Duke & Libby - Bonding Progress UD 16/01/2011

things are still calm today

libby seems to be getting used to the carpet - we are wondering if she has ever actually seen carpet before.... her and duke have mostly sat by themselves today but they did exactly that when their space was increased initially last thursday so hopefully over the next 2 days they will start to snuggle more and more. there has still been some grooming and plenty of binkies from both.

we wont be changing their space again for a little while to come, they have plenty that they can stretch and have a good play so we will let them cement their love as things are for a while now

fingers crossed it continues

(i was woken at 6.30am by a little chase but again i think it was duke expecting breakfast, as soon as i put food in and he ate some he settled down and left her alone - these chases are small though, no mounting and he isnt trying to bite her side, just sniffs around her bottom and gives it a little nip sometimes)

ok so things are still largely as they were. snuggling levels have upped a bit again but nowhere near the 11/12 hours solid from christmas day!

duke is still occasionally chasing libby but just from one corner to another and nothing more serious. although yesterday they did circle each other may 1.5 times but no locking on at all.

duke is being a good boy, he keeps going to her for cuddles and is doing lots of headwashey, unfortunately libby basically gives him nothing back - at all. i havent seen her groom him in at least 24 hours now, everytime he goes near her she bows her head to ask for washes but if duke does the same she ignores him.

i hope duke learns to be ok with this..... even naana or apple doesnt seem to encourage her to groom him anymore.

i think they are still battling out who is top dog - duke by chasing her and libby by refusing to groom him..... they seem more than happy in each others company tho and are currently snuggled up

a piccie of their setup once we increased the space - of course now its just one big hay filled messy enclosure! :lol:

We had a difficult time with bonding my bunny Twix, who had lost his partner, with his new Girlfriend Star. It took a long time for Star to groom Twix and even now she is more of a taker than a giver. Sometimes I guess thats just the way it is! :roll::roll::lol:

i suspect thats what will happen here - but they are both now going to each other for cuddles, duke more than libby but if she is scared she runs to him - for example when the scary hoover comes out!

just had to take her to the next room to trim a couple of her nails and as soon as we put her back duke went rushing over to see her and they sat together for a minute - then there was food around so they were both more interested in that!

we left them alone for a bit today (did yesterday too and i think also briefly on boxing day) so cant be absolutely sure but i dont actually think duke has chased her at all today.... which would be an absolute first!

think its safe to say (hopefully!) that they are certainly now married, just still working out who is who in the relationship

Leigh said:

i suspect thats what will happen here - but they are both now going to each other for cuddles, duke more than libby but if she is scared she runs to him - for example when the scary hoover comes out!

just had to take her to the next room to trim a couple of her nails and as soon as we put her back duke went rushing over to see her and they sat together for a minute - then there was food around so they were both more interested in that!

we left them alone for a bit today (did yesterday too and i think also briefly on boxing day) so cant be absolutely sure but i dont actually think duke has chased her at all today.... which would be an absolute first!

think its safe to say (hopefully!) that they are certainly now married, just still working out who is who in the relationship

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You deserve a medal for the amount of effort you have put into their marriage post introduction.

I've been loving the photos of the story. So happy for all of you.

really pleased for you (and duke and libby obviously!)

The Duchess said:

You deserve a medal for the amount of effort you have put into their marriage post introduction.

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thankyou

though we havent done anything you wouldnt, all just part and parcel, no questions about any of it

poppymoon said:

really pleased for you (and duke and libby obviously!)

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thankyou

haha - no sooner had i posed that.... duke chased her!

he was lying down perfectly content and then just lept up - tail raised and off towards her, she ran off he followed, bent down towards her bum and she ran off again, he followed then he gave up and settled back down - bizarre! just out of absolutely nowhere!

this morning he did it too, gave her a few chaseys round, but she just keeps moving out of his way until he stops.

just brought back inside a willow tunnel that duke had before they were bonded, doesnt seem to have caused any arguments but will watch closely and probably take it out tonight.

also given them another hay rack, a half moon hanging basket, just to give them something else to do and scattered dry herbs and dandelion through the hay

they are currently side by side munching their supper

ordered some more new things for them as i think duke gets bored quite easily and likes the stimulation of new and changing things (when in his own secure environment)

i think our next battle will be working out when to increase the space again, they largely seem very content with each other, still arguing over grooming and duke doing the above.... but obviously dont want to go backwards at all.... on the other hand we dont want duke to get bored and 'contained' so will be a fine balance. cant decide when is best to do it - now so we can watch them for a few days or wait a week? but there are some complications if we wait in terms of supervision

(fireworks tonight with new years eve.... no idea how libby is with fireworks!)

all still good - i have noticed in the last 24 hours or so that duke is incredibly interested in how libby smells. if she has been in the litter box and then he goes in after her he will have a good sniff of what she has left behind. also when he goes to her for a snuggle and lies down with her he will get quite amorous with his grooming, he keeps grooming her back legs and right by her tail which funnily enough she doesnt really like too much so gets up.

i keep telling him that she doesnt want him to groom her bottom but he wont listen :roll:

right - things are still very similar, havent increased their pen space so its still at 4x4 NIC cubes.

libby groomed duke a bit more yesterday but havent really seen her do it much today, they have spent most of this afternoon snuggled but duke did give her a few chases this morning

last night libby was doing repeated binkys and duke came flying out of the litter box tail up and started to chase her - really not sure if it was out of some sort of anger or because he was excited - any thoughts on this would be welcome

(had to give them a new hidey box because they destroyed the other one - its slightly bigger as was all we could lay our hands on (trust me we have searched!) libbys has used it a couple of times but duke sticks his head in to get her out :roll: they have had a brilliant time destroying it though, digging and shredding it, they have even put a 3rd door into it for me - kind huh!

i thought we had made the whole evening without a chase but no

libby sat eating hay and out of nowhere duke chases her - tail raised running along her side as if he was going to bite her shoulder (note: he didnt)

chase was over in 10 seconds and libby very soon after threw herself down on the floor so must still be in fairly good spirits

they are going to spend the whole day unsupervised tomorrow which makes us slightly nervous but theres nothing we can do

duke seems to have stopped chasing overnight (or at least it hasnt woken us) but he is still chasing morning and evening with the rest of the day spent snuggled up and grooming.

hubby and i are both feeling slightly lost at the moment - is this bond ever going to work? is the fact that duke is still chasing a sign that they will never be at peace or is it just thats its going to take a really long time?

support and advice gratefully received

EDIT - he hasnt mounted her in well over a week (probably 2), but just will not stop with these short chases in the morning and evening. They have been together 3 weeks now.

Leigh said:

i thought we had made the whole evening without a chase but no

libby sat eating hay and out of nowhere duke chases her - tail raised running along her side as if he was going to bite her shoulder (note: he didnt)

chase was over in 10 seconds and libby very soon after threw herself down on the floor so must still be in fairly good spirits

they are going to spend the whole day unsupervised tomorrow which makes us slightly nervous but theres nothing we can do

duke seems to have stopped chasing overnight (or at least it hasnt woken us) but he is still chasing morning and evening with the rest of the day spent snuggled up and grooming.

hubby and i are both feeling slightly lost at the moment - is this bond ever going to work? is the fact that duke is still chasing a sign that they will never be at peace or is it just thats its going to take a really long time?

support and advise gratefully received

EDIT - he hasnt mounted her in well over a week, but just will not stop with these short chases in the morning and evening

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To me it sounds like things are settling ... slowly.

The chases are self stopping and you are not having to do anything to terminate them which is good.

Overall from what you are saying I think there are less espisodes of chasing now than previous as you have now lost them at night.

My advise would be to just go with it and I am convinced it will settle with time. It is nerve wracking when you know that you have to leave them unsupervised ... I am sure it will be fine.

janice said:

To me it sounds like things are settling ... slowly.

The chases are self stopping and you are not having to do anything to terminate them which is good.

Overall from what you are saying I think there are less espisodes of chasing now than previous as you have now lost them at night.

My advise would be to just go with it and I am convinced it will settle with time. It is nerve wracking when you know that you have to leave them unsupervised ... I am sure it will be fine.

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thankyou

yes all chases are self stopping, we havent had to intervene in well over a week

i think there are less episodes of chasing, if only because there arent any at night, morning and evening its still probably about the same, but they do settle down really well over lunch and during the afternoon to have a snuggle

they are home today alone, put some hays in to try and keep duke busy with that and left them a radio on maybe being alone without the hoomans will force them together for company (we have left them while popping out to the shops but not for any real length of time).

Leigh said:

hiya :wave:

how long have biscuit and ginger been bonded now? its a couple of months isnt it?

can i ask what the chasing is like? hvaing had duke and daisy as a very well established couple the behaviour we see with duke and libby is entirely new to us and its hard to know what is normal...

(duke hasnt tried mounting libby in a long while now - seems to have given up on that )

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Hi Leigh - just to come across from your post a short while ago on another thread, thought i could keep it all in one place for you.

Basically, the chase is very basic and its ALWAYS triggered by the same thing. Biscuit requests grooming, but Ginger is very lack luster in giving it back. He grooms her until the cows come home however. He'll ask and ask and ask and she will never give in if im in the room (think shes licky shy ).

Then he'll hop after her, she'll hop off and full speed and he'll go after her, but she's so much quicker than him that he'll give up after about 5-10 seconds.

Does that help?

thanks

sounds reasonably similar!

duke will sometimes out of nowhere give libby a chase, or if he is excited like when he hears rustling food bags....

i had hoped it would have settled down a bit more than it has but they like to keep us on our toes :roll:

hope your feeling a bit better btw

Leigh said:

thanks

sounds reasonably similar!

duke will sometimes out of nowhere give libby a chase, or if he is excited like when he hears rustling food bags....

i had hoped it would have settled down a bit more than it has but they like to keep us on our toes :roll:

hope your feeling a bit better btw

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We have that too. If the food bag comes out in the morning, as it does, every day at 6:30am, they run to the bars, but Biscuit has to be the one who gets the first pellet so he chases her downstairs in the dog crate and runs back up so he gets first refusal.

I genuinely find it interesting to watch that behaviour as its obviously totally natural.

I'm so used to it now, it doesn't bother me too much but i do always keep an eye out

its just so new to us! and so hard when you watch two lovely creatures that you love so much not getting on!!

i told duke yesterday that if he didnt pack it in i was going to sell him - then realised noone would want him and told him i was going to set him free instead :lol: (clearly joking before anyone thinks im serious!)

quite a bit going on in life at the minute and the stress of it all is getting to me, think it was just the last straw last night when he went for her. ill calm down again now

Leigh said:

its just so new to us! and so hard when you watch two lovely creatures that you love so much not getting on!!

i told duke yesterday that if he didnt pack it in i was going to sell him - then realised noone would want him and told him i was going to set him free instead :lol: (clearly joking before anyone thinks im serious!)

quite a bit going on in life at the minute and the stress of it all is getting to me, think it was just the last straw last night when he went for her. ill calm down again now

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I really do hope it all works out.