Flower & Thumper

Super cute house bunnies

Thumper & Flower were Derek’s moment of weakness, we went to stock up on supplies and came home with two bunnies.

Our indoor bunny run

As Mars & Jupiter already occupied the garden we got to discover the fun of house bunnies. Flower & Thumper have a room upstairs and a large indoor bunny run, with a bunny door so they can easily come out and play. Derek made our bunny run, taking great care to listen to what the bunnies wanted. Thumper insisted on windows so he could keep and eye on what was going on. We used large cardboard boxes as tunnels and as Thumper likes to climb on things Derek made him a platform. With Thumper’s love of climbing we also had to fit a lid to the run to stop him jumping out.

Having house bunnies is a great experience. They are a lovely little pair, who entertain us with their antics. Flower is very sweet it is hard to do anything without him coming to help, he enjoys standing on our feet. He’s not quite as adventuress as Thumper, and he often gets left out when Thumper goes climbing.

Thumper is much more serious, he will bang his bunny door when it’s time to come out. So we don’t get the opportunity to be bad bunny parents. Although, Thumper has a very naughty habit of banging his bunny door until we open it and then staying in the run for a sleep. His greatest obsession is getting into our wardrobes, open the door for a second and he will charge at it, the little horror has been shut in before.

Thumper and flower relaxing in the sunshine

Having house bunnies is very hard work, their fluff gets everywhere and the vacuum gets a bit clogged up. Flower and Thumper are great fun, it is hard to remember our home without a pair of bunnies scampering around.

Its not been all fun and games though and the hair dryer cable has fallen victim on several occasions to our little bunnies teeth and so have a pair of slippers! They also enjoy the odd nibble at the bed clothes, in fact anything hanging over the edge of the bed is at risk.

A roof for Thumper

'Let me out'

It wasn’t long after we got our sweet little boys that we encountered a problem with Thumper - he’s an escapologist. When we first designed the indoor bunny run it had no lid, which meant little Thumper could climb onto things and jump out the roof! The worst thing was once outside, without Flower, he was not very impressed and could not get back in. So to contain our very adventurous bunny and keep him safe, we have added a lid to the run.

The new lid has the double advantage of keeping Thumper contained, and keeping our cats out. Not that they have tried to get in the bunny run, or even in their room, but should they ever wander in our bunnies won’t find themselves with an uninvited feline roommate.

Despite not actually enjoying himself when he escapes from the run, Thumper is not impressed with the new addition of a roof. He will stand on his bunny ledge and chomp on it for ages. I’m sure he likes the terrible noise it makes, because even if we go to him he doesn’t always want to come out!

'Let us out'

As much as Thumper loves to climb and explore, our little guy Flower likes to keep his feet firmly on the ground. The boys have lots of boxes, tunnels and shelves in their bunny run, and while Thumper will always come flying over the top of any obstacle, Flower likes to make his way under or through. After some box rearranging by Thumper our sweet little Flower got trapped in the run.

Thumper has always loved shoving things around and this time had managed to create a barricade of boxes and toys between Flower and the exit. I’d let the bunnies out and not noticed what had happened or that Flower was trapped in the run!

When neither bunny came barreling out to play, I went to see what was wrong and found little Flower stuck in the run, and Thumper not looking very impressed at all, because Thumper won’t come out and play without Flower. Once I realised what had happened I cleared the way for Flower, and both bunnies scampered off to play.

While they were gone it was time for some serious rearranging of their run to stop it happening again. We have made sure there is always a tunnel against the wall, so no matter what Thumper moves, Flower will always have an exit. We’ve also made sure there is lots of room for Flower to get under the boxes, even if naughty Thumper shoves things in the way.

Our sweet little boys are so close and loving with each other, yet so completely different in personalities and habits. We are having so much fun sharing our home with them. Goodness knows what they’ll get up to next.

Our house bunny Flower gave us a terrible fright, he began having seizures. It started one afternoon when I found Flower under the bed. He was lying on his side and appeared unable to get up. I picked Flower up and cuddled him for a while, although he seemed fine once I had picked him up he had given me quite a scare. As Flower seemed happy, we did not take him straight to the vets, though that night he had several more turns. Next morning we took him straight to the vet who listened very carefully to Flowers symptoms and tested his reflexes. Our sweet little bunny was very groggy and his reflexes where quite poor. The vet gave Flower an injection and asked us to bring him back the next day. That night Flower had several seizures. We were getting very scared not only was it very distressing to see our bunny so helpless, but we were also getting up several times a night to take care of him.

On our second visit to the vet we were given some medication. While this helped to control his seizures we had to increase the dose a couple of times to get him sorted out. Flower is a very brave little bunny and we are very proud of how he is coping with everything he has been through. Having his medicine twice a day cannot be much fun, but this has not stopped his bright and cheeky ways. While we will probably never find out what caused Flower to begin having seizures, we are hopeful that they won’t prevent him enjoying a happy and mischievous life.

Our precious little Flower passed away. His seizures had been under control for many weeks but Friday morning he had a very severe one and then continued with several more seizures as the day progressed, until he passed away peacefully at home. Sadly both Derek and I were away from home while Flower was ill, we had been in Cornwall for the week and my mum had been taking care of our family for us. She had called us early in the morning as we were preparing to head home, at first we just thought it was a normal seizure Flower was having. Mum told us that although Flower was back on his feet he was still quite wobbly. It was very difficult being so far away and we phoned home several times during our six hour journey home. Flower had several more seizures throughout the day and we were very relieved to finally be home. Mum greeted us at the front door saying that she had just checked on Flower and he seemed okay. I went straight upstairs to see him, but he had passed away. It was a terrible shock for all of us, but at least we knew he had not suffered.

Flower and Thumper

Thumper was lost at first without his brother, he did not want to leave his run and just slept a lot. A few weeks on and he has brightened up again. We love Thumper very much but it is hard not to feel sad to know Flower is gone, he had only been in our lives five short years and we had hoped the cheeky pair of bunnies would be getting into mischief together for few more to come. We both spend a lot of time talking to Thumper, letting him know we love him and just how special he is to us.

We’ve had to make the horribly difficult decision to have our special little bunny, Thumper put to sleep.

When we woke up on Sunday morning we were horrified to find he was showing the same symptoms that his brother, Flower had suffered from. To see our active little guy struggling with his balance broke our hearts. Thumper had shown absolutely no symptoms before and to find him struggling desperately to stay on our feet was a terrible shock.

At first we were just numb, but we knew Thumper needed help so we rushed him to the vets who confirmed our worst fears. It was obvious there was no choice for us, as we could not let our beautiful bunny suffer, so we let our vet put him to sleep.

It was a terrible shock, even after the loss of Flower we had hoped Thumper would fill our home with his antics for many years to come. Since he has gone our house just isn’t the same, and we have made the difficult decision not to have any more bunnies for awhile. We miss you Thumper.