The Duchess
Wise Old Thumper
I have been speaking to a very experienced rabbit owner this morning who is struggling with finding answers for a specific overgrooming problem.
It's a long post but I would really appreciate any comments/thoughts by folks who might have experienced something similar.
I suspect that the issue is one of confidence by the female bunny doing the grooming, due to them being parted earlier in their relationship.
I have suggested a few things to redress this but anyone else got any ideas?
" Having lost our last house bunny unexpectedly last November we adopted two six/seven month old bunnies from a rescue centre in Sutton late November/beginning of December. They had only been at the centre for two days when we saw them along with their three babies. The Mum (now called Bonnie) was taken away from her babies and put back with the Dad (now called Clyde). Three days later they were both taken to be neutered (on a Tuesday) and we collected them the following Saturday.
For the first week we kept them in a hutch (indoors) so that not too much changed for them all at once and to litter train them. We noticed when we got them that Bonnie had a bald patch on her back and discovered that as Clyde was still rampant he was selecting the same spot and digging his teeth in when he mounted her. This carried on when they started to have the freedom of one room (they now also have access to the hall and sitting room in the evenings when we can fully supervise them). I took them to the vet after three weeks and he told me to separate them (the rescue centre hadn't wanted me to and suggested Olbas oil rubbed on her fur but this didn't work and I didn't really like the idea of it anyway). As she could crawl away during the day, we just separated them at night which did the trick and the wound healed and fur has grown back. On the last evening they were in separate hutches I noticed a small patch of fur rubbed off above Clyde’s eye. We put them back together after a couple of weeks (once Bonnie’s back had healed) and Bonnie is gradually making the bald patch larger by the day. The problem is that Clyde loves her cleaning him and he has no idea what she is doing to him as most of the area isn't sore. She is devoted to him and has always spent a lot of time grooming him (he is a bit more lazy about grooming her).
The vet told me to separate them completely but so they can see each other which we did for a week. Bonnie was not happy with this arrangement, tugging at the barrier between them and after speaking to Lorna at Green Fields we re-united them on 11th Feb. Bonnie proceeded to de-furr the other side of Clydes face and made a couple of sores. This has carried on although the sore patches are getting better. He now has no whiskers and is not as good looking as he ought to be!
It is probably worth mentioning that when we got Bonnie and Clyde they were very keen on biting us and Clyde took quite a few chunks out of me. He would cower whenever you put your hand out to him which makes me think that he may have been hit in the past. It took quite a lot of will power not to yelp when he sunk his teeth in but both are fine now and just nudge us with their noses if we are in the way. Because he seemed to have had a bad time in the past I was giving him more attention, lying down and stroking his nose which he now loves but sometimes Bonnie (although she isn't so keen on having her nose tickled) comes up and muscles in (I wonder whether there might be some jealousy?).
They are both completely litter trained and will bobble off to bed (their hutch) when they are told it is bedtime. They do know their names and when I see Bonnie overgrooming Clyde’s face (she doesn’t seem to do it over night when they are shut in their hutch) and say “be gentle Bonnie” she starts licking Clyde elsewhere but I can’t watch her every minute.
Character-wise, Clyde is quietly more bold (he was the first out of their hutch, jumping up the chimney, going upstairs when I forgot to put up a barrier) although Bonnie seems more generally nosy. Clyde is the one that gets caught making mischief while she looks all innocent (but isn’t)! We rarely pick them up as we have found with all our bunnies that they wouldn’t choose to be held. Clyde follows Bonnie but it doesn’t work the other way round. Bonnie prefers licking the end of my nose rather than having her nose stroked although she is beginning to appreciate being stroked more as the weeks go by. They both belt around their room, the hall and sitting room at full speed in the evening, doing laps. Bonnie’s laps include an assault course around the room and up and over an armchair and anything else she can find to jump. When tired out they sit on opposite chairs or together balanced precariously on the arm of one.
Whilst writing, I wonder whether you have ideas on how to discourage digging and plucking carpet. They are gradually getting less prone to this but are restricted more than any of our previous house bunnies as we can't trust them. We have given them a grass mat and toilet roll tubes which have helped and a digging box with towels in which Clyde is very keen on although he tends to chuck the towels out and chews the cardboard bottom of the box. We are also having problems with chewing sticking out corners of walls which were newly lined and painted in October last year! They have applewood branches attached to their hutch which need replacing every week but they still seem to want to try everything with their teeth. Pet Behave sprayed on some things seems to help but this is limited. Having repaired the walls, they now seem to have diverted their attention onto soft furnishings. Having plucked a large hole in a carpet, the carpet repair guy discovered that the offending area was where the bunny that died some five years ago had pee’d which perhaps might explain some of their insecurities."
I should add that the bunnies were put back together quite some time back following a recommendation by a rescuer.
Sadly the photos that came with the information are too small to be of any use when uploaded to the forum.
The owner has also mentioned today that she has started to overgroom the other side of his face now where his whiskers are and it's getting very sore.
Thanks all in advance.
Helen
It's a long post but I would really appreciate any comments/thoughts by folks who might have experienced something similar.
I suspect that the issue is one of confidence by the female bunny doing the grooming, due to them being parted earlier in their relationship.
I have suggested a few things to redress this but anyone else got any ideas?
" Having lost our last house bunny unexpectedly last November we adopted two six/seven month old bunnies from a rescue centre in Sutton late November/beginning of December. They had only been at the centre for two days when we saw them along with their three babies. The Mum (now called Bonnie) was taken away from her babies and put back with the Dad (now called Clyde). Three days later they were both taken to be neutered (on a Tuesday) and we collected them the following Saturday.
For the first week we kept them in a hutch (indoors) so that not too much changed for them all at once and to litter train them. We noticed when we got them that Bonnie had a bald patch on her back and discovered that as Clyde was still rampant he was selecting the same spot and digging his teeth in when he mounted her. This carried on when they started to have the freedom of one room (they now also have access to the hall and sitting room in the evenings when we can fully supervise them). I took them to the vet after three weeks and he told me to separate them (the rescue centre hadn't wanted me to and suggested Olbas oil rubbed on her fur but this didn't work and I didn't really like the idea of it anyway). As she could crawl away during the day, we just separated them at night which did the trick and the wound healed and fur has grown back. On the last evening they were in separate hutches I noticed a small patch of fur rubbed off above Clyde’s eye. We put them back together after a couple of weeks (once Bonnie’s back had healed) and Bonnie is gradually making the bald patch larger by the day. The problem is that Clyde loves her cleaning him and he has no idea what she is doing to him as most of the area isn't sore. She is devoted to him and has always spent a lot of time grooming him (he is a bit more lazy about grooming her).
The vet told me to separate them completely but so they can see each other which we did for a week. Bonnie was not happy with this arrangement, tugging at the barrier between them and after speaking to Lorna at Green Fields we re-united them on 11th Feb. Bonnie proceeded to de-furr the other side of Clydes face and made a couple of sores. This has carried on although the sore patches are getting better. He now has no whiskers and is not as good looking as he ought to be!
It is probably worth mentioning that when we got Bonnie and Clyde they were very keen on biting us and Clyde took quite a few chunks out of me. He would cower whenever you put your hand out to him which makes me think that he may have been hit in the past. It took quite a lot of will power not to yelp when he sunk his teeth in but both are fine now and just nudge us with their noses if we are in the way. Because he seemed to have had a bad time in the past I was giving him more attention, lying down and stroking his nose which he now loves but sometimes Bonnie (although she isn't so keen on having her nose tickled) comes up and muscles in (I wonder whether there might be some jealousy?).
They are both completely litter trained and will bobble off to bed (their hutch) when they are told it is bedtime. They do know their names and when I see Bonnie overgrooming Clyde’s face (she doesn’t seem to do it over night when they are shut in their hutch) and say “be gentle Bonnie” she starts licking Clyde elsewhere but I can’t watch her every minute.
Character-wise, Clyde is quietly more bold (he was the first out of their hutch, jumping up the chimney, going upstairs when I forgot to put up a barrier) although Bonnie seems more generally nosy. Clyde is the one that gets caught making mischief while she looks all innocent (but isn’t)! We rarely pick them up as we have found with all our bunnies that they wouldn’t choose to be held. Clyde follows Bonnie but it doesn’t work the other way round. Bonnie prefers licking the end of my nose rather than having her nose stroked although she is beginning to appreciate being stroked more as the weeks go by. They both belt around their room, the hall and sitting room at full speed in the evening, doing laps. Bonnie’s laps include an assault course around the room and up and over an armchair and anything else she can find to jump. When tired out they sit on opposite chairs or together balanced precariously on the arm of one.
Whilst writing, I wonder whether you have ideas on how to discourage digging and plucking carpet. They are gradually getting less prone to this but are restricted more than any of our previous house bunnies as we can't trust them. We have given them a grass mat and toilet roll tubes which have helped and a digging box with towels in which Clyde is very keen on although he tends to chuck the towels out and chews the cardboard bottom of the box. We are also having problems with chewing sticking out corners of walls which were newly lined and painted in October last year! They have applewood branches attached to their hutch which need replacing every week but they still seem to want to try everything with their teeth. Pet Behave sprayed on some things seems to help but this is limited. Having repaired the walls, they now seem to have diverted their attention onto soft furnishings. Having plucked a large hole in a carpet, the carpet repair guy discovered that the offending area was where the bunny that died some five years ago had pee’d which perhaps might explain some of their insecurities."
I should add that the bunnies were put back together quite some time back following a recommendation by a rescuer.
Sadly the photos that came with the information are too small to be of any use when uploaded to the forum.
The owner has also mentioned today that she has started to overgroom the other side of his face now where his whiskers are and it's getting very sore.
Thanks all in advance.
Helen
