MrsCoultas
Mama Doe
Hi everyone,
I started bonding my two bunnies on Tuesday and I think it's going ok. I have Poppy (about 3) and Ragnar (1.5). Both medium sized mixed breeds, Poppy is a lop. Before I started the bonding, I let Poppy go to the gate on Ragnar's bedroom, so they could have a sniff and see if there was any chemistry, all was good, no aggression.
Day 1 - They were really quite indifferent to each other, no aggression at all, a bit of a sniff now and then, both mounted each other a bit but not much.
Day 2 - Lots of mounting by Ragnar onto Poppy, some of Poppy mounting Ragnar. Poppy appeared to be teasing him, by waiting for him to come near, then run away a bit, wait for him to get close again, then run away again. I say teasing because she plays this game with me and my husband. If you don't chase her, so comes running back and runs circles around out feet. Again, no aggression, no fighting. They ate a bit of hay, ate in front of each other, relaxed but not close to each other.
Day 3 - The mounting has pretty much stopped but Poppy appears to be more dominant in chasing Ragnar a bit. It wasn't a very long session together as I had been out all day.
Day 4 - 10am-5:30pm! No more mounting. They are eating hay together, snuggled a bit! They both kept presenting their heads to be groomed but neither really wanted to do it initially. Then Ragnar started grooming Poppy's head a bit, but after about 5 seconds she batted him away a bit or ran off.
I know it's early days, I'm just wondering if what if neither bunny wants to be the sub? Poppy's favourite thing is me rubbing her head and face, so I don't think that she's batting him away because she doesn't like it. He's not hurting her I don't think, I'm just a bit confused. Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated!
Day 5 - No mounting, grooming and snuggles! I'm so happy
It turns out after Ragnar mounting Poppy so much on the second day, he has now become the sub and is grooming her. I tried feeding them together this morning, not as successful. Ragnar likes to eat his food all in one go and is really food motivated. Poppy is a grazer, she'll eat a bit, then go off and play a bit, then come back and eat a bit more. Poppy just wanted him to play whilst he was eating and he was just totally focused on his food. Then he finished his veggies and ran off to play, Poppy tried eating some of her breakfast and Ragnar became very interested and started stealing some of her food, she wasn't happy about his and was grunting at him. Any advice on feeding would be great! Thanks
Heres a picture of Ragnar grooming Poppy -
And here is them finally snuggling up -
Day 6 - Bonding is complete! I'm amazed at how quickly they have taken to each other and I'm still a bit nervous to leave them alone in Ragnar's room. They spent the night together last night, my bedroom is next door so I kept my door open just in case I heard scuffling. The only thing I heard was one of them playing with the jingly ball at about 5am, usually Poppy's trick When I got up, they were sat at the gate together, waiting for breakfast, it was adorable. I made them up separate veggie breakfasts because yesterday Poppy was grunting at Ragnar when he was stealing her food. Today they wouldn't let me put their breakfast apart and ended up sharing anyway! Ragnar still got more than Poppy but he is a bit bigger and eats all of his food in one go. I played with them for a bit then left them to it. I went back up and they had smooshed themselves into one of Poppy's old carry cases, Poppy was in the back and Ragnar could only get his back end in! I just went back up and they were chilling out in a cardboard box together I'm so happy that Poppy has her husbun.
Poppy is in there, you can just about see the light part of one of her ears haha
I started bonding my two bunnies on Tuesday and I think it's going ok. I have Poppy (about 3) and Ragnar (1.5). Both medium sized mixed breeds, Poppy is a lop. Before I started the bonding, I let Poppy go to the gate on Ragnar's bedroom, so they could have a sniff and see if there was any chemistry, all was good, no aggression.
Day 1 - They were really quite indifferent to each other, no aggression at all, a bit of a sniff now and then, both mounted each other a bit but not much.
Day 2 - Lots of mounting by Ragnar onto Poppy, some of Poppy mounting Ragnar. Poppy appeared to be teasing him, by waiting for him to come near, then run away a bit, wait for him to get close again, then run away again. I say teasing because she plays this game with me and my husband. If you don't chase her, so comes running back and runs circles around out feet. Again, no aggression, no fighting. They ate a bit of hay, ate in front of each other, relaxed but not close to each other.
Day 3 - The mounting has pretty much stopped but Poppy appears to be more dominant in chasing Ragnar a bit. It wasn't a very long session together as I had been out all day.
Day 4 - 10am-5:30pm! No more mounting. They are eating hay together, snuggled a bit! They both kept presenting their heads to be groomed but neither really wanted to do it initially. Then Ragnar started grooming Poppy's head a bit, but after about 5 seconds she batted him away a bit or ran off.
I know it's early days, I'm just wondering if what if neither bunny wants to be the sub? Poppy's favourite thing is me rubbing her head and face, so I don't think that she's batting him away because she doesn't like it. He's not hurting her I don't think, I'm just a bit confused. Any advice or help will be greatly appreciated!
Day 5 - No mounting, grooming and snuggles! I'm so happy
It turns out after Ragnar mounting Poppy so much on the second day, he has now become the sub and is grooming her. I tried feeding them together this morning, not as successful. Ragnar likes to eat his food all in one go and is really food motivated. Poppy is a grazer, she'll eat a bit, then go off and play a bit, then come back and eat a bit more. Poppy just wanted him to play whilst he was eating and he was just totally focused on his food. Then he finished his veggies and ran off to play, Poppy tried eating some of her breakfast and Ragnar became very interested and started stealing some of her food, she wasn't happy about his and was grunting at him. Any advice on feeding would be great! Thanks Heres a picture of Ragnar grooming Poppy -
And here is them finally snuggling up -
Day 6 - Bonding is complete! I'm amazed at how quickly they have taken to each other and I'm still a bit nervous to leave them alone in Ragnar's room. They spent the night together last night, my bedroom is next door so I kept my door open just in case I heard scuffling. The only thing I heard was one of them playing with the jingly ball at about 5am, usually Poppy's trick
When I got up, they were sat at the gate together, waiting for breakfast, it was adorable. I made them up separate veggie breakfasts because yesterday Poppy was grunting at Ragnar when he was stealing her food. Today they wouldn't let me put their breakfast apart and ended up sharing anyway! Ragnar still got more than Poppy but he is a bit bigger and eats all of his food in one go. I played with them for a bit then left them to it. I went back up and they had smooshed themselves into one of Poppy's old carry cases, Poppy was in the back and Ragnar could only get his back end in! I just went back up and they were chilling out in a cardboard box together I'm so happy that Poppy has her husbun.
Poppy is in there, you can just about see the light part of one of her ears haha
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