My dilemma with Meatball

[Cheddar33]

Meatball has been bullied by Poopy (and sometimes Cheddar) for a long time now. Today is his birthday (posted in the lounge). Last night he got chased around and nipped by Poopy and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I started crying because I feel so bad for him. It’s like his personality is being stifiled by the bullying. Every time Poopy and Cheddar go near him, he scatters and is scared. Poopy nips him constantly and I don’t know what to do to help Meatball. They all live in the same cage now and sometimes they all lay together. 

I don’t know whether I should find him a better home because he deserves it or keep him and try to work things out between them. I really don’t want to give him away since he’s my baby, but I don’t want to be selfish either.

[Sarita]

Well, what bothers you may not bother him – you are looking at this from a human not a rabbit. Rabbits have to work these things out the rabbit way.

I don’t think a new home is a better idea and for the most part, it sounds like they are existing together just fine.

[Cheddar33]

That makes me feel better. Thanks, Sarita.

[Elrohwen]

Hannah is a bit of a bully and will chase and nip Otto. Sometimes I think he’s more hand shy with us because he thinks everybody is going to chase and nip him. However, at the end of the day there’s nobody he wants to snuggle with and get groomies from than Hannah. Like Sarita said, what bothers you might not bother him. Usually one animal is bottom of the group, but they’d still rather be with the group than all alone.

[Michelle&Lolli]

Eddie was a bossy, nippy butthead to Lolli as well. Just constantly chasing her around and God forbid I try to give her attention. He would literally chase her out of the room and come back for all the attention. He’d even chase her away from the litterbox, water, and food bowls. Just had to constantly show her who was boss. And like Otto and Hannah, they wanted nothing but to snuggle with each other all the time and were constantly grooming each other. Although Lolli would ignore his requests sometimes. hahahaha

Ticked me off though. LOL I also felt so bad for Lolli. I would say that as long as Meatball is still able to eat/drink/use the litterbox, he is fine. It’s just hard for us mamas to watch our babies being bullied!

[MimzMum]

Cheddar, the mere fact that you worry that Meatball is being bullied shows you are a great bunny mum and there is NO WAY you should even think of rehoming him. (I’ll bun-nap him first! lolz!)

I have three unbonded bunnies. I am T-E-R-R-F-I-E-D that when I finally group them together that they will bully, fight, or otherwise harm one another rather than become good friends that have those cute cuddle moments. But since they’ve all lived in the same room (just not in the same habitat) for almost 4 years together, I have hopes they will eventually bond strongly. Do I think they’ll always be sweet to one another? Eh…there isn’t a family in the world that can do that. As long as not one of them is seriously hurt by one of the others, then I expect them all to tolerate one another. (We’ll see how successful I am there…ha-ha!)

How do you tell your bunnies that if they can’t play nice they’ll go to bed without dessert? Just for future reference…

[Cheddar33]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback. It is really hard to see my baby being bullied and scared all the time, but there has to be a bunny hierarchy. He is eating and drinking fine. I just hope that he will come out of his shell sometime. I’m giving him extra attention and sometimes he grunts and lunges at me (esp. when I touch his apple sticks lol).

I don’t think I could give him away because I love him so much. It’s true that he’s better off in a group rather than alone and if I were to give him away to another bun family, then the same thing could happen too. Meatball is mines!

[Author]

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