echolouise
Young Bun
On Thursday we lost Errol leaving our trio as a m/f pair and I'm not sure they are enough for each other.
Earnest wants affection from effie but she's only willing to give it if she approaches him and not the other way round. If he approaches her she will either run him off or give him a little nip to keep him in his place, the poor lonely boy just won't give up though and he's getting on her nerves.
Effie is full of energy and wants to play and cause mischief. Earnest is a big lazy boy with not much interest in joining her and I can see she's getting frustrated and bored.
There are affectionate moments between them, they will lay facing each other with noses touching at times, they eat together from the same food bowl even though there is more than one available, they groom themselves sitting next to each other (I have never seen earnest groom another rabbit since we got him so that's as good as that will get).
But madam is a bit of a bully. She will randomly approach him and pull a tuft of fur from his backside, after that she's all sweetness and light wanting to sit with him. She really is a little madam.
When there were 3, earnest got as much snuggle time as he wanted with Errol and effie always had a partner in crime to play with. They were an odd bunch but they all got what they needed socially and madams temper wasn't all on one rabbit 24/7.
I know errols only been gone for a few days and I will give the other 2 some time to settle into the new way of things but my gut is telling me it's not going to work.
Nothing they are doing is new behaviour. It's exactly the same just minus one rabbit and they don't seem quite as compatible without Errol bridging the gap between them.
Would anyone risk trying to add another to try for a trio again? If so, how long would you leave it before introducing a new rabbit?
(For the record it seems that only us humans seem to care Errol is gone, the 2 rabbits have been binkying around the garden for the past 2 days because the suns out and I'm pretty sure they have forgotten he ever existed)
Earnest wants affection from effie but she's only willing to give it if she approaches him and not the other way round. If he approaches her she will either run him off or give him a little nip to keep him in his place, the poor lonely boy just won't give up though and he's getting on her nerves.
Effie is full of energy and wants to play and cause mischief. Earnest is a big lazy boy with not much interest in joining her and I can see she's getting frustrated and bored.
There are affectionate moments between them, they will lay facing each other with noses touching at times, they eat together from the same food bowl even though there is more than one available, they groom themselves sitting next to each other (I have never seen earnest groom another rabbit since we got him so that's as good as that will get).
But madam is a bit of a bully. She will randomly approach him and pull a tuft of fur from his backside, after that she's all sweetness and light wanting to sit with him. She really is a little madam.
When there were 3, earnest got as much snuggle time as he wanted with Errol and effie always had a partner in crime to play with. They were an odd bunch but they all got what they needed socially and madams temper wasn't all on one rabbit 24/7.
I know errols only been gone for a few days and I will give the other 2 some time to settle into the new way of things but my gut is telling me it's not going to work.
Nothing they are doing is new behaviour. It's exactly the same just minus one rabbit and they don't seem quite as compatible without Errol bridging the gap between them.
Would anyone risk trying to add another to try for a trio again? If so, how long would you leave it before introducing a new rabbit?
(For the record it seems that only us humans seem to care Errol is gone, the 2 rabbits have been binkying around the garden for the past 2 days because the suns out and I'm pretty sure they have forgotten he ever existed)