Bonding Five Wayward Buns - version 3!

This is my 3rd time bonding five rabbits. Once again, it is just introducing one into a pre-existing quad.

Since losing Elphie, her group has been a little off. We're all devastated by her loss - Morningstar and Yuki especially. Which means there's a new Wayward Bun on the scene.

Once more, I want to document their progress as best I can.

New girl is the lovely, but overweight, largish lop, Fabala Boo Hoppy-Lou. We picked her up yesterday. and let her have a day to settle. Once she has settled a little better and bonded better I'll introduce her properly. I feel like - now - this will be a fairly quick and smooth bond.

The Bunnies
Morningstar - Approx 6 year old blind blue crossbreed with white markings.
Yuki Winter - approx 4 year old white/agouti crossbreed, with a known lop fetish.
Niji Taco - approx 3 year old sable agouti nethie cross (probably!)
Enfys Blueberry-Muffin - approx 2.5 year old opal otter mini lop. Known to be nervous.
Fabala Boo Hoppy-Lou - approx 4 year old overweight chocolate(?) point largish lop. Overweight and short-sighted; scans a lot.

Day One - start - 2pm
The beginning was very scrappy, but mostly between the pre-existing buns. Fabala mostly hid in a corner and kept out of the way. As always, it was Yuki and Morning being the troublemakers. Over the past few hours, things have calmed down. Lots of eating and laying down in various permutations. Was getting a little worried about Fabala not eating, but she's had a nibble on some stuff now. There's been no grooming, but we have had a brief DBF from Enfys. Surprisingly, Yuki hasn't paid much attention to Fabala - it's the first lop he hasn't immediately fallen into giving her lots of love. However, when he hasn't been trying to show his dominance to Morning, he has been eating.

Fabala seems very quiet and submissive. I think she'll slot in well, but I'm hoping to see some more cuddling up and grooming of various rabbits soon. Especially seeing Fabala actually interact with some of the others. Still, I guess I can be relatively happy with progress so far.

Good luck wayward bunnies and please... best behaviour everybun!

I love all their names Tlc, a crazy bunny lady after my own heart. I love them all!



Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Aww it’s hard to see where one bunny ends and the other begins fingers crossed for you

Thanks loobers and Zoobec.

Bunnies have been pretty good. Niji, Enfys, and Fabala have been good as gold. Niji seems particularly fond of both lops. Yuki has been a little horror, with Morning being the one he's terrorised mostly.

From past indoor bonds with my indoor group, I know I have to move them on faster than I usually would. Yuki hates being enclosed and it makes him act out and throw his weight around. So long as it's mostly peaceful, I'm giving them more space. Grooming will come later.

On an unrelated note, Fabala is the first rabbit I've had that scans. There's something about the behaviour I find so sad at the moment. I don't know why...

I’m glad things are going well generally, I hope Yuki behaves :thumb:Boots, my bridge house bunny used to scan. He did it a lot when I first got him, then he only ever did it if he was somewhere new or things were moved around. He cooked fine with poor sight, but he hated any changes so I used to keep his room exactly the same otherwise his desperate scanning made me feel sad too

Hopefully as Fabala settles you will find the scanning subsides or stops.

Loads of good luck! :wave:

How are you T?

I've increased the space. Apart from Morning getting irritated by EVERYONE (we've mostly moved past that now), the increased size has not been a problem. Poor Fabala really isn't that sure of herself though and mostly stuck to the same corner. She is VERY affectionate though. Whenever I stroke her, she starts licking. :lol:

Best of luck! I love the 'pile' pictures Fabala doesn't look massively impressed with Potato Niji in the first one though! :lol:

When we let our two out on the lawn, something's usually moved: Aboleth has run into the pen panels before (not at speed), and sometimes she 'searches' up and down but neither have scanned. Lopsy often doesn't look before he does something though, but he's just an idiot :lol: I do feel sorry for Aboleth, being the one he runs into, jumps on, etc.!

:lol: It's a good job you love poor old Lopsy and Aboleth.

Fabala is gaining confidence. She's beginning to venture from 'her' corner and even leads the great escape from the bonding room now. For an overweight girl, she can sure get some speed when she wants to! She's also so licky that I wonder if I adopted a puppy, not a rabbit! (Jill did say she would lick, but the speed she's started to and the frequency of it took me off guard!) Lady Fabala Boo Hoppy-Lou the Licky, anyone?

We occasionally have raised tails from the boys. Admittedly only once from Potato (Niji). Always in poor Fabala's direction. Though one of Yuki's may have been directed at the brush rather than Fabala - I was only trying to help the poor girl out with her horrendous moult! Morning is still cabinet-hide-territorial but will share with Niji. Morning has groomed Fabala once, and Fabala has groomed Yuki. Apart from the occasional great escape, nobunny seems to be getting cabin fever too badly now.

So all in all, not too bad a day.

Oh good luck everybun x

tlcwrites said:

Thanks loobers and Zoobec.

Bunnies have been pretty good. Niji, Enfys, and Fabala have been good as gold. Niji seems particularly fond of both lops. Yuki has been a little horror, with Morning being the one he's terrorised mostly.

From past indoor bonds with my indoor group, I know I have to move them on faster than I usually would. Yuki hates being enclosed and it makes him act out and throw his weight around. So long as it's mostly peaceful, I'm giving them more space. Grooming will come later.

On an unrelated note, Fabala is the first rabbit I've had that scans. There's something about the behaviour I find so sad at the moment. I don't know why...

Click to expand...

Don't know how I missed this excitement I'm glad it all seems to be going well.

Tui has always scanned and I also find it very sad I've also never experienced it before. She sometimes gets massively scared and bolts :shock: Yesterday this happened just because I was carrying a small, bright green plastic sprinkler attachment to the hose. She shot across the run and threw herself through the catflap and into the shed. She even dislodged the heavy plank, which is used as a bridge :shock:

Well, they've been sprung. Yuki has got to the stage of 'make his own entertainment' by annoying everyone, and that's not fair on the rest of the group. Morning has enjoyed having access to her favourite spot (under the shoe rack downstairs) and it's all a bit quieter for it. Fabala still seems confused by the rest of the group. But although there is still a bit of nipping/fur pulling etc., it's still early days. The group will settle and adjust to Fabala's presence and hopefully she'll come out of her shell a bit more.

Now they are sprung, we're working on Fabala's weightloss/muscle toning. Poor girl needs it. Mostly we'll just make her climb the stairs a few times a day. That and having a group of rabbits to compete with for food, will hopefully help her weight loss no end.

Omi said:

Don't know how I missed this excitement I'm glad it all seems to be going well.

Tui has always scanned and I also find it very sad I've also never experienced it before. She sometimes gets massively scared and bolts :shock: Yesterday this happened just because I was carrying a small, bright green plastic sprinkler attachment to the hose. She shot across the run and threw herself through the catflap and into the shed. She even dislodged the heavy plank, which is used as a bridge :shock:

Click to expand...

Surprise? :lol: I still need to introduce her properly though.

Poor Tui. Thing is it must be normal to them if not to us. Morning is blind, and has never scanned. It's half the reason it took us so long to identify she was blind. Jill did warn us about her scanning (and how licky she is with humans!) but it's one thing hearing of it, another seeing it entirely.

Fabala is settling in well. She love love loves Yuki and he loves her. Yuki's lop fetish at it again! Her relationship with Morning and Enfys is improving too. She does lack confidence; it's rare that she'll leave the safe confines of my room under her own steam. But the important thing is that 'squabbly' behaviour has died down to almost nothing (meal times being the most 'problematic' times.) I'm very happy with this group now.

There is a rule of thumb with bonding, but sometimes you can and do need to break those rules. This group has always been of this case. Giving these guys their full space before the group had settled most likely saved the bond. I do feel like Yuki's stress at not being able to run properly, Enfys's inability to hide, and Morning's need to have her own space could have destroyed the bond before it happened. In essence, with bonding, it comes down to 'know your rabbits'.

Also yes, still licky. Been licked on the hand, nose, and forehead already today. :lol: Seriously; did I actually adopt a puppy in rabbit shape?

I’m really glad it’s working out so well:thumb: aww, a licky bunny