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Bonding a bigger rabbit with a smaller one.

K

Kyon147

New Kit
Hi All

I recently joined this forum in looking for a new companion for my windowed rabbit Tink. I found one at a rescue and have had him about 2 weeks now with them next to each other side by side in different hutches.

They can see each other and sniff each other through the bars but not enough to reach with teeth (just in case). They have been getting along well, spending time next to each other with the bars separating them.

I have had them out together a couple times, things are well, the boy no longer chases (he did at the rescue when speed dating) and she is not nervous around him.

My worry is though, he can be a bit pushy with her. Sometimes he pushes his head into her face to say "groom me" or when they both have treats and he has finished to try and get hers out her mouth. Size wise, he is about twice the size of her if not more. She only weight 1kg, he must be 3kg+. I have not kept them together unsupervised yet as although there has been no aggression or biting in anyway, his forceful nature is worrying longterm because of his size.

At the moment, they are in each others spaces to get used to the other ones scent. I would be grateful on any tips to teach him some manners as well as any advice on when rabbits are different sizes i.e big and small.

So far it is going well but just want to make sure both don't get hurt if I decide to move them into together.

Thanks

p.s her last husbun Jeffrey was love at first sight. So two weeks bonding is a long time for me.
 
I don't think there is much you can do to stop them trying to pinch one another's food - they are all the same in this. Everything sounds fine with them and it's good you are being cautious with him being bigger but it sounds like you would be ok putting them together soon and keeping an eye on them. Good luck.
 
Hi tonibun

I have just put them together and keeping an eye one them. Feeding them in the hutch they happily ate food from the same bowl next to each other so I am hoping that shows there should not be many issues.
 
Sounds like good going so far!

I would just watch that he doesn't pester her with .. ahem .. unwanted attentions. Him being bigger, she needs to be able to get away from him, both in bonding and afterwards.

Two food bowls should sort out the feeding issues x Good luck! x
 
Scatter feeding works for my quad. Frosty still chases the others at food time but they are soon allmeating happily. Also searching through the hay for their dried food gives them something to do.
 
They were eating perfectly fine together :) maybe my explanation was not clear, my bad!

I will see how they are tonight, I have cctv in their hutch anyways to be able to keep an eye on them.
 
IT is really useful! They are outside my bedroom window in a hutch and run with a enclosed wire gate (we have foxes in the area).

As i still worry too much plus want to check up on them when at work I installed CCTV outside and inside their hutch.
 
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