Bonding and bunny Shed questions - UPDATE Help Needed

Hi,

In another thread I mentioned that I wanted to bond another boy bunny to a mixed pair. They are all neutered.

Jasper (4 year old male) and Flopsy (8 month old female) have been bonded for a couple of months but Flopsy has started to become very destructive and noisey (scared the neighbours are going to complain) and hates been in her hutch for any period of time. We have decided to move her and Jasper outside. We have bought a new shed but need to sort out the run and other stuff before they can move in to it.

I also keep worring about how they will keep cool in summer and warm in winter once outside. Any ideas??

Anyway we now have a problem with Fudge (over 1 year, male) who has only been with us a couple of months. He has started stamping through the night, very loudly and although it means I am getting little sleep I am more concerned that he is also waking the neighbours. He also hates been picked up (probably due to a bad experience with his previous owners).

This all means that I would like all 3 to move into the shed so they can be free to do what they like and not be confined to their hutched.

We went for a 20 min drive with them yesterday as a first introduction. Fudge was mounting Jasper before I even got out of the drive. After a few minutes they all piled on top of each other and stayed there until we got home.

We then put them together in the kitchen to see how it would go. Fudge would not stop mounting both bunnies (but mostly Jasper). Jasper tolerated it for 20 mins than just kept running away. Flopsy was a little less acceptant and tried to retaliate although no major fights broke out. After 30 mins we seperated them as Jasper seemed to be getting far to stressed.

So does this sound like its going well?


Thanks

a shed sounds like a fab idea.. there are quite a few people on here who have that sort of set up for groups of bunnies
Are all your bunnies neutered/spayed? The thumping could be due to smelling the other male rabbit or maybe there are cats around at night. You could try covering his hutch so he cant see out but i guess at the moment its a bit warm to do that :?
All the mounting is how they decide who is the boss so that should calm after a few more introductions when they have established who's at the top :wink:

Hi,

I think I forgot to mention that all our bunnies live indoors at the moment (in our 2 spare bedrooms). We have 7 boys and 3 girls, all are neutered (apart from a female we have just taken on - she is booked in for the 13th). Of these we have 2 sets of mixed pairs bonded.

Fudge stamps if he is in the bedroom or in the downstairs hall. I think its because he hates been in his hutch. I don't think he got to play out before he came to live with us and I guess now he has had a taste of freedom he want to have it all the time.

I have heard such bad things about bonding boys so am extra nervous about introductions.

Thanks for responding

I bonded 2 boys on 2 different occasions.
I found bonding females harder than males.
Think it depends on the buns personalities as to how easy/hard it is to get them bonded.
I have a bonded 4some which includes 2 males and 2 females. Kayj will tell you what mine are like.
I'm getting a shed just for my buns, so they can come and go out of their hutches at night (without fear of running into a predator). Then during the day they spend all their time in my 15ft outdoor run, getting free range of my rabbit proof garden when I get home from work.

My bunnies have a shed and the foot stamping is a nightmare! Because most sheds are slightly raised, they act like a drum when bunny stamps. I had to put 3 layers of carpet down inside the shed to deaden the sound enough not to annoy the neighbours :lol:

ooooohhhhhh - i am worried now that he is going to get louder once he is moved outside (if we get him bonded!).

We tried another bonding session in the garden on Saturday. It went well for the first hour with Fudge following Flopsy everywhere and with no real upset. Then Fudge found Jasper and tried mounting him. Jasper got quite upset and ran him into the fence. No one was really hurt but we decided that maybe that was enough for that session!

Yesterday we took them for another car ride and then let them in the kitchen (neutral ground) for half an hour. Fudge looked like he just wanted to go to sleep, Flopsy wanted to get out the door and Jasper (once he had decided that Fudge was not going to try and mount him) went over to Fudge and started licking him!

Will try again tonight and hopefully things will go as well as last night.

hi

oh that's put me off sheds AND hutches - I couldn't have drums in the night :shock:

I wonder if a shed floor would be strong enough to support a layer of pavers? My girls are in a concrete floored shed and there's no sound at all - except when they throw their metal food dish around at tea time :lol:

Bonding sounds promising there

Fudge is currently living in the bathroom in the hope of hiding the sound.

I heard stamping this morning (12:47am) and went to find out what was wrong with him only to discover it was a different rabbit (Harvey). The sheds not big enough for 4! And anyway Harvey and Flopsy really do not get on.

I am still hoping that getting Fudge out the confidments of the hutch will stop the stamping.

Flopsy and Jasper should be moving out at the weekend (if the OH gets all the work done) but I doubt i will be confident about Fudge going too.

It was soooo sweet watching Jasper licking Fudge!

I wonder if a shed floor would be strong enough to support a layer of pavers

Click to expand...

I'd have thought it would be, as long as it's got a good number of supports underneath it.

Well we tried a few more bonding sessins with no real upset so....

Today is the day that the shed and run are ready for them to move in. We decided that this was the last real chance to get the 3 of them together.

We went for a short car drive this morning and then since the shed is currently neutral territory we put all 3 inside. For 5 hours all was ok with Fudge mounting Flopsy and occasionally Jasper and the other 2 just running away when it got too much.

But then Jasper seemed to get tired of Fudge mounting Flopsy and just went for him. HUGE scrap!!! We seperated them immediatly and put Fudge back in his hutch. We have put Fudge and the hutch in the run so that they can still see each other.

After half an hour we tried again but a further 30 minutes later and another HUGH scrap between Jasper and Fudge.

Fudge is now back in his hutch.

Is this impossble? Is it just that 6 weeks is not long enough for Fudges hormones to calm down?

HELP!

hi

oooh rabbits - give me guinea pigs any day! 8) :lol:

Maybe too much too soon for Fudge - and not only that but any new territory has to be claimed ie: fought over - if the shed is new housing they will fight over who is going to be boss there, even if they get along OK in your kitchen.

I would wait months for hormones to go down, not weeks - in fact I wait months for my rabbits to just settle in with anything new.

Will Fudge's hutch fit inside the shed? If not then I would buy him an indoor cage and put him in that in the shed for a couple of months - It will take them a few months to forget about the fight they've just had though

It did not seem like they were fighting over the shed more over Flopsy. It was as though Jasper had just seen his girlfriend been jump on 1 too many times and had had enough.

Flopsy and Jaspers bond seems stronger now and Fudge just felt left out.

Fudge is now back in the bathroom (and stamping away during the earlier hours!). I could not bear to leave him outside. The shed is not big enough to have 2 hutchs on the floor (we are using Flopsy's as a bed for the other 2) and have enough to play. I think it 6"11 by 5"4. The run is 8" by 8".

I felt so guilty leaving the other 2 outside but when I went to see them this morning they were fine. Flopsy would not come near me but shes like then when she thinks she is going to be put back in her hutch. They both ran into the run when we opened the hatch.

Now I just have to forget about them and not worry while I am at work!

As for Fudge, I don't know if he will be going outside or if I dare try him again.

I guess its back to trying to bond the 2 groups of G pigs!

hi

Well now at least you have the perfect excuse to get a girlfriend for Fudge 8)

Good luck with the piggies - I'm trying (total amateur here) to bond Derek to the 2 little brothers (Charlotte's boys!)- don't know what I'm doing but I've put them in this big cage, the 2 boys inside a cage top from a 2' cage a couple of days ago - Yesterday I swapped them around to get used to each others scent - Derek is now known as gay uncle Derek :roll:
But they were all laid next to each other this morning, just the bars in between - hope this is a good sign - now I need to find the courage to remove the partition! :shock:

HOW CUTE!!!!!!

Charlotte was getting very excitable yesterday and chasing Sophie around the cage and making that funny rubmling sound that usually come from a male when chasing a girl!!

Don't think I could convince Darren that we need another rabbit. We just took on another female and I really had to turn the charm on (actually I jst kept saying "can we have her - please" until he gave in). As she is a tiny lion head I think she is far to small for Fudge but we have a couple a smaller male buns to try her with once she is neutered (which is happening tomorrow).

So thats 10 rabbits and I promised no more at 5, then 6, then 9 and now 10! Wish I could turn a couple of the boys into girls then it would be a bit more even.

I am trying hard not to look at free ads and RR so I won't be tempted. My mum has threaten to smash my computer!

I also have to keep reminding myself that cleaning 15 cages/hutchs is not the best way to spend the weekend.

hi

no it can't be much fun when you've been working all week too - I've just spent one and a half hours cleaning the girls 5 litter boxes and sweeping the shed - the guins take me all day :shock:

I am tempted to get a small girlfriend for Benny though - I'm thinking lionhead or nethie/cross...Someone please stop me (the trouble with being single is you need self-control :lol: )

How do you go about bonding female guinea pigs? Am I doing the bonding bit OK do you think? I've just done it like you would with rabbits - when I first got them I had no idea and just put 2 female guineas together - they were not amused! :?

Have you seen the photo of Charlotte's Rudolf on the stories and photos thread? Cuteness overload - be warned!

Hi,

I have seen the photo you posted and I am in love with Florence and Derek!!! They are all beutiful though.

I adore Netherland dwarf rabbits. Its like having a baby all the time! I lost my self control a long time ago!

I am sure letting the G pigs see each other through bars is a great start. The first 2 girl we bonded we put in the bath tub together (with a towel on the bottom). They seemed ok together but it took me a while before I let them live together because I was scared one of them would pinch all the food (especially veggies)! I think 2 girl is reasonably easy its groups that scare me! I have not tried Charlotte with the original 3 since last weekend. She is getting on great with Sophie the other new girl. If I had not lost your email address I would send you a pic.

The 6 foot hutchs are coming tomorrow so it looks like the original 3 will be moving into 1 and Charlotte and Sophie will then go in Poser and Pennys 5 foot hutch (the 2nd 6 footer is for the rabbits).

oh well - look at the time!

hi

that sounds great - it's hard to find a good reason to rock the boat with bonding when they're already happy with just one friend (or in Benny's case he seems happy on his own) - I'll pm you my email but I'm sure everyone on the forum would love to see pics of your animals too! I use photobucket for mine and just copy paste the bottom of the 3 URL underneath the photo there.

You must be a 'smooth pig' fan if Florence and Derek are your faves then - my son calls them smooth pigs in a derogatory way :? - he likes the fluff-balls! I love them all - it's going to be so hard to rehome any more - I dreamt that Florence had about 9 babies last night - eeek - hope it's not a premonition! :shock: