Sparrow R8/19

Sparrow R8/19

 

Sparrow, with us 2019-24

Sparrow is a harlequin minilop buck. He came to us in October 2019 because his teeth were badly misaligned and sticking out of his mouth so his child couldn’t cuddle him without getting scratched. He was also having trouble eating. He was born in 2018 being about six months old when he arrived. We took him in despite being closed to new arrivals because he sounded like a good partner for Sorrel, our little black wildie. None of the rabbits already here were suitable.

We had his front teeth removed entirely when he was castrated because they were so bad they would have needed clipping nearly every week because of the angle they stuck out at. It was the worst I had seen and we have had quite a number of rabbits with wonky front teeth. He healed remarkably quickly and we put him with Sorrel. She simply doesn’t know how to behave because she was taken from her family very young first by a magpie and injured and then taken to the Blue Cross after being found in a hotel lift where she must have bolted. Sparrow simply couldn’t be sweeter with her. He doesn’t pester her but just sits next to whichever heap of hay she is under in a companionable way that we hope will be a good inflence on her. He is incredibly friendly with people too. We couldn’t have hoped for a better friend for her and he seems very happy in the hutch and run combo which is the only safe place to keep her as she is so tiny she could escape from any of the open runs. He jumps and plays very happily and when the bond is fully secure we will let other rabbits enter their outer run to give him extra company and perhaps let him out for a run by himself sometimes. And we will look at adding extra space securely onto their combo perhaps joined together with tunnels.

Sparrow lived with Sorrel in an enormous run for years until he developed the year duct and ear problems that most lops are doomed to get. At that point he felt so rough that he didn’t want his food and we were unable to catch him because Sorrel has dug herself an enormous Warren under that part of the sanctuary. We haven’t laid hands on her for several years. As a wild rabbit she is better off without the stress of handling but Sparrow doesn’t have her instincts or healthy constitution. We always shut him in at night while she was free to come and go through a small opening in their hutch. But once he wouldn’t go to bed that was no longer a viable way to keep him so we had to separate them although we kept him in an adjoining run where they could still see eachother but we could catch him to treat his infections. His eyes got very bad without another rabbit to clean them for him so we managed to find him another partner, Pearl. They had a good year together but sadly Pearl passed away not long ago and he is alone again and we have been unable to rebond him as he has become very aggressive with other rabbits as he finds fighting very entertaining.

Sparrow left us when we were forced to move due to the impending sale of the property. As he was single and we had no other rabbit with whom he was compatible we decided that he should go to Fat Fluffs where they had kindly offered to help. That way he could have a chance of a companion. In actual fact he got 21 companions!! as they put him into the giant sanctuary group they were building. It turns out that the way to get Sparrow to behave himself was to throw him in with more rabbits than his fuzzy little brain could conceive of beating no matter how much he considered himself king of the universe. From their photos and videos he looks very content:)