Don’t worry!!!!!! Tapioca did not eat the cupcakes!!!! She ate yummy lettuce instead that is safe for bunnies!!!!! I ate the cupcakes!!!! We got cupcakes again so you know what that means!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Photoshoot time!!!!!! I’m planning on having all my Tapioca cupcake photos framed because they make me so happy- my two favorite things together in a photo🩷🩷🩷
With Easter approaching, just a little PSA not to buy or give rabbits for Easter.
Yes, they're very very cute, and yes, you can get some adorable pictures of them in Easter baskets. But rabbits are not toys. They are little living beings. They need to be cared for and not discarded. They are not starter pets, and they are not good pets for children. A child cannot be the primary caregiver for a rabbit. They're very fragile, have complicated diets, and can be quite expensive. Rabbits can live to be 10+ years, they are not a short term commitment. They are not low maintenance, and can't live in the kind of cage you most often see advertised for rabbits. They either need a large exercise pen or to be free roamed, aka let them live in your home with you like you would a cat or dog. They are very easily litter trained and can become a member of the family just like any pet if taken care of properly.
Rabbits are very social animals and require a lot of attention, they can't be left in a small cage until your kid comes home from school or you come home for work to play with them for an hour. Rabbits are also not cuddly. They're prey animals, and slow to trust. Getting picked up scares them and they need a lot of time to warm up to you. A rabbit that's constantly picked up or grabbed can become aggressive out of fear, you need to approach them differently than you would cat or dog.
The majority of rabbits given as Easter gifts are either surrendered to shelters or abandoned outside. Please please never set a domestic rabbit free in the wild. Domestic rabbits are not wild rabbits, they do not know how to survive. They will likely die within days of being released.
They can be wonderful pets, but there is a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings about how to care for them, and there are a lot of abandoned rabbits. Most toys and treats marketed for rabbits in pet stores are actually not safe for them.
If you are considering getting a pet rabbit, I am begging you to do your research. Understand the commitment for what it is. A few great resources for learning about proper rabbit care are:
Before we adopted Hershel, he started off as a gloomy, scared little potat that would sit in his pen for hours staring at the wall.
After two years, he's really come out of his shell. He's discovered his joie de vivre, which is food. In Japanese, we call him affectionately 食いしんぼうハーシェルくん, or Hershel the Glutton.
Putting these photos side by side make me smile. You can really see the difference.