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Help with baby bunny

L

Lozzibear

Warren Scout
I have a young bunny, not sure on his age as I am not convinced he is the age I was told. I was told he is 9, going on 10, weeks old. As soon as I saw him, I was a bit doubtful. He was the last one left and I was told he was the runt of the litter, half the size of the others, and because of that no one wanted him. I wouldn't use advise someone to go ahead from that point (there were a few other things that added to it), but I quickly decided that I couldn't leave him. He is very small though, only 400g (he is a Dutch). He also acts in what I consider a very young way... he is very scared, he just lies still with his ears flat on his back, trying to hide in among the hay. If I am in the room, he will not move at all or eat so I have been leaving him pretty much on his own so he will eat and drink, which he is doing.

I have two other rabbits. A 2 year old spayed female and a young, recently neutered male. My plan was always to bond those two together, but now I obviously this wee one too. So I was wondering what the best thing to do is... I can either continue to leave him on his own, hoping he starts to gain confidence but just allowing him to do so in his own time. Or I could put him with my male... my female is actually very friendly, but she is bigger so I would worry too much about her hurting him, even accidentally. I don't know whether it is too risky putting him in with another rabbit, being so small, or whether the company will help... I just don't know.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Lozzibear said:
I have a young bunny, not sure on his age as I am not convinced he is the age I was told. I was told he is 9, going on 10, weeks old. As soon as I saw him, I was a bit doubtful. He was the last one left and I was told he was the runt of the litter, half the size of the others, and because of that no one wanted him. I wouldn't use advise someone to go ahead from that point (there were a few other things that added to it), but I quickly decided that I couldn't leave him. He is very small though, only 400g (he is a Dutch). He also acts in what I consider a very young way... he is very scared, he just lies still with his ears flat on his back, trying to hide in among the hay. If I am in the room, he will not move at all or eat so I have been leaving him pretty much on his own so he will eat and drink, which he is doing.

I have two other rabbits. A 2 year old spayed female and a young, recently neutered male. My plan was always to bond those two together, but now I obviously this wee one too. So I was wondering what the best thing to do is... I can either continue to leave him on his own, hoping he starts to gain confidence but just allowing him to do so in his own time. Or I could put him with my male... my female is actually very friendly, but she is bigger so I would worry too much about her hurting him, even accidentally. I don't know whether it is too risky putting him in with another rabbit, being so small, or whether the company will help... I just don't know.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Personally I would not put him with a Buck, especially one only very recently neutered. The Baby will probably hit puberty in a few weeks and you'll have to separate him again before that happens. Otherwise a serious fight is likely to result and as the Baby is so tiny he would probably come off by far the worse.

If the Doe is very laid back you could try the Baby with her, but again you are likely to need to separate them before the Baby hits puberty as if he continuously pestered the Doe she may get cross and hurt him.

Personally I'd work on building his confidence around you and wait til he's been neutered before attempting to bond him.

Is the Baby's eyesight OK ? I ask as some runts can have poor vision which in turn can make them very nervous.
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Personally I would not put him with a Buck, especially one only very recently neutered. The Baby will probably hit puberty in a few weeks and you'll have to separate him again before that happens. Otherwise a serious fight is likely to result and as the Baby is so tiny he would probably come off by far the worse.

If the Doe is very laid back you could try the Baby with her, but again you are likely to need to separate them before the Baby hits puberty as if he continuously pestered the Doe she may get cross and hurt him.

Personally I'd work on building his confidence around you and wait til he's been neutered before attempting to bond him.

Is the Baby's eyesight OK ? I ask as some runts can have poor vision which in turn can make them very nervous.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't going to keep him with one of the others for long, just initially to gain his confidence. It isn't ideal, obviously, to bond and remove but just want to do the best for him in the situation. I am not convinced on his age, so whether he is a runt or not, I don't know. His eyesight seems fine, nothing has rung alarm bells and he is able to follow me around the room (looking at me).
 
Lozzibear said:
I have a young bunny, not sure on his age as I am not convinced he is the age I was told. I was told he is 9, going on 10, weeks old. As soon as I saw him, I was a bit doubtful. He was the last one left and I was told he was the runt of the litter, half the size of the others, and because of that no one wanted him. I wouldn't use advise someone to go ahead from that point (there were a few other things that added to it), but I quickly decided that I couldn't leave him. He is very small though, only 400g (he is a Dutch). He also acts in what I consider a very young way... he is very scared, he just lies still with his ears flat on his back, trying to hide in among the hay. If I am in the room, he will not move at all or eat so I have been leaving him pretty much on his own so he will eat and drink, which he is doing.

I have two other rabbits. A 2 year old spayed female and a young, recently neutered male. My plan was always to bond those two together, but now I obviously this wee one too. So I was wondering what the best thing to do is... I can either continue to leave him on his own, hoping he starts to gain confidence but just allowing him to do so in his own time. Or I could put him with my male... my female is actually very friendly, but she is bigger so I would worry too much about her hurting him, even accidentally. I don't know whether it is too risky putting him in with another rabbit, being so small, or whether the company will help... I just don't know.

Any advice would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...


Are you eventually wishing to bond a threesome Lozzibear?

If so, I would almost advise waiting until all three are on 'equal' status vis a vis neutering etc, and do it then. Otherwise you may risk tensions developing between them and perhaps jeopardising the future bond.

What do you think? Or were you going to bond the male and female and give the newcomer his own friend?
 
I had a situation where a very young 4 week old rabbit came to me, that I did end up having to put with an older rabbit temporarily. She wasn't weaned properly, didn't know how to eat any solid food besides lettuce(which is what the people fed her to wean her), and didn't even know how to drink water. She did manage to start eating some hay and pellets after the first week but I couldn't get her to drink at all. So essentially I needed another rabbit to teach her. I picked my calmest most easy going neutered bun to put her with. She was quite nervous of him at first as he was more than 10x her size, but she was interested in him. He was very slow and she was fast, so any time he tried to hop near she would dart away. But eventually she pancaked her body to the ground(sign of submission) and let him hop near. He sniffed her and that was it. After that she stuck to him like glue and just loved him. He was very gentle and good with her and did end up teaching her how to drink.

So it can work to put a younger bun with an older to help them in some way, but it can also be tricky to attempt this because there is always the potential of the older rabbit going after the younger one and even hurting them. I had to do it out of necessity, but it is something that needs to be very carefully considered before attempting. If you do try it, I would suggest starting first with a fencing barrier between just to have that safety factor, and then you can judge your older rabbits reaction to the younger one before deciding whether or not to try putting them together.

Another option might be to instead put the baby in a pen next to one of your older rabbits to live until you are to the bonding stage, instead of actually putting them together. I had to do something similar with a new older rabbit that was very nervous being in a new home and had almost completely stopped eating. To help her I decided to put her next to a rabbit that she seemed interested in and he was interested in her(neither spayed/neutered yet). It helped her to settle in and not be so nervous, and got her eating again. If you decide to try this, I would suggest making sure that the rabbit you put the baby by doesn't exhibit any aggressive behavior towards the baby as this may just make the baby more nervous.

I wish you luck. It can be difficult helping a nervous rabbit settle into a new home.
 
Last edited:
MightyMax said:
Are you eventually wishing to bond a threesome Lozzibear?

If so, I would almost advise waiting until all three are on 'equal' status vis a vis neutering etc, and do it then. Otherwise you may risk tensions developing between them and perhaps jeopardising the future bond.

What do you think? Or were you going to bond the male and female and give the newcomer his own friend?
Click to expand...

My original plan was just to have a pair... my female ended up on her own after my other rabbit passed away, so I got Arnold to bond with her. I hadn't originally planned to get a third. Being perfectly honest, having three rabbits on their own is far from ideal. I don't really have the space to provide them all with enough room. If I were to wait until the wee one, Ludo, is ready to be bonded then I will need to wait a few months as he is a while off being old enough to get neutered and then I need to wait after being neutered too...
 
Jbun said:
I had a situation where a very young 4 week old rabbit came to me, that I did end up having to put with an older rabbit temporarily. She wasn't weaned properly, didn't know how to eat any solid food besides lettuce(which is what the people fed her to wean her), and didn't even know how to drink water. She did manage to start eating some hay and pellets after the first week but I couldn't get her to drink at all. So essentially I needed another rabbit to teach her. I picked my calmest most easy going neutered bun to put her with. She was quite nervous of him at first as he was more than 10x her size, but she was interested in him. He was very slow and she was fast, so any time he tried to hop near she would dart away. But eventually she pancaked her body to the ground(sign of submission) and let him hop near. He sniffed her and that was it. After that she stuck to him like glue and just loved him. He was very gentle and good with her and did end up teaching her how to drink.

So it can work to put a younger bun with an older to help them in some way, but it can also be tricky to attempt this because there is always the potential of the older rabbit going after the younger one and even hurting them. I had to do it out of necessity, but it is something that needs to be very carefully considered before attempting. If you do try it, I would suggest starting first with a fencing barrier between just to have that safety factor, and then you can judge your older rabbits reaction to the younger one before deciding whether or not to try putting them together.

Another option might be to instead put the baby in a pen next to one of your older rabbits to live until you are to the bonding stage, instead of actually putting them together. I had to do something similar with a new older rabbit that was very nervous being in a new home and had almost completely stopped eating. To help her I decided to put her next to a rabbit that she seemed interested in and he was interested in her(neither spayed/neutered yet). It helped her to settle in and not be so nervous, and got her eating again. If you decide to try this, I would suggest making sure that the rabbit you put the baby by doesn't exhibit any aggressive behavior towards the baby as this may just make the baby more nervous.

I wish you luck. It can be difficult helping a nervous rabbit settle into a new home.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I think being in with another rabbit would help him, but I don't know if I would be brave enough... none of my rabbits are particularly big but still a fair bit bigger than this wee one. Saying that though, my female has always been easy to bond and has never been aggressive etc.
 
Lozzibear said:
My original plan was just to have a pair... my female ended up on her own after my other rabbit passed away, so I got Arnold to bond with her. I hadn't originally planned to get a third. Being perfectly honest, having three rabbits on their own is far from ideal. I don't really have the space to provide them all with enough room. If I were to wait until the wee one, Ludo, is ready to be bonded then I will need to wait a few months as he is a while off being old enough to get neutered and then I need to wait after being neutered too...
Click to expand...

Actually, once old enough, neutered and settled, it could be as little as three months before you think of bonding all three. I think two males and one female is a good combo for a threesome :D
 
MightyMax said:
Actually, once old enough, neutered and settled, it could be as little as three months before you think of bonding all three. I think two males and one female is a good combo for a threesome :D
Click to expand...

I have bonded a single female with a male pair, and they were lovely together. My problem is that Ludo is so small, so I think he is some way off being big enough to be neutered. He has put on quite a bit of weight already, and he is eating like there is no tomorrow, but I know the weight gain will start slowing down, so I don't expect him to be getting neutered for about three months... in the grand scheme of things, four months isn't a long time, but I don't have the money nor the space to provide them with temporary housing that is large enough... so they would need to be in smaller housing during that period.
 
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