Ted an Petal
Warren Veteran
well i've woke up this morning thinking i should keep ralph, only problem is, is it in the best interests of ralph me keeping so i've made a wee poll.
Thanks santa for your reply. yes i'll give it another year to let petal and ted mature a bit more and once they've got used to the site of each other more i'll see about bonding. right now i really need to concentrate on getting ralph fit and well and fatter. i live in a very small bungalow so the bathroom was the only room they hadn't really been in. they'll be able to touch noses through the runs but that's it in the mean time.I would take them both back to the rescue and let them start the bonding there. Even if it's just for a couple of hours, it will really get them started, and then with a journey home and being put into a neutral, unfamiliar place they should be ok. It sounds as if it's just her natural territorial instinct that is the main cause of the problem so if you remove her from her general territory she may well behave totally differently.
Many years ago I used to get my bunnies from a rescue who kept them for 2 hours while you went shopping, then you had strict instructions to take them home, put them in a small, neutral area with nothing that belongs to or smells like the original bunny and leave them in that space for 7 days, not touching them yourself at all for at least 2 days. Her view was that if they haven't tried to do each other serious damage within the first couple of hours under her supervision, they would be ok. She said that she did hundreds of bondings and if you followed these instructions, it never failed. She said the only times it ever failed were if the person didn't put them in totally neutral territory, could'nt resist but to stroke them or let them out just for a little while.
My personal opinion is that it is unkind to permanently keep single rabbits alone outdoors, even if they can see other bunnies. Even with the best will in the world they will be totally alone for 22+ hours each day, which I don't think is fair on a social animal.