spend more time outdoors with my bunny

He is moulting really badly at the moment, he has all new fur down his spine and the old fur just comes off in handfuls when I scritch his back for him (which he loves). It sounds worse than it is but I am concerned he has dry flaky skin back there, not sure if it’s being out in all weathers that caused it or something missing from his diet. Will look into it and if I cannot fix it with diet within a week I will take him to the vet.

It’s Chegwin’s birthday today, he’s 4 years old :)
I’ll try to take an updated photo of him later.
I bought him his own Conference Pear today for a present.

His house had a really good spring clean and tightening of the hinges and I gave him a new ‘kneeling pad’ for the main compartment of his hutch. He has already claimed mine as his own in the garden for sitting on, makes a change from cold damp grass or hard concrete. Anyway now he has a soft base, which is good cos the 8 hours per night that he spends in his hutch, if I line it with paper he rips it all out anyway so he ends up sitting on bare wood as all the bedding material and hay gets scooted to one side.

He had a long grooming session with the brushes too, I really should make the brushing every day or every few days instead of the weekly session he seems to get. He suffers with scaly skin on his back and the brushes seem to keep it at bay.

I love him so much – he’s the most spoiled bunny ever, lots of cuddles, and treats :) His fur is like velvet! I’m so lucky that he is such a sociable rabbit. We spend time ‘chatting’ – I whisper, and he replies with a grinding sound in his mouth, more like a vibration, it’s what they do when they are happy :D Oh and I read in a book at the shops – I think it was the Rabbit Whisperer or something like that, that they love us whispering so thankfully all this time I have been bonding with him with whispers and never knew that was exactly the right thing to do! Instinct I guess :)

My son’s just come in from the cold, he cleaned out the rabbit hutch and wanted to earn more pocket money bless him :)
That’s nice for the bunny, he gets to see so little of the kids lately, just fleeting greetings during the cold season.
I scratched bunny’s back and told my son to hold out his hand, he was wary as he had a nip from him when we first brought him home about 4 years ago, but he’s matured now and if he doesn’t like something he will growl, but when he has his scritching session he just HAS to lick something, it seems to be a reflex :D He had a lick or two before he got nervous – my son that is!

He’s a black Rex rabbit, he has the entire walled garden to himself and he really enjoys it, he has grass, all kinds of rabbit friendly plants and herbs, and his own special kneeling mat that he likes to sit on cos it is warm and squishy. He gets to see the cats come out and he wants to play but they are scared of him, he has birds fly down and eat what I put out but he doesn’t pay any attention to them. Each morning I spend five or ten minutes giving his back a good scritch, and in turn he licks my other hand. It’s a real mutual grooming session.

In the winter months he really only sees me when I take the blanket off and let him out of his hutch, and again if I need to put something in the outdoors bin or shake a duster or doormat, and finally when I give him a cuddle before he goes to bed with some fresh veggies.

I sit outside to read more in the spring, summer and autumn but it is in the winter that I really notice he gets less time spent with him. Mind you, he doesn’t suffer for it, he still seems just as happy and bounds up to me when he sees me :)

Anyway, I am adding this to my 43 things as I want to make more of an effort than I do, wear a coat, take a coffee outdoors and read a while like I do the rest of the year.