Meeple and Nemesis [Hormones]

I brought my new rabbits home yesterday and they are settling in well, eating loads of hay, exploring, and snuggling up together for a rest. They are 8-week-old Netherland Dwarf brothers, from the same litter. Are you ready for some poor-quality but adorable pictures? Then I'll begin!

Here they are when I first met them, at 3 weeks old. Meeple is the cinnamon, and Nemesis is the lilac otter.



In the car on the way home. I don't think they're very impressed!



Half an hour after we got home, they plucked up the courage to explore (after eating most of the hay in the carrier) and were soon racing around their new cage. They slowed down for a bit here to munch pellets. (Bad light, sorry.)



And then I discovered that their heads fit through the mesh of their storage cube cage (http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?447711-Head-through-cage-grid!) so I had to move them temporarily to an old guinea pig cage. They settled down pretty quickly.



They snuggle a lot.





I'm trying to give them plenty of time to settle in before I handle them properly, but they are used to being handled and tolerate being picked up. I've been sitting with my hand just inside the cage and they come over to investigate and sniff at me. Nemesis pushed his head under my hand a few times obviously wanting head strokes and once one's being stroked the other wants to join in too! Meeple even licked my hand after I gave him a little nose rub. Both seem perfectly fine with me being close by and they are happy to eat and snooze while I'm right next to the cage.

I'm already seeing differences in their personalities. Nemesis is the first to explore a new area, and the bravest at jumping on things. Meeple loves his food (although both are great hay eaters which is a relief) and he's groomed Nemesis much more than Nemesis has groomed him. Meeple's also more alert to sounds and movement when they are resting, like he's the sentry bunny of the pair. I can't wait to get to know them better, I know they are going to be fantastic characters and a wonderful addition to the household. I didn't realise how much I'd missed having bunnies around since Neo died, and i'm so happy that we decided on two rabbits rather than one.

So yes, I am a bunny slave again. It's wonderful!

Welcome back to bunny companionship. I can only see the 1st photo- that's enough to know they are very, very cute.

Gorgeous buns,but i can only see the first pic,the rest are not showing up.

Aww they're lovely (I can only see the 1st pic too)

Oh that's weird! I forgot the image tags the first time so edited them back in, but everything should be right now. The pics show up fine for me! I wonder what's going on?

I can't see any pics but am on my phone

And have seen them all on Twitter, so can confirm that they are both beautiful and adorable and so fluffy

Okay, I think I've sorted the pictures out now, hopefully you can see them! I certainly could when I signed out of Google, so presumably that's fixed.

Now the boys have realised that they can jump on to things they've been up and down loads. They seem to like being higher up, that's where they usually choose to settle down, so it'll be great when I get the upper levels of the cage fixed so they can hang out up there too.

Nemesis is definitely soliciting head rubs, and Meeple's trashing the newspaper on the floor of the cage. Time for a clean out, I think!

Also I had completely forgotten exactly how much even a tiny rabbit can poo. I shouldn't be surprised with the amount of hay they are demolishing, but still... Poo city!

I can see the pictures!
Gorgeous bunnies x

Hooray!

I can see all the pics now,beautiful pair of bunnies.

I am not terribly proud of the noises that came out of me at that first picture. I'm fairly certain my heart has stopped from all the cute. They are utterly, utterly

I adore the names, too. Creative!

Such cuties!

Awww they are adorable

Thank you guys! Meeple and Nemesis send inquisitive little nose nudges.

Both rabbits are now showing distinct signs of wanting to get out and explore the room, trying to push past me when I sit next to the cage with the door open to offer strokes. But I'm trying to litter train so I don't want them to have too much freedom too soon, because it's much easier for everyone if they don't start peeing all over the room! I'm increasing their space gradually when they are reliably peeing in the trays (I don't care about the poo so much).

The first night they did pee in pretty much every new area they explored as well as in the tray, which is what I expected. Yesterday they'd restricted that to the tray and one spot next to it, so I added a second tray in that spot and there is no out-of-box pee and not many out-of-box poos either. So they are getting it! Yay!

You'll have to excuse my mini-essays. I'm just so excited about these guys, and loving getting to know them and seeing them develop.

Also I'm totally expecting the litter training to go to pot once the hormones kick in, and to have to start again after they've recovered from the neuter. But I firmly believe that good habits now will help a lot later on.

I let the boys have their first expedition out of the cage today, since they have been quite clearly telling me they'd like to explore and they've been really good with peeing in the litter trays. We're not really ready as we don't have a rug on the slippery wood floor yet, but they really wanted to see what the living room was like.

As I expected, Nemesis was the most willing to explore at first. Meeple took ages to venture out and a while to get comfortable (you know that nervous hunched tiptoe walk they do?) but then he took to racing around the outside of the cage and we even had a few mini binkies. Nemesis is definitely more confident and more inclined to sniff at us than Meeple, who is a little more wary. They had maybe 30 minutes of freedom, and there was no pee! I'm so proud of them!

They haven't quite twigged about how vertical levels work yet. Right now Meeple's on the bottom floor and Nemesis is on the top, and I'm a bit worried that they might not be able to figure out how to get back to each other. I don't want to physically move them around because they need to learn how to get between the three floors by moving themselves, but I will if they don't find each other soon.

They are both hanging out on the top level. Nemesis occasionally hops down to the middle level but he's soon back up to the top. I put little piles of pellets on all the steps last night and they've all gone except for the ones on the second step, so at least one of them has been moving around.

I can't decide if they just like it up there, or if they haven't understood the space they have now and how to access it.

Oh well. They have litter trays and hay and water up there, but the two upper floors are smaller in area so they don't have as much space. I'll leave them to it, I'm sure they'll work it out eventually, right?

Oh my word cuteness overload!! I may have just done a mini squeal out loud in the middle of the office!! Enjoy every second of your new arrivals!

Aww, I love the second picture of them in the carrier. So cute!