Settling Little Tigger into his new home - advice please (preventing stasis)

My first post here, though I have browsed for advice & comfort before (we recently lost our little 8yr old sort of suddenly but that's another story).

We are adopting a lovely little 5 month old boy Tigger. 'Til recently he had been at a rescue charity with his 2 male siblings and when we met them he looked to be boss of the group and perhaps the most independent. As his two brothers were due to be re-homed, we took Tigger last Thursday. He's only tiny and the weather's been a bit awful in North East England so we kept him inside for the next couple of days with a view to trying him outside over the weekend as the charity were then of the opinion he should be alright living outside.

Thursday night - absolutely fine, eating plenty - apparently they couldn't feed these rabbits enough, pooping in his indoor cage, exploring, investigating etc and responding well to his new humans.
Friday day time - we're at work, but I'm not far and we have a camera set up to keep watch. He was fine, eating in his cage, having a sleep, little mooch about. Then out and exploring once we got home. We put him in an outdoor run to introduce him to the garden which he seemed fine with. He'll have the full garden eventually but whilst he gets to know us and his surroundings we thought it best to limit his explorations. Brought him back in, eating, pooping in his cage (good lad), running around the living room, binkying and hopping, settling in fine.

Saturday, much the same, though we thought we'd introduce him to his hutch - a two floor, freshly renovated, insulated and sheltered hutch that belonged to our late bunny, who at twice the size of Tig loved his private abode. He seemed ok with it, but didn't explore it much and seemed to prefer to stick to the downstairs. We then began to notice he wasn't keen on eating in there and didn't poo or wee. We only left him out a couple of hours and brought him back in on the evening and he was much the same as Friday. He also pooped and wee'd in his indoor cage which was fine.

We did however start to notice a reluctance by him to eat unless we were around.

Sunday - problems. Tried the hutch again - just sat, huddled up - not eating, no pooping, no weeing. Brought him in, and apart from a couple of explorations he settled into his cage for much the same. A once hungry bunny now wasn't eating. He managed a couple of tiny poos - not good.

We assumed he'd gone into stasis, and our suspicion was that he was missing his brothers.

We called the charity we got him through and they kindly took him in straight away as they had the relevant meds etc to best care for him. Luckily he responded well to the meds and force feed and has been recuperating since. Our suspicion was also theirs and that he'd become lonely without his brothers.

Where we need advice (apologies for the lengthy read)

Now we're due to pick him back up tonight and bring him home. The decision has been made he'll now be a house bunny for at least the winter, as we don't think he'll cope out in the hutch, and he didn't exactly take to it.

The concern is the fact he'll still be on his own. We've no issues with trying to bond him to a second bunny, but we don't have that second bunny right now, and he went down so quickly at the weekend. He'll get plenty of love and attention and playtime with us when we're there, but I'm concerned about his wellbeing during the day. We'll be keeping an eye on him during working hours and I'll probably call home halfway through the day, but any advice on bringing him some comfort whilst he's on his own may be helpful.

Thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum to you and to Tigger :wave:

I might be wrong, but from reading your post I think the problem might have been that Tigger was confused. Rabbits sometimes don't cope very well with change and it seems he was OK until you tried to put him outside. It will have been a big change in his circumstances to be rehomed to you away from his siblings, but it seems he was doing OK with this indoors. Possibly then trying to move him outside so soon might have been too much for him. It's also not a good idea to keep changing the temperature of the rabbit's environment and it's getting pretty cold outside now.

If I were you I would, as you've said, keep him indoors and see how he goes. You could possibly get him a cuddly toy to snuggle up to in his cage. Then at a later stage you could consider having him neutered and getting him a friend.

I hope it all goes well this evening.

Omi said:

Hi and welcome to the forum to you and to Tigger :wave:

I might be wrong, but from reading your post I think the problem might have been that Tigger was confused. Rabbits sometimes don't cope very well with change and it seems he was OK until you tried to put him outside. It will have been a big change in his circumstances to be rehomed to you away from his siblings, but it seems he was doing OK with this indoors. Possibly then trying to move him outside so soon might have been too much for him. It's also not a good idea to keep changing the temperature of the rabbit's environment and it's getting pretty cold outside now.

If I were you I would, as you've said, keep him indoors and see how he goes. You could possibly get him a cuddly toy to snuggle up to in his cage. Then at a later stage you could consider having him neutered and getting him a friend.

I hope it all goes well this evening.

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I had thought of the cuddly toy so this is probably something we will give a go.

You might have a point about the hutch. We were just trying to gradually introduce him to outdoors whilst it was still mild by keeping his indoor area cool. We were both keeping regular tabs on him outside letting him know we were still about, and the hutch is in view of the patio doors. Maybe we did try too much too soon.

It was more the eating thing that concerned us - we just noticed more and more that he didn't seem to want to eat unless we were there with him, and that was indoors too.

He's already neutered etc. It's just helping him cope with his new surroundings and being without his brothers we need to help him adapt to.

Tiggertime said:

I had thought of the cuddly toy so this is probably something we will give a go.

You might have a point about the hutch. We were just trying to gradually introduce him to outdoors whilst it was still mild by keeping his indoor area cool. We were both keeping regular tabs on him outside letting him know we were still about, and the hutch is in view of the patio doors. Maybe we did try too much too soon.

It was more the eating thing that concerned us - we just noticed more and more that he didn't seem to want to eat unless we were there with him, and that was indoors too.

He's already neutered etc. It's just helping him cope with his new surroundings and being without his brothers we need to help him adapt to.

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How long had he been home indoors before you tried him outside etc?

To me it sounds like it was all a bit too much moving around too quickly, if you're going to keep him inside over the winter I'd do just that, keep him in, let him settle in, which could take a while

It might be if he is in a new environment or stressed he has the tendency to stop eating - he might not, just all buns are different and I have some that are more bold than others and some that get upset more easily than others, all I'm thinking

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Graciee said:

How long had he been home indoors before you tried him outside etc?

To me it sounds like it was all a bit too much moving around too quickly, if you're going to keep him inside over the winter I'd do just that, keep him in, let him settle in, which could take a while

It might be if he is in a new environment or stressed he has the tendency to stop eating - he might not, just all buns are different and I have some that are more bold than others and some that get upset more easily than others, all I'm thinking

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He came home Thursday night, we introduced him to the run in the garden Friday evening, introduced him to the hutch for a couple of hours Saturday day time and then the same again Sunday.

I’m glad that you have decided to keep him inside over winter, it will be much better for him whilst he is on his own. Hopefully he will continue to eat when you get him back.

Tiggertime said:

He came home Thursday night, we introduced him to the run in the garden Friday evening, introduced him to the hutch for a couple of hours Saturday day time and then the same again Sunday.

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Yea imo that's too much moving about with new people too quickly, I normally let my animals settle in their space and let them explore on their own for a few weeks at least

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Thanks for the comments.

I think our main worry is leaving him alone for any length of time. He'll get plenty of attention when we're there but with the best will in the world we can't be with him 24/7 so we're just a bit concerned about how well he adapts for now. A 2nd bunny may come along for him to bond with, but we just want to make sure we can do as much as we can to keep him happy in the meantime.

Was the bunny inside or out when you got him? If he was inside he might have been upset with the change in temperature which could have slowed his gut down making him unwilling to eat. When you got him you knew he would have to be on his own for a certain amount of time but as he is already neutered you could look out for a friend for him, preferably a spayed female. Did you continue giving him the same food as he was eating at the Rescue? as a change of food might have upset him. It will all be very strange for a few weeks being ina new home.

You mentioned that he was smaller than your former outside bunny. Perhaps his smaller size and lack of a thick coat/fat layer made it difficult for him to adjust to the change in temperature so quickly.
I have had solitary bunnies in the past, some because I did not have another bunny, others for medical issues, and now I have one who is very territorial. Providing them with activities (hiding their forage), giving them something to play with or snuggle with, and having them near you when possible will keep them happy.
Enjoy your bunny.

Just thought those who replied might like a quick update.

Touch wood, Tig seems to be settling in fine. We've had lots of kisses from him and he seems a happy little bun in his new home. We're still keeping a close watch on his tummy and are still getting used to his behaviour (slight panic sets in sometimes when all he's doing is chilling out). He enjoys his crazy time racing around the place and binkying and he's an inquisitive little soul. He's not been back outside to play in the run yet as we want to make sure he's recovered first. We're still a tad wary of his eating habits - he eats but it still seems to be more so when we're around, and he doesn't seem to eat a lot though he is only small. It could be we were just used to a bigger and greedier rabbit who would do anything for his kale, and we're panicked by his episode last week, but we are keeping a close watch on his eating habits to make sure his tummy is ticking along nicely. Fingers crossed his progress continues.

Thanks for the up-date. Pleased little Tigger is settling in with you and fingers crossed he has no more tummy upsets. Btw, I have a little Tigger too. He was born here when I thought I had 2 sisters. He is 6 now and having black Mum and Dad he is a Harlequin! He lives with Cindy as his first wifebun died but they getalong very well.

Sounding positive for Tigger now.

My bunnies eat more at certain times, usually morning and evening. Mine will chill out during the afternoon, although two of my six will become active at those times if they think I may give them more food.
Of course, like you, after a bunny recovers from illness I will disturb him/her to make sure they are really resting. With some bunnies, I can tell by looking at their body position, respiration rate, and other factors.