# Baby



## JBun (Dec 17, 2012)

Baby is an 8 month old hotot lionhead mix. She had a very rough start, as she was weaned way too young by the people selling her, and as a result didn't know how to eat rabbit food or drink water. She was very skinny and underweight when I got her because the people didn't make sure she was eating pellets when they weaned her, and were only feeding her a little lettuce, so that was all the food she was getting. She was only 4 oz. at 4 weeks old. For her first week and half with me, all she would eat was leafy greens, and boy did she eat them. This little 4 oz baby ate a whole head of green leaf lettuce and a handful of cilantro, every day for 10 days. After the initial struggle of figuring out what she would and could eat, she thrived and put on weight. Her weight doubled in that first week. She did well on the greens, and they didn't cause her any problems, besides her peeing a ton. After a week she started nibbling on pellet crumbs, and gradually was eating more and more, until after 3 weeks she was eating a normal amount of pellets, but she still didn't know how to drink, so I kept giving her lots of lettuce to give her the moisture she needed. I ended up having to get one of my big rabbits to be friends with her so he could teach her how to drink from a dish, and it worked. At about 7 weeks old she now had the skills of eating and drinking like a regular rabbit, things that she should have learned from her mom. She is now a healthy happy rabbit, though she is very cage aggressive, something I also feel has to do with her premature weaning and being separated from mom and siblings too early. I'm working on the cage aggression, and though she's like that in her cage, she loves to snuggle once she is out.


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