bonding rabbits

[kez18]

Hi i need a bit of advice ive got 5 rabbits.idid have 6 but sadly one had to put to sleep todayshewasan old girl,shelived with one of my otherrabbits so now ive got a lonely bunny. I got a baby rabbit last weekwhich is 8 weeks old shes also on her own. i put them together todaybut big bunny wasnt too keen she chased her a little but nothing toobad.Has anyone got any advice on how i can bondthem?Thanks

 

[Linz_1987]

First tip DO NOT RUSH ANY THING.

I have experienced some bad times from rushing things lately. You needto introduce them in a neutral space where none of the bunnies havebeen before. Put them together and watch them closely. Do not take aneye off any of them being together as i did this for not even a minuteand my rabbit had a big fight with my other one. And they seemed to begetting on fine. Never take any chances. Introduce them inthis space for about an hour each night for about a week and if everything goes ok you can start to introduce them in a non neutral area. Ifthey start fighting or any sign of agression do the same again foranother week, and try them again. And so forth. I hope you have moreluck than i have so far!

 

[Linz_1987]

Also how old is this other rabbit? If it is asold as the other one i wouldnt put another one in with it, because itwill die way before the 8 week old one, and the young one will have togo through depression of the loss. But that is my opinion.Maybe it is worth it.

I am only suggesting through experience

 

[kez18]

The other rabbit is about 1 and a half, i puther in with my old rabbit when my old rabbits friend died about a yearago, Ive also got a 1 year oldspayed lopfemalerabbit but shes got an attitude and a 6 month old femalelopbut she got really aggresive with the baby rabbit and a maleneatherland dwarf but he hasnt been castrated so he cant go with any ofthe girls.

 

[Linz_1987]

oh thats ok. go ahead bonding themjust dont rush at all. There is a site on TopPicks about bonding rabbits which is very usefull.

 

[kez18]

im going to try what you said i seem to get theawkward rabbits, i work in a pet shop and im always falling in lovewith the rabbits and bringing them home. Hopefully i will have bondedbunnies by next week.

 

[Linz_1987]

if they get on ok then yes, but most of the timeit takes longer than just a week for you to fully know. Sorryif you think i keep going on but i cannot stress enough not to rush it.

 

[kez18]

No its ok im not going to rush them. bella mylonely bun isnt really a nasty rabbit,when i put her in withmy rabbit thats just died they got on as soon as they met it only tookme a day. My baby rabbit is quite small so i will take my time withthem. Thanks for your advice and help.

 

[Linz_1987]

Thats what happened to me. I put my new pepper igot from a pet shop in with my 8 year old (that died recently) and theygot on so well the first day and lived with each other from that dayon.

I am recently bonding another rabbit with Pepper but it isnt as easy aslast time. I think i just gathered it would be. But no way is it!

 

[naturestee]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Check out this site, it has a lot of great info on bonding.

http://www.mybunnies.com/bonding.htm

If you search, this site also has several good articles.

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html

Linz is right about going slow. Let your rabbits help youdetermine when to make a new move. Mine took a month ofworking with them at least once a day to be in the same neutralterritory without fighting. It was several more weeks beforeI trusted them to try putting them in the same cage together.It was all worth it though. I got a lot of good tips off ofthose websites.

One more thing is that you may be able to bond your new baby now, butwhen her hormones kick in her attitude towards the other rabbit couldchange, and quickly. If you do get her to bond with someone,I wouldn't suggest housing them together because of that, at least notuntil she's spayed.

 

[kez18]

I put lonely bun bella and baby bun togetheryesterday in the run that nietheir of them have been inbeforeand they werent at all bothered bella did a bit ofnudgeing but that was all then bella started washing baby bun. Theretogether again today and have been laying together. I keep checking onthem im not housing them together for a few days untill theyve got toknow each other better. I dont know if it was the right way to do itbut it seems to have worked.