Sammy&Patch
Warren Scout
Hi, I have a female bunny, Hazel , that I got from rescue in November, estimated 2-3 years old. I got her speyed in December. She had cancer in the uterus (a separate post about that!) so I was going to wait to get her a friend but the vet said as we have no idea if it has spread and how long she might have left, we might as well go ahead and get her a friend to keep her company.
So we have just taken home Shadow on Friday night. He is estimated 1-2 years. He has been neutered approx. 5 weeks ago by the rescue. The rescue didn't have any info about him. It is a small rescue and they didn't have much space for him as all their small animal spaces were taken so he has been a bit more caged than they would like. Ideally we would have waited a bit longer after his neutering.
The set up I have is Hazel has a medium sized room to herself and the large hallway to free roam during the day (shut back in her room at night). The rescue we got her from said she was territorial and aggressive, she has not shown this behaviour with us, she has been a lovely affectionate bunny since the day we got her, she is always licking us. She shows a mix of behaviours, sometimes she will stamp her feet in irritation if she isn't happy about something, stopping her go down the stairs etc. She is very brave and doesn't get frightened easily. But other times she sort of freezes if you come out a room and make her jump and she puts her head down in a submissive way. She has actually seemed to flinch on a few occasions when I am near her as if she thinks I will hurt her but most of the time she trusts us completely, she rolls over and relaxes easily, she met lots of people over xmas coming to the house and she was not shy! I wondered if she had been mistreated in the past by a human or perhaps bullied by a bunny or something. She has never lunged or bitten me, nipped etc (until today). She is a lovely bunny!
As it has only been weeks since Shadow has been neutered, I decided to put him in another room we used to have as a second bunny room. This room leads off the hallway and has a strairgate across it covered in small mesh so no biting could occur. He was nervous at first when we got him home but soon went exploring. My partner lay on the floor and he jumped ontop of him. He allowed me to stroke him for quite a while and give him a groom.
My plan was to leave them being able to safely see each other for a week or more, swap some poos from their litter trays, add a bit of hair to each others rooms etc, then if it seemed like they were getting used to each other, try some bonding with them in a neutral area.
Hazel was very worked up / stressed when she noticed Shadow was there. She kept going up to the gate and watching intently, when he came near she would mirror his movements, he didn't seem bothered, just a bit nosey, she was really unhappy, jumping round in circles, running away and then back again, very frantic. I tried to calm her and stroke her. I was expecting this reaction at first. Most of yesterday I spent time with each of them. Shadow isn't at all worried about her being there, he is pretty much ignoring her. If he begs up at the gate, she scrabbles at it and he ignores her. However he has been making that kind of honking noise they make sometimes and he has circled me a few times making it. So I wonder if that is having an effect on Hazels reaction to him. When I sit with Hazel a couple of metres away from the gate, she is fine and acts like everything is normal, relaxing etc. But on her own or near his gate she is so worked up. Yesterday when I walked through the hallway she kept running up to me then racing back over to the gate as if she was trying to tell me he was there or try to get me to help chase him away! She was shut in her room overnight so couldn't see him, but this morning when I let her out she was straight round to him, and ignored her veg at first that she normally goes crazy for. I spent time with her and it was fine, but when I left her she was staring through his gate again. Getting agitated when he went near. At one point I sat about 2 feet away talking to her gently, she was by his gate, when he came near, she went frantic again, round in circles, ran over to me (I wasn't moving), bit my hand pretty hard and ran straight back over. I dont' think she meant to be bite me specifically, I think she was just so agitated.
I know it is early on and I was expecting to take time over this, but I just wondered if this is a really bad sign for her to be so aggressive from the start. If she could get to him she would attack him I have no doubt about that. I wondered whether blocking her from getting near the gate for now might be a good idea or putting a piece of board across it so she can't see him at the moment to get so agitated but get used to his smell might help the situation, or whether that might make things worse.
The rescue have agreed before we took Shadow that this would be a trial and if it didn't work they would take him back as I had trouble in the past with bonding (one bonding I did went amazingly well years ago and the second more recent didn't work out so I don't want to end up with 2 bunnies who can't live together again). My gut feeling was to try for around a month depending on whether there is any success at all or looks like no hope. I am certainly not ready to give up after a couple of days but thought getting some advice would be useful!
Thanks for reading and for any help
So we have just taken home Shadow on Friday night. He is estimated 1-2 years. He has been neutered approx. 5 weeks ago by the rescue. The rescue didn't have any info about him. It is a small rescue and they didn't have much space for him as all their small animal spaces were taken so he has been a bit more caged than they would like. Ideally we would have waited a bit longer after his neutering.
The set up I have is Hazel has a medium sized room to herself and the large hallway to free roam during the day (shut back in her room at night). The rescue we got her from said she was territorial and aggressive, she has not shown this behaviour with us, she has been a lovely affectionate bunny since the day we got her, she is always licking us. She shows a mix of behaviours, sometimes she will stamp her feet in irritation if she isn't happy about something, stopping her go down the stairs etc. She is very brave and doesn't get frightened easily. But other times she sort of freezes if you come out a room and make her jump and she puts her head down in a submissive way. She has actually seemed to flinch on a few occasions when I am near her as if she thinks I will hurt her but most of the time she trusts us completely, she rolls over and relaxes easily, she met lots of people over xmas coming to the house and she was not shy! I wondered if she had been mistreated in the past by a human or perhaps bullied by a bunny or something. She has never lunged or bitten me, nipped etc (until today). She is a lovely bunny!
As it has only been weeks since Shadow has been neutered, I decided to put him in another room we used to have as a second bunny room. This room leads off the hallway and has a strairgate across it covered in small mesh so no biting could occur. He was nervous at first when we got him home but soon went exploring. My partner lay on the floor and he jumped ontop of him. He allowed me to stroke him for quite a while and give him a groom.
My plan was to leave them being able to safely see each other for a week or more, swap some poos from their litter trays, add a bit of hair to each others rooms etc, then if it seemed like they were getting used to each other, try some bonding with them in a neutral area.
Hazel was very worked up / stressed when she noticed Shadow was there. She kept going up to the gate and watching intently, when he came near she would mirror his movements, he didn't seem bothered, just a bit nosey, she was really unhappy, jumping round in circles, running away and then back again, very frantic. I tried to calm her and stroke her. I was expecting this reaction at first. Most of yesterday I spent time with each of them. Shadow isn't at all worried about her being there, he is pretty much ignoring her. If he begs up at the gate, she scrabbles at it and he ignores her. However he has been making that kind of honking noise they make sometimes and he has circled me a few times making it. So I wonder if that is having an effect on Hazels reaction to him. When I sit with Hazel a couple of metres away from the gate, she is fine and acts like everything is normal, relaxing etc. But on her own or near his gate she is so worked up. Yesterday when I walked through the hallway she kept running up to me then racing back over to the gate as if she was trying to tell me he was there or try to get me to help chase him away! She was shut in her room overnight so couldn't see him, but this morning when I let her out she was straight round to him, and ignored her veg at first that she normally goes crazy for. I spent time with her and it was fine, but when I left her she was staring through his gate again. Getting agitated when he went near. At one point I sat about 2 feet away talking to her gently, she was by his gate, when he came near, she went frantic again, round in circles, ran over to me (I wasn't moving), bit my hand pretty hard and ran straight back over. I dont' think she meant to be bite me specifically, I think she was just so agitated.
I know it is early on and I was expecting to take time over this, but I just wondered if this is a really bad sign for her to be so aggressive from the start. If she could get to him she would attack him I have no doubt about that. I wondered whether blocking her from getting near the gate for now might be a good idea or putting a piece of board across it so she can't see him at the moment to get so agitated but get used to his smell might help the situation, or whether that might make things worse.
The rescue have agreed before we took Shadow that this would be a trial and if it didn't work they would take him back as I had trouble in the past with bonding (one bonding I did went amazingly well years ago and the second more recent didn't work out so I don't want to end up with 2 bunnies who can't live together again). My gut feeling was to try for around a month depending on whether there is any success at all or looks like no hope. I am certainly not ready to give up after a couple of days but thought getting some advice would be useful!
Thanks for reading and for any help