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advice when 10 year old bunny loses her 9 year old mate

A

andic

Mama Doe
We had to have our darling Monty (9) pts yesterday evening :( he leaves behind his 10 year old girlfriend, Audrey.

She has been doing ok so far on her own, she's been eating, pooping drinking ok, we've been spoiling her more than often, I've been sitting with her& giving her extra attention, she is a house rabbit, so we're able to keep a close eye on her.

I just wondered what anyone would recommend now? She's a good age & her & Monty were together for 7 years so she's been used to company. At the moment we were going to monitor her for a few weeks to see whether we need to get her a new mate.

If we were to get her a male companion I presume we should try & get her an older mate? Obviously if we feel it is right for her we would get her bonded at local rescue.
Any advice would be gratefully received, we just want the best for our big girl.

Thank you
Andrea
X
 
I'm so sorry you lost Monty :cry:. From experience, when my old girl, Flora, lost her brother, aged 9.5, I left it for a couple of weeks to see how she was. I could soon see that she was lonely so set about finding her a friend. I did actually look for a more mature partner but I think character is probably more important than age. She was with Benji for another year until she passed away aged 10.5. She never had the same bond with Benji that she'd had with her brother but it was bunny company nonetheless.
 
I think partly it depends on what you want to do long term, which I know is difficult to think about. If you go for another older bunny you can expect them to have more similar lifespans. Whereas you could go for a laid back 4/5 year old with the plan that when she did pass you'd then pair him up with another bun and maybe they'd have another 5/6 years before you could be in the same position.

There is no reason she couldn't bond, and you don't have to match age for them to be happy. Like Mackers said, personality would be the more important factor.
 
andic said:
We had to have our darling Monty (9) pts yesterday evening :( he leaves behind his 10 year old girlfriend, Audrey.

She has been doing ok so far on her own, she's been eating, pooping drinking ok, we've been spoiling her more than often, I've been sitting with her& giving her extra attention, she is a house rabbit, so we're able to keep a close eye on her.

I just wondered what anyone would recommend now? She's a good age & her & Monty were together for 7 years so she's been used to company. At the moment we were going to monitor her for a few weeks to see whether we need to get her a new mate.

If we were to get her a male companion I presume we should try & get her an older mate? Obviously if we feel it is right for her we would get her bonded at local rescue.
Any advice would be gratefully received, we just want the best for our big girl.

Thank you
Andrea
X
Click to expand...

I think the best course would be to see how she goes. Not all rabbits want a mate, and as they get older (especially females) can be less receptive to male company. If she gets a lot of love and company from you, that's a good thing.

Also, it depends if you always want to be keeping rabbits - i.e. if you plan to have more after Audrey goes. The likelihood is you would still have a single rabbit left behind with you at some stage.
 
Awww thank you very much for all your advice and kind words, it's very much appreciated. At the moment Audrey is her usual self, getting on as she usually does. She's enjoying the extra fuss.

Andrea
X
 
I'm sorry for your loss :(

My bunny Angel lost her husbun of 8 years in September 2013, they were very close.
I didn't know what to do so asked on here, people told me to keep an eye on her and see how things went.
After a few weeks I could tell she was getting lonely and needed somebun to snuggle with so I found an older bun in the rehoming section on here and they've been a happy couple for about a year now :)
 
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