After my failed bonding experience with the quad, I decided to try to bond Tethra with one of the ARC "meat rabbits". She is a Californian/NZW cross and was part of the same rescue as Jane's Elsa and Catherine's Dixie. She arrived as a baby with an approximate birth date of Dec 2017. Her Mum has the colouring of a NZW and her Dad a Californian. I haven't taken any pics of them yet, but will when it stops raining and will arrange for them to be added to this thread. She is utterly adorable 
We collected her last Sunday morning, split Tethra's run accommodation into two divided by wire and plonked her in. She immediately made herself at home, using Tethra's litter tray and eating loads of hay Tethra came out of his shed and approached the wire and looked at me. I know it's wrong to anthropomorphise, but his look was a cross between, "have you done this!" and "why aren't you doing something to remove her!". When she just continued to nonchalantly munch her hay, he thumped loudly, raced back into his beloved box in his shed and thumped loudly 8 more times :shock: He then continued to creep up to the wire to check she was still there and race back again, only to repeat the same process many many times. We left the wire in place all of Sunday and things got much more relaxed. On the Monday, after sleepy time, we removed the wire and moved it further back towards the shed. There was chasing and a bit of nipping from Tethra for a few hours, but nothing serious, and indeed it was interspersed with him sometimes grooming her. She was far too fast for Tethra and in fact seemed to be taunting him by running up to him, only to run away quickly and binky several times as she went Monday evening we opened up the whole of the run and then lastly the shed. At first the chasing continued, but since yesterday things are much more relaxed. The nipping's stopped and the chasing is different, in that it's just Tethra trying to catch up with her when she runs. They sit together in the litter tray munching hay, they eat and drink out of the same bowl together and even share the same Kale leaf from opposite ends. I am very very happy
Her name is Tui We've named her after her beautiful NZW Mum, who I met on Sunday, out of respect for the trauma that she has endured before she was rescued. The name is Maori and it is the name given to a bird, which is identified by its white feathers.
She is unspayed, but will be done by my vet when she is around 6 months. I am quite fascinated by the difference in Tethra's behaviour and habits since she's arrived. It's also been a long time since he's had as much exercise
We collected her last Sunday morning, split Tethra's run accommodation into two divided by wire and plonked her in. She immediately made herself at home, using Tethra's litter tray and eating loads of hay
Tethra came out of his shed and approached the wire and looked at me. I know it's wrong to anthropomorphise, but his look was a cross between, "have you done this!" and "why aren't you doing something to remove her!". When she just continued to nonchalantly munch her hay, he thumped loudly, raced back into his beloved box in his shed and thumped loudly 8 more times :shock: He then continued to creep up to the wire to check she was still there and race back again, only to repeat the same process many many times. We left the wire in place all of Sunday and things got much more relaxed. On the Monday, after sleepy time, we removed the wire and moved it further back towards the shed. There was chasing and a bit of nipping from Tethra for a few hours, but nothing serious, and indeed it was interspersed with him sometimes grooming her. She was far too fast for Tethra and in fact seemed to be taunting him by running up to him, only to run away quickly and binky several times as she went Monday evening we opened up the whole of the run and then lastly the shed. At first the chasing continued, but since yesterday things are much more relaxed. The nipping's stopped and the chasing is different, in that it's just Tethra trying to catch up with her when she runs. They sit together in the litter tray munching hay, they eat and drink out of the same bowl together and even share the same Kale leaf from opposite ends. I am very very happy Her name is Tui
We've named her after her beautiful NZW Mum, who I met on Sunday, out of respect for the trauma that she has endured before she was rescued. The name is Maori and it is the name given to a bird, which is identified by its white feathers.She is unspayed, but will be done by my vet when she is around 6 months. I am quite fascinated by the difference in Tethra's behaviour and habits since she's arrived. It's also been a long time since he's had as much exercise
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