TwoLittleBunnies
New Kit
Hi all,
My hubby and I rescued Speckle, a lionhead doe, four years ago when our other rabbit Roo lost his brother. Luckily Speckle and Roo bonded quickly, and after a couple of months they were inseparable.
Sadly, disaster struck a year ago, when we suddenly lost Roo for no reason we could fathom. Speckle was heartbroken and has never really been very interested in people, so we knew she needed another bunny pronto. We adopted what seemed like the perfect match, a sweet-tempered Netherland Dwarf boy named Smoke. Bonding wasn't quite as straightforward as it was between Speckle and Roo, but we got there in the end, and they lived together peacefully for eighteen months.
Just after Christmas we moved house. We think the stress upset Smoke as he had a bout of gut stasis shortly afterwards and needed to be hospitalised. Speckle went with him, but things weren't the same after they came back from the vet's; there was a lot of chasing, mounting and scuffling which we hadn't seen from them before, and one evening this escalated into a full blown fight. We split them up, and after a few days we put them in separate pens in our spare room (neutral territory) while we rebonded them.
This was three months ago.
I have had rabbits for two decades and I've never experienced anything like this. I can't understand what's happened, but they loathe each other now - snarling, biting, scratching every chance they get. It's really vicious and quite upsetting to watch. I've tried every trick I know - the bathtub, the car ride (prior to the COVID lockdown, of course), the laundry basket. I've had them in rooms in the house they'd never seen before, I've had them with me in the garden, I even once had them in the utility room which is where the cat sleeps, so could not possibly have smelt like "their" territory to either of them. I am actually despairing of being able to rebond them; their personalities when they interact with us are unchanged, it's only with each other that they seem to have a problem. I've considered a few options but if anyone has other suggestions, please, please tell me, I'm at my wits' end...
POSSIBILITIES
1) Keep going. But I'm not sure what I can do differently.
2) Accept that I now have two singletons. I'm not too worried about Smoke in this scenario, I think he'd adapt quite nicely. He loves human attention and gets on with the cat. I'd be worried about Speckle as she is still nervous around hubby and I even now; we think she was previously abused. She's much, much more keen on other rabbits - I think she needs a friend.
3) Get a third and bond him/her to Speckle; leave Smoke single. The issue here is Speckle's age; we were told she was about three when we adopted her, making her seven-ish now, and she's my first lionhead but I understand from what I've read of the breed that this is getting old for them? I would hate to leave another bunny bereft after a short period of time, though I suppose I could look for a bun near her age, and/or try bonding them to Smoke should anything happen to Speckle. I think I would also constantly feel guilty about Smoke being single while Speckle has a friend, when they'd previously had each other for company and got on so well.
4) Get two more and aim for two pairs. Pros: both buns have a buddy. Cons: as above re Speckle's age, plus possibility of one or both of the bonds not working out.
5) Get one, two or three more and aim for a group, hoping that Smoke and Speckle will resettle under a new hierarchy/dynamic. Pros: if it works, everyone has lots of friends, no need to worry as much about bereavement. Cons: I'd worry about two buns ganging up on one if I went for the three, and if I went for the four or the five and it didn't work, I'd have a bevy of single bunnies, which I do have the space for but it isn't what I want. Also I've never had a group before, only ones and twos.
Help someone, please! I thought I'd seen pretty much everything a pair of rabbits could throw at me, but apparently not...
My hubby and I rescued Speckle, a lionhead doe, four years ago when our other rabbit Roo lost his brother. Luckily Speckle and Roo bonded quickly, and after a couple of months they were inseparable.
Sadly, disaster struck a year ago, when we suddenly lost Roo for no reason we could fathom. Speckle was heartbroken and has never really been very interested in people, so we knew she needed another bunny pronto. We adopted what seemed like the perfect match, a sweet-tempered Netherland Dwarf boy named Smoke. Bonding wasn't quite as straightforward as it was between Speckle and Roo, but we got there in the end, and they lived together peacefully for eighteen months.
Just after Christmas we moved house. We think the stress upset Smoke as he had a bout of gut stasis shortly afterwards and needed to be hospitalised. Speckle went with him, but things weren't the same after they came back from the vet's; there was a lot of chasing, mounting and scuffling which we hadn't seen from them before, and one evening this escalated into a full blown fight. We split them up, and after a few days we put them in separate pens in our spare room (neutral territory) while we rebonded them.
This was three months ago.
I have had rabbits for two decades and I've never experienced anything like this. I can't understand what's happened, but they loathe each other now - snarling, biting, scratching every chance they get. It's really vicious and quite upsetting to watch. I've tried every trick I know - the bathtub, the car ride (prior to the COVID lockdown, of course), the laundry basket. I've had them in rooms in the house they'd never seen before, I've had them with me in the garden, I even once had them in the utility room which is where the cat sleeps, so could not possibly have smelt like "their" territory to either of them. I am actually despairing of being able to rebond them; their personalities when they interact with us are unchanged, it's only with each other that they seem to have a problem. I've considered a few options but if anyone has other suggestions, please, please tell me, I'm at my wits' end...
POSSIBILITIES
1) Keep going. But I'm not sure what I can do differently.
2) Accept that I now have two singletons. I'm not too worried about Smoke in this scenario, I think he'd adapt quite nicely. He loves human attention and gets on with the cat. I'd be worried about Speckle as she is still nervous around hubby and I even now; we think she was previously abused. She's much, much more keen on other rabbits - I think she needs a friend.
3) Get a third and bond him/her to Speckle; leave Smoke single. The issue here is Speckle's age; we were told she was about three when we adopted her, making her seven-ish now, and she's my first lionhead but I understand from what I've read of the breed that this is getting old for them? I would hate to leave another bunny bereft after a short period of time, though I suppose I could look for a bun near her age, and/or try bonding them to Smoke should anything happen to Speckle. I think I would also constantly feel guilty about Smoke being single while Speckle has a friend, when they'd previously had each other for company and got on so well.
4) Get two more and aim for two pairs. Pros: both buns have a buddy. Cons: as above re Speckle's age, plus possibility of one or both of the bonds not working out.
5) Get one, two or three more and aim for a group, hoping that Smoke and Speckle will resettle under a new hierarchy/dynamic. Pros: if it works, everyone has lots of friends, no need to worry as much about bereavement. Cons: I'd worry about two buns ganging up on one if I went for the three, and if I went for the four or the five and it didn't work, I'd have a bevy of single bunnies, which I do have the space for but it isn't what I want. Also I've never had a group before, only ones and twos.
Help someone, please! I thought I'd seen pretty much everything a pair of rabbits could throw at me, but apparently not...
