Hi all, your help appreciated here!
We have 6 rabbits, 3 bonded pairs. 2 of our buns have always been house buns and 2 outdoors in a shed. A couple of years ago we rescued a neighbours bun who was being mistreated and with nowhere else to put her she became an indoor bun too. She had her own cage and her area was separated off from the other 2. She discovered the other 2 on a couple of occasions and went nuts, but soon forgot about them. We bonded her with a boy and all was well. Sadly, she died a few months ago and eventually we decided to bond her boy with a new girl, and, as he was a real livewire we decided to put them in the shed and bring our two shed bunnies indoors.
With me so far?
The two original housebuns seem to be aware that there are new indoor rabbits, however our new indoor girl wasn't fussed about them and the new indoor boy didn't seem to notice that they were even there. All was fine for a couple of months, but the original pair seem to have become more aware that there are new buns around and hang around the bunny proofing, seemingly trying to tease them and binkying around each other.
Then last week new housebun boy realised they were there, there must have been a gap in the bunny proofing and he went mad, and the two newbies had a big fight, lots of fur everywhere. The same thing has happened twice more since. We're trying really hard to make sure they can't see each other but they just seem to "know" when the others are around. They are fine afterwards, we take them off to the bedroom and they strop for a bit then snuggle up and everything seems fine again, but I'm really worried that they might have a fight that separates them for good. It is the boy that goes nuts and the poor girl who comes off worse.
We don't want to put them back out in the shed unless we have to - does anyone have any ideas of what we can do to get them to live in harmony?
Thanks x
We have 6 rabbits, 3 bonded pairs. 2 of our buns have always been house buns and 2 outdoors in a shed. A couple of years ago we rescued a neighbours bun who was being mistreated and with nowhere else to put her she became an indoor bun too. She had her own cage and her area was separated off from the other 2. She discovered the other 2 on a couple of occasions and went nuts, but soon forgot about them. We bonded her with a boy and all was well. Sadly, she died a few months ago and eventually we decided to bond her boy with a new girl, and, as he was a real livewire we decided to put them in the shed and bring our two shed bunnies indoors.
With me so far?
The two original housebuns seem to be aware that there are new indoor rabbits, however our new indoor girl wasn't fussed about them and the new indoor boy didn't seem to notice that they were even there. All was fine for a couple of months, but the original pair seem to have become more aware that there are new buns around and hang around the bunny proofing, seemingly trying to tease them and binkying around each other.
Then last week new housebun boy realised they were there, there must have been a gap in the bunny proofing and he went mad, and the two newbies had a big fight, lots of fur everywhere. The same thing has happened twice more since. We're trying really hard to make sure they can't see each other but they just seem to "know" when the others are around. They are fine afterwards, we take them off to the bedroom and they strop for a bit then snuggle up and everything seems fine again, but I'm really worried that they might have a fight that separates them for good. It is the boy that goes nuts and the poor girl who comes off worse.
We don't want to put them back out in the shed unless we have to - does anyone have any ideas of what we can do to get them to live in harmony?
Thanks x
