Dried Banana Slices Vs Bunny

I bought some dried banana slices recently to see if our Angora bunny would eat them if we were stuck indoors for a lengthy period of time (think blizzard or flu outbreak) and if we weren't able to get fresh raw veggies and fruit.

I'd been giving our bunny 1 or 2 dried slices a day. This morning, I gave her a handful. Do NOT ever do that! I'm gonna repeat that... DO NOT give a bunny more than 1 or 2 dried banana slices. Why?

Because it made her very VERY hyper! Before long, she was running circles around in her cage and panting heavily. I gave her a big bowl of water, talked calmly to her, let her out to thump and run around our home, and gave her space and time. And hay. Lots of hay.

It took about an hour (maybe a little more) before she stopped panting heavily and running around. She's calm now, but I can tell she remembers how she was feeling because of the bananas. Unfortunately, she would still eat some if I gave them to her.

We're holding back carrots, her usual evening treat, and just giving her spinach in addition to her pellets and hay. We'll return to fresh apple and banana slices tomorrow morning. I don't ever want to go through that again.

Lesson learned.

Spinning Fiber to Yarn

I'm a hopeless clutz. I am having such troubles not only harvesting the fiber from our angora rabbit, but also spinning. So I found a book at Amazon.com that I ordered. Just happens to be written by Maggie Casey who owns Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder, Colorado! I talked with her this afternoon, asking her what a hopeless clutz should first do to learn to spin.

Basically, she said start with wool, because the fibers are more forgiving and angora is a little more slippery.

Second, one should try all different kinds of spinning, from the drop spindle to different spinning wheels.

When I can afford it, I think I'll take one of her classes.