Jaffacake
Alpha Buck
I have seen similar threads to this, but not one with my exact situation so I thought I'd post afresh. Sorry it's long! I seem to only be able to write long posts!
I have a 7 month old boy called Foxie who was bought with another male rabbit from Pets at Home (not doing that again!). Both were meant to be female as we wouldn't have bought two boys due to the chance of fighting and both were sick with snuffles when we got them. Long story short (already posted the long story somewhere on here...) Merry got very aggressive and died whilst being castrated leaving Foxie alone.
Foxie= loveliest, soppiest, gentlest bunny in the world.
My original vets (not the PaH vets where Merry died) told me that due to the snuffles and the fact his brother died it would be a big risk to get him done and maybe we should make him a house bunny and leave him alone. But he got so sad! He has never shown any sexual behaviour, is always very placid, and his testicles were so badly attacked by his brother they are partly black and misshapen, so I thought bonding with a neutered female might work. When he stopped doing binkys :'( I decided he was far too lonely and we'd just have to get him a friend and hope he wouldn't need neutering.
Bella is a 7 month old female from our local shelter. We paid to have her spayed a month ago, picked her up a few days later and divided the garden so she could recover. We swapped bedding from their hutches, let them see each other, swapped which side of the garden they were on and after 2 weeks we saw them lying either side of the fence next to each other. I thought this must be bunny love, he was doing binkies everywhere on his side, she was doing them all over her side.... so we decided to open the gate and let them together. No aggression at all, they basically seemed to ignore each other or he would walk towards her and when he was a couple of feet away she would run. We thought this would stop soon, but it has been over another 2 weeks and she's no better.
I know I did it wrong! I should have just kept them separate and then done it in a crate after a month, but they were doing so well. And now Bella runs away from us too. She won't let us stroke her or go away at night. I think it's because she's got so in the habit of running away from him all the time. I've been putting time into teaching her that hands are good, and they give you treats and tickles, and she's getting slightly better with me but not with Foxie. Obviously she's a rescue bunny so she's been through a lot and trusting is hard, but I just want her to love us and him!
So I tried the puppy crate neutral space thing, and as soon as she's locked in with him she goes crazy, crashing into the sides and whimpering before he's even done anything. And then he starts humping her, and she tries to run away and then she whimpers more and it was so upsetting! She did bury her face under his chin and just lie still, but then as soon as I stop stroking him he goes for her again. I read different things about whether or not to stop him, and they contradict each other so I tried letting him AND physically stopping him but he didn't stop trying unless I was constantly stroking him and she just kept biting my hand although she flat out refuses to nip him, or try and hump him or show any sort of try for dominance even though she is much bigger and maybe if she did he would quit it.
I am completely at a loss about what I should do next. Tried them in the crate again today and she got just as stressed that I don't know whether it is the right thing to put her in that situation again.
The obvious solution seems to be to get Foxie done, but the risk of losing him terrifies me, especially as we got Bella (although that sounds terrible!).
Gahhh, what do I do next?! What methods should I try? When they are separated in the garden she still tries to get really close to him, so I know she doesn't hate him. And when I put them in the crate and lifted it up she went to him for comfort. They do like each other a lot more than some bunnies do when they first meet. The potential is there!
Please help
I have a 7 month old boy called Foxie who was bought with another male rabbit from Pets at Home (not doing that again!). Both were meant to be female as we wouldn't have bought two boys due to the chance of fighting and both were sick with snuffles when we got them. Long story short (already posted the long story somewhere on here...) Merry got very aggressive and died whilst being castrated leaving Foxie alone.
Foxie= loveliest, soppiest, gentlest bunny in the world.
My original vets (not the PaH vets where Merry died) told me that due to the snuffles and the fact his brother died it would be a big risk to get him done and maybe we should make him a house bunny and leave him alone. But he got so sad! He has never shown any sexual behaviour, is always very placid, and his testicles were so badly attacked by his brother they are partly black and misshapen, so I thought bonding with a neutered female might work. When he stopped doing binkys :'( I decided he was far too lonely and we'd just have to get him a friend and hope he wouldn't need neutering.
Bella is a 7 month old female from our local shelter. We paid to have her spayed a month ago, picked her up a few days later and divided the garden so she could recover. We swapped bedding from their hutches, let them see each other, swapped which side of the garden they were on and after 2 weeks we saw them lying either side of the fence next to each other. I thought this must be bunny love, he was doing binkies everywhere on his side, she was doing them all over her side.... so we decided to open the gate and let them together. No aggression at all, they basically seemed to ignore each other or he would walk towards her and when he was a couple of feet away she would run. We thought this would stop soon, but it has been over another 2 weeks and she's no better.
I know I did it wrong! I should have just kept them separate and then done it in a crate after a month, but they were doing so well. And now Bella runs away from us too. She won't let us stroke her or go away at night. I think it's because she's got so in the habit of running away from him all the time. I've been putting time into teaching her that hands are good, and they give you treats and tickles, and she's getting slightly better with me but not with Foxie. Obviously she's a rescue bunny so she's been through a lot and trusting is hard, but I just want her to love us and him!
So I tried the puppy crate neutral space thing, and as soon as she's locked in with him she goes crazy, crashing into the sides and whimpering before he's even done anything. And then he starts humping her, and she tries to run away and then she whimpers more and it was so upsetting! She did bury her face under his chin and just lie still, but then as soon as I stop stroking him he goes for her again. I read different things about whether or not to stop him, and they contradict each other so I tried letting him AND physically stopping him but he didn't stop trying unless I was constantly stroking him and she just kept biting my hand although she flat out refuses to nip him, or try and hump him or show any sort of try for dominance even though she is much bigger and maybe if she did he would quit it.
I am completely at a loss about what I should do next. Tried them in the crate again today and she got just as stressed that I don't know whether it is the right thing to put her in that situation again.
The obvious solution seems to be to get Foxie done, but the risk of losing him terrifies me, especially as we got Bella (although that sounds terrible!).
Gahhh, what do I do next?! What methods should I try? When they are separated in the garden she still tries to get really close to him, so I know she doesn't hate him. And when I put them in the crate and lifted it up she went to him for comfort. They do like each other a lot more than some bunnies do when they first meet. The potential is there!
Please help