Troller
Well-Known Member
Hi, my name is Michael and I'm 37 and work the nightshift in security. I've been surrounded by pets all my life but can't say I'm a pet person until about 2 years ago. My wife loves pets and while at a store I saw this tremendously sized rabbit (I believe now it was either a Conti or Flemish mix) and was mystified. I carried this strange feeling for a year and in that time saw my sister and a friend who owned house rabbits and realized that these great creatures can in fact be handled outside farm situations and make good pets. I was hooked.
About September I asked to get a rabbit for my birthday and my wife, who was a little worried, went with it. Conan, a blue flemish giant buck, entered our lives and he's such a joy. Though I'm positive he hearts my wife way more then me I'm totally enthused to have this little 13lb. Ball of furry fun in my life. He was set to be a loner, with me planning not to neuter but my wife felt more comfortable with fixing him so I went along with it. Since he got neutered I reconsidered my stance on him being a lone housebun and after much convincing the wife we now welcome Xena into our family.
So Xena, a fawn flemish doe, came home today to the house that Conan and two cockatiels live in. The vet gave her a clean bill of health except for some teariness in the eyes that most likely is stress related but should be monitored going ahead. She's beautiful and took to her pen pretty well, already lamb-chopping and using her litter box (though she peed on her hay). The only negative is that she's 18 weeks old and the vet won't spay her until 24 weeks so bonding will be out for some time.
Now I know initial cage-to-cage meetings don't rate for much, and the fact that Xena is young and Conan is only 3 weeks into neutered means no real connection is being formed, I liked their interaction. Xena was relaxed and curious about her environment but paid a bit of mind to Conan when his nose came peeking in to her cage by nose bumping him and I believe I saw her lick him. For his part his ears were up and forward while his but was down, so I believe that body language means very curious. He circled her cage, honked a bit and was more playful with me surprisingly (either he was happy or just wanted to be. Reassured he still had his humans affections). They both ate near each other comfortably, lay close enough to each other cage side by side and didn't seem agitated in each others presence. So far so good day one.
One thing that worries me is that while their cages are side by side and not close enough to physically interact or harm each other, that's not the case when one of them will be out for exercise time and their little noses fit across the bars. I'll monitor and guess find a way to block them further if it should come to be necessary.
About September I asked to get a rabbit for my birthday and my wife, who was a little worried, went with it. Conan, a blue flemish giant buck, entered our lives and he's such a joy. Though I'm positive he hearts my wife way more then me I'm totally enthused to have this little 13lb. Ball of furry fun in my life. He was set to be a loner, with me planning not to neuter but my wife felt more comfortable with fixing him so I went along with it. Since he got neutered I reconsidered my stance on him being a lone housebun and after much convincing the wife we now welcome Xena into our family.
So Xena, a fawn flemish doe, came home today to the house that Conan and two cockatiels live in. The vet gave her a clean bill of health except for some teariness in the eyes that most likely is stress related but should be monitored going ahead. She's beautiful and took to her pen pretty well, already lamb-chopping and using her litter box (though she peed on her hay). The only negative is that she's 18 weeks old and the vet won't spay her until 24 weeks so bonding will be out for some time.
Now I know initial cage-to-cage meetings don't rate for much, and the fact that Xena is young and Conan is only 3 weeks into neutered means no real connection is being formed, I liked their interaction. Xena was relaxed and curious about her environment but paid a bit of mind to Conan when his nose came peeking in to her cage by nose bumping him and I believe I saw her lick him. For his part his ears were up and forward while his but was down, so I believe that body language means very curious. He circled her cage, honked a bit and was more playful with me surprisingly (either he was happy or just wanted to be. Reassured he still had his humans affections). They both ate near each other comfortably, lay close enough to each other cage side by side and didn't seem agitated in each others presence. So far so good day one.
One thing that worries me is that while their cages are side by side and not close enough to physically interact or harm each other, that's not the case when one of them will be out for exercise time and their little noses fit across the bars. I'll monitor and guess find a way to block them further if it should come to be necessary.
