Bonding Hatter and Pandora - U/Date 09.03.18

tonibun, sorry for hijacking your thread but I was wondering if you could help me with a slow bond I'm about to undertake. I'm a relatively new bunny mum, we rather unexpectedly rescued Caramel about 6 months ago, and she's our first bunny. She's about 9 years old and has a heart condition so I've been advised by our vets to go with the slow bonding process.

We're picking up this sweet guy tomorrow (slow bonding for him also recommended) and I'm starting to really panic about the bonding! https://www.rspca.org.uk/findapet/details/-/Animal/MUFFY/ref/BSA2072734/rehome

Caramel is in a large converted loft, 6 meters x 4 meters, off of which is a smaller room, 1.5 meters x 4 meters, so I'm starting our new little fella off in the smaller room, and they'll be a gate between the two rooms. Gate will be wood/wire so they can see each other but not attack each other. Caramel has been in the smaller room before, not an awful lot and not too recently.

What I'm wondering is, as it's not going to be a neutral territory situation, should I wash the wooden stuff, with the 50/50 white vinegar/water solution, that I'm going to temporarily take from Caramel's room to put in Muffy's room ? I'm a bit worried about wetting the wood with that solution and how much I then have to wash that solution off again. The wood is untreated, only been used inside. There are some wooden bits that Caramel has hardly ever been in (higher level and she's just not gone up there), so I'm wondering if I can just use those without having to wash it?

I've got some extra tunnels hopefully turning up today, which I can also use.

Basically I'm just not sure how much I have to neutralize things when Muffy is going to be living right next to Caramel. I'm okay washing any plastic stuff, it's the untreated wooden stuff that I'm not keen to soak :? Plus both rooms are carpeted, so I won't be able to neutralize that either :shock:

I couldn't sleep last night because I'm getting so worked up about making a total mess of things. I so want this to work out and think this is such a great opportunity for these two lonely little souls to have some bunny companionship in their twilight years.

Any and all advice would be really appreciated.

Natalie
going greyer by the minute!

This is not easy as to how to advise you. I wouldn't worry about neutralising at the moment. I would give new bunny a day or so to settle in then open up the divider and see how they are together. You will have been able to see their reactions through the wire and if they are calm and non-aggressive then this will be a good sign. I would come back on here say Tuesday to let us know how they are behaving before removing the barrier. It would be good if you can get them together sooner rather than take ages. Try to remain calm!

tonibun said:

This is not easy as to how to advise you. I wouldn't worry about neutralising at the moment. I would give new bunny a day or so to settle in then open up the divider and see how they are together. You will have been able to see their reactions through the wire and if they are calm and non-aggressive then this will be a good sign. I would come back on here say Tuesday to let us know how they are behaving before removing the barrier. It would be good if you can get them together sooner rather than take ages. Try to remain calm!

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Thanks. I'll see how they react to each other through the gate over the first few days and report back. Thank you so much for getting back to me - Natalie