It was a beautiful day and I decided to let the babies outside. I scoured my sisters back lawn for a suitable patch, found the perfect area of grass that the babies could eat. I took their cage outside and removed the tray. I popped them in their carry box and took them outside. I opened a side door on their crate and placed the carry box in the opening – the same as I did for Cotton and Buttons. I let them come out in their own time.
The babies had strange behaviour, they had obviously seen grass before but not known where it came from. They sniffed the grass tips and nibbled, then went back into the carry box.
Maple was the first to start exploring. She started eating the grass immediately. She is such a sticky-beak.
Lunar was not comfortable about the whole situation. It took her about 20 minutes to relax.
I covered their crate with towels for protection, and I pegged long strips of cardboard around the bottom, leaving the smaller sides open. I popped their cardboard box in there, which they hid in. I kept an eye on them, going out to check them every few minutes.
They settled in to being bunnies outside quite quickly.
Later, I found a dandelion in the garden and dropped it in. Maple ate it like it was the most delicious thing ever. Lunar nibbled at it, unsure what to do exactly. Everything was a little scary for Lunar, I think because she couldn’t see very well with her blue eyes.
They were teensy loafs when they came back inside at about 1pm. They had a great couple of hours outside, they listened to birds, they watched bugs, the breathed fresh air. Ahhh, what a day.
They loved their cardboard house. Maple and Lunar had a big rest for a couple of hours.
It was then tea time at about 3pm, where I found them grass and dandelions to munch on.
Lunar wasn’t scared of dandelions any more.
But a big comfy sleep in my niece’s lap was in order.
Back in the carry box, they settled in for the night.
After putting the babies on the grass for the first time that day, I gave their bellies a rest for a couple of days after. Just in case their digestive systems couldn’t cope with the fibre in the grass. They did have poops that weren’t as dry, but nothing too drastic. I was a bit concerned about the dryness of their poops when I got them, so loosening them up a bit wont hurt. As long as I take it slowly.
A couple of days later I picked some dandelions and grass and gave it to them to eat. They scoffed it down like they were starved bunnies. I checked their poop consistency the following day to see if the same thing occurred as last time. Their poops seemed normal.
Now that the babies are successful grass eaters, they can start to go outside more often and forage around on the grass. That’s exciting!
Prior to this, I had noticed that Lunar wasn’t gaining as much weight as Maple, who was nearly twice her size. I had to watch Lunar’s diet a lot more than Maple. She clearly wasn’t ready to leave her mother yet, and her digestive system wasn’t quite ready for a full non-milk diet. I had to make sure to introduce foods slowly and not upset her little tummy. While Maple was fine, she was inquisitive and outgoing.
I thought about separating them for periods of time (e.g. cuddling Maple a lot) to let Lunar eat more. Once I started including grass in their diet, Lunar ate a lot more.
Lunar realised she loved eating dandelion leaves. Luckily my sister had ample dandelions in her garden. It was a win-win, the bunnies loved leaves and my sister liked me doing the gardening.
Two weeks in, Lunar was getting bigger, she ate a lot and started filling out.