Mack & Karlie

Update November 1, 2008: Mack and Karlie have been adopted!

Mack & Karlie's Video Archives

Mack and Karlie came to Rabbit Rescue on December 7th, 2006.  They were to be put to sleep at a shelter after being surrendered by their previous owners.  Rabbit Rescue got them out in the nick of time.  Karlie was immediately spayed and both were treated for a bladder infection with a course of antibiotics.  They were also treated for skin parasites.  Mack had incredible swelling and had been literally pulling his fur out.  A couple of months later Rabbit Rescue had very large bladder stones removed from Mack, and because of this he will need to be on a low calcium diet for life to prevent reoccurrence.   All this means is that he needs to stick with hay and pellets that are pure timothy with no alfalfa.  Oxbow has these.

 They are a bonded pair they must be adopted together.  They are always snuggling and grooming each other, and obviously very much in love.  Mack is the black/white bunny, Karlie is brown/white.  Although Mack tends to be the more animated of the two when you're in the room, with impressive binkies and lots of nudging, its Karlie that really turns on the charm in front of the camera!  Hence, the cute video's I've captured below.

Mack is a friendly and adventurous bunny.  He loves to be pet and will nudge you for attention.  We believe his hearing is not good because we can walk right up to him when he’s snoozing or turned away from us and he doesn’t notice until we pet him and then he springs up to get more pets (and see if we’re holding any treats!).  His eyesight is affected by a cataract in one eye.  It does not hurt him and does not need medical treatment but it does affect his vision.  In spite of all this, he has no fear of exploring new surroundings and is friendly with everyone.   He loves being vacuumed with the Dustbuster.

  Karlie, is a bit more timid and reserved.  She took a little longer to warm up to us but she is very friendly now.  She loves to crawl right into her hay bin and roll around.  If we can’t find her we look to the hay bin for movement!

 For treats, they love banana and apple especially, but also apple chunks and oat groats.  Mack practically inhales his and then he goes after Karlie’s treats, as she tends to eat slower and actually taste her food.  They love all sorts of vegetables including romaine lettuce, dandelion, baby carrots, Belgian endive and herbs such as cilantro, parsley and dill.

Mack and Karlie are not caged.  They have a large rec room in the basement to call their own.  They are well behaved with only a small amount of chewing we found at the bottom the sofas.   Their litterbox habits were not so good in the beginning because of the infections but they are very good now.

With the warm weather back this past summer, we brought them outside to enjoy the fresh air.  They love eating the grass and when we pick up the x-pen sides we find a perfect square area of eaten grass.  They fertilize at no extra charge.  If you move the x-pen so they can start on a new patch of grass you’ll never mow your lawn again!

I had to figure out a more secure way of setting up my NIC fencing to keep these two little escape artists in their area.  Mack made it out one day and then he sprung his girlfriend too!  I couldn't figure out how he did it but I went downstairs when I heard odd noises and found them by the washer and dryer, which is the fenced off area they aren't supposed to be able to access.  The fence didn't look like it had been moved so I couldn't see how they got out.  Back they went into their area.  I set up the video camera to motion record, blocked off the stairs just in case and went to bed.  In the morning I reviewed the video clips and somehow, they were managing to squeeze themselves through, what is that, a 2" gap?  This is bizarre.  I should have called him Houdini.