Swissgreys
New Kit
Our 3 year old male lost his lifelong companion last month.
The 2 were inseparable, and constantly mutually grooming, etc.
After losing her Chilli definitely missed having a friend around, and has been quite lethargic, so we have been on the hunt for a suitable partner for him.
Today we took Chilli with us to choose a new friend, and he picked a 10 week old doe (Daisy).
They met on neutral territory and initial signs were good. A bit of mutual grooming and then happily wandering around in the same area.
No humping at all, but Chilli was neutered before sexual maturity, so this is pretty normal behavior.
We bought them home and put them out in a run on the lawn (again, neutral territory for both rabbits).
While they were out we gave the hutch a full clean, replaced all litter trays with new, etc.
We rearranged everything, and after almost 7 hours together we moved them into the hutch and run area.
Once again the initial signs were great, with both rabbits seeming quite happy, lots of jumping around, binkying etc.
But then Daisy went into the upstairs area of the hutch and Chilli became quite territorial and chased her downstairs.
Within minuted they had settled again, but now Daisy was pretty wary.
Chilli then stated being very submissive and moving slowly towards her, and laying down close by, but Daisy was having none of it - as soon as he came close she hopped away.
The funny part is that whenever one of them went inside the hutch (2.5 meters long and 1 meter wide with 3 exits) the other one would get up and go and look for them and not settle until they were both withing view of each otehr.
They clearly want to be together, but Chilli is also clearly struggling to share the top floor of the hutch with Daisy.
We closed off the top floor, left them for another half hour with very close supervision and made sure the day ended on a positive note (no chasing, both happily eating from the same food bowl) and have now put Daisy into a separate cage for the night.
So thank if you got this far, but I need advice on ho to continue with them tomorrow.
Do I start them off in the run on the lawn, or do I put them in the hutch/run enclosure and close of the top floor?
Or?
If the bonding doesn't work we do have the option to return Daisy, but naturally we are all already in love with her, and I can see that Chilli badly needs a friend.
So any tips n how to proceed would be very, very much appreciated.
The 2 were inseparable, and constantly mutually grooming, etc.
After losing her Chilli definitely missed having a friend around, and has been quite lethargic, so we have been on the hunt for a suitable partner for him.
Today we took Chilli with us to choose a new friend, and he picked a 10 week old doe (Daisy).
They met on neutral territory and initial signs were good. A bit of mutual grooming and then happily wandering around in the same area.
No humping at all, but Chilli was neutered before sexual maturity, so this is pretty normal behavior.
We bought them home and put them out in a run on the lawn (again, neutral territory for both rabbits).
While they were out we gave the hutch a full clean, replaced all litter trays with new, etc.
We rearranged everything, and after almost 7 hours together we moved them into the hutch and run area.
Once again the initial signs were great, with both rabbits seeming quite happy, lots of jumping around, binkying etc.
But then Daisy went into the upstairs area of the hutch and Chilli became quite territorial and chased her downstairs.
Within minuted they had settled again, but now Daisy was pretty wary.
Chilli then stated being very submissive and moving slowly towards her, and laying down close by, but Daisy was having none of it - as soon as he came close she hopped away.
The funny part is that whenever one of them went inside the hutch (2.5 meters long and 1 meter wide with 3 exits) the other one would get up and go and look for them and not settle until they were both withing view of each otehr.
They clearly want to be together, but Chilli is also clearly struggling to share the top floor of the hutch with Daisy.
We closed off the top floor, left them for another half hour with very close supervision and made sure the day ended on a positive note (no chasing, both happily eating from the same food bowl) and have now put Daisy into a separate cage for the night.
So thank if you got this far, but I need advice on ho to continue with them tomorrow.
Do I start them off in the run on the lawn, or do I put them in the hutch/run enclosure and close of the top floor?
Or?
If the bonding doesn't work we do have the option to return Daisy, but naturally we are all already in love with her, and I can see that Chilli badly needs a friend.
So any tips n how to proceed would be very, very much appreciated.
