Have we done the right thing?

Hi all,

This is my first thread on here ( apart from the introduction page )

I have 2 bunnies and 3 dogs.

On the 3 June we lost one of our bunnies quite tragically through my own carelessness, and I still find it hard to talk about now

The rabbit that we had left after this accident, we were very worried about as Frizbu had never been on his own before and he was the quieter bun out of the 2. When Nik-Nak died he stopped eating and became even more withdrawn. Our of sheer panic I went over board with toys etc to keep him occupied. On one visit to our local Pets At Home ( 2 days after the accident)I went over to have a look at bunnies and I noticed an area for rescue bunnies from the local shelter. Anyway I went to have a look and saw a lovely lop eared girl, and later on that evening she was mine ( once hubby had seen her too).

She was not vaccinated or neutered and is approx a year old. We left her to settle for a day in an indoor cage, and then we started introducing her to Frizby. The first meeting went fantastic no fur pulling or biting, we knew Frizby wouldn't as he is a very laid back bunny. On the 4 or 5th attempt Rockie ( the new bun) started with a lot of mounting and biting and fluff pulling, poor old Frizby was scared. Rockie has now been neutered and vaccinated ( Frizby is already neutered and regularly vaccinated), but I'm a bit edgy about putting them together again.

If I could of seen past the panic then I would of taken more time and looked round a lot more rescue centres. Does it sound like we may of rushed into things?

Rockie meeting Frizby

Hi there!

This sounds completely normal! How long has it been since she has been spayed?! She might need a while longer to calm down a bit. But otherwise it sounds ok.

There are lots of experienced bonders on, and I'm not one of them I'm afraid. But I know that absolutely neutral territory is crucial with buns. That includes scrubbing anything that any one of them might 'own' including toys bowls etc. The advice seems to be to let them get together and get the bond going, if you break it up, you start from the beginning each time.

Hopefully more advice will be along shortly.

Just off to look at your photos!

Fiona x

Awww, they are lovely bunnies! I see they met in the bathroom! Bless!

Your area will help Nik Nak. You may find that someone nearby can help (just county would suffice).

Neil

Rockie can't have been spayed long if you lost your other bun on the 3rd June - I would give her a few weeks to settle in, calm down and get over her op. then find somewhere neutral to introduce them again - an area neither of them have been before, like the bathroom maybe.

It's perfectly normal for chasing, mounting and fur-pulling to go on as they have to decide who's going to be boss bunny (usually the female ) - Whenever you put them somewhere new, or split them up, they will have to go through all this again when they meet.

The serious fighting is when they lock onto each other with their teeth and whirl around flat to the floor clawing each other with their back feet - if you need to split them up wear gloves and use a long handled broom or a wash basket to pop over one of them - otherwise you will likely get bitten.

If they get on OK in the neutral space, leave them as long as you can there, preferably a couple of days, and make sure that wherever they are going to live together has been well cleaned and deodorise, moved, painted or whatever, to make it new seeming.

Moving to a new home, bonding, and spaying are all extremely stressful for Rockie, and she may go off her food if she feels too overwhelmed, so give her a few weeks and try again

Some members might not like what I'm going to suggest, but if all else fails...

What about trying them on Frizby's territory?

Unless Rockie is very brave, she's probably not going to assert dominance on Frizby's territory. And Frizby will feel a bit more comfortable on home ground.

I used to have a very timid male bun, and found it best to introduce females into his territory. Otherwise he'd act like a complete wuss and let them walk all over him. :roll:

Obviously you know your rabbits better than anybody, so use your discretion.

Thanks for the advice, we have been introducing them in the bath, however were happiest when they were both in the run, Rockie seemed more interested in the grass then Frizby!
The staff at Pets at I generally find have very limited knowledge of rabbits however the lady I was speaking to was very helpful and was coming up with all sort of suggestions for bonding, and how to handle Rockie.

Also if anyone knows what breed and colour she is ( I call her brown!) I would be most grateful if you could let me know, she is a mediumish sized bun, Frizby is a lion head cross.

Frizby


Rockie

She looks like an agouti dwarf lop (or dwarf lop cross) to me, but the colour on my PC monitor is pants, so perhaps not :lol: :lol:

I might be wrong but from what you've written it sounds like you've been introducing them and then splitting them up again? If this is the case, don't. Find a time when you have a couple of days to spend with them and then introduce them once and for all. You can part them if they squabble and you don't feel comfortable with it but don't split them, they need to sort their heirarchy out and can't do that with too much human interference.

Hi Nik Nak..... bonding is a nightmare I am trying to do it right now with 1 pair and 1 trio. What you are going through sounds perfectly normal to me. You have to be able to see a bit of fur fly and not panic thats the trick, but it is so hard to do.

chloaster said:

I might be wrong but from what you've written it sounds like you've been introducing them and then splitting them up again? If this is the case, don't. Find a time when you have a couple of days to spend with them and then introduce them once and for all. You can part them if they squabble and you don't feel comfortable with it but don't split them, they need to sort their heirarchy out and can't do that with too much human interference.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I started by giving them 10 minutes a day but then gradually been building it up I can give them about an hour now, so I tend to sit with them with a book.....gives me some time to myself then!

They are still sleeping seperately. In all fairness I think I've confused them as they haven't had bonding time now for about 10 days due to Rockie being neutered, but vet has given her the all clear now to start bonding again. They have always been in the bath when I've bonded them. Is the wrong, I mean the gap in bonding have I confused them!?