tigerangel
Warren Veteran
Some of you may know Smudge broke his foot early last week and is on the bunny equivalent of ‘bedrest’ – confined to a 3ftx3ft pen in the living room. He’s actually being surprisingly good about it all and just sits quietly munching hay most of the time, but I’m having issues with his bunnywife Sora.
They’ve been able to see and smell each other through the bars the whole time and we found a happy medium by puting Sora in with him every so often for a couple of hours and again overnight, they would snuggle up happily together, but in the last couple of days it’s started to go a bit wrong :? Sora is getting stressed, she bites to try and get in the cage, but if we put her in there she’s quick to get grumpy with him and bites the bars to get out. If we take her out, she bites the cage again trying to get in. No matter which side she's on, she bites the bars and does a few distressed squeaky grunts and bares her teeth at us :? I’ve been giving them lots of chewable toys to try distract them and have been trying to prevent them getting too territorial over their areas, including swapping litter trays/etc over, but it’s just not working for Sora anymore. She’s reverting back to the aggressive stresshead we brought home from the rescue centre last year and undoing all the months of work we put in to turn her around
I suspect hormones may be playing a part as well because of the time of the year (they had a few minor chasing-tiffs this time last year) which is not helping things in the slightest
But I don't know which is the best thing to do now...
- I don't feel that it's a good idea to let things go on as they are, Sora is probably going to get ill herself from stress.
- I don't feel easy about getting rid of the cage and letting Smudge out too early, the vet was very specific about keeping him in there for 3 weeks. If he damages his foot with his constant hyperactivity he will be back to square one.
- I'm...hesitant to separate them. I'm scared it will permenantly break their bond. I've never attempted to bond or re-bond bunnies before and know nothing about it, if I fail and their bond breaks, I can't keep them seperatly :?
I know I need to choose the lesser of the evils, I’m just not sure which is the right thing to do by them? :?
They’ve been able to see and smell each other through the bars the whole time and we found a happy medium by puting Sora in with him every so often for a couple of hours and again overnight, they would snuggle up happily together, but in the last couple of days it’s started to go a bit wrong :? Sora is getting stressed, she bites to try and get in the cage, but if we put her in there she’s quick to get grumpy with him and bites the bars to get out. If we take her out, she bites the cage again trying to get in. No matter which side she's on, she bites the bars and does a few distressed squeaky grunts and bares her teeth at us :? I’ve been giving them lots of chewable toys to try distract them and have been trying to prevent them getting too territorial over their areas, including swapping litter trays/etc over, but it’s just not working for Sora anymore. She’s reverting back to the aggressive stresshead we brought home from the rescue centre last year and undoing all the months of work we put in to turn her around
I suspect hormones may be playing a part as well because of the time of the year (they had a few minor chasing-tiffs this time last year) which is not helping things in the slightest
But I don't know which is the best thing to do now...
- I don't feel that it's a good idea to let things go on as they are, Sora is probably going to get ill herself from stress.
- I don't feel easy about getting rid of the cage and letting Smudge out too early, the vet was very specific about keeping him in there for 3 weeks. If he damages his foot with his constant hyperactivity he will be back to square one.
- I'm...hesitant to separate them. I'm scared it will permenantly break their bond. I've never attempted to bond or re-bond bunnies before and know nothing about it, if I fail and their bond breaks, I can't keep them seperatly :?
I know I need to choose the lesser of the evils, I’m just not sure which is the right thing to do by them? :?
