Squishies
Warren Scout
Hi again everyone, and meet 'Piglet':
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The plan has always been, and still is, to bond him with my pair of mini lops (they were originally a trio, and they are very much missing the docile boy in the group who we lost).
Piglet is a gorgeous little fella I rescued via Gumtree. He was living in a cage really only suitable for a hamster, and his nails were so overgrown that jumping must've been a tad uncomfortable (no one had ever seen him jump).
...wind forward 12 weeks and he has had a pedicure (plus vaccines and neuter), binky-ed is little socks off, taken over my lounge, and become one of the most 'human friendly' bunnies I have ever known. It almost seems a shame to now bond him with the mischievous mini lops and for him to be out in the aviary being more 'rabbit-y'!
(don't worry, I know it will be better for him, but I will miss my evening grooming from him sat on my shoulder!)
So, anyway, I will get to the point!
...he is now 8 weeks post-neuter, and the plan was to take next week off work, take all the bunnies over to my parents [it doesn't have to be my folks'; anywhere with 'truly neutral' territory is all I need, as the mini lops are very territorial and have scented everything in sight - thankfully Piglet doesn't do this, but I still have to get them to accept him!], bond them, and then settle them together across a few days/a week before bringing them back to a well cleaned, deodorised and rearranged aviary.
I have two concerns:
1. something tells me that Piglet will be very submissive and delighted to meet other bunnies/make friends, but I suspect the mini lops are going to be quite 'grumpy' about it all and may well kick off when we get back home (if we even get to that stage), despite me rearranging everything
2. the bigger concern related to this - I am going away in the second week of September, so if I bond them next week as per the original plan, they will only be 'four weeks bonded' and potentially(?) still in a very fragile point of relationship-forming -- not really a point where I want to leave them unsupervised for long periods, and not really fair on whoever is looking after them to have to work out whether they need an intervention.
What do you all think? Any bright ideas on this one?
With love from all 3 furries,
Mx
The plan has always been, and still is, to bond him with my pair of mini lops (they were originally a trio, and they are very much missing the docile boy in the group who we lost).
Piglet is a gorgeous little fella I rescued via Gumtree. He was living in a cage really only suitable for a hamster, and his nails were so overgrown that jumping must've been a tad uncomfortable (no one had ever seen him jump).
...wind forward 12 weeks and he has had a pedicure (plus vaccines and neuter), binky-ed is little socks off, taken over my lounge, and become one of the most 'human friendly' bunnies I have ever known. It almost seems a shame to now bond him with the mischievous mini lops and for him to be out in the aviary being more 'rabbit-y'!
(don't worry, I know it will be better for him, but I will miss my evening grooming from him sat on my shoulder!)
So, anyway, I will get to the point!
...he is now 8 weeks post-neuter, and the plan was to take next week off work, take all the bunnies over to my parents [it doesn't have to be my folks'; anywhere with 'truly neutral' territory is all I need, as the mini lops are very territorial and have scented everything in sight - thankfully Piglet doesn't do this, but I still have to get them to accept him!], bond them, and then settle them together across a few days/a week before bringing them back to a well cleaned, deodorised and rearranged aviary.
I have two concerns:
1. something tells me that Piglet will be very submissive and delighted to meet other bunnies/make friends, but I suspect the mini lops are going to be quite 'grumpy' about it all and may well kick off when we get back home (if we even get to that stage), despite me rearranging everything
2. the bigger concern related to this - I am going away in the second week of September, so if I bond them next week as per the original plan, they will only be 'four weeks bonded' and potentially(?) still in a very fragile point of relationship-forming -- not really a point where I want to leave them unsupervised for long periods, and not really fair on whoever is looking after them to have to work out whether they need an intervention.
What do you all think? Any bright ideas on this one?
With love from all 3 furries,
Mx