Bonding advice please !!
Long story short ... 4.5 weeks since both my brothers had their ops, been kept separate since as they had a few scuffles in the run up to and just after!
Tonight I have tried to start re-bonding them ... I'm so proud of them, they did REALLY well! We started in the bath with some veggies for distractions, they just ate and didn't really bother with each other. Then we took away the veggies and they just sat next to each other, had a bit of a sniff of each other and there was some grooming!! Fabulous I'm thinking!
So just to see how far we could push it after half an hour in the bath with only positive vibes, I took them back downstairs to their individual cages which is linked by a shared pen. I put them in the pen (cages closed) with some veggies again and no incidents, then took away the veggies, no incidents, only what I have read to be positive signs for 20 minutes or so, so to really push my luck, I opened the cages! All fine for another 20 minutes or so, in and out of each other's cages, lots of positive grooming etc and all was fine. But something happened, it was very quick so I don't really know what the catalyst was but then they were jumping around a little bit which they they started to circle which was starting to break out into a fight. It was inside one of the cages (the cage of the one who was the alpha-boss bunny in all the previous grooming!) I didn't see who or what started it and I split it up before it actually turned into a fight. I gave them both cuddles and carrots (separately!) and a treat to end it on a good note for each of them and they are now in their own cages again.
My questions:
1. Did I just push it too far for the first session!?
2. I'm right to be positive about how well it went for a first rebonding session right? I never expected it to even get out of the bath on the first time, I didn't even think I would be taking away the veggies!
3. Why would they suddenly stop getting on after we'll over an hour perfectly fine?
4. Where do I start from again next time?
5. Any other tips/pointers/thoughts!?
Long story short ... 4.5 weeks since both my brothers had their ops, been kept separate since as they had a few scuffles in the run up to and just after!
Tonight I have tried to start re-bonding them ... I'm so proud of them, they did REALLY well! We started in the bath with some veggies for distractions, they just ate and didn't really bother with each other. Then we took away the veggies and they just sat next to each other, had a bit of a sniff of each other and there was some grooming!! Fabulous I'm thinking!
So just to see how far we could push it after half an hour in the bath with only positive vibes, I took them back downstairs to their individual cages which is linked by a shared pen. I put them in the pen (cages closed) with some veggies again and no incidents, then took away the veggies, no incidents, only what I have read to be positive signs for 20 minutes or so, so to really push my luck, I opened the cages! All fine for another 20 minutes or so, in and out of each other's cages, lots of positive grooming etc and all was fine. But something happened, it was very quick so I don't really know what the catalyst was but then they were jumping around a little bit which they they started to circle which was starting to break out into a fight. It was inside one of the cages (the cage of the one who was the alpha-boss bunny in all the previous grooming!) I didn't see who or what started it and I split it up before it actually turned into a fight. I gave them both cuddles and carrots (separately!) and a treat to end it on a good note for each of them and they are now in their own cages again.
My questions:
1. Did I just push it too far for the first session!?
2. I'm right to be positive about how well it went for a first rebonding session right? I never expected it to even get out of the bath on the first time, I didn't even think I would be taking away the veggies!
3. Why would they suddenly stop getting on after we'll over an hour perfectly fine?
4. Where do I start from again next time?
5. Any other tips/pointers/thoughts!?