Splitting bonded buns U/D now apart :(

I REALLY need some help

Some of you might have read about the health problems my old dental bun has been having. Well it seems it may well be ongoing.

The problem is he is bonded to one of my other buns who is hating being confined in the house and this is stressing her out, also as he needs ad lib pellets shes putting on too much weight and shes running full pelt round the cage and banging into him all the while which obviously isn't doing him any favours being as fragile as he is .

They have been together approx. 2 years and i really really don't want to split them up but i'm starting to think its in their best interests if i do.

I would really like to know of others' opinions on what i should do, would it be cruel to seperate bonded buns for health/practical reasons?

I can't do anything right at the moment with my bunnies its all a complete mess

Cant you feed them seperately? Pippa needs to put on quite a lot of weight but her husbun Bobby is too big so they share a bowl of pellets in the AM then throughout the day I take her out for 10 minutes to give her porridge or some more pellets but feed her in front of him.

Her porridge is just cooling for her now and she will have more this evening.

Can you just hand feed them both? ie one for you and three for the other?!
I had the same problem with mine and charlie had to have far less than Molly who was onyl very young and needed more so he had one for her three pellets.
Also can you just increase the hay anyway as this shoudl be what they are mostly eating anyway and will help with the teeth.. Charlie has problem molar teeth too, whereas Molly has front teeth that dont wuite meet, so they have a hardened comressed alfalfa house/log that they chew on and keeps them occupied for weeks !! (from P@H )
also can the more active bun just be let out somewhere to run for a few hours each day to run about? They sleep in teh day anyway so the evening would be a good time as would the early morning.
Would prob be more srtessful to separate IMO
Hope some of that helps

Thanks for the replies.

I can't feed them seperately as my one bun needs to have pellets down 24/7 so theres no way i can stop the other bun from over eating really especially seens as i work full time so its not like i can offer food periodically either.

This isn't the main problem though if it was just the diet then i would keep them together without a doubt its how high energy she is as well and im worried that if she keeps banging into him its going to cause him injury.

Also she is so so stressed being inside she likes the space she has outdoors which she just cannot have indoors as i have lots of other pets around the house also.

My old bun is likely to be poorly for many months to come therefore will have to stay inside in a relatively small cage for this period (as advised by vet) and im really not sure this is fair on my female bun.

But at the same time they may miss each other terribly and become even more unwell/stressed :?

I just dont know :roll:

How long have you had them inside for?

About 1 1/2 to 2 weeks including their stay in the vet hospital.

One of mine just had a GA dental. I was advised by the vet to keep them apart for a while to make sure she is eating, but if anything that made her worse - she was pining for him. even though she could see him, she couldnt touch. she hardly ate for the 3 days. I have made a makeshift hutch in my living room and put them both together so i can make sure she's eating. Stella started eating as soon as she had had a snuggle with Bud! I'm quite lucky that Bud doesnt mind having to stay in the house for a couple of days while Stella gets better. But she is happier that they are together. It's hard to know what to do for the best, All rabbit pairs are different. Bud didnt seem bothered about being separated, but Stella was.

It can take much longer than that for them to adapt, maybe gve it a couple more weeks and see how it goes.

Incidentally Pippa should have ad-lib food but I know how distressed she gets (and Bobs too) when they are apart so I have had to compromise.

Hmmmm maybe i should just give it a while longer then and see if things improve:?

It wouldn't be so bad if i had somewhere to exercise them in the house but theres literally no space for them the dogs are downstairs and i have rabbit/g-pigs in bedroom.

They're in the box room at the minute which is more the size of an airing cupboard than a bedroom so can't even exercise them in there as they would run under the bed and i wouldn't be able to manouvre anything to get them out :roll:

How big is the cage? I'm wondering if you could put a divider in for a couple of hours a day to allow one of the buns to have pellets and not the other. Or you could buy another cage and keep them side by side for most of the day but together at night?

The cage is only about 4ft by 2ft and theres no space for bigger cage.

Unfortunately last night was the worst day/night yet and this afternoon i have seperated them .

It has been a very difficult decision to make and i am not 100% happy with it but i simply could not keep muffin inside any longer she was so stressed out and unhappy and leo cannot go outside due to his health problems.

I just hope that they don't miss each other TOO much

to ease dental buns missing her why dont u pop a cuddly bun that he can snuggle up to (and same for muffin outdoors) so they not feel to lonely. if this is to be a forever arrangement mayb outdoors bun could be bonded with another rabbit and indoors bun have your company and a cuddly toy. does indoor bun never get let out of his hutch now due to dental? surely that cant be right forever? i hope the vet allows him some excersise... if this is only a temperary arrangement and dental can go back out eventually mayb when the time comes u can rebond them?!

No dental bunny can have some exercise just not too much, its not really his teeth this time that are playing up but we can't figure out what it is hes got

At the moment i am undecided as to whether i will rebond it really depends on his health, if it does not improve very much then i think i shall keep him indoors so i can monitor him better.

If this is the case then my housebunny will move outside and hopefully be bonded with muffin.

I just hope leo doesn't miss bunny company too much, or he improves enough to move back outside and rebond with his wifey bun.

Thanks for the tip about the cuddly toys btw i shall look into getting a couple