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...........This bunny short story, contributed by Rita Wiegand might save a bunny's life, and shows us that "dumb" animals are often quite smart if we listen to their instincts.

..........There is a link at the bottom of the page to go back to the previous tales.

Hi, I just read your sheep and rabbit stories. I feel I should add mine because it could save some unlucky bunny from the stew pot!

Honey Bun, a French Angora, had always had weepy eyes, and when about 2 years old developed an eye infection. After antibiotics and a "tear duct opening" Bun stopped eating. We humans can eat yogurt to reestablish the intestinal bacteria we need, but rabbits don't have a diet based on milk products.

A visit to the health food store revealed many varieties of "lacto-bacillus" but nothing of cellulose. Bun's "hutch-mom" had been away for a few weeks and could not be consulted, books were no help (they recommended culling unhealthy rabbits from the herd, Bun IS my herd!).

When "hutch-mom" returned from her visit to a friend's Montana sheep ranch, she mentioned that when the lambs were first let out of the barn they would head for rotten wood and eat it. We found some clean rotting wood and offered it to Bun. He thought it was a special treat and wanted MORE.

Within a couple days (still snacking on his wood treats) he had started eating again and within a month he had put on the weight he had lost and was back to normal.

The bacteria which fosters the rotting process was evidently the bacteria he needed to be able to digest his hay and pellet food.

Bun is a house pet, sleeps and eats in his cage, and has the run of the house during the day. He has two litter boxes, one in a corner of the living room, and one near his cage. I don't like clay cat litter (it turns to mud when he pees!), so we use Yesterday's News (recycled newspapers formed into very absorbent pellets), Critter Country (wheat chaff compressed into pellets) or Feline Pine (also pellets). These are all biodegradable and since bunny poop is good fertilizer, these pellets can also be mixed into the soil.

So, Bun blesses us three ways, he is a good pet (traveling with us in our trailer in the summer), he is my fleece factory, and a good fertilizer producer!

Rita Wiegand

Thank you Rita.

Antibiotics in sheep will also destroy the "friendly" bacteria that they need to digest their food, especially in the young lambs. Jean often helps the lambs get "re-started" with "live culture" yogurt so that they can digest their milk.

Once in the past, Jean was given a tiny, newborn lamb, who's mother had not survived the birth. This tiny creature could not even digest milk, and was going down hill fast, when Jean hit on the solution. "Tansy" lived and grew for the first 3 weeks of her life on nothing but live culture yogurt thinned with enough water to go through a bottle nipple. In time she became a normal sheep and gave us many years of enjoyment.

You can read another "Rabbit tale" by using the "Table of contents" button to get to it quickly

You can click on these numbers to continue, or use the pink buttons at the top of the page, or the *Jump links* that are below, to go somewhere else.

#1."Me-sis" #2. "Gem" #3. Short History #4. Stupid? #5. Rule #1 #6. Chris #7. Leonard #8 Lamb Wave #9. You know...when, #10. "Wimps" #11. "Fidget" #12. Invisible sheep #13. "Fraidy" #14. Words

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