Dwarf Bunnies

Our Netherland Dwarf Bunnies Flower and Thumper

Our first dwarf bunnies, Mars and Jupiter, had given us a taste for house rabbits when we had moved home and our new garden wasn’t ready for them to move into. They had spent several months living in the house, while the garden was made safe for them. Although Mars and Jupiter were very happy to move back outside, we missed having rabbits in the house and so Flower and Thumper joined our family.

Thumper was an agouti netherland dwarf bunny, the only one in the litter, and when we saw him we couldn’t resist. The rest of the litter were Sable Martens and Flower was the only other boy. As we wanted a pair of male bunnies our choice was made for us.

We already had the temporary indoor run that had been Mars and Jupiter’s. The run had been dismantled and stored in the loft, when they moved out into the garden, so it was a simple job for us to rebuild it for our new bunnies. As we had two cats we couldn’t let Flower and Thumper have complete freedom of the house, so the run seemed like a good compromise.

Thumper the adventurer

It soon became apparent Thumper had an adventurous streak, and we would often find him in places he shouldn’t be. His naughtiest habit was jumping out of the top of his indoor bunny run and going off on unsupervised adventures. He was a good bunny and we weren’t worried that he’d nibble anything he shouldn’t, but we did have two young playful cats and we didn’t want any harm to come to our cheeky bunny. There was one time we were in our office with the bunnies, and Thumper managed to get up on a desk; he jumped down as soon as he realised we’d seen him! We don’t know how he did it and unfortunately he never did it again. We caught him in quite a few places he didn’t belong, and he would always jump down guiltily. We even caught him in a laundry basket full of clean clothes one time and have a very hurriedly taken blurry photo to prove it.

Shy little Flower

Compared to Thumper, Flower was a timid little chap; he wouldn’t even climb on the lowest of boxes, never mind jumping out of his run. Just because Flower wasn’t quite as adventurous as Thumper did not mean he wasn’t a very special little bunny in his own right. Like all dwarf bunnies Flower was very bright and had his own funny little habits, like playing with balls of wool. One of the sweetest things about Flower was his keenness in coming out to play, running across the landing and into our bedroom, realising Thumper wasn’t with him and running back to get him. He’d do it every time.

Flower was also the more affectionate of the two bunnies, he enjoyed being picked up and sitting on our knees for some fuss. Thumper was was his complete opposite, yet they were the best of friends. No matter what trouble Thumper found to get himself into Flower was always nearby, just with his feet firmly planted on the floor and watching innocently.