Back Again.. Bonding Woes (Pic Heavy)

I'm still going back & forth over the bonding of Niles. I keep looking at him & looking through photos of him & Frasier. He doesn't seem unhappy.. In fact he's been quite relaxed the last couple of weeks while in his cage, but then I think part of that is down to the heat. He's out having a 'run' at the moment, he's had a bit of a play, but mostly he's just sitting in the corner He does sometimes binky, so he's not miserable.. But I just see photos of him & Frasier before Frasier passed away & it makes me so sad to see him alone.

I still don't know what's best to do. I am terrified that I will end up losing him too.. Could be completely irrational! Terrified that the stress of bonding might put him into stasis or something. Stasis was awful with Frasier & it broke my heart when he died. It felt like it was completely my fault. That I failed as his bunny mum :'( I want to do what's best for Niles.. But I don't know what that is! I just wish I could ask him He's a grumpy bun, like his brother, so he's not massively fond of being held - so it's not like he's getting human attention & the dog is terrified of him! So he's not got any friends. I can only spend so much time with him a day.. He's alone for the rest of it. He is in the kitchen so he gets plenty of socialisation with me & my husband, but it's no substitute is it?

Here are some photos of my two boys when Frasier was still with us:







http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1623/mzu5.jpg
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7440/952k.jpg

And this is Niles since:







http://imageshack.us/a/img28/5831/h6sy.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img560/7261/dtoi.jpg

Aww bless him is Niles prone to stasis then? If not there is no reason why you shouldn't try him with a new friend :wave:

ripminnie said:

Aww bless him is Niles prone to stasis then? If not there is no reason why you shouldn't try him with a new friend :wave:

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No, it's how we lost Frasier. We're not really sure what caused what though. One minute they were fine & happy together, then suddenly they had a massive fight & Frasier went into stasis. We're not sure if he wasn't well to begin with & we'd not noticed, or if he got sick because of the fight? I still don't know & still feel like a massive failure!

Niles is currently really grumpy with me as I've just cleaned his scent glands (first time for him! Had to do it for Frasier the day before he passed away). Poor guy is looking rather violated now! I wish he had a friend to go & cuddle up with while he calms down He finds being handled incredibly stressful, so obviously that was no fun for him at all!

ETA - While he was with Frasier, he didn't binky once.. In fact, even then he stayed to the sides a lot & relied on Frasier to do the exploring :/ He wouldn't really run or play properly, not until Frasier was sick! Then he was running about all over the place, while Frasier sat in the corner. I just wish he could tell me. Maybe he is happy?

He's very cute is he neutered? He might be really happy with a little wife bun

ripminnie said:

He's very cute is he neutered? He might be really happy with a little wife bun

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Yeah, he's just turned 5 years old & neutered. Just edited my above post x

Hey Dwarfbuns,

We had a similar situation with our bun Dexter recently. We rescued him in Feb and decided he looked lonely so adopted Pippa. They bonded amazingly but sadly Pippa passed away 6 weeks later :-(

Dexter seems fine in himself but we're beginning to see signs of him being bored and I think lonely - he's chewing a little again which completely stopped when he was with Pippa and has begun pooping on the sofa every night lol.

So, we've decided to find him a new friend - actually possibly 3 friends lol as we're considering a trio or quad.

I've not been a bunny owner long but I'm convinced that what people say about buns being happier with other buns is 100% spot on. Maybe you could go to a few rescue centres and see if there are any potential friends for Niles?

On a slightly different note, your indoor hutch looks so much better than mine! How big is it and where did you get that cute little house? Xx

tigerlilyb84 said:

Hey Dwarfbuns,

We had a similar situation with our bun Dexter recently. We rescued him in Feb and decided he looked lonely so adopted Pippa. They bonded amazingly but sadly Pippa passed away 6 weeks later :-(

Dexter seems fine in himself but we're beginning to see signs of him being bored and I think lonely - he's chewing a little again which completely stopped when he was with Pippa and has begun pooping on the sofa every night lol.

So, we've decided to find him a new friend - actually possibly 3 friends lol as we're considering a trio or quad.

I've not been a bunny owner long but I'm convinced that what people say about buns being happier with other buns is 100% spot on. Maybe you could go to a few rescue centres and see if there are any potential friends for Niles?

On a slightly different note, your indoor hutch looks so much better than mine! How big is it and where did you get that cute little house? Xx

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I am so sorry to hear about Pippa That must have been so awful for all of you!

Niles won't play with any of his toys really & he doesn't chew much.. Which is really frustrating! His teeth have always been pretty good, but I'm not sure if that was down to some encouragement from Frasier - He was always a massive chewer! In fact we only bought toys that we knew would annoy him into throwing them about & chewing up! Haha.

The cage is from Pet Planet & is the Liberta Retreat XL (I think!). It's around 5 x 2.5ft & he has playtime in the lounge (free run). The little house is from Zooplus xx

DwarfBuns said:

I am so sorry to hear about Pippa That must have been so awful for all of you!

Niles won't play with any of his toys really & he doesn't chew much.. Which is really frustrating! His teeth have always been pretty good, but I'm not sure if that was down to some encouragement from Frasier - He was always a massive chewer! In fact we only bought toys that we knew would annoy him into throwing them about & chewing up! Haha.

The cage is from Pet Planet & is the Liberta Retreat XL (I think!). It's around 5 x 2.5ft & he has playtime in the lounge (free run). The little house is from Zooplus xx

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Thanks hun! Will def look into the hutch, will measure mine and see how it compares! I just spent £30 at Zooplus oops hehe

It was really hard with Pippa, especially having her for such a short time but we found some solace in knowing she had a happy last few weeks.

Niles sounds like Dexter in that he doesn't play with many toys, although he loves throwing empty loo rolls around when we stuff them full of fresh herbs or dandelion leaves! We actually got most of our toys for Pippa too but I'm sure our next buns will enjoy them just as much

Hi, you are in the exact same situation to me. My boy lost his bunny wife a couple of weeks ago and he has been quiet since then. He's 6 now and his lady was 9.5yrs. The only difference is my bun is outdoors, though I work from home and pop out frequently to give attention. But I have still gone through the exact same emotions and feelings you have described and I wonder still if my boy would be better with a new hutch mate - he was always the quiet one, following rather than leading. For now I am trying to rebuild our bond as he seems to have lost confidence and every noise etc makes him edgy. But I have now got to the point where he is letting me stroke him again and taking food from my hand, so although its a slow process its worth it. I will just watch his behaviour for signs he's unhappy and keep in mind that I may need to try another hutch mate at some point.

Again the same as you, it was stasis that struck my girl and now with Jazz I am neurotic (SP??) over making sure his poops are normal (think Gillian McKeith lol) and that he's munching away on something.

Your a good bunny mum and did all you could, these things are sometimes out of our control. Plus you are trying to find out all you can for Niles to make him happy

Good Luck