and learning who is boss. Neither Notch nor Turner will attack, lunge or be what I would call “aggressive.” They do however tend to suddenly nip a bit. The usualy scenario is that they are being petted and then, with no warning, “nip” whomever is holding them just enough to get put down. Since the behavior (nipping) produces the resonse (Getting put down) my best guess is they are saying “Okay, I am finished being petted and want to get down.” Unfortunately, they do not realize it would be better for everyone if they just hopped down instead of nipping. They have not done this to me in quite a while, but I regularly “get in their faces” (literally getting nose to nose)to remind them who is boss. I am, of course, not going to let my children do the same. I have also stopped “rewarding” the behavior by letting them get down. When they nip one of hte kids, they are told “no biting” and I pick them up and lay them on their back until they are calm (usually about 10 seconds). Then, I roll them over, pet them for a couple of minutes, and, assuming they do not repeat the behavior, let them down. By changing the reward associated with the behavior, my hope is to extinguish the behavior.
And your children??? Yes, I still let them hold the rabbits and pet them under supervision. They are learning to interpret the rabbits behaviors and learn when to back off. Just last night my sion was building a city on his floor and Turner came bouncing out from under the bed and knocked everything down by sniffing it. My son started to get upset, then I explained that Turner was just trying to play with him and was curious about what they were doing. They played “Monster Bunny Attacking the City” for the next hour giggling gleefully the whole time as Turner sniffed the toy stop signs and buildings and knocked them down.
Both rabbits are free-roamers. That is, I have a crate that they can call their den, but I do not lock them up when I leave. I only lock them up at night so that they don’t get tripped on by little feet going to the potty in the dark.
I hope to post some pictures of them soon
TTFN
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