Rabbits
Snap Happy: 26th September
07 months ago
Early – One of the things I do every morning is spend a little bit of time with these two critters. This morning it was about 6.45am for ten minutes or so – they were very grateful we had broccoli with our dinner last night, they reckon the stalks are the best bit!
Monster Pet Supplies
0Chocolate and Ginger were two very lucky bunnies when Monster Pet Supplies sent them a box of goodies to test out for Splodz Blogz. They’re not used to getting their own post and weren’t quite sure what to do with it… so they asked me to open it and let them have the contents little by little over a few weeks.
The box contained some food, treats and bedding for them to review…
Supreme Science Selective Rabbit Food
Rabbits are naturally selective feeders – even Chocolate and Ginger will admit to eating the bits they like best first, and leaving the bits they don’t like and not bothering, rather waiting for their human slave to give them more of the bits they like best. My bunnies don’t get much chance to be selective with anything other than treats though, because I feed them a pellet based food rather than a muesli for their main meal. Supreme Science Selective Rabbit Food is an example of a pellet based food, and one that Chocolate and Ginger very much enjoyed. The pellets are quite large which gave them something to chew on properly, and they contain all the natural ingredients they need to sustain them and keep their digestive system happy – when served alongside mountains of hay of course. I can never see what it is my bunnies like so much about the pellets I feed them at 6pm every day, but they sit next to their bowl waiting eagerly for me to fill it up, and can’t even wait for the bowl to be fully on the floor before they start gobbling them up. It might look dull and tasteless, but I can assure you it’s gourmet to rabbits!
Supreme Tumble Fresh Bedding
Tumble Fresh bedding is an ultra-absorbent bedding for all small animals made from surplus virgin wood pulp. This means that no trees are cut down in order to make this product – it uses waste material.
I have always used wood shavings for the rabbits bedding and litter tray, along with straw and hay. I’ve never considered purchasing a separate bedding material, but the bunnies seemed to like me using the Supreme Tumble Fresh in their litter tray and underneath their hay. One thing I did notice was that it was much easier to clean up than woodshavings from their litter tray. I would definitely consider buying this again, it had a noticeable difference and made my life easier, which can only be a good thing!
Supreme Treats
Chocolate and Ginger are rather partial to a treat or two. They get fresh things in the morning, pellet food in the evening, but if they are good bunnies they might also get something to chew on or crunch on. Monster Pet Supplies sent two sorts of treat for them to try – some carrot and parsnip shapes, and some fruit donuts, both colourful crunchy treats.
While the fruit doughnut shapes got the brush off, both Chocolate and Ginger really loved the carrot and parsnip crunchers. A slightly damp Chocolate happily munched on one the other day after I brought her and Ginger in to be towel dried after they decided it was more fun sitting out in the rain than hiding inside like they normally do. I will definitely continue to buy those – bunnies like to crunch on things and the taste was obviously excellent as Chocolate continued to nibble at my fingers after she’d finished hers as if to say “more please”. I would never give them these things every day but it’s nice to give them something different occasionally. Sadly the donuts just don’t get eaten when I offer them – do I have fussy bunnies?!
Check out the Monster Pet Supplies website for more details on each of these products.
Disclaimer: I (well, my bunnies) was sent a box goodies by Monster Pet Supplies so I (they) could test and review them. I have not been told what to write and I have been no less honest as a result. (Chocolate and Ginger and I must apologise to Monster for taking so long putting this review on Splodz Blogz… sorry!)
My Bunnies Have Hay Fever
0I am one of many people who keep rabbits as pets… they are in fact one of the nation’s favourite domestic animals. Well they are soooo cute!
But like dogs and cats, the RSPCA are seeing a large number of pet rabbits end up in their care and needing treatment and foster homes – because many don’t understand how they should be kept. Apart from those that end up in one of the RSPCA centres, they also see thousands more in unhappily are often small hutches where the rabbits are kept all day with no company, and no opportunities to play, exercise or graze.
As part of a study the RSPCA discovered that people are unsure about what rabbits should eat. Nearly one in four people think a bunny should mainly eat pellets or museli from the pet shop. One in five people think a healthy bunny eats mostly carrots (I think Bugs Bunny is to blame for that!). But actually the bulk of a rabbit’s diet should be hay and grass – and less than one in ten people knew that.
The RSPCA have therefore launched a new campaign aimed at helping people care for their bunnies better… starting off with the Hay Fever campaign which encourages owners to feed their rabbits on mainly hay and grass.
Here’s some do’s and don’ts from the campaign:
A healthy rabbit diet should consist of:
- Mainly good quality hay which should be available at all times (a bundle of hay that’s as big as the rabbit every day) and ideally also access to grass for grazing.
- Fresh clean grass (growing or picked by hand).
- An adult rabbit-sized handful of washed dark leafy greens such as cabbage, broccoli, kale and herbs such as parsley.
- A small amount of good quality commercial rabbit pellets or nuggets (no more than 25g per kg of body weight).
- Constant access to fresh, clean water.
Don’ts:
- Despite popular belief, a rabbit’s diet shouldn’t include too much lettuce. Iceberg lettuce is not suitable.
- Carrots and apples are high in sugar and should only be fed as an occasional treat.
- Fresh clean grass is great, but not lawnmower clippings! They can upset a rabbit’s digestive system and make them ill.
Thankfully I can say Chocolate and Ginger have a good diet thanks to their constant grazing on hay and opportunities to eat grass. They have fresh veg in the morning for breakfast (spring greens and brussel sprouts are their current favourites), a bowl of pellets to share in the evening for dinner, and the odd carrot or apple in between. They also love fresh parsley which I grow for them and go nuts when I pick dandelions from the lawn for them. Oh and they love those carrot and dandilion sticks you can hang from the top of the run (makes them stretch) and those bags of “herbal delight” which include dried bits and bobs I’ll sprinkle on their hay which gives them variety. I have to admit I have given them a handful or two of grass cuttings before but I’ll stop that, we’ve never had a poorly bunny as a result but I’ll not do it any more.
If you keep bunnies, or are planning too, please take a look at the RSPCA website for advice on how to look after them – as pet owners we can always learn something about caring for our animals even better than we do already.
Pet Shop Bowl
0My bunnies are two creatures of habit. So am I. They have eaten the same pellet food for the last few years, and I have always purchased it from my local Pets At Home. I go once a month or so to buy Burgess Excel pellets, hay, and of course a few treats.
I am well aware that there are a number of online pet shops which offer the products I normally buy but will deliver to my door. I was asked to try out Pet Shop Bowl for Splodz Blogz, so naturally I (and my bunnies) obliged. To help me give the site a good try they gave me a voucher to spend, but I actually spent double that – the bunnies are spoilt!
The Site
The site is designed with all the product categories down the left hand side – for rabbits I had to scroll down below dog and cat to “small animal”. I guess bunnies don’t need their own category at that level, but once you’ve clicked on “food” (for example) you are then given a list of species to choose from, including rabbit.
It’s very easy to navigate through, you can drill down by product type or brand. As I was ordering products I’m used to purchasing I used the search box at the top, which I found very useful – saved me clicking through pages for most things. I also had a browse though, and was impressed with the range of products and brands on offer in the one place.
One thing I thought was odd was the option within the product details page to enlarge/zoom the picture of the product – which I like to use on the web as it means you can see the packaging properly and know for sure if it’s the right thing. But I found that just opened a picture exactly the same size, and so it is pretty pointless. Not on every product I have to say (some of the hutches did have a proper zoom function), but it did seem the majority of the ones I was looking to buy had this issue.
Ordering
Adding something to your basket is naturally very easy, and when you do so you get suggestions of other things you might want to look at (can’t beat a bit of cross selling!).
Once your total is more than £19.99 it’s free shipping, which is excellent (it’s very easy to spend that amount on pet food!). As this doesn’t include vouchers it became the main reason I chose to double up on what I spent; I don’t like paying for delivery – it was better for me to order additional products (that I knew I would use) and get the delivery free.
One thing that caught my attention was their “bottomless bowl” scheme – a reordering service where you choose what you want and how often, and Pet Shop Bowl send it to you. So if I wanted to receive two bags of food and a couple of treat items every month for a year, I could set a recurring order up and I’d not have to think about it again. This is a great idea, and while I didn’t try this out I can see why it would be very useful.
I was also interested to see that if you buy in bulk you pay less per item – for example one 10kg bag of Burgess Excel Adult Rabbit currently costs £18.74, buying two is £34.98, and three £51.22, giving a saving of up to a fiver. Other kinds of product are available to bulk buy too – like water bottles (in case you have a lot of hutches!).
Delivery
This is not a review of courier companies. But it would be unfair of me to tell you it took a couple of weeks to get my order without explaining why, as it was not the fault of Pet Shop Bowl. I got an email from the company a couple of days before May bank holiday to tell me my parcel was on the way and to remind me that due to the bank holiday it would be a day extra on delivery. I received a small parcel in the post which contained two items, but there was no sign of the large box that should contain the food and hay elements of the order.
I contacted Pet Shop Bowl and they confirmed it should have been delivered by then, and contacted the courier – Yodel – who said it had been delivered and signed for by someone with the surname Holmes. Well it hadn’t. I know that because the parcel was due to be delivered to work, where we have a post room where no-one with that name works. Unfortunately I suspect the driver is suggesting that I signed for the parcel myself, but as I work in a different building (and would have spelt my surname correctly), I can be certain I did not. And as far as I am aware, they have not yet been able to produce the signature.
It is such a shame that courier companies feel it is ok to not do the job they have been paid for. Yodel must have my parcel somewhere. They’re not the only ones to do this, it’s quite common I fear – I have parcels left out in the rain at home, and even Royal Mail didn’t bother to put a red card through my letterbox when a neighbour took in a parcel for me so I didn’t know until they knocked on my door a week later.
But anyway, like I said, this is not a review of courier companies. Pet Shop Bowl came to the same conclusion as me with regards to the delivery and immediately dispatched my order again, this time upgrading me to 24 hour delivery. A large box of rabbit food and treats arrived promptly and all was well. Thanks for resending the parcel, I’m sorry that you had to.
The Products
I chose to order things I knew my bunnies would like because they’ve either had them or had very similar before. The box of goodies was very well packed and everything arrived in great condition.
Of the treats I ordered it’s fair to say the Burgess dried apple is Chocolate and Ginger’s favourite – and yes we tried a bit and it really is just dried apple like you get from Julian Graves with a few herbs sprinkled on. Yum. Really!
Splodz Blogz Verdict
Pet Shop Bowl is an easy to use online pet shop where everything I’d need for my bunnies seems to be available. If you buy pet food and are fed up of carrying stuff from a store then definitely give the delivery service a try, it’s certainly more convenient. Oh and if you have tried the Bottomless Bowl service please let me know how it is!
You can find Pet Shop Bowl online – let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I was given a voucher in order that I could review Pet Shop Bowl as a shopping experience (which I spent, and then some!), but I have not been told what to write and I have been no less honest as a result.
Snap Happy BritMums: 12th May
21 year ago
KISSING - Not quite kissing but definitely hugging, and they do groom each other which I say counts!
Use the tag SnapHappyBritMums here on Splodz Blogz to find all the photos from May.
Snap Happy BritMums: 6th May
11 year ago
View from Above – Chocolate having a morning snack
Use the tag SnapHappyBritMums here on Splodz Blogz to find all the photos from May.
