MMME Forum

We have a lovely pet rabbit called Charlie. He is so cute but a bit on the plump side. Our vet suggested we take him to pet slimming world but like any normal busy mother of 3 I giggled and said we would try feeding him less!
Anyway, poor Charlie sometimes gets poo stuck to his fur which periodically costs us £70 at the vets to spruce him up. Without wishing to sound bonkers I decided that I should be able to try to deal with this myself and save us a lot of money. I saw a programme the other day which said if you lie a rabbit on their back they go into a trance. We wrapped Charlie in an old towel laid him back and amazingly he was totally out of it. My 10 yr old stroked his nose gently whilst I clipped his nails and cleaned him up. Then when we were done we slowly turned him over and he woke up, job done. I wonder if this works on Guinea Pigs too. Shame it doesn't work on the kids really when you need 5 mins peace ;-)
Ill still take Charlie for his jabs etc. but just in case anyone else has this bizarre issue it works a treat. The things I have to do at 8am on a Sat morning!!

Actually, having just posted this, thought i'd Google to check Charlie was happy in 'tonic immobility'. Turns out this should be done sparingly as it's a 'play dead' last attempt to survive prey.
I have to say though that compared to the highly stressful trip to vets - he tries to literally jump out of box, over my shoulder, thumps a lot this was worthwhile for the 5 mins it took. I will only do when absolutely necessary- prob once every 3 months. Seeing how long it took 2 vet nurses to hold him down whilst he was squeaking and shaking I think it's a better approach. He is now happily munching in his hutch and looks totally unphased by the brief experience. I guess if you have a placid animal that will sit nicely whilst you trim his nails etc. that's find but Charlie goes literally crazy and I think a quick trance is better than 20 mins of all-round family trauma and to be honest we simply can't afford an extra £280 in vets fees each year when we can sort ourselves. Stopping now before I sound even more like mad rabbit fur covered crazy lady!