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What size pen for bonding?

kaths101

Warren Veteran
:wave:

What size pen do you start with for bonding?

What do you have in the pen when they first meet? - any food/ toys / litter tray etc
 
Start with a carrier, and take them round with you for several hours then try them in a bigger one, for that I use a cage between 5ft by 2ft and 8ft by 2ft, or a stable type pen. The important thing is that they can always see eachother, but can get away to sit on the other side if they want to. Put nothing in except hay. I used to use my bathroom floor before I had dedicated cages for bonding.
 
i used 80 cm square. No litter tray or food bowl as ruby was a bit aggressive at first when reggie wanted to eat.
 
When i tried bonding my 4, i was advised that 3x3 nic grids was an ok size.

As someones already said, it needs to be small enough so that they have to see each other, but big enough so that they can still back away from each other

I wouldnt put anything in there that any of them could get posessive/dominant over

Good luck :wave:
 
ok so what do you do about feeding and pooping - Do I just throw food in?? and let them poo anywhere? I really dont mind - but if they dont have a litter tray they will have to!
 
I think the advice is usually just hay as they can get aggressive over food-daren't say anymore than that :roll: Yes I think they just poo all around - I don't think your supposed to put anything with their scent in the pen. x
 
Yes I wouldnt put anything of anyones in there - but not even a brand new litter tray?
Im just worried as Oreo holds his wee if he doesnt have a tray :roll:
 
I put black bin bags on the floor, then newspaper, then old towels, so that if they do wee/poo it doesnt matter cos the floors protected.

I've got 2 sets of old towels, so that i can wash/dry one set whilst the other is on the floor being used
 
i gave my buns half of my hall way for my bond, when i put them in a small place they tried to fight , so i gave them a bigger place with lots of hiding places tunnells and toys and as they got used to each other i halved the room until by bed time they had just a tiny space as they were used to each other by then........................it went without a hitch..
 
Yes I wouldnt put anything of anyones in there - but not even a brand new litter tray?
Im just worried as Oreo holds his wee if he doesnt have a tray :roll:

Awww clean boy - I know what you mean as Gizmo is the same - he won't even wee on hay unless it's in a litter tray bless him. I think you do what you have to ;)
 
When I do bondings I use a 5 x 2 pen, I usually start off with a litter tray which has been cleaned out with neat vinegar (a new one is ideal), however if any of the buns you are bonding starts taking control over the tray it is removed very quickly.

I offer lots of different hays slowly giving them different ones over a period of time just to distract them. I put on one side the normal amount of fresh veg and pellets I would feed in a period of 24 hours, the veg is cut up very small and I slowly feed this over the period of the day. I dont use a bowl as this often ends up with fighting over it, I either hand feed or sprinkle little bits, usually finding out quickly from the buns what works well.
 
a carrier? like you take them in to the vets? surely you cant fit 3 in there :?

There areloads of different sized carriers. I have one that fits in two 7kg giants easily, but is still portable - you'd get three- four normal sized buns inalarge carrier easily for bonding.
 
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