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Slow Bonding Method - Advice Please

Well I have no fighting through the bars and I see them mirroring each other.i also took away some toys and obstacles that where around the pen and I've had no fighting. In fact this morning I found them sleeping touching each other through the bars! :D

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This is such good news :love:
 
I actually have a question (sorry to ask on your thread.)

Maple has her first check up tomorrow and its about a 45 minute drive to John Chitty .

Do I take her and Toby in the carrier or shall I leave Toby at home.

My worries are:
Leaving Toby and thinking he's on his own again
Or pointless journey for him and his heart condition
Or perhaps good for them to travel together for bonding??

Thoughts? Xx

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I actually have a question (sorry to ask on your thread.)

Maple has her first check up tomorrow and its about a 45 minute drive to John Chitty .

Do I take her and Toby in the carrier or shall I leave Toby at home.

My worries are:
Leaving Toby and thinking he's on his own again
Or pointless journey for him and his heart condition
Or perhaps good for them to travel together for bonding??

Thoughts? Xx

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Would they go in the same carrier Loobers?
 
I actually have a question (sorry to ask on your thread.)

Maple has her first check up tomorrow and its about a 45 minute drive to John Chitty .

Do I take her and Toby in the carrier or shall I leave Toby at home.

My worries are:
Leaving Toby and thinking he's on his own again
Or pointless journey for him and his heart condition
Or perhaps good for them to travel together for bonding??

Thoughts? Xx

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Absolutely no problem, I hope someone with a lot more experience than me will be able to help you out.
 
Its a difficult one & I can see benefits to each. If they were fully bonded & had already had no bars face to face contact & Toby copes ok with travel I'd take both but on balance in your scenario I think the safest option would be to take Maple alone. She'll be back home soon, I think Toby will be ok for a few hours (I worry terribly what they think too)
 
Its a difficult one & I can see benefits to each. If they were fully bonded & had already had no bars face to face contact & Toby copes ok with travel I'd take both but on balance in your scenario I think the safest option would be to take Maple alone. She'll be back home soon, I think Toby will be ok for a few hours (I worry terribly what they think too)

I agree I would just take Maple. My rationale would be that it's better that he feels alone for a couple of hours than feel stressed with the journey.
 
HE'S HERE!!!

He's precious :love:

Apparently he was in a terrible state, both emotionally and physically, when the RSPCA first got him. But the RSPCA have done a lot for him, got him UTD on vaccinations, neutered, teeth sorted, tear ducts flushed. And his foster mum obviously did a great job caring for him and starting his recovery towards being a happy, healthy boy.

It's kind of heart breaking to see the damage his previous owner has caused him. I understand that he was a house bunny (lived in a flat) who got massively neglected once the owner had a baby. She put him in a very small bunny crate and honestly, it looks that he just got kind of left there. Judging by how thin he still feels, even after three months in foster care, I wouldn't mind betting that she didn't even bother to feed him some days :cry: The lady at the RSPCA told me that when they collected him, his crate was empty of any bedding or enrichment and the water bottle was dripping on the floor, so Muffy was soaking wet. There wasn't even any newspaper down :(

Apparently a friend of the previous owners just couldn't bear to see him being so badly cared for so she informed the RSPCA, that's how they got to know about him and got the opportunity to get the previous owner to sign him over to them. No idea what happened to that friendship after that, but hats off to the friend for doing the right thing for Muffy.

He doesn't seem to lift his head up properly, he's sort of hunched and looking down all the time, and I'm guessing that'll be because the crate was just so damn small :( Poor baby.

Anyhoo, he's got lots of space now and he's going to get sooooooooooooooo much love and TLC he won't know what to do with it all :D

With regards to the slow bonding. I think so far, so good. For anyone who hasn't read above, the two buns are living side by side in two rooms indoors, with a gate between the two rooms, so the bunnies can see each other and get used to each other without any chance of any scuffles or fighting.

Muffy seems completely oblivious of Caramel (the RSPCA think that he's never lived with a bunny before) and Caramel seems aware, very slightly inquisitive, but not much, and mostly just not bothered and kind of ignoring him. There hasn't been any aggression between them through the gate. So I'm hoping that those are good signs?

We have a vet appointment for Muffy on Friday as I would like to discuss his eye problems - he has a blocked tear duct still - and also how to best, and safely, get his weight up. I'm going with little and often at the moment and he goes absolutely crazy for his food! He gives me the impression that he was deprived of food previously because one of our rescue dogs was just the same, she'd been a stray before being picked up by rescue, so she'd definitely been in the position of never knowing when or where her next meal would come from. It was only after six months of being with us that she finally felt secure in the knowledge that she would never go hungry again- instead of gulping down one of her treats like she normally did, she went out in the garden and was tossing the biscuit about and playing with it. It made me cry when I saw her doing that :love:

I'll get some photos of our precious little boy uploaded soon :)
 
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What a lovely u-date. I would let Muffy settle in and wait until you feel right about introducing them.
 
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I'm so pleased to read your update. Poor boy and what a dreadful way to treat another living being :(

I hope he starts to enjoy his new life with you and Caramel and that his vet appointment goes well.
 
So here's our little guy, not got a lot of photos yet and they're not all that great but here goes ...

Snoozing

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Enthusiastic Munching

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He's doing well. I've had some lovely snuggle times with him and been blessed with a few tooth purrs and licks :love: At the moment he's still pooping everywhere, and any wees I spot on the carpet I clean up and then put a litter tray over the spot he peed on :lol: He's got three litter trays now, I wonder if he'll get the hint :lol: If anyone has any suggestions for litter training, I'd love to hear them.

Today Muffy and Caramel actualy looked directly at each other through the gate :shock: Caramel was clearly assessing the situation of another bunny being near her domain, but she still didn't react aggressively or anything, she just kind of stared. Muffy finally acknowledged Caramel's presence but possibly didn't quite know what to make of her, so wondered off :? Caramel seemed unphased by him wondering off, she just stayed put and started munching. I've put lots of toys and chew things near the gate to encourage them to be near each other and get used to each other.

I think relatively good signs so far.
 
I'm so pleased that it's all going well so far. How lovely that he gave you some tooth purrs :D
 
The best way I know of to get a bunny litter trained is having a litter tray filled with hay. Sometimes they just don't get the idea especially if they have never been litter trained before. Fingers crossed for that. I am so pleased he is settling in well.
 
I'm so pleased that it's all going well so far. How lovely that he gave you some tooth purrs :D

Thanks, yes, he's soooooo sweet, he also leaned right into me, my heart was so full, such a precious little guy :love:
 
The best way I know of to get a bunny litter trained is having a litter tray filled with hay. Sometimes they just don't get the idea especially if they have never been litter trained before. Fingers crossed for that. I am so pleased he is settling in well.

Thanks, yes they are full of hay. It’s early days so we’ll see, maybe he’ll get the hang of it in the end.
 
Thanks, yes they are full of hay. It’s early days so we’ll see, maybe he’ll get the hang of it in the end.

A lot of mess in the interim but there is hope Caramel will teach him when the time comes. You're doing everything right so legs crossed he gets the idea. He is beautiful & I think he knows he's finally "come home"
 
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