Can you bond differant breeds/ sizes?

[Chrissyb]

Opinions wanted. We have a 7 month old female mini lop, Fluff. DH and DS have fallen in love with french lops at the fair recently. They are awful cute! Fluff will hopefully be getting spayed in the next month or two. Any thoughts on if bonding a mini lop with a baby French lop might work? Any experience? We were planning on potentially adding a second bun if all went well with one. And it has. Not sure if the size differance would be an issue or not. Fluff is about 4 pounds now.

If it matters, our Fluff is an outdoor bun, and we would be looking at building a whole new set up for a french because Fluffs current set up would not work size wise. I had origionally planned on a shelter playdate when we were ready to add number 2 bunny, but I hear shelters and rescues will not place buns to outdoor homes. I do understand that buns make fantastic indoor pets, but due to allergy situations any pet in the house is not an option.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[rosie20029]

well if the male is bigger the doe can not stand that there is bigger things in her belly than her than you highly gonna have the doe die

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Every one should be neutered first. The only bonded pairs I've seen to date are about the same size also.

 

[Blue eyes]

Chrissyb wrote:

but I hear shelters and rescues will not place buns to outdoor homes. I do understand that buns make fantastic indoor pets, but due to allergy situations any pet in the house is not an option.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Might want to check with the rescues first. You are correct that many only allow indoor housing. I was under the impression, however, that some rescues in colder climates actually are ok with outdoors.

On a side note, I have no idea your situation, but allergy to some furs doesn't necessitate allergy to all fur. I'm allergic to cats, for instance, but not to rabbits. Just a thought.

 

[agnesthelion]

Generally what I've read is that the most successful bonds are fixed couples of similar size. However that doesn't mean it can't work....

You will need to get the doe spayed first and wait long enough for her to heal and hormones to dissipate.

Then, if you get a baby, bonding an adult to baby could happen, but sometimes is difficult too. Then you have to take into consideration that when the baby reaches sexual maturity, there could be issues again with fighting or grumpiness.

I can offer no suggestions on having an outdoor bun. I personally don't agree with having bunnies outside in harsh winters or hot summers, I believe they do thrive better inside. I also have heard of shelters not adopting out to outside homes for this very reason.

 

[Imbrium]

I've heard that a size difference doesn't necessarily matter as long as their personalities mesh pretty well, but I suppose it also depends on just how much of a size difference there is. breed definitely doesn't matter, as my two are inseparable (holland lop and lionhead).

you can't always gauge adult personalities well when they're very young, so I'd be a bit wary of trying to bond a baby and an adult. if you succeed, you'll end up having to separate them when the baby's hormones kick in and house them close enough to see/smell each other but far enough apart that they can't fight through the bars until after the little one is fixed, then re-bond them. with males, I believe they can generally be neutered as soon as they get hormonal but with females, vets often want to wait until 5-6 mos when hormones kick in at 4 so you may end up having to house them separately for a month or more if you get a female baby.

 

[Chrissyb]

Yeah, hubby is allergic to Fluff. And honestly to anything with fur. We tried rats too as they are supposed to be a good low allergy choice. Not so much. DH is highly allergic and having anything but fish in the house at this point is out of the question.

 

[Chrissyb]

Thanks for all the replies. I suppose we will think it over more and see what happens.

 

[BunBuns Human]

BunBun and Booger have been getting along quite well since Booger showed up on 5-29-12. They took to each other immediately. Both are unneutered males about a year old. BunBun is twice Booger's size.

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