the worst thing about pre-teens...

[Imbrium]

...is knowing it has to get worse before it can get better!

they got in their first tiff today, I think... not an actual fight, but Nala was chasing Gaz around the run really fast, which I've NEVER seen or heard them do before. I yelled at them to quit screwing around as I came into the room to see what was going on and they stopped in their tracks.

Gaz just hit 16 weeks and Nala just hit 15 weeks, so I'm thinking I'll have to separate them any day now. I fleeced up the spare coroplast piece, cut open the bottom floor of the condo and slid it in there, then made the opening for them to enter it on the longer side (2nd floor entrance is on the shorter side/there's no direct connection between the two levels). when the time comes, I can divide the playpen up so that one of them gets a pen + the first floor and the other gets a different pen + the upper floors of the condo.

meanwhile, the poop is EVERYWHERE... or was, until I deep-cleaned the condo and pen. ofc, right after I deep-cleaned the condo, they elected to leave multiple cecals lying around it, forcing me to come behind with a paper towel, the brats. four litter boxes and they still manage to poop on practically every inch of the pen. I'd sell my soul for them to grasp the correlation between being locked up in the condo while mommy deep-cleans the pen/being subjected to the nasty vacuum cleaner noise with their tendency to poop all over my life!

I made their vet appointment last week - they get spayed on october 16th... one more month to go!

 

[littl3red]

Ah, sounds like such a handful! Good luck with the spay.

 

[Imbrium]

I'm worrying already, lol! they're my little babies

I'm stocking up a first aid kit with syringes and pumpkin and critical care and rice-filled socks (to use as heating pads) and probiotics and anything else little bunns might need around surgery time.

 

[ldoerr]

They will be fine I got Beauty spayed about a week ago and she was eating within an hr of her spay. My vet did an AMAZING job. Shiny Things is going in for a check up this Friday and if all goes well will get spayed that same day. I think that if you have gone through it before it is easier. It is good that you are stocking up on all that stuff. If I could add to the list I would make sure that you have LOTS of their favorite foods. My rabbits really like raisens. I am sure that all will go good but am thinking of them still

O and I know how the teanage faze can be. That is one good thing about getting already full grown rabbits.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, adopting adults definitely has some perks... it's been fun watching 'em grow up together, though!

I figure the month or so of having them separated until their hormones have subsided post-spaying is equivalent to going through the bonding process with two adults in terms of the hassle of it... there's just the tease of having two months of happy, non-hormonal bunnies before you go through the month of having to keep them apart.

given that I impulse-purchased the bunnies (had been thinking of getting another pet for quite a while, but then woke up one day and decided "I wanna get a bunny today"), I'm glad I got babies - I've learned a heck of a lot in the last two months and have had time to plot out how I plan to separate them, etc. so I'm much better prepared.

 

[Imbrium]

I'm starting to wonder whether they're actually fighting a bit or if they've just found a new way to play.

I actually witnessed the start of the chase twice this morning... the first time, Nala was grooming Gaz's ear then Gaz turned and looked at her, took off running and Nala gave chase. the second time, they were about a foot apart doing absolutely nothing when Gaz looked at Nala and then started running like mad with Nala chasing her... so it's Gaz (the chasee) that starts the mad dash out of the blue rather than Nala doing something to make her run away. both times, they quit as soon as I told them to knock it off (I was resting in the pen with them at the time).

is that normal bunny play behavior? they never did it until very recently, but Gaz may have been a little iffy about running on the tarp before now (she used to only binky outside on the concrete but I caught her doing it inside last night). it seems like the longer I have them together, the more Gaz learns play behavior from Nala - Nala taught her how to binky, how to climb the levels of the condo and how to dig at the fleece. so... new game or the start of hormones kicking in?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We had two neutered girls that loved to take turns chasing each other all over the living, family room, kitchen and hall. One would get up, look at the other, and the chase was on. Only had one bunny out of 27 that had impeccable bathroom habits--she'd only go in her pan in the hutch, pee in one corner and poop in the other corner like a regular sharpshooter. She was a great bunny and we've been missing her for more than 4 years.

 

[Imbrium]

ok, cool... I'll let 'em stay together for now and just continue keeping an eye on them. I've yet to see anything that looks like a real fight, but I'm expecting one any time now as they're just over 16 and 15 weeks (the submissive one is the older of the two, though)