Hi - this will probably turn into a huge essay so here goes... we're in desperate need of some help!
Basically we started off with two bunnies - Moppy and Snoopy. Moppy is a dwarf lionhead and was three months old when we got her. She was bonded to Snoopy, our large, fat, lazy lop ear, and it went like a dream. They were both primarily indoor rabbits, but would happily go outside on big excursions in the garden or stay out in the hutch and run in the summer without any problems.
Unfortunately we lost Snoopy at the beginning of April, and Moppy was diagnosed with steatitis in the same week (unrelated and bad timing). She went into the veterinary hospital and recovered after an op and some treatment. About three weeks after Snoopy died, we rehomed a small 'mongrel' rescue rabbit named Ozzy.
Ozzy has no front teeth, so can't nip, and is very energetic and a bit scatty. He was found wandering the streets with overgrown teeth and was very underweight and had diahhroea. I think his experiences as a stray bun have sort of exacerbated this behaviour.
When we first got him and let him into his temporary outside run he was running around with glee and some nervous energy, doing lots of binkies just at the sight of us coming to see him. When we let Moppy out into the garden to see him, she was a bit aloof and kept turning her back him (normal behaviour, we thought she was just sussing him out), but he would get really overexcited by the sight of her and would do several binkies and even thrown himself down on the floor when she sat near his run. SO far so good.
We introduced them first by accident, we had the run lid off and whilst I was sitting with Ozzy, Moppy jumped in behind me and met Ozzy. There was a little scrap but Ozzy dominated by humping her. We let him carry on as Moppy wasn't putting up too much of a fight, but she started really running away and almost panting, so we broke it up and let her back in the garden.
The second time they met was on neutral territory in our small bathroom. This time Moppy was not giving in so easily, and there was quite a bit of nasty fighting that was difficult to break up. Ozzy has a tendency to charge forward, I don't think its aggressive, I just think he's a bit scatty and doesn't know how to be careful and quiet. I think Moppy reads this as aggression or just too much and immediately goes to bite him - she's already drawn bloody from me a few times, even with gloves on. I try and separate them as quickly as possible or intervene when I can see the signs of a show-down.
We tried again two or three times, but each time it just seems to get worse. Ozzy is now indoors in Moppy's territory, in his own run, and they're OK when they're sniffing each other through the run bars. I've tried mixing their litter tray contents and swapping over things from their own 'territories' for about a week and a half, but Moppy just seems to be getting more vicious and violent with him. He retaliates by kicking her hard with his back legs, and even when I slow them both down by stroking their heads and getting them to approach each other slowly and quietly, the moment one of them makes a move it freaks both of them out and they're in the midst of a really nasty scuffle. I think Ozzy gets even more highly strung and tends to kick out, and so its a downward spiral of mistrust. In the bathroom he threw himself on the floor after they had a bun fight, but then she'll come over and he's up on all fours, nudging his head under hers quite forcefully, and she sees this as a threat and is biting and scrapping again.
I'm just at a loss as to what to do. I wonder whether I'm just making things worse by trying to keep bonding them, but we've read up a lot and had lots of information from the homers who say we've basically done everything that they would do anyway. We don't want to give Moppy to someone else to bond for us as if she gets stressed she has a tendency to stop eating (she did this at the vets and they had to send her home to try and get her to eat).
I've let Ozzy run around in the lounge part of Moppy's territory (she has free reign day and night in the lounge/dining room, and I put a partition to keep her in the dining room area so that he can put his scent around the lounge), but she watches fiercely through the bars and it seems to wind her up even more. I just feel like I'm doing everything wrong!!!
We feel like our last resort is to take them out in the car together to see if that'll do anything, but given that she seems to really hate him in a face-to-face situation, I'm not confident that it'll do any good at all. Am I looking at a lost cause? She was fantastic with Snoopy and I was hoping that she'd be able to have another fantastic (but not the same obv.) partnership with another rabbit... but it just feels like a disaster. We will have had Ozzy for 3 weeks by this weekend.
Any advice greatly received, I'm a bit desperate here! And apologies for the essay...
PS: forgot to add that both are neuteured; Moppy was done about 10 months ago and Ozzy just over a month ago I think. I think he may have hormones surging about a bit? THey are also roughly the same age - both around 2 1/2
Basically we started off with two bunnies - Moppy and Snoopy. Moppy is a dwarf lionhead and was three months old when we got her. She was bonded to Snoopy, our large, fat, lazy lop ear, and it went like a dream. They were both primarily indoor rabbits, but would happily go outside on big excursions in the garden or stay out in the hutch and run in the summer without any problems.
Unfortunately we lost Snoopy at the beginning of April, and Moppy was diagnosed with steatitis in the same week (unrelated and bad timing). She went into the veterinary hospital and recovered after an op and some treatment. About three weeks after Snoopy died, we rehomed a small 'mongrel' rescue rabbit named Ozzy.
Ozzy has no front teeth, so can't nip, and is very energetic and a bit scatty. He was found wandering the streets with overgrown teeth and was very underweight and had diahhroea. I think his experiences as a stray bun have sort of exacerbated this behaviour.
When we first got him and let him into his temporary outside run he was running around with glee and some nervous energy, doing lots of binkies just at the sight of us coming to see him. When we let Moppy out into the garden to see him, she was a bit aloof and kept turning her back him (normal behaviour, we thought she was just sussing him out), but he would get really overexcited by the sight of her and would do several binkies and even thrown himself down on the floor when she sat near his run. SO far so good.
We introduced them first by accident, we had the run lid off and whilst I was sitting with Ozzy, Moppy jumped in behind me and met Ozzy. There was a little scrap but Ozzy dominated by humping her. We let him carry on as Moppy wasn't putting up too much of a fight, but she started really running away and almost panting, so we broke it up and let her back in the garden.
The second time they met was on neutral territory in our small bathroom. This time Moppy was not giving in so easily, and there was quite a bit of nasty fighting that was difficult to break up. Ozzy has a tendency to charge forward, I don't think its aggressive, I just think he's a bit scatty and doesn't know how to be careful and quiet. I think Moppy reads this as aggression or just too much and immediately goes to bite him - she's already drawn bloody from me a few times, even with gloves on. I try and separate them as quickly as possible or intervene when I can see the signs of a show-down.
We tried again two or three times, but each time it just seems to get worse. Ozzy is now indoors in Moppy's territory, in his own run, and they're OK when they're sniffing each other through the run bars. I've tried mixing their litter tray contents and swapping over things from their own 'territories' for about a week and a half, but Moppy just seems to be getting more vicious and violent with him. He retaliates by kicking her hard with his back legs, and even when I slow them both down by stroking their heads and getting them to approach each other slowly and quietly, the moment one of them makes a move it freaks both of them out and they're in the midst of a really nasty scuffle. I think Ozzy gets even more highly strung and tends to kick out, and so its a downward spiral of mistrust. In the bathroom he threw himself on the floor after they had a bun fight, but then she'll come over and he's up on all fours, nudging his head under hers quite forcefully, and she sees this as a threat and is biting and scrapping again.
I'm just at a loss as to what to do. I wonder whether I'm just making things worse by trying to keep bonding them, but we've read up a lot and had lots of information from the homers who say we've basically done everything that they would do anyway. We don't want to give Moppy to someone else to bond for us as if she gets stressed she has a tendency to stop eating (she did this at the vets and they had to send her home to try and get her to eat).
I've let Ozzy run around in the lounge part of Moppy's territory (she has free reign day and night in the lounge/dining room, and I put a partition to keep her in the dining room area so that he can put his scent around the lounge), but she watches fiercely through the bars and it seems to wind her up even more. I just feel like I'm doing everything wrong!!!
We feel like our last resort is to take them out in the car together to see if that'll do anything, but given that she seems to really hate him in a face-to-face situation, I'm not confident that it'll do any good at all. Am I looking at a lost cause? She was fantastic with Snoopy and I was hoping that she'd be able to have another fantastic (but not the same obv.) partnership with another rabbit... but it just feels like a disaster. We will have had Ozzy for 3 weeks by this weekend.
Any advice greatly received, I'm a bit desperate here! And apologies for the essay...
PS: forgot to add that both are neuteured; Moppy was done about 10 months ago and Ozzy just over a month ago I think. I think he may have hormones surging about a bit? THey are also roughly the same age - both around 2 1/2
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