Q. I've been looking around for something that I can attach to my daughter's carseat that she can play with. Any ideas? If you can can you give me the exact name of the item
Answer
Car seat toys are becoming so popular nowadays that you can find any brand anywhere. Just go to your local store that sells baby supplies, shoot even grocery stores now carry them too, and look at the baby section. You will find so much stuff it might make your head spin....lol! Seriously look at Walmart, Target, wherever, and look in the infant section, do not look in the toy section! You will not find these in the toy section. Good luck choosing the right one!
Rabbit Treats, Toys, and Hay Rack?
Kaze
So my rabbit, Tapi, has been really nice and I want to give him some toys and treats. He gets free time and has his food and water and litter box but I want to make his hours in his cage better for him.
CLOTH TOYS: First off, I have to be careful about what toys I give him because he not only chews it up, he eats it. And he prefers cloth rather than wood and paper based stuff. He chewed a hole in one of âhisâ towel before. Is there a toy out there that is made out of cloth and can be safely eaten by a rabbit? I bought his a rope dog toy and he couldnât fit his mouth around the middle so he just nom at the frayed tassles, which canât be good for him so I took it away. Some people say dog toys are okay but Iâm pretty sure the KONG rubber toys arenât good. I would like something that he would chew on but canât chew into pieces and swallow.
PAPER BASED: I bought him 3 different brands of wooden chew sticks. The first he didnât even look at. The second, he gnawed a stick away in a day. The third, apple branches, was ignored for the first few days then he gnawed off the bark. But there are no wood chips or anything on the floor of his cage because he just eats it, I dunno why. I also crumpled up clean sheets of paper (although sometimes, Iâm tempted to give him my homework, just as an excuse! :P) and he chews the ball of paper for an hour or two then ignores it. I tried folding up paper for him to nibble away at and make âsnowflakesâ but he only ate one big irregular hole on one side of the paper then left it at that. Cardboard tubes are nibbled at and ignored too. So basically, wood and paper âtoysâ are a 1 day fling.
PLASTIC TOYS: I did some research and some websites recommend baby teething rings for rabbits to play with. Well, heâs not really into tinky tinkling sounds; heâs really good at ignoring noises, even from the vacuum cleaner. And he doesnât chew hard plastic but soft plastic will most certainly be swallowed. So plastic toys arenât really for chewing but for mental play. Speaking of which, I got him a parrot toys similar to this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lucky-Bird-Small-Treasure-Chest/20557123 It has holes all over where you stuff little blocks of wood into it and the bird has to âattackâ the chest to get it out. I placed a small animal yogurt drop into it and he sniffs at it but doesnât figure out how to get the treat out. It took him a few days to get a treat out by himself but over the weeks, heâs learnt how to nudge it over with his nose until the chest fell to a side and the treat falls out. It keeps him occupied for a few minutes if not hours (depends on how long it takes him and how much he wants it) but one of those treats a day isnât really healthy.
SUPPLIES: Keep in mind that I can only go to Wal-Mart. Petco and Petsmart probably have those toys and stuff but I donât go there very often. The Wal-Mart rabbit toys and treats section is pretty small and just consist of sugary treats, chewing sticks and the occasional wood-branches ball.
FOOD TREATS: So what kind of âtreatâ can be stuffed into that treasure chest that is both healthy but wonât make a mess? Tapiâs a big fan of bananas and I would like to cut off a small piece and stick it in the chest but bananas are smooshy and sticky so it would smear all over the toy but not come out for him to eat. Iâve heard of dried banana chips and other fruit chips. How do you make that at home? What other treats can be made at home that is healthy for rabbits?
People say too many vegetables and fruits have too many sugar and nutrients, which isnât good for a rabbitâs poor digestive system. They also say pellets contain too much fat. When I first got Tapi, he would go through a handful of pellets a day but now (little over a year later), heâs eating two handfuls if not more. I added more hay (since thatâs suppose to be the bulk of his meals) and reduced it to one and a half handful of pellets a day.
And I was also wondering how to make a good hay rack that wonât spill or make too much of a mess but can be easily accessed by a rabbit. He lives in a XL dog kennel (yes, those things make good rabbit cages and are a lot less expensive than rabbit cages in the stores) so I would prefer hanging up a rack or something. Heâs litter boxed trained and I got used to just cleaning out one particular stinky box rather than a whole kennel of bedding. His âbeddingâ is a fleece blanket (one of the few types of cloth he doesnât chew) so sweeping off hay from that can be kinda hard. Currently, his hay is in a cardboard box that he sits in when eating the hay.
So, to sum things upâ¦
What kind of chew toys are at Wal-Mart that can be devoured by the rabbit?
(Name some different types of intellectual toys as well, heâs pretty smart.)
How do you make healthy homemade rabbit treats?
How would you install a hay rack?
Answer
the only fabric that's bunny-safe is fleece - the individual fibers are short enough that it won't cause a blockage if ingested.
have you tried willow? Petsmart sells a willow ball, my bunnies go INSANE for it but ignore any other type of purchased chew toy, including the wood balls that are whiteish colored.
soft plastic is definitely a no-no with bunnies (which includes pretty much all teething toys for infants). as far as plastic toys go, slinkies and hard plastic baby keys are usually big hits. baby links are good, too - you can get a BIG pack of them at Walmart for $4. string them together and hang them from the ceiling in his cage and maybe scatter a few on the floor for him.
I wouldn't feed yogies, by the way, they're really bad for bunnies. the best treat is small amounts of fruit (no more than 1 tsp per 2 lbs body weight per day). store-bought banana chips are usually very bad for bunnies because they're fried/have oil... if you have a food dehydrator, though, you could go pretty nuts drying fruit for him!
there's really no such thing as "too much veggies" if they're the right veggies. no more than 1 tbsp non-leafy veggies per 2 lbs body weight per day... but a *minimum* of 1 cup (chopped/packed) leafy greens per 2 lbs body weight should be given daily.
with pellets, the issue is mostly carbs/protein, the fact that they usually contain sugar, they don't have the dental benefits that hay and veggies do and - most importantly - that they're very dense calorie-wise and bunnies are grazers - if they're grazing on mostly pellets, yes, they'll get chubby. the recommended amount is 1/4-1/2c pellets per 6 lbs body weight per day.
he should *always* have unlimited grass hay available (any horse-quality hay will work, but if you feed oat or wheat or something, you need to pull out the oats or w/e because the excess carbs are bad for bunnies).
more diet/veggie info:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html
http://www.3bunnies.org/feeding.htm#greens
this is a great litter box system that has a built-in hay rack - even if you don't end up using it, it might give you an idea.
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=53690&forum_id=93
I actually bought some shelves that hang over cabinet doors or w/e in the kitchen section of walmart and modified one of them with my dremel plus zip-tied coroplast to the back (corrugated plastic, cardboard could work too) and I hang it on the side of my bunnies' pen... it's hard to explain; I'll go take pics and edit this with links to them.
I've got a new website that I'm finishing up... it's mostly sugar glider stuff but I've got a bunny page so my girls won't feel left out, hehe - if you scroll down (just past the you-tube videos), there's a list of treats and toys my bunnies recommend and even a link to my tutorial for building an agility course (like an obstacle course for bunnies - tons of fun!) - http://www.hurricanesleucisticfriends.com/for-da-bunnies.html
if you have any more bunny questions or just want to chat/share stories and pics, I highly recommend http://rabbitsonline.net/ - it's an excellent community; very friendly, active and helpful!
edit: here's a pic of my hay rack - http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x465/mareimbri1/DSCF1436_zps6ec4862e.jpg (I've decided I like the wider openings better, I just haven't gone back and fixed the bottom). it's got hooks on the back, so it should be easy enough to hang it in a dog crate).
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
