Housing rabbits separately, looking for advice.

[bunnaboris]

This is probably so silly but the amount of anxiety it's giving me can't be understated. I currently have a 7 month old intact holland lop who has his own bedroom and it's my biggest gift in life to be able to spend all of my free time with him.

However, another bunny has sort of fallen into my lap and she will be moving in with me at the end of next month. She's not old enough to be desexed yet, so she will be setup in my home office. Basically, I will have two bunnies with their own rooms until they're both desexed and I can start the bonding process, which will be months from now.

What's giving my anxiety is trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to split my time between them. I want the new bunny to get to know me, but I don't want my current angel to feel neglected. I do have another, much larger room that I could potentially house them in together in separate pens, but I still want to put the new bun through a quarantine process and get her to a vet for a wellness check before I even think of doing that.

My question is: for people who have to keep buns separate for one reason or another, how do you divide your time so both or all of your buns know you still love them and you're there? And once quarantine is over, would there be any harm in housing them in the same room in separate pens until they're both desexed and healed?

 

[Blue eyes]

You may be overthinking it. You presumably already spend a set amount of time with your current bun in his own room. When you are in your office, I'd assume that the male rabbit is not with you. So when you have the new rabbit and house her in the office, you will be spending time with her whenever you are in your office. (You don't have to be directly interacting with a rabbit in order to be bonding with them. Just being nearby is bonding.)

So, having the setup with each of them in their own room until after they are fixed is actually ideal. I would actually discourage you from housing them in the same room in separate pens-- at least until after they are fixed. This way you have preserved a neutral area in which to begin bonding them. Once they are fixed, it can be helpful to house them in side-by-side (not touching) pens so that they can get familiar with each other before beginning the bonding process.

Where do you hope to house them once/if they are bonded? In that large room or back in the male's room?

 

[bunnaboris]

You may be overthinking it. You presumably already spend a set amount of time with your current bun in his own room. When you are in your office, I'd assume that the male rabbit is not with you. So when you have the new rabbit and house her in the office, you will be spending time with her whenever you are in your office. (You don't have to be directly interacting with a rabbit in order to be bonding with them. Just being nearby is bonding.)

So, having the setup with each of them in their own room until after they are fixed is actually ideal. I would actually discourage you from housing them in the same room in separate pens-- at least until after they are fixed. This way you have preserved a neutral area in which to begin bonding them. Once they are fixed, it can be helpful to house them in side-by-side (not touching) pens so that they can get familiar with each other before beginning the bonding process.

Where do you hope to house them once/if they are bonded? In that large room or back in the male's room?

My hope is to convert the larger room into the full-time bunny room. I've purposely avoided letting him interact with that room bc I knew I would eventually want to get him a friend and needed neutral ground to bond in. And thank you for the honesty on my overthinking! I feel an extreme amount of guilt if I'm not spending all of my time with my rabbit, so the thought of doubling up on that was definitely making me fidget. Perhaps I need to realize that they'll both be fine in the long run and I'm not a terrible owner for not being able to clone myself lol.

 

[Lionhead owner]

This is probably so silly but the amount of anxiety it's giving me can't be understated. I currently have a 7 month old intact holland lop who has his own bedroom and it's my biggest gift in life to be able to spend all of my free time with him.

However, another bunny has sort of fallen into my lap and she will be moving in with me at the end of next month. She's not old enough to be desexed yet, so she will be setup in my home office. Basically, I will have two bunnies with their own rooms until they're both desexed and I can start the bonding process, which will be months from now.

What's giving my anxiety is trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to split my time between them. I want the new bunny to get to know me, but I don't want my current angel to feel neglected. I do have another, much larger room that I could potentially house them in together in separate pens, but I still want to put the new bun through a quarantine process and get her to a vet for a wellness check before I even think of doing that.

My question is: for people who have to keep buns separate for one reason or another, how do you divide your time so both or all of your buns know you still love them and you're there? And once quarantine is over, would there be any harm in housing them in the same room in separate pens until they're both desexed and healed?

Clean tick, fed tick and cared for tick. That’s more than some pets get and the fact that you are already thinking about how you can best split your time shows you are an amazing owner. I made the mistake of letting 2 hormonal unfixed half sisters be in the same garden in their own hutches/runs and once they took a dislike to each other we had all sorts of issues.
The own room thing sounds fab. I look at the tiny hutches in the pet shops and freak. Rabbits running at full pelt and having fun is great to see.