# Pokey and Gus



## Morchall (Aug 23, 2021)

Hello, I made a couple posts on this forum but then forgot about it for 2 years. I'm back!
My name is Morgan and my roommate and I have 2 giant rabbits. They are 3/4 Continental Giant and 1/4 Giant Papillon (checkered giant).



The brown female (Pokey) takes more after the conti side while the white spotted male (GusGus or just Gus) takes after the papillon side. Pokey is 12.5 lbs and Gus is 14 lbs.
They are very friendly and calm rabbits. Some people who have come over have said they are "the chillest rabbits" they've ever met. They spend a lot of time flopped over on their sides.


Pokey is a bit more cuddly, she enjoys snuggling on the beds with us and taking little naps on our laps.
She doesn't really like to run around but she is very curious and adventurous. She is the one who usually jumps up on furniture or tries to get into places she shouldn't.
She kept jumping over their playpen, so we got a 5ft tall one, and she was still able to jump over it with some effort. I watched her do it before! She's too powerful.
Every time she's gotten out she's gone straight into my roommate's room, I think she might just want to see him. She loves him a lot.
She likes to play with him by hopping up on his back and then going under him while he's on his hands and knees. He calls it "playing over-under."
Pokey does the big full-on side flop a lot, she seems like a very calm and content bunny most of the time.


Gus isn't as cuddly but he enjoys playing. He runs around the house and waits for me to follow him around before binkying and running around some more.
If my roommate is Pokey's favorite person then I'm Gus's favorite. He likes to come up to me and boop me with his nose or grunt at me until I give him attention.
He's more stubborn than Pokey, he is more likely to nip when annoyed and he gets angry when we clean his area.
He is not aggressive or anything but he is very spoiled and throws little tantrums if you don't give him attention -right this second-!
He's also had some health problems in the past, he seems to have allergies so we had to get less dusty hay for him.
He once choked on food because he eats too fast. My roommate dislodged the blockage by massaging his throat. (this was before we knew the bunny heimlich.)
He recently survived GI bloat. I managed to catch it very early, we got him to the vet right away and he made a full recovery.
We are so happy that he made it through all that! He's our sweet little-big boy!




They are semi-bonded, they clearly love each other very much (see picture of Pokey flopped next to him and cuddling with him) but they often fight over toys and litter boxes so we have to keep them separated when we're not supervising them. We are going to attempt fully bonding them again soon so we can join their playpens and give them more space.
They have been really good for us, I'm glad that we got them. Giant rabbits are great. It's like having weird little dogs (without behaving like dogs). They are very lovey and sweet and have been great for both of our mental health.


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## Catlyn (Aug 23, 2021)

They are so adorable! 
I'm also riding the wave that big buns are cool, and some of them are extra mischevious. And oo boi they sure have the power to jump high. Storm is a french lop about 10-12lbs (~5kg at last vet check in spring) and he constantly astounds me with his bouncing skills. His record, i think, is one meter but he regurally jumps onto cabinets 80cm high.


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## Morchall (Aug 23, 2021)

Catlyn said:


> They are so adorable!
> I'm also riding the wave that big buns are cool, and some of them are extra mischevious. And oo boi they sure have the power to jump high. Storm is a french lop about 10-12lbs (~5kg at last vet check in spring) and he constantly astounds me with his bouncing skills. His record, i think, is one meter but he regurally jumps onto cabinets 80cm high.


thank you! french lops are so cute, their EARS... and yes they are ridiculously good jumpers. got those big powerful back feet!


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## odyssey~ (Aug 23, 2021)

Awww, they're adorable!
My bun _loves_ to flop a lot too!
Wow, 5ft!?!?! That's taller than myself!


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## Nancy McClelland (Aug 23, 2021)

So cute. We had a Checkered Giant that was almost 20 pounds. She's the biggest rabbit we'd ever seen. Very loving and definitely a lap rabbit--she'd climb into your lap and stay for hours--also liked to be carried around so I sometimes wondered if she really was a rabbit as she loved attention and rubs.


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## Barbara (Aug 23, 2021)

Morgan L Challingsworth said:


> Hello, I made a couple posts on this forum but then forgot about it for 2 years. I'm back!
> My name is Morgan and my roommate and I have 2 giant rabbits. They are 3/4 Continental Giant and 1/4 Giant Papillon (checkered giant).
> View attachment 57242
> View attachment 57243
> ...


They are so cute.


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## Roo1234 (Aug 23, 2021)

So cute


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## Morchall (Aug 23, 2021)

Nancy McClelland said:


> So cute. We had a Checkered Giant that was almost 20 pounds. She's the biggest rabbit we'd ever seen. Very loving and definitely a lap rabbit--she'd climb into your lap and stay for hours--also liked to be carried around so I sometimes wondered if she really was a rabbit as she loved attention and rubs.


we've found our giants are way more cuddly than most of the other rabbits my roommate has had or been around. they really do seem to like being held/snuggled and like to sit next to us or hop into our laps.
I'm not sure if giants are actually more docile and friendly, or if maybe it was because my roommate's previous rabbits (I think they were holland lops and mini rexes) were all rescued at an older age and may have just been more skittish because of that. The latter seems likely, but I do love how easy it is to cuddle a dog-sized bunny regardless!


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## SirLawrence (Aug 24, 2021)

Welcome (back)! Aren't the beautiful!!!


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## Morchall (Aug 25, 2021)

This is just a story about a frustrating day that I had which started with my rabbit biting me.
So, Gus bit me yesterday and broke the skin. He'd nipped me a few times before but never really broken the skin, and I realized I hadn't gotten a tetanus shot in a while, so I wanted to get one just in case.
I called urgent care and the doctor said "has he gotten his shots?" The vet never offered us booster shots, and I don't even think they're widely available here, so I said, "no he hasn't had shots."
"well you need to go to the ER and get a rabies shot. Rabies is DEADLY."
I was kind of just like, "for a bite from an indoor pet rabbit? He hasn't been outside in months." But she insisted and said they wouldn't see me there, I had to go to the ER and also get a rabies shot if I wanted a tetanus shot.
I am not very assertive and I was not aware you could just walk in and get a tetanus shot at a pharmacy, so I had my roommate take me to the ER. And of course people were packed like sardines in the waiting room. Couldn't sit down without brushing up against someone.
I told the lady at the counter, "hey I don't think I need to be here, here's my situation," and she said "Well, if you were my kid, I would want you to get a rabies shot, though. To be safe. You don't want to get rabies, it will mess you up for the rest of your life."
"I mean, I've never heard of a pet rabbit infecting a human with rabies."
"You don't want to be the first one, right?"
I just sighed and went over by the bathrooms to wait, the farthest I could be from the crowd. An hour passed. I heard some guy say, "I've been here 3 hours and haven't gotten into triage."
There was a screaming child that was hurting my ears so badly. 
And then someone started coughing.
So I started panicking a bit. I was already feeling extremely claustrophobic.
I called the vet and they said "it's really unlikely your pet rabbit gave you rabies, but we can't tell you not to get a rabies shot."
I went up to the front desk and told the intake person I would rather take the nearly 0% chance of my indoor pet rabbit giving me rabies than being in this packed room with people who are coughing.
She insisted that I get a rabies shot but eventually caved and said I could ask triage team when there was an opening.
So I waited, it took a while because there were so many people. 
I told them what happened and said I don't want to waste time or space when there were people in the ER that actually needed to be seen.
The one triage nurse looked at me, puzzled, and said, "who told you to come here?"
"urgent care"
"...for a bite from a PET rabbit??"
"Yeah, I don't know either."
They agreed I should probably get a tetanus shot but they seemed kind of baffled. I ended up leaving.
My phone was dying and I had to use the hospital phone to call my roommate to come get me, and since there was no room inside or outside the hospital to wait and no parking without paying for the parking garage, I ended up having to walk to meet him. And that was a whole thing that ended up giving me a lot of problems (including getting purposefully touched by some random "flirty" guy on the street without my consent. NOPE.)
After my roommate finally came to get me, I ended up just calling the nearest pharmacy with his phone to ask if I could just come get a tetanus shot and they let me. (My mom told me they could do that after I told her what was going on.)
I just think that entire situation was ridiculous.
Has anyone ever heard of an indoor pet rabbit giving a human rabies?
Especially one that exhibited no odd behavior, has never been outside without supervision, and has never been bitten by another animal (other than another indoor rabbit who has also never been bitten?)


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## Morchall (Aug 25, 2021)

The perpetrator! (I can't be mad at him though! Look at him!)


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## JBun (Aug 25, 2021)

Rabbits don't get regular vaccinations like rabies. Reason is first, pet rabbits are highly unlikely to get exposed to rabies, especially indoor rabbits, and second, that it's not available for rabbits. There's only one approved vaccination for rabbits in the US, the RHVD vaccine, and only in states that have a current outbreak of the deadly virus(rabbit hemorrhagic virus). According to the cdc, a rabbit passing rabies to a person has never happened in the US, and rabies is almost never found to affect rabbits and small rodents.






Other Wild Animals | Exposure | Rabies | CDC


Raccoons; skunks; foxes; and coyotes are the animals most commonly infected with rabies in the US. Bites from any of these animals should be considered a potential exposure. Small rodents are almost never found to have rabies; but a state or local health department should be contacted in all...




www.cdc.gov





So I don't know what that ER doc has been taught or is talking about. Obviously not well versed in rabbit bites. Rabbit bites, particularly from an indoor rabbit, aren't considered a rabies risk from what I've read. At least the ER nurse had some common sense. Not saying it's absolutely impossible to get rabies from a pet rabbit, just *extremely* rare, and even more unlikely from an indoor pet rabbit. I've never worried about tetanus either, and I've had a full latch on rabbit bite where she took a chunk out of my finger(who actually turned out to be one of my sweetest bunnies after that). But not to say it could never happen. 

Does sound like a pretty crappy day. I'm sure you're glad it's over. Hard to believe that cute little face caused you so much trouble


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## Morchall (Aug 25, 2021)

haha, thank you. I figured they were way overreacting!
The main reason I wanted to get a tetanus shot was just that I hadn't gotten one in a while and I read online it's probably best to do that if an animal bites you (just like how you should probably get one if you get scraped with metal, etc. though I'm assuming it's much less likely with rabbit bites!)
I wouldn't have even thought about it at all, except I seemed to be having some kind of reaction; the skin was all swollen around the bite mark, so I figured I would just get it to be safe. (ended up going down after some antibiotic ointment anyway though.)
Rabies though? Definitely not needed.
at least the pharmacist who gave me the shot was nice. I ended up also getting a flu shot, which I had been meaning to do anyway, so not a total waste!
and yes, he was kind of being a little stinker, but he is so cute and lovey that it's very hard to be upset about it, even after a bad day!


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## Morchall (Aug 25, 2021)

We ordered pellets from Chewy, and...


The bag somehow got torn open on the way here!
We didn't see it, but when we went to take the bag out of the big box, the pellets just spilled out all over!
Oh man, it took a long time to sweep up and then shop vac the rug.
We contacted Chewy and they were nice and sent us another bag for free.
It seems like the bag got torn along the seam during the shipping process while it was in the box, so it's very unlikely to be contaminated or anything.
But now we have tons of extra pellets, and since we have a subscription, there's no way we're going to use all of these pellets before next month.
We have giant rabbits, so they eat more pellets than small rabbits, but even they don't eat THAT much!
Thinking of donating the rest in the bag to the rabbit rescue if they want them. It's a rather large bag and only about 1/8th of it spilled out.
Or maybe we can just donate the free one we got if they don't want one that was opened.


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## ArtistChibi (Aug 26, 2021)

Oh no! At least Chewy was nice enough to deliver a free replacement. Donating any extra would be a great idea since not many shelters in some areas are equipped to handle rabbits. I know the shelter here isn't.


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## Apollo’s Slave (Aug 26, 2021)

Wow, sounds very eventful! I have been bitten by a lot of rabbits, several times and have never gotten rabies. I don’t think... lmao


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## Morchall (Aug 26, 2021)

My roommate's been bitten a few times, he's never gotten rabies either! I think...lol


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## JBun (Aug 26, 2021)

I'm sure the rescue would love a donation.


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## Howard cordingley (Aug 26, 2021)

Lol hope you got a good vacuum.


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## Morchall (Aug 26, 2021)

My roommate brings Pokey into his bedroom every day for personal cuddle/play time with him.
(He does this with Gus, too, but Gus is more attached to me, so I am the one who takes him out to play one-on-one more often.)
She's done this for a long time with no problems, but recently she's started peeing on the bed!
I told him I think he has her in there too long without a place to pee.
He sometimes has her in there for 45 minutes to an hour without a bathroom break.
She never poops on the bed or his floor, she still doesn't; she's very good about only pooping in her litter box.
She usually never pees outside of her litter box either, which is why I think she just really has to pee.
She also keeps peeing in the same spot on the bed even after he's cleaned it as well as he possibly can.
She can probably still smell it even if we can't, or maybe she just likes that spot.
He doesn't scold her or anything, just moves her back into her pen so she can use her litter box.
I really just think he should do that earlier. 45-60 minutes is probably too long without a bathroom break.
Not really looking for advice, unless you don't think this is the problem. Or if you know of the best product for cleaning bunny pee stains out of a mattress.
Just wanted to share. And also to show this cute little sequence I took of her bracing for pets.


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## Dakota15 (Aug 26, 2021)

I've been bitten as well and I've never gotten rabies, The family bunny we have bites a lot so I think I would have gotten it by now LMAO

He is adorable, he looks so sleepy in that picture


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## Morchall (Aug 26, 2021)

Howard cordingley said:


> Lol hope you got a good vacuum.


oh yeah. we shop vac'd that whole area after sweeping up the big chunks. it took nearly 30 minutes! and the bunnies didn't much like the noise.


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## dogwoodblossoms (Aug 27, 2021)

I love my shop vac their live savers


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## Nancy McClelland (Aug 27, 2021)

Our 2 are all over the shop vac when we use it--they got used to the noise--the only problem is they try to look up the tube while we are cleaning.


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## dogwoodblossoms (Aug 27, 2021)

Nancy McClelland said:


> Our 2 are all over the shop vac when we use it--they got used to the noise--the only problem is they try to look up the tube while we are cleaning.


That’s amazing  two of my rabbits are the jumpest of rabbits so I don’t think they’ll ever get used to it.


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