Starting bonding - a happy ending!

Monty's Human said:
He does rather have that air of a man from the films who knows he's done something he's been asked repeatedly not to - just like he's about to pull out some flowers from the local garage with a big winning "But I love you! I'm very sorry I mounted you from behind and pulled your fur out..." :D

Thank you for the advice :) I will certainly post some photos if I can get them together! They seem to be doing all right with eating. Both are eating from the shared hay pile happily and freely, and they seemed to have worked out their own systems. With the hay, Monty can do what he likes until Ossie wants in, then she chases him off - but being a sneaky, clever bun, he just goes around, comes up behind her and keeps going from where she can't see him. The kale was brilliant, they were "sharing" in a very literal sense. Monty would pick a piece up, and Ossie would snap off whatever was dangling from his mouth and eat that before he could :lol: Both perfectly happy with that, though! Ossie gets very territorial over the treats, but Monty's too quick for her, so even with her trying to scare him off a bit he's getting more than she does. I think they'll be ok!

Thanks MM :D I will drop you a line if I may. Trying to work out how and how quickly to progress things without disrupting fragile progress - any hints will be much appreciated!
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Sure :)

I'll be on it shortly - just turning the compost heap :shock:
 
JuliaW said:
Hi. Regarding litter trays- I put a large spare tray in the bathroom that I cleaned with vinegar to neutralise it but the put some of both their dirty litter in it and a small washing up bowl that boo had been using and they both used both with no fighting. They now only have the big tray that they share. I also put a cardboard box in filled with hay for them to chew /play with just to stop the boredom and give them something else to focus on.
The photos looked to me like they were asking to be groomed maybe one will break the ice soon.
Try not to get too stressed about it by putting too much pressure on yourself. It certainly isn't going to fail by lack of effort on your part.

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Do you know, I was so focussed on their actual litter trays, I never even thought of cardboard boxes! I always have a box filled with hay out for Monty, so I've got a couple of unused boxes waiting to be used. I shall do that shortly - thank you for your brilliant ideas :D They both have their own litter trays from being kept separately and I think I'll keep them up; but for now a box might be just the thing.

I've left them alone for lunch, not hearing any major disagreements, I hope without the silly human watching them they might relax a bit and come together a bit more.

Thanks MM! And, er, good luck? :D
 
Hi there!

How are the bunnies doing this afternoon? I'm really glad Mighty Max has popped in, she gave me invaluable support and advice when I was doing my bond [emoji3]

The tufts of fur can be alarming when you first see them but I wouldn't worry too much about that, when I did my bond I could've stuffed a pillow with the amount of fur they pulled off each other!

It does sound like you're all doing really well so far! Hopefully it won't be too long before Ossie succumbs to Monty's charm offensive!


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Aw he does look quite small next to her doesn't he! :)

It's sounds pretty good so far, I think. It kind of does look like he's waiting for her to groom him in the photo, so you will hopefully start to see that in time. With our most recent pair though, for a long time the female was happy to be groomed, but wasn't interested in returning the favour, lol x
 
Scrappy's Little Helper said:
Hi there!

How are the bunnies doing this afternoon? I'm really glad Mighty Max has popped in, she gave me invaluable support and advice when I was doing my bond [emoji3]

The tufts of fur can be alarming when you first see them but I wouldn't worry too much about that, when I did my bond I could've stuffed a pillow with the amount of fur they pulled off each other!

It does sound like you're all doing really well so far! Hopefully it won't be too long before Ossie succumbs to Monty's charm offensive!


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Thanks for asking! Yes, Mighty Max is a wonderful fount of all knowledge which she is wonderful enough to share :) We are doing ok thank you! Had to step in at one point - we don't know what it was about, as my partner was on watch and had fallen into a snooze, but they both threw themselves pretty violently at the door, which is how I heard it from the other room. I think they were just chasing, though, there was no damage - and only one clump of fur pulled since lunch time! They're actually pretty happy at the moment. I put in a box filled with hay, which they have been sharing (I'll put in an image at the end - it just about sums up their relationship!) and also the two new toys, which have been shared really well. They're taking it in turns to chew the best one, which isn't going to last much longer :roll: I also put down their kale in a pile and they both came up and at quite happily side by side - both looking up at me with kale hanging out their mouths with this really gormless expression of "why are you staring at us?" - and as the pile got smaller there was still no aggression or scaring each other off, they nose bumped and nombled quite happily. Which has cheered me up no end - light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps? We've left them alone for the last hour or so and absolutely no problems as far as we can hear or see.

TheThreeB's - we have seen both groom each other now, but only briefly, and never when asked, only when the other one wasn't expecting it :lol: Silly bunnies! I think Monty is going to be doing most of the grooming for now though. He's now taken to poking his head under her tummy, when he can trapping one of her legs in a hug as he does, then looking up really pleading. How she resists him, I don't know; I can't! :love:

The promised picture:
Ossie is sitting in Ossie's box, but she will very graciously allow Monty hay all the same, as long as he doesn't disturb her while he does it:
0tG7jjK.jpg
 
Sending more positive bonding vibes your way - I cannot add anything further to the great advice here, but loving the photos and wishing you all the best. : )
 
Thanks everyone! :D I think the good vibes might be working. Not to jinx anything, but we left them alone yesterday evening and had some 'us' time, and we both had a good night's sleep, and it looks like no problems at all. There's still a little bit of Ossie humping Monty, but I think we may be partly to blame. I've only seen it happen once when we were stroking them (my partner stopped stroking Ossie, and it only took a second for her to get jealous of my stroking Monty and start humping him until I stroked her too) and over some treats (I scattered in the hay box. Being bigger she was crowding Monty out, so Monty hopped in the box, she hopped him with him, realised how squished she was and hopped out and humped the box until he made way for her). On both occasions it was very brief, though, and caused Monty no visible alarm whatsoever, so I think this is just Ossie trying to get her own way. Monty seems to know how to deal with it! Otherwise, they look like two perfectly happy bunnies. They don't quite sit side by side, Ossie sits in the corner, then Monty climbs on top and sits between her and the wall - so snuggling in their own way!

I'm going to try leaving them alone today and catching up on some of my own work - I'm in the next room, so I should be able to hear if anything major starts. I also need to work out what to do next with them and when. But thank you all so much for your help and support, I think we are well on the way to two bonded rabbits!

(Any hints on how to proceed gratefully appreciated, but I know it's harder and more of a judgment call from hereon in :))
 
Excellent news! Hope all is still quiet on the bunny front today [emoji3]

With regards to next steps, are you planning to give them full free range or move them permanently to another room? Mine went to full free range so I started to extend back about a metre a day at first, then every few hours until they had full run of the whole flat. Just to give a timeframe, I started the bond on Saturday afternoon and they were fully free range by Friday morning.

You'll get an idea of how best to proceed by the way they react as you start to make adjustments to their current space. I think you have the advantage of bringing a female into a male's space as they aren't supposed to be as territorial. Snoopy spends the majority of his time in the living room and we had no issues as we started to extend back into "his" territory.


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Scrappy's Little Helper said:
Excellent news! Hope all is still quiet on the bunny front today [emoji3]

With regards to next steps, are you planning to give them full free range or move them permanently to another room? Mine went to full free range so I started to extend back about a metre a day at first, then every few hours until they had full run of the whole flat. Just to give a timeframe, I started the bond on Saturday afternoon and they were fully free range by Friday morning.

You'll get an idea of how best to proceed by the way they react as you start to make adjustments to their current space. I think you have the advantage of bringing a female into a male's space as they aren't supposed to be as territorial. Snoopy spends the majority of his time in the living room and we had no issues as we started to extend back into "his" territory.


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Thanks Scrappy's Little Helper! Sorry for the delay in replying - after the exertions of the weekend I developed one of my migraines yesterday, so I'm only just starting to perk up.

It does all seem to be going rather well :D They're now left alone all the time, and I just stick my head round the door if I think I hear anything starting up (so far all false alarms involving eating the cardbord box, but it's so echoey in the bathroom it's hard to tell from outside the door). They will eventually be free-ranging the whole flat, but I think that's going to take a while. Unfortunately we can't do it bit by bit as you did, we're going to have to go room by room and open it up slowly. Following some sage advice from MightyMax (thank you once again! I have been so much more relaxed about it all since we spoke :)) I've decided to leave them in there for another couple of a days to make sure they're really bonded. We're then going to open up the hallway/study for them, which is about double the space they currently have - so their space will be two thirds bigger. (Still about <10sqm all told). Once they've settled into that the hard bit's done. We'll open the rest of the flat by degrees, but there's no reason that they couldn't live in the hallway/study for as long as it takes for them to settle - it's just having them confined to the bathroom only that's a pain! I'm hoping to be able to let them out towards the end of the week and see how they do, so I'll post an update then.

One final big thank you all for your help everyone! I have no further worries about the bunnies themselves, they seem to have taken to each other quite well - every time you open the door they are squinched up in their corner together :D - so provided we manage the next stages properly, I think we will have two very happy bunnies who will hopefully have a long and beautiful friendship together!*

*(and if they stop weeing on the walls as a result, hurrah!)
 
Monty's Human said:
It does all seem to be going rather well :D They're now left alone all the time, and I just stick my head round the door if I think I hear anything starting up (so far all false alarms involving eating the cardbord box, but it's so echoey in the bathroom it's hard to tell from outside the door). They will eventually be free-ranging the whole flat, but I think that's going to take a while. Unfortunately we can't do it bit by bit as you did, we're going to have to go room by room and open it up slowly. Following some sage advice from MightyMax (thank you once again! I have been so much more relaxed about it all since we spoke :)) I've decided to leave them in there for another couple of a days to make sure they're really bonded. We're then going to open up the hallway/study for them, which is about double the space they currently have - so their space will be two thirds bigger. (Still about <10sqm all told). Once they've settled into that the hard bit's done. We'll open the rest of the flat by degrees, but there's no reason that they couldn't live in the hallway/study for as long as it takes for them to settle - it's just having them confined to the bathroom only that's a pain! I'm hoping to be able to let them out towards the end of the week and see how they do, so I'll post an update then.

*(and if they stop weeing on the walls as a result, hurrah!)
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It was lovely to hear your voice after our exchanged messages :)

I think you have done brilliantly well with the pair of them. Well done to you and OH :D
 
A very quick update. I let them out of the bathroom this morning and into a bigger area. Half an hour in, both out and exploring (after some persuasion and copious amounts of treats) and this is how we've been chilling:

v8slGMn.jpg


I think my work here is done :D
 
Monty's Human said:
A very quick update. I let them out of the bathroom this morning and into a bigger area. Half an hour in, both out and exploring (after some persuasion and copious amounts of treats) and this is how we've been chilling:

v8slGMn.jpg


I think my work here is done :D
Click to expand...


I think you're right - and well done to you for achieving it in such a short space of time :)

Keep a weather eye as they move onwards and outwards in your flat, and also on litter training. You don't want them to establish a pattern of 'here there and everywhere' (if you know what I mean!).

Good luck :)
 
MightyMax said:
I think you're right - and well done to you for achieving it in such a short space of time :)

Keep a weather eye as they move onwards and outwards in your flat, and also on litter training. You don't want them to establish a pattern of 'here there and everywhere' (if you know what I mean!).

Good luck :)
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Thank you! And yes, definitely on the litter training - I've already had a nice wet "present" from Ossie on the white rug this morning. Monty is still doing all his business in the trays, though, so I am relying on that to keep Ossie in check; she won't want them to become too much "Monty's", I hope. I'll be seeing how she does in the next few days though.

(I'm secretly quite gratified. The first thing Monty did on being left out - via a quick trip to try the fresh hay I'd put out - was bound up to my chair and put his little fluffy paws on the seat begging for treats. I nearly melted he was so adorable!)
 
Monty's Human said:
Thank you! And yes, definitely on the litter training - I've already had a nice wet "present" from Ossie on the white rug this morning. Monty is still doing all his business in the trays, though, so I am relying on that to keep Ossie in check; she won't want them to become too much "Monty's", I hope. I'll be seeing how she does in the next few days though.

(I'm secretly quite gratified. The first thing Monty did on being left out - via a quick trip to try the fresh hay I'd put out - was bound up to my chair and put his little fluffy paws on the seat begging for treats. I nearly melted he was so adorable!)
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I can just imagine Monty melting your heart there :love:

Just remember, they aren't aware of how cute their fluffy costumes are. Underneath they are all rat bags wanting to squeeze everything out of the human they can :lol::lol:

(sorry to burst the bubble :lol:)
 
MightyMax said:
I can just imagine Monty melting your heart there :love:

Just remember, they aren't aware of how cute their fluffy costumes are. Underneath they are all rat bags wanting to squeeze everything out of the human they can :lol::lol:

(sorry to burst the bubble :lol:)
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Haha, this is so true! :lol: I have noticed that every time I start walking around I have a Monty following me, but that this only seems to involve standing up on his hind legs and begging for food. And as soon as he gets really pleading, or I rustle something that sounds like it might be a treat package, I am also being mugged by an Ossie winding herself round my feet looking hopeful. I think they only want me for my food...

(I am convinced, however, that Monty knows exactly how cute he is! The way he puts on a really pleading cute expression at just the right time, and the way he scrabbles all so desperately at the chair/my leg as if he can't quite stand up - it's all calculated to melt my heart. I think he's seen how many times he's guilt-tripped me into giving in something and now has his wiles honed to a T!)
 
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