3 months ago I acquired a neutered male 7 year old bunny whose wife had died and whose previous owner said her children were bored by him. My 9 year old neutered girl was widowed a year ago and has missed her husbun despite regular snuggling with the cat! She came as part of a pre bonded rescue pair. The boy had not been vaccinated or flea treated/wormed and was living on an all pellet diet so I kept him in a separate room for a while whilst doing all of that and transitioning him onto a mainly hay diet. Unfortunately my girl regards the entire house and the entire garden as hers...
I started by swapping litter trays daily for a week, now they are each in their own puppy playpen in the spare room (my girl was never allowed in there in theory but it's amazing how fast she can shoot through a briefly opened door, particularly when she knows you want to keep her out, so she has been in there a few times in the past) around 3 inches apart. I am swapping them from pen to pen daily so that the smells swap and so that in theory each hide, tunnel, litter tray etc smells of both of them.
Initial brief dates in our small bathroom went well, however a later one ended badly around 20 minutes in as he sat on her head (not mounting, just sat on it as you would a cushion), she growled and chased and some fur went flying. I separated them and checked them both over for injury and it appeared to have just been fur pulling, no skin broken.
Since then (a month ago) I have stuck to short dates. Both of them just ignore each other and seem to just be sitting waiting for me to take them back to their pens. I am nervous about making the dates longer without any sign of interest or progress as I am worried that one of them will be injured.
During supervised individual exercise time in the spare room the boy is mostly interested in sniffing around her pen, whereas she heads directly to the outside of his pen and growls and lunges, although she does not do this in the bathroom.
I'm guessing she still regards the spare room as hers.
Am I being too cautious? I have read about trying all day dates, but I worry that this would stress my girl too much. (Nothing seems to stress the boy!) My husband however is beginning to say 'just let them roam free in the house, they'll work it out', which I think will result in an injured bunny, but he wants the spare room back...
I started by swapping litter trays daily for a week, now they are each in their own puppy playpen in the spare room (my girl was never allowed in there in theory but it's amazing how fast she can shoot through a briefly opened door, particularly when she knows you want to keep her out, so she has been in there a few times in the past) around 3 inches apart. I am swapping them from pen to pen daily so that the smells swap and so that in theory each hide, tunnel, litter tray etc smells of both of them.
Initial brief dates in our small bathroom went well, however a later one ended badly around 20 minutes in as he sat on her head (not mounting, just sat on it as you would a cushion), she growled and chased and some fur went flying. I separated them and checked them both over for injury and it appeared to have just been fur pulling, no skin broken.
Since then (a month ago) I have stuck to short dates. Both of them just ignore each other and seem to just be sitting waiting for me to take them back to their pens. I am nervous about making the dates longer without any sign of interest or progress as I am worried that one of them will be injured.
During supervised individual exercise time in the spare room the boy is mostly interested in sniffing around her pen, whereas she heads directly to the outside of his pen and growls and lunges, although she does not do this in the bathroom.
I'm guessing she still regards the spare room as hers.
Am I being too cautious? I have read about trying all day dates, but I worry that this would stress my girl too much. (Nothing seems to stress the boy!) My husband however is beginning to say 'just let them roam free in the house, they'll work it out', which I think will result in an injured bunny, but he wants the spare room back...
