the bonding fun continues.

okay... i am condensing everything into one thread b/c i forget what i have where.

some background... in this thread, i talked about getting Max and a little bit of the preliminary bonding, as well as pics.  binkybunny.com/Default.aspx

in this thread, i experiment with stressing them out on the washing machine.  this thread has video footage of how that went. binkybunny.com/Default.aspx

you can also see the videos by going to my YouTube:  www.youtube.com/user/Beka27

i'll update later with how today's sessions went.

here's the video from yesterday afternoon.  sorry it's so dark again.  i can see perfectly fine, but i guess when i'm doing this at 3-4 o'clock the sun is moving to the other side of the house and it looks like it's pitch black.

www.youtube.com/watch

this is what went on yesterday.  we did another hour, no stress before hand.  the area is smaller with a NIC grid fence blocking past the dresser.  no fights.  there was one fur-pulling scuffle that stopped when the water bottle came out.  Max is afraid of Meadow now.  when she walks up to him, he thumps and then hops away quickly.  i was petting him a lot to try and calm him down...  there was possessiveness of the hay-filled litterbox the day before, so i added in a small cardboard box with more hay.  they both would take turns in the litterbox and nibbling from the other box.  the above video starts off with Meadow and Max nose to nose.  she presented to him for grooming and laid there for several minutes.  he just sat looking at her.  there was no grooming on his part (or hers).  i gently dropped a few drops of the water onto their heads, but still no grooming.  i would reach over and rub both of their heads myself, i guess to simulate grooming, is this a good idea or no?

i took Max and Meadow in my room right after work. there were no fights. no fur-pulling. no nipping. Max was sitting in the litterbox and i lifted Meadow in there and they sat together, side-by-side for about ten minutes. Meadow continued to present herself for grooming and Max just sat there. i dripped some water on each of their heads... then Meadow started to GROOM Max's ear. this went on for about a minute. she hopped out and came up to me, so i gave her some pets. i put her back in the box with Max and she settled down.  --->  www.youtube.com/watch

she hopped out again, i gave her some more pets for a few minutes, and then i put her in the litterbox once again, and this is when she really went to town grooming Max. she licked his ear, inside and out and by his eye.  --->  www.youtube.com/watch

THEN MY CAMERA DIED!!!   <--------Grrr.......

but there was GROOMING!  so that's something, right?  it gives me some hope at least...

oh wow beka... it really looks like you've made great progress!  max will prolly need consistant behaviour from mead before he relaxes around her.  interesting that mead is the one doing the grooming.  does that mean max will be dominant even tho mead is the agressor? 

Looks like some great progress to me!!! Your persistence will pay off soon.  They are so cute.  Is Max good with the litterbox etc???Any marking from the little miss?

That's pretty good then.  Max was an outside bun before, right? So if that's the case then he probably had no litter box so he's doing incredibly well!  All ready to be sent to me...

That's it!  I'm sending my lear jet out to pick him up!

oh beka thats fabulous!   grooming from meadow... yay

i'm def following your lead with the switching of areas.  i just wish i could have bonding sessions at the same time.  ah well.

so what's next for the sweeties? 

www.youtube.com/watch

here's the vid of Max grooming Meadow.  he did it another time today for a few seconds also.

oh they're soooo sweet together

max is the big handsome boy & mead is the little uppy eared pretty girl.  and they *match* !  i love how max went from itching his nose to grooming mead.  it was kinda like a guy's move when they pretend they're stretching their arms & then use it as an excuse to put their arm around you.

No, you can do that.  The HRS does that all the time to start off their bonding sessions.  Put them in like you had them and then pet both their heads at the same time for about 30-45 seconds straight so that they can get your scent and the other bun's scent on them.

With Save A Bunny, they just put them into the same pen and leave it at that.  They do use their bodies as an obstacle though in the pen so one can hop around to get away.

well, i tried something a little bit different today.  --->  www.youtube.com/watch   maybe it's a good idea, maybe not, but it seemed to work fine for us.  i really have no other neutral space besides my bedroom, so i decided i was going to take a chance at putting them together in their own room.  their room was never used by Meadow before Max came to stay, so it is "shared territory", not like the living room which was Meadow's for 9 months before now.  i gathered all of my supplies, including a blanket from the living room.  i put up the baby gate blocking off the doorway, closed my bedroom door and closed both of their pens.  i brought out a second litterbox and a big plate of romaine, plus some new willow toys and the grass ball. 

we spent about an hour and 20 minutes in there.  there were no fights.  Meadow got antsy once when Max would not groom her when she presented, and once more when Max was hogging the veggie plate.  --->  www.youtube.com/watch

they did spend time eating hay side by side in the litterbox, and eating from the veggie plate at the same time.  Meadow was grooming him most everytime she was near him, he groomed her on the head a couple times.  at one point they were sitting facing opposite directions in the litterbox, and they were each grooming the others' back.  i would have left them together longer but i had to get dinner together, and i did not want to leave them alone yet.  i am going to continue with this for the next few days and see how it goes... maybe even increasing their time together. 

www.youtube.com/watch

so far, so good.  i am confident that they will bond, and i'm hoping it's sooner rather than later.  i think they are both really wanting company, and they seem calmer in the other's presence.

good plan beka.  putting them together in their shared space really seems to have been a good move for a next step in bonding them.  now you can gradually increase the time they hang out 'barrier free' until you feel confident they're okay to be together unsupervised.   seems logical to me.  i wonder what markusdark / sarita / binkbunny ... think?