Toby hates Kirby

[kirbyultra]

I don't think I'll try to bond them. Toby hates Kirby so much. Kirby is so sweet and defenseless. I'm so disappointed in myself.

It's awful.... This morning I let Kirby out because it was his turn to come out and run in the morning. Everything was fine until I opened toby's cage door to clean. I was squatting by the doorway picking up pieces of his destroyed grass mat and stray poops. He kept stretching and standing up trying to get past me. I blocked him several times thinking I was almost done anyway, but then Kirby came back into the room and was strolling by toby's cage and that's when Toby made a break for it using the liquid bunny mode to get around me. It was only a fraction to a second: he launched into a full chase on Kirby. Kirby didn't know what hit him and then ran out. Once around the living room with me screaming behind them and Kirby came back, headed for his pen. I got scared because if Toby made it past the castle borders I would have a really, really hard time getting him off Kirby. Toby luckily ran into the door of his pen, Kirby got past and sat on his mat, looking behind. I closed off Kirby's fence immediately before Toby could recover.

Toby ran back out to the living room as I scolded after him and then he sat and ate Kirby's timothy pellets!!! Grrrrr!!!!

I looked at the damage in the living room... Patches of Kirbys fur was scattered on the floor. And Toby looked so proud of himself. I am really distraught by this. And frankly so is Kirby.

 

[SweetSassy]

Sent you a PM

 

[kirbyultra]

Thanks.

 

[tonyshuman]

I used to feel really bad about Tony because he would beat up on my boyfriends rabbits when we were trying to bond them. The bf calling my bunnies "bad bunnies" and "the worst bunnies in the world" didn't help either. Then I realized that bunnies are bunnies, and some aren't very sociable with each other. Some bunnies want to be alone, some just don't know how to act around other bunnies. Doing some more formal, controlled introductions may help, but you're not responsible for your bunnies' temperaments. A lot of that is determined by genetics and how the bunny was handled at a very young age. I even know of one bunny that was born in foster care at our shelter, he had 6 other siblings that were sweet as can be, and he's a little stinker who has bitten the heck out of me, probably because when he was young he had an upper respiratory infection and he had to be separated from his siblings and handled daily to give him meds. Rabbits aren't like dogs, there's not Caesar Milan to come into your house and calm the most angry bunny down with just a few words or touches. Their personalities aren't as malleable, and they haven't been bred for temperament.

 

[kirbyultra]

When I first got Toby, I thought if I handled him more, he'd be more sociable with humans. He was very manageable as a baby and slowly became more and more slippery as he learned how to escape. He's still much more easy to pick up than Kirby who fights being picked up with his life. Toby also had coccidia and I had to give him meds twice a day for 10 days when I first got him. Do you think that had anything to do with his aggression later on?

 

[tonyshuman]

It's possible, I guess. I don't think it's too late for him to warm up to you, though. I think you can help him turn around once his hormones are a bit calmer. Even the bunny I was talking about is getting better every day with lots of gentle contact.