Craig 1965
Warren Veteran
I'm new to this forum - my apologies if I ask questions that may have already been answered by other experts. My bunny situation is this: - I had 2 beautiful adored buns - Ben and Georgina. Georgina is the white bun in my avitar, Ben the brown bun. Both were rescued but from different backgrounds. Georgina's journey was different to Bens. She had a bit of an independant streak. Ben is as soft and placid and gentle as you could ever imagine. He is so caring and loving and licks everyone. He doesn't have a bad or aggressive bone in his bunny body. We bonded them 3 years ago and it took about a week. They have spent the last 3 years together in bunny bliss. He adored Georgina and loved every days she shared his life. Ben has been done and we got Georgina spayed when we rescued her about 4 years ago. Georgina developed arthritis in her hind hock at the start of the year and despite my best intensive efforts and daily pain medication, we sadly lost her 2 weeks ago. She was about 7/8 years old. This hit us hard but also hit Ben. The vet wanted to put Georgina to sleep a week before she passed but we wanted Georgina to spend the last few days of her life with Ben because of the bond they had. We knew Georgina was dying - I could just tell. We decided to try to find a new partner for Ben because he has always been so happy with companionship from Georgina. So we got a rescue bun from a centre a few days ago. She is a younger bun - about 2 years old and from what we know, was deliberately malnourished by her former owner. She seemed to be a placid girl and we felt she would be a good partner for Ben. We gave her a couple of days in an indoor hutch just to adjust to her new life and to settle. We began to introduce Ben and Lillian on saturday in our large garden. Lillian was making all the right body languages - she was binking and seemed very happy. Ben showed interest and the two seemed content to follow each other round and Lillian sat next to ben and they showed signs of affection. Ben licked Lillians face and all seemed positive. We kept them apart that night and repeated the introduction on Sunday. Lillian seemed to look for Ben and when we let him out, they seemed happy. After about an hour, the 2 bunnies began to fight - I have no idea what started it or why. They were leaping and trying to circle and attempt to scratch. We seperated and put Ben in his hutch and Lillian in hers. We checked for injuries but there were none other than alot of fur. This was very out of character for Ben as he was never ever ever showed any sign of aggression at all. Tonight I let them out in the garden again and after brief face to face interaction between them, they both followed each other up the garden and then after a short time a fight broke out again. I can't find the trigger for it. Ben has been neutered and has never mounted his old parthner Georgina. Lillian hasn't been spayed. The fight starts with nipping and interest in the rear end of each rabbit. We've cuddled Ben and he seems fine - laid back and chilled as usual. He just licks our hands. I handled Lillian tonight and it's clear she isn't used to being handled. She tries to climb up my shoulder and when I settled her on my lap, she is so rigid. Her eyes are like huge saucers and her body is just tense. I tried gentle stroking for half an hour but she is just so un-relaxed. After half an hour of soft stroking, Lillian was panting hard and almost shaking. She's back in her cage where she is eating and lying down and seems 'relaxed'. I fear that Lillian has suffered some significant trauma with her previous owner but obviously she can't tell me and I don't know what it is. I don't want to give up on her because I would love to give her the loving home she needs and she would have here. But I don't wish to bring harm and trauma to Ben who is still grieving about his loss and who still has love to give and share. But I can't bond them at the moment because I don't know what the trigger is. I don't want to have to take Lillian back to the rescue place - I would consider that a failure on my part and I would be letting Lillian down but I don't know why she is so traumatised. What can I do to help and given the episodes of fighting when I've allowed Ben and Georgina in the garden together, I can't really put both buns through a bonding process when they don't seem to get along. I could try a neutral place in the house for short periods but I know Ben but I am concerned about Lillian and why she is so traumatised. Any advice would be very much appreciated.