No longer foes, not yet friends

After 3 months of living parallel lives, finally I can let Willow and Charlie out in the garden to graze together - under close supervision - without them trying to kill each other. Occasionally they shower each other - although not with love, only urine.



Now I'm going to buy a blue helmet and join the UN peacekeepers.

Bless you. Patience is a virtue........ ! Hope it continues to go well x

Sent from my SM-G361F using Tapatalk

I salute you :thumb: hope it continues well, it will be worth it x

Well done They make a lovely couple.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

A beautiful picture and thanks for posting! My own bonding is not smooth sailing, so it's wonderfully heartening to read - a little poke at our end to keep going We, too, have been through the wee spraying phase. It does stop! Fingers crossed yours will soon - and in the mean time, no damage occurred from ours and stains on our white rabbit were gone in a couple of weeks, so hopefully yours are equally easy to cope with!

Thank you all. Today went really well. They had free range time on four different occasions, for a total of at least two hours. Apart from one momentary growl and nip, no trouble.

I will certainly keep going but the winter will be hard, by the time I get back from work it will be dark, so free range time will be a problem on weekdays. My daughter has offered to help but even she won't get home much before dark.

I have to say, the urine showers were pretty impressive. Perfect semi-circle spray, with maximum coverage of the other rabbit from head to tail.

Lagomorphine said:

I have to say, the urine showers were pretty impressive. Perfect semi-circle spray, with maximum coverage of the other rabbit from head to tail.

Click to expand...

Even more impressive inside Bookcase, books on bookcase, rug, wall, fellow rabbit, nearby CD rack... Just grateful I was excluded from the golden showers!

I'm glad it's going well. Fingers crossed it continues and you can figure out a way that works for everyone

Have you thought anymore about spaying her - you may well be able to get them to live together permanently then. Should help the garden issue as at the moment every time they meet they have to re-establish the hierarchy. Would help with the urine spraying aswell.

Amy104 said:

Have you thought anymore about spaying her - you may well be able to get them to live together permanently then. Should help the garden issue as at the moment every time they meet they have to re-establish the hierarchy. Would help with the urine spraying aswell.

Click to expand...

I have been thinking about it a lot. I might get it done during the half term when my daughter will be at home and able to keep an eye on her recovery.

Today went well again. They were out in the garden free range for about 5 hours and apart from three grunts from Willow, they were grazing together quite happily. No fights, no fur pulling. It's fascinating: every time I let them out there is a subtle change in their behaviour. A few weeks ago Willow was trying to be dominant, pestering Charlie. Then there was the phase when they both tried to stick their head under the other's chin, keeping still for minutes mesmerized, then parting. Now Charlie seems slightly more dominant, although there is normally even a few minutes of mutual grooming. I'm quite pleased with the progress. At least now I can do things in the garden, just keeping an eye on them in the background, rather than running after them with my peacekeeping tool (a soft plastic broom).

Of course I would love them to be able to live together; to start with they could both have twice the space.