Update on the Bunny Babies

On my last posts, I mentioned that we are currently taking care of six bunny babies. Their mom suddenly died the night from April 28th to April 29th and we still have no idea why. We didn't have her examined, but we had the babies checked when we were sure that they would make it. Luckily, they were all healthy. And it appears that they still are.

My mom named this one "Nickel", after the german word Karnickel, meaning bunny.

Well, I mentioned it in my first post about them, the german one, that the biggest obstacle was actually finding food for them on the very first day. It happened to be a sunday and that means all stores are closed here in Germany. We were quite shocked that no vet and no pet shelter had some baby cat milk available. We don't know if they really didn't have any, or if they just didn't want to hand it out. But seriously, what vet doesn't have stuff like that available!? There could always be a cat mom dying too. We managed to get some baby cat milk from a private cat shelter in the end, but had to drive quite a bit to get it.

This one doesn't have a name yet. It's the "green" one.

We started feeding them about 12 hours after their mother died, which should have been allright, because bunny moms apparently only feed 1-2 times a day. But they didn't take a lot of the milk, so were were really worried. At first, we were feeding 5-6 times a day to make up for the lack of volume. I read that they should have at least 25ml a day, so 5 x 5ml was the goal. But they didn't gain weight at all. After a few days, we asked the vet and he said that we should try to mix some whole egg into the milk. Since my mom keeps chickens too, we had some really fresh eggs around. And voilà, they started to gain weight. Ok, at the same time, I convinced my mom to let them have some wild herbs too, so maybe the combination was the key.

They sure love to shock us. When it did this for the first time, we thought it died in the bowl!

"Leo", the only one that takes after their dad

By now, we are down to 3-4 times of feeding every day, depending on how well they drink their milk. They now drink about 20ml per feeding and eat about 50g of herbs and vegetables. They are constantly gaining weight (except one) and are very active little bunnies. They love to run around the kitchen and it even appears  that they are playing catch.

They like to hide in there. We still have an infrared lamp on sometimes.

No name yet, it's the "blue" one

One of the bunnies appears to have hurt itself though. It stopped gaining weight as quickly as the others and drinks a lot less too. It was the only one that got sick inbetween. Watching it run with the others, it also seems like it somewhere hurt its leg. So were are taking extra care of this one. But since it is drinking and eating, slowly gaining weight and likes to run with the others, it seems ok.

The "red" is the one that hurt itself. It like to sit in this glass bowl

I'm really happy to see them grow up. It means a lot to me that the time and effort shows up in their growth. Still, I'm looking forward to the day they don't have to drink any milk anymore. It's not like they like to be fed. They are struggling a lot. I didn't sleep enough the first nights and got sick myself too. We will probably slowly stop feeding them baby cat milk in 1-2 weeks. That's about the time we take them to the vet for the first vaccination. Afterwards, we plan on having the outdoor enclosure ready for them. My mom still didn't decide how many she is going to keep, but considering that they are no pet bunnies and will be as big as a cat with a weight around 4-5kg, it will not be easy to find them a new home. But since we fed them by hand and they are not afraid of humans at all, it's not as easy to just consider them as future food. This will be a problem at some point. But there is still a lot of time until then.

Diagram of them gaining weight. The colors corelate with our simple naming "red", "blue", etc.

Spring Challenge 7: Glitter Tips

So I finally got around to write a new blog post... I don't know where time is running of to lately... I never would have guessed that taking care of six bunny babies would be this exhausting. We are doing it for about two and a half weeks now. Which means, two and a half weeks of planning every day around the bunny babies feeding schedule. I still got my job to do as well, so as much as I love doing nail art, I just couldn't find enough time. So today's manicure is actually from April 30. That's when I felt like spending time on nail art the last time...

And yet, it's not even real nail art, in my opinion. I just layered polishes. This kind of mani works well with the feedings, because I could just pause inbetween.

Anyway, I had a lot of ideas for this one and actually did another one before it. I'm going to show it at the bottom of this post. I'm just not really proud of it, haha. For some reason, thinking of "glitter tips" made me think about candy too, so I decided to do something pink and glittery. Also, I decided to take "tips" as my whole nails, not just the tips of my nails. It was just easier that way.

indirect daylight

shade

direct sunlight

The materials I used include
- essie Marshmallow, 2 coats
- Canmake 05, 1 coat
- essence Candy Kiss, 1 coat on half of each nails
- essence Space Queen, 1 coat on top of Candy Kiss
- BW Anc 591C, 2 coats on the tips only
- Kleancolor Aurora, 1 coat

I finally used Aurora... I had it on my desk for a while now and always wanted to use it, but I never did... I love the little stars in there. I just wish they were a bit more flat. If you enlarge the pictures, you can tell that they are bent... My beloved essence BTGN Top Sealer took care of that, but still, I think it would look even better. Also, I noticed that my favorite glitters tend to be Japanese polishes. I only used two for this mani, but I was pondering to use another Japanese one instead of Space Queen. I have been neglecting the latter though.

It was very sparcle-licious! I felt like sprung right out of a princess movie for little girls. The whole mani was incredibly thick on my tips and due to that reason, didn't last very long. It didn't chip or anything, but the tip wear was just very visible, if you know what I mean. You could even tell the layers apart. I found that funny though.

And finally, my first attempt on the glitter tips. I decided to re-do the theme because it's just not meant for spring. I loved the look, but the colors are too dark. I only wore it for a day. And those glitters were a pain to remove! The princess mani was nothing compared to this beast, even though there was twice the amount of glitters to remove.

For this one, I used p2 rich, mattified it and then applied the glitter, OPI Sparcle-licious, on the tips. I tried to do a drip mani here. I'm glad I took pictures right after finishing it. When it was completely dry, it looked only half as good!

Holiday in Japan-Mani

I finally got around to do some real nail art today. Finally!! I missed doing it a lot... but when there's no time, you can't do anything about it.

Some of you know part of the reason for my dilemma this past week. Last Sunday morning, we found our bunny mom dead in her cage. She leaves behind 6 bunny babies that we are now feeding by hand every 4-5 hours. It takes about one hour for each feeding, so I don't really have the time to sit down and do nail art. The good thing is, they all are still alive, 24 days old now and are finally starting to gain weight.

But being home sick and alone for once, I managed to sit down and paint them~ Heaven!

Ok, I stumbled upon this blog and its contest and well, I decided to take the theme as inspiration. Lately, I feel like I really need to go back to Japan soon. It has been about 1.5 years now... aah, I miss it so much. So here are my Japan holiday nails.

I should have taken pictures prior to the next feeding of the hungry bunnies... they decided to taste a bit of Mount Fuji! Also, for some reason, major tip wear showed up. Meh. This was done using both polish and acrylic paint.

Where would you like to go on your next holiday?