janban
Warren Scout
I was wondering if anyone can help me with information on how best to bond my existing house bunnies to my new ones.
All bunnies have been neutered/spayed, I have an 8 1/2 yr old dwarf male lop, Smudge who is the most docile and friendly bunny you could wish for, we have had him since he was 3mths old and was a single bunny until we adopted a companion for him, 2 years ago. She is a mini dwarf lop doe called Coco, although they bonded fairly quickly, she was very nervous around us and has only settled recently after we adopted three baby dwarf lion head lops back in July. They were siblings, 2 does and a buck, Bella, Boo and Reuben, unfortunately we lost the smallest of the does, Bella when she was spayed
. Coco seemed to pick up on the sadness in the house and became more affectionate towards us.
I have taken it very slowly intoducing them, firstly in separate rooms, then opposite ends of the same room and have recently put the baby pair up the same end of the room as the older two, Smudge and Coco. They older two have free run of the house downstairs, but tend to stay in the living room and have a cardboard castle house. The younger ones had an indoor rabbit cage placed inside a pen with another pen around the outside to create a two inch gap to prevent any fighting through the gaps until they got accustomed to each other. Unfortunately Reuben, the male of the new youngsters, escaped and we found him fighting with Coco the older female. (She can be feisty and sometimes lunges at me when I try and clean her litter tray).
As I don't want to keep the young ones locked up, I have since purchased a 5ft double storey hutch for my living room, to give them maximum space when I'm not around and have a 4'x4 metal enclosure attached to the front for them to run out in when I'm home to supervise.
The older bunny Smudge is quite happy to sniff them through the bars, and they are happy to sniff him, most of the time, though Reuben can sometimes get a little aggressive, but every time the doe, Coco and the youngsters sniff at each other, Coco lunges at them and then they are trying to fight through the bars.
I was wondering if you were able to give me any advice on how I would bond them as I would like the youngsters to have the same freedom as the older two. Do you think because of the fight incident they older doe, Coco will now always fight with the youngsters?
Also because my original bunny Smudge is now nearly 9, I don't want him to get hurt because he can't move as fast.
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All bunnies have been neutered/spayed, I have an 8 1/2 yr old dwarf male lop, Smudge who is the most docile and friendly bunny you could wish for, we have had him since he was 3mths old and was a single bunny until we adopted a companion for him, 2 years ago. She is a mini dwarf lop doe called Coco, although they bonded fairly quickly, she was very nervous around us and has only settled recently after we adopted three baby dwarf lion head lops back in July. They were siblings, 2 does and a buck, Bella, Boo and Reuben, unfortunately we lost the smallest of the does, Bella when she was spayed
. Coco seemed to pick up on the sadness in the house and became more affectionate towards us.I have taken it very slowly intoducing them, firstly in separate rooms, then opposite ends of the same room and have recently put the baby pair up the same end of the room as the older two, Smudge and Coco. They older two have free run of the house downstairs, but tend to stay in the living room and have a cardboard castle house. The younger ones had an indoor rabbit cage placed inside a pen with another pen around the outside to create a two inch gap to prevent any fighting through the gaps until they got accustomed to each other. Unfortunately Reuben, the male of the new youngsters, escaped and we found him fighting with Coco the older female. (She can be feisty and sometimes lunges at me when I try and clean her litter tray).
As I don't want to keep the young ones locked up, I have since purchased a 5ft double storey hutch for my living room, to give them maximum space when I'm not around and have a 4'x4 metal enclosure attached to the front for them to run out in when I'm home to supervise.
The older bunny Smudge is quite happy to sniff them through the bars, and they are happy to sniff him, most of the time, though Reuben can sometimes get a little aggressive, but every time the doe, Coco and the youngsters sniff at each other, Coco lunges at them and then they are trying to fight through the bars
. I was wondering if you were able to give me any advice on how I would bond them as I would like the youngsters to have the same freedom as the older two. Do you think because of the fight incident they older doe, Coco will now always fight with the youngsters?
Also because my original bunny Smudge is now nearly 9, I don't want him to get hurt because he can't move as fast.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
