Neutralising...

I'm planning on bonding my 2 pairs into a quad. I'm getting a brand new shed which will obviously be a neutral area, I'm not doing the small area forced bonding but am going to see how they get on together in the new set up as it will be. I planned to get everything new because of this, however, it seems silly to buy new litter trays when they are £10 each (made from ikea storage boxes) so I'm just wondering whether washing them in vinegar will be enough to neutralise them? I am having 2 of everything on each side of the shed so that each pair can choose tier side should they decide they don't want to play happy families! I also want to use the bed box I have in one pairs current set up. It is wooden, so I plan to clean and then repaint it. I've got a carpet may on the roof that they sit on so I will replace that with a new one. Will that be enough to make the box neutral? I could leave it out until I'm confident they're bonded but the method I'm using to bond them will benefit from lots of places to hide, and this box was fairly expensive, again it seems silly to buy something else when I have that!

Quad bonding wooo hoooo. When I bonded my lot (tried six but ended up with a quad and a pair) I washed litter trays in vinegar having given them a good old scrub in the bath first. I also washed the floor and walls of my bedroom where they were bonded!!!

It was fine. I made sure that there were more litter trays than rabbits and I watched them like ten hawks for the first few days and a little less intensely for a couple of weeks before letting them out into their (neutralised with vinegar and water) shed.

GOOD LUCK. Its such fun and so stressful all at once, well it was for me. Would love to do it again though. May get two more and try them with Mottle and Peaches in due course.

tulsi said:

Quad bonding wooo hoooo. When I bonded my lot (tried six but ended up with a quad and a pair) I washed litter trays in vinegar having given them a good old scrub in the bath first. I also washed the floor and walls of my bedroom where they were bonded!!!

It was fine. I made sure that there were more litter trays than rabbits and I watched them like ten hawks for the first few days and a little less intensely for a couple of weeks before letting them out into their (neutralised with vinegar and water) shed.

GOOD LUCK. Its such fun and so stressful all at once, well it was for me. Would love to do it again though. May get two more and try them with Mottle and Peaches in due course.

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Aw thanks for the positive reply :wave: I was only planning on having the 2 litter trays but I may be able to put a couple of smaller ones in there too if it might help. I also thought of washing them in the bath haha :lol: I must admit I have had little niggling thoughts of could I get another 2 bunnies to pop in there while I'm at it :lol: I won't though, I don't want to risk having to have yet another separate set up :lol: This is all about making things easier... Fingers crossed!!

Vinegar is great stuff! I've used white vinegar in a 50:50 mix with water several times now for neutralising things before bonding. Seems to work well. For large areas I put the mix in an old spray bottle then you can get much more coverage. Good luck with your bond x

When I bonded my quad at first I didn't have any litter trays in their pen, didn't want anybun getting territorial, then when they went into their new shed I gave them a new litter tray, (one of those big underbed storage boxes) then only when the bond was solid I put the shelves in for levels and used some of their old litter trays which were neutralised with vinegar. I even neutralised the water bottles :lol:

When are you planning to bond ? It's very exciting/scary isn't it :shock:

Thank you both for your replies! Just a question - the only white vinegar I can ever find is distilled malt vinegar, is this the right stuff?! Thankfully I won't have much to neutralise, like I said most of it will be new, just don't want to buy new things that I've already got! I was just a bit worried about litter trays as they are difficult to get spotless when there's wee dried on and also scratches and scuffs that may be difficult to clean... I do want litter trays tho, I don't want them to start weeing in inappropriate areas!! I'm hoping that even if they do get a bit territorial, the pairs will still stick together, I suppose I'll just have to see how it goes!! I did also think I'll get new water bottles so you're not mad zoobec haha! Awkward thing is, one of my pairs will only use a water bowl and the other pair will only use a bottle! So I'll have to have a bowl and a bottle in two different areas! I probably will just get new ones tbh as they're only a few pounds each it's not a massive expense... I switched their toys over after clean out today and they were interested but it didn't seem to bother them and none of them were showing any referred aggression or anything so hopefully a good sign :thumb: I am awaiting my shed zoobec! It should hopefully arrive around the end of this month then I'll have to paint it and get everything ready then I'm just going to go for it! I've just read that November, December and January r the best times to bond so I hope it's not too close to spring when I do it!! You're right it is very scary!! But very exciting

I think most people use the white vinegar, but I just used normal chip shop vinegar diluted 50/50 as I've got gallons of the stuff at the shop :lol: the smell soon went!

I gave my trays a soak in boiling water with washing up liquid, scrubbed them then vinegared them, it got all the scratches clean and didn't smell of anything apart from vinegar :lol:

Zoobec said:

I think most people use the white vinegar, but I just used normal chip shop vinegar diluted 50/50 as I've got gallons of the stuff at the shop :lol: the smell soon went!

I gave my trays a soak in boiling water with washing up liquid, scrubbed them then vinegared them, it got all the scratches clean and didn't smell of anything apart from vinegar :lol:

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Thanks for the advice! It is white vinegar that I've got but it's called distilled malt vinegar. Not sure if it makes any difference!

I only had apple cyder vinegar!!! It worked just fine luckily.

tulsi said:

I only had apple cyder vinegar!!! It worked just fine luckily.

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I bet it smelt nicer than mine :thumb: I reckon so long as it doesn't smell like anybun anymore that's the main thing :thumb: my house smelt like the chippy for a bit :lol: