Tuppence-worth

This photo, taken in the late 1950s, is the only picture of Tuppence, my Mum’s childhood rabbit. It appears that Tuppence looked a lot like Mr Snoop… although I’m certain Mr Snoop would have something to say about being wheeled down the road in a doll’s pram for his nails to be trimmed at the vet’s (my Mum says she was never charged!).

Apparently, my Mum’s friend, who attended Dartford Grammar, brought home a couple of baby rabbits when one of the classroom rabbits had a litter. She kept one rabbit, Penny, and gave Tuppence to my Mum (the babies were all named after coinage denominations). My Mum remembers buying bran to mix with warm water in cold weather, with chopped carrot and other veggies. She also recalls putting potato peelings in the oven until crisp, which Tuppence loved!

Tuppence lived in a hutch in the garden, built by my Grandad, who, each night, went out with a wooden cover that fitted across the front, for protection – obviously they loved her, and gave her the best care available at that time. My Mum was about eleven years old when she got Tuppence, and had started work when Tuppence died. It’s incredible that this bunny lived for over six years, given her diet.

I was reminded of Tuppence by a recent encounter. A friend told me that her rabbit was very unwell with stasis; however, my attempts to convince her that the rabbit needed to see a vet were futile: she was treating the rabbit at home, using her own “tried-and-tested” stasis remedy (that included pain killers for humans). From the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, I was able to state exactly why this treatment could do more harm than good, but it did not help. Why? Because her rabbits had each recovered from stasis when she’d used this remedy in the past. I had to bite my lip, but kept thinking of the anti-elephant powder story: an old man sprinkled a white powder on the roads every day. When he was asked what he was doing, he answered that it was elephant powder. The person then remarked, “But there are no elephants!”, to which he replied, “It must be working then!”.

My friend’s satisfaction with the ‘success’ of her home remedy made me think of Tuppence: Tuppence lived a relatively long life on a diet of bran, carrots, and potato peelings; however, with the knowledge I’ve acquired, I know that this was not a suitable diet. Tuppence was just lucky, or perhaps any problems went undetected, and so her diet was never changed. The difference between these two rabbit examples is the availability of information. Rabbit care information in the 1950s was scarce and still mostly focussed on raising rabbits for meat; nowadays, we have easy access to a massive repository of specialist knowledge, and even rabbit welfare organisations. Of course, we do need to be careful when choosing which advice to follow, so it’s always safest to check the information available from the most reputable source – RWAF.

We have made mistakes when caring for our rabbits, and can certainly see, in hindsight, where things could have been improved, especially with the knowledge we have today. However, we have tried, over the years, to keep up to date with the latest welfare advice and to improve care of our bunnies as we learn. Just because we’ve always done something in the past and encountered no problems does not mean it is the correct thing to do or that it’s working. The lesson is to avoid confirmation bias, question outdated habits, and, above all, keep learning!