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Bonding Diary - Number 5 and Lola

BattleKat

Wise Old Thumper
Number 5 (name TBC) came home with us from small critter rescue yesterday, with the aim of being bonded to Lola when he's old enough. Lola is 10 but so full of beans you'd never guess.

He refused to come out of his carrier (lots of leaning out and thinking about it) but he seemed quite interested when we went in with him and took food from us quite happily.
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Initially Lola was very standoffish and was just lying under the table keeping an eye on things (pretending she wasn't), then she approached and they both properly clocked each other. He seemed very nervous. She retreated back under the table.
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About 8pm (5 hours after we got home) we put some of 5's hay in the beds and some food on the floor, then lifted him out of the carrier in to the general pen. He seemed pretty chill and just hoped about investigating everything.

It took lola a good hour of getting steadily closer to the pen before they met through the bars.
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It seemed pretty relaxed for the first few approaches but then she nipped him through the bars. He immediately came back and was met with a firmer nip (no damage done) so he retreated and went about his business. Lola marked the edge of his pen with a line of poops and spent the rest of the evening keeping an eye on him. They've had further approaches without any nipping.

At the end of the evening we removed his main carrier in case he used it to climb out of the pen. Lola immediately went in the carrier to investigate. I left it out for her overnight and this morning she has pooped and peed all over it.

This morning I went in to have a little time with him before work and stroked him a little with my left hand, then I went to pay some attention to lola in her room. She sniffed my hands and immediately started licking the left one with more force than she's ever groomed me before!
A little while later she joined me and the OH in bed. She was binkying all over the place then lying down and flinging herself on to her back - I've never seen her flop like that, so relaxed and happy. I believe she's happy about the new bun being here!
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One more of 5 because he's so gosh darn cute
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Tonight when I get in I'll be double walling the pen so the gaps aren't big enough for nipping and switching their litter trays over so they can have a good sniff of each other.

Feeling pretty good!

ETA: It's just pen in his ear so that the rescue could tell the babies apart.
 
Double walled the pen and supervised on lunch. I think I need more cable ties because Lola has been going in sort of diagonally and still getting her entire nose through.
Mr Nibbs (name of the day) is learning to approach in stages.

First he hides behind something and assesses the situation
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Then he goes to see her but changes his mind and pretends he was just having a casual lie down
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Eventually he approaches
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One nip today and a couple of nose to nose that lasted a few seconds without incidence before he hopped off.
 
He was one of a litter born in rescue but they were all but one identical so the owner numbered them to keep them with the correct vaccination cards etc.
 
Everything going quite well tonight. No nipping and they've spent some time kind of hanging out together.
 
absolutely love the pic of Lola on your bed :love:

and the bonding sounds like it's going really well, i have high confidence. congratulations.
 
More an update for me to look back on than anything else but all going really well still.
He seems more confident in approaching lola and she seems to be really happy just having him about. She's been lounging around near his pen and following him about if he's near the bars.
Also nice that everything is relaxed enough that I can let lola stay in the lounge when I go out. First couple of days I was still worried she might hurt him.

It's sad that it has to wait so long before real bonding can happen but I'm hoping it'll be a breeze after three or flour months of living almost together.


Pics of Hector (name of the day) so that the update isn't too dull for you guys

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He has such a lovely personality as well. I'm so glad we picked him :love:
He's really inquisitive, not phased at all by being touched (though he shredded my arm when I tried to pick him up the other day) and super gentle. He lets us know when he doesn't want strokes by giving you a gentle nudge. When OH didn't listen to the nudge yesterday Hector simply took hold of OH's finger in his teeth and moved him to one side.
Hopefully he stays this way as he gets older.

I've had such good luck with the perfect animal coming to me right when I've given up hope of finding one :love:
 
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He has such a lovely personality as well. I'm so glad we picked him :love:
He's really inquisitive, not phased at all by being touched (though he shredded my arm when I tried to pick him up the other day) and super gentle. He lets us know when he doesn't want strokes by giving you a gentle nudge. When OH didn't listen to the nudge yesterday Hector simply took hold of OH's finger in his teeth and moved him to one side.
Hopefully he stays this way as he gets older.

I've had such good luck with the perfect animal coming to me right when I've given up hope of finding one :love:

:love: :love: :love: I’m so happy for you all :love:
 
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