mini lops

Say hello to Hansel and Gretel! They are my precioussss and are about 8 months old now. But i have no idea why they both have only 1 lop-ear, their other ear stands upright. They have a cage (bright pink!) but i don't believe in caging them at all, so they roam free in the kitchen which is spick and span 24 hours a day. They are toilet-trained (trainer is yours truly) but they still "conquer" the kitchen by leaving their poo and pee here and there.

So much has happened since having them. I takan scoldings and naggings from my parents when the lops began to bite and chew EVERYTHING - the legs of my Mum's beloved dining chairs, the edges of the kitchen cabinet and they escaped from the kitchen at night and chewed the sofa in the living room. They also bitten the phone cables and we only found out the next day when i tried to use the house phone. My parents threatened to give them away until i do something about it. Thank gosh they grew tired of it, and i had also provided them with plenty of chewables from my soft toy collection and things like small cardboard boxes and paper rolls for them to chew their hearts out.

It's not easy being a soft toy nowadays.

They like to sleep in the kitchen toilet (around the toiletbowl somemore, please don't ask me why); when i return home at night, i step into the kitchen and they'll come running out of the toilet to greet me. Running around my feet, licking my toes and making their presence known byu nudging my ankle with their little furry noses. *warm fuzzy feeling* I left them in Jessica's care for a week and they went to her kitchen toilet as well. One fine day Jessica left her house for a while and when she came back, the whole kitchen was flooded. Hansel had bitten the cord thingy that connects the washing machine to the water supply and yea... Oh well.

One thing that really amuses me is that sometimes when i'm washing the dishes, they will come over and rest their head on my foot, or place one furry paw on my foot and then flop down on the floor to rest. Oh, Hansel and Gretel are inseparable. They sleep together in the most comical fashion sometimes and they look really sweet. When Hansel (the brown one) was smaller, he used to rest his head on Gretel's tummy like a pillow and sleep like that. When they were both babies, they slept with paws over each other like young lovers. Sometimes they face each other while sleeping, other times they simply lie close to each other side by side. *warm fuzzy feeling again*

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Shiyun was really sweet to pack some leftover food that her 4 chinchillas eat for me. She packed 4 packets of flax seeds, oats, golden and black raisins and alfafa (hay) cookies. I also learnt from her to buy the organic food like oats from Nature's Farm for them as a healthy treat.

I'm very particular about Hansel and Gretel's diet. I make sure they get the best quality pellets, and i never forget to replenish their water and fresh timothy hay everyday. They get fresh veggies like watercress and parsley which they absolutely love every other day and i chase them around the kitchen so they get lots of exercise. I made the young bunny owner's faux pas by spoiling them too many treats, as a result Hansel became a fat bum with a sweet tooth. :( They used to have quite a variety of treats - like dried papaya bits and butter cookies from the petstore, my Mum loves to give them all sorts of fruits and my Dad fed them peanuts while watching tv. But for their own good, i've limited the treats to the occasional apple and carrot slices now.

Last but not least, they DON'T stink.

M # Friday, August 12, 2005.