Hello! Meet Skipper & Piper.

[Skip&Piper]

Hello!

We added sister mini-lops to our household this Christmas! They are almost 5 months old and will be getting spayed mid-February. They are the cutest, most curious little things, and we just love them! Would love any tips on Leah’s to help litter training along before they are spayed. Also, I’m finding mixed info on what veggies are good at this age - should I only be feeding greens like romaine at this point?

 

[Blue eyes]

Photos are not displaying.

If the bunnies are still in their first couple weeks in your home, I'd suggest not making any changes to their diet yet. Once they settle in more, then it would be fine to make whatever adjustments are needed, including increasing their greens.

Since there remains more than a month before they are scheduled for spaying, you'll want to keep a close eye on them since those hormones may kick in at any time. That can cause even the cuddliest of bunnies to begin fighting. Fights have the potential to be quite serious causing severe injury. Better to be cautious.

For litter training, simply providing the ideal litter set up is all that is required. This means a roomy litter box (large enough for them both to stretch out inside at the same time), a good litter (wood pellets -- diff. than shavings -- are an RO favorite), and hay on top.

Other than that, keep the cage floor free from loose bedding/litter. Any urine accidents should be wiped up with a paper towel and the soiled towel placed under the hay in the litter box. They like to potty where they smell it, so don't be too fastidious about cleaning out the litter box. I have some more detail on litter training here.

Since it's good to wait a couple weeks before making any diet changes, you'll have to decide whether you want to start after that 2 weeks or wait until after their upcoming spays. You won't want any digestive issues going on when they go into surgery.

Whenever you do decide to introduce new greens, just do so one type at a time. For specific instructions and a list of options, check here.

 

[Skip&Piper]

Aw darn, I’m posting from an iPad, hence the autocorrects, ugh! I’m obviously doing something wrong when posting the photos - I will try again here! I couldn’t seem to edit my original post!

We have the bunnies in. A 4’ x 8’ pen and are ready to split that in to two as soon as needed. I’m noticing the bunnies doing some circling of each other, but so far that seems to be the only sign of dominance issues. They sleep snuggled together in the same bed, so I’m going to wait till I absolutely need to before separating them!

I will definitely read the links you posted regarding veggies and litter training, thank you!

Edit: still no luck with photos, darn.

 

[Blue eyes]

Circling is the beginning of the dominance issues and often a precursor to a tussle. You mentioned waiting until you "absolutely need to before separating them." Just be sure to lean toward sooner than later. If one waits too long and they happen to actually start fighting (or if they start fighting when no one is around to stop them), such a fight could actually then prevent them from bonding after their spay (or make it extremely difficult). There are never any guarantees with bonding. Even once they are both spayed, there is no guarantee that they will bond. But if they are given the opportunity to fight, it greatly reduces their chances.

Hopefully you can get the photos working. Would love to see the sweeties.

 

[Skip&Piper]

Trying another photo method, haha.

They’ve only done the circling thing a couple times, it’s always Skipper, I can see that she is the one in charge for sure. I definitely don’t want to ruin their chances at bonding afterward, they are so darn sweet together. Perhaps I should just go ahead and separate them now, I just feel bad they won’t be able to snuggle at night! I honestly was hoping we’d get them spayed before any dominance behaviours showed up at all.

When I separate them, should I be swapping which cages they are in each day?

 

[Skip&Piper]

 

[Skip&Piper]

I think I’ve got it figured out! Let me try one more:

 

[cwebster]

Cute bunnies!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Very cute--glad our bunnies aren't as big as our dogs--Great Danes.

 

[Skip&Piper]

Very cute--glad our bunnies aren't as big as our dogs--Great Danes.

Haha those would be some AMAZING bunnies!! I love Great Danes, biggest lapdogs you’ll ever meet!

 

[Imbrium]

First of all, I second everything Blue eyes said.

When I separate them, should I be swapping which cages they are in each day?

If you separate them before any fighting, I would keep them far enough apart to prevent fighting through the bars but close enough to still see/smell each other. Since they're already familiar with each other, I really don't think cage swapping is necessary and if you want to do it as a preemptive strike, every few days would be often enough I imagine. If they seem to be becoming hormonal before the spay, keep in mind that it can take up to 4 weeks after the surgery for females' hormones to be totally gone.

I started out with two girls, ages 7 and 8 weeks, who got spayed at around the 5 month mark. They were fine together up until the surgery, surprisingly, but while they were still in recovery they started fighting and had to be separated and then their bond repaired. It's not necessarily too hard to undo the damage of hormones. Here's a video of Nala and Gaz having a tiff shortly after their spays:



As you can see, around the 38 second mark, Nala very abruptly goes after Gazzle. Within a week of that video, I had them back to normal and living together again .

 

[Skip&Piper]

Oh my Gosh Imbrium they are so adorable! I am glad their tussle wasn’t worse and you were right there! I wish I could get them spayed now, they are 5 months now, but I have only one month to go!