I absolutely adore Valentine and Duchess and in the 9 months they have been apart of our family I have learnt so much about raising happy and healthy bunnies! Keeping your bunny happy and healthy is not as easy as you may think. They need a lot more attention than just a lettuce leaf and a carrot. Each day we are together they become cuter and cuter, they play with Oscar and completely trash their play room every night, yes I find this behaviour cute! I am constantly on the lookout for things to keep them entertained, a bored bunny is a very unhappy bunny! Bunnies get bored quickly and easily so it is very important you spend time with your bunny loving them and playing with them. Bunnies are also very intelligent and they need mental stimulation everyday. Luckily Valentine and Duchess have no idea whether I paid good money for a toy or if its something recycled, if they can toss it, climb through it or jump onto it they love it. Any empty box, plastic bottle lids and toilet roll holders go in Valentine and Duchess’ box so I can create fun and interesting toys for them to play with, which they love!
Here are a few of their favourite boredom busters, we hope your bunnies love them too…
Toilet roll holder balls: These are a firm favourite with Valentine and Duchess! I like to fill them up with fresh herbs that I grow in my garden. These balls keep the two of them entertained for quite some time. They toss them and roll them around eventually pulling the rings apart so they can eat the herbs. They also toss the individual rings around too. It really is very cute to watch! And since everyone uses toilet paper, you can have a constant supply of these cute toys.
Directions
Simply cut the toilet roll into rings and intertwine them until it forms a sturdy ball shape. Then stuff the herbs inside and watch your bunny have fun.
Empty boxes: Valentine and Duchess absolutely love climbing through empty boxes. I usually cut a whole in the side for them to get through. I fill the box with shredded paper, brown paper or hay and it keeps them entertained for hours each night! Sometimes I stack more than one box on top of each other so they can knock them down and push them around. At our local pet shop we found a ‘seed box’. It is a box covered in edible seeds which they absolutely loved and have devoured, I will definitely be on the look out for another one of those!
Food fun: I like to make breakfast and dinner interesting for Valentine and Duchess. Stuffing lettuce, carrots and celery into toilet roll holders, dried herb refill boxes work well too, or using a piece of string across a section of their play room which I peg bits of fresh veggies to. I like to have fun with their actual food too, making them bunny sushi or fruit and veggie skewers. The options are endless when it comes to having fun with their food.
Food-line
Hang some string across an area either in your bunny’s cage, play area or a section of your house. Then use wooden pegs and peg all sorts of fresh fruit and veggies up: apple, pear, cucumber, green beans, celery, rocket, mint, basil etc… I love watching Valentine and Duchess have fun at meal times.
Bunny sushi
Who says sushi is only for humans 😉 Simply cut thick pieces of cucumber and take the soft middle part out leaving you with a round whole in the centre. Then cut some thin carrot sticks, celery sticks, some corn or whatever it is that your bunny loves and fill the centre. You can use a variety of ingredients for this which is why I love making this for them.
Herb board
The herb board is also a favourite for Valentine and Duchess because once they have found and eaten all the herbs they then pull out the strips cardboard and toss them around, keeping them entertained for hours! All you need is a cardboard base, a cardboard box that you can cut into strips and some toilet roll holders cut in half. Then you slide in their favourite herbs and watch them have fun.
Games: I love playing games with Valentine and Duchess and it’s always fun when they engage, of course if they are not in the mood I have no chance of playing-haha! We particularly love playing with Oscar’s IQ board game. I hide their dry food pellets or some homemade treats and using their noses they push the wooden pieces so they can get to their treats. We have great fun playing this.
We also enjoy playing with ping pong balls, rolling them to each other, Duchess tends to ‘chin’ them rather than send them back to me (chinning is said to be her way of telling me the ball belongs to her, it’s a sign of possession in the bunny world). We have a skittle set that we play with too, but sometimes the noise of the skittles crashing onto the floor gives them a little fright. Since our entire house is tiled I usually place a blanket down so the skittles don’t fall as hard. The last thing I want to do is scare my babies while we are supposed to be having fun!
They enjoy tossing small objects in the air too so I always keep plastic bottle lids and usually place them all in a box for them, in the mornings I wake up to find them hidden and thrown all over the place 🙂
These are just a few ways in which I like to entertain Valentine and Duchess. I rotate their games each day and I never leave the same toys down constantly because they get bored with them. Instead I pick them up and will rotate them each couple of days. Even though it is the same toy, to them it’s new! But most of all have fun playing with your bunnies, a happy bunny is the best bunny!
Thank you for reading.
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