Well I stayed up late last night thinking of plans.  I think I’ve got it!  I’m going to make the majority of his condo on top of Tucker’s condo so then the flooring that I put down will allow them that space between each other.  The only thing that will be on the same level of hers is that I need to somehow get him down to ground floor..so I am going to make a little step down to the main floor and that will kind of jut out into her cage.  She will lose 3 grids of space but that’s an area that she rarely uses so I don’t think she’ll mind so much.  I’ll just move her box house to another area that is rarely used by her. 

So there is one cube that I will need to cover.  The other one I was thinking of maybe leaving open.  It’d be a cube where she could see him but couldn’t get to each other since it’d be like second level height.  I  thought then maybe they COULD see each other if they wanted to.

Does this sound like a good idea or a bad idea?  I could easily cover that space with something though so that they could NOT see each other if that sounds like it’d cause problems. 

My husband is out now getting yet another box of NIC grids.  We just got a set yesterday that we are using for Tucker’s vacation home at my mom’s and I was going to use that for Drue’s condo when we got back but the idea of getting home from a long trip and having to rush together a NIC condo right away just seems a bit daunting.  I figure now I’ll have between now and Thursday to get it the way I like it and then when I get home Tucker and Drue will both have their condos that they can go snuggle into.  Drue can explore and Tucker can sulk about her car ride and stay with my parents!

I already have plans for after they’re bonded too.  I think I’ll just open up one of the grids so that the two condos can be combined and they’ll have a high rise.  And for now the extra NIC grids will come in handy because that means I can put them together afterwards into another pen and I’ll have an extra so that they each have a pen rather then one being in pen/one being in kitchen.  And then maybe if Drue likes going upstairs with me he can do that..since I’ve gotten the “heck no!” from Tucker!

Well the way I am planning on doing it…they wouldn’t have to see each other at all either.  Drue’s main living area and his shelf would be on top of Tucker’s pen and so they’d never see each other.  But, his step and “foyer” will be down on her levels where she would see him.  I might block it off at first and see how they get along between the cages and see whether I would need to make the block a more permanent idea.  For now I figured I could hang something up to act as a curtain between the two cages in the small area that would be visible to each other so that they couldn’t see through them. 

I’m a worry wart so I am trying to plan for worse case scenario!

Ok I just made the condo

He enters into a 3 grid long 1 grid wide foyer.  This will just be his eating area and little lounge spot if he wants.  Although I might move his eating area up to the main floor and just have a litter  box down there instead.  I guess we’ll see what he prefers when he gets here.  Anyway, it’s just the ground floor so that he can get in and out of his condo on his own and not have to be picked up.  It’s not that big but it’ll serve it’s purpose.  Then he’ll have a 1 grid step that he can jump on and then jump onto his main floor.  This floor is 2 grids by 3 grids.  This floor will have flooring down so Tucker won’t be visible at all to him there and vice versa.  On his step and on his little foyer area she will be visible to him and vice versa.  Once I get an extra box of cubes I’m going to add another level for him but we underestimated how many we’d need lol and so for now it’s just the one.  But I think it’s a pretty big area and really they’re only going to be in there condo/pen areas at night.  The rest of the time they’ll have run time elsewhere

I think that’s a great idea of switching them back and forth.  I think that’ll work out well.  Tucker’s area is a little bit bigger so that way they’ll each have turns with the bigger pen space at night.  Drue’s area right now isn’t that big but I think it’ll definitely be big enough considering all the out time he’ll be having

I’ll definitely be taking pictures later! Right now I am SUPPOSED to be working lol but I have bunny on the brain.  I love the set up so much that once they are bonded I’ll be leaving it up and just removing one of the grids so that it opens up for them to climb into from the pen.  It looks like it would be so much fun for them to explore all the levels! It definitely came out better then I was thinking.  

  This is the joint condo from the side.  Down towards the left you can see where the door to the upper condo is open.  And above that you can see through to Tucker on her shelf sleeping.

 Better shot of the door…we’ve woken Tucker..can you tell?  The tie dye fleece is the shelf that goes up to the upper level.  This will be changed to something a bit more stable but it was put up just incase Tucker decided to jump on it so that she wouldn’t get hurt.  The space down here goes for those three grids and then stops after that since that is where it becomes Tucker’s area.  Better pics of that to follow..

  Aerial shot of jumping shelf.

  Drue’s main floor.  The disney princess crib blanket will be switched out for the carpet that used to be in Tucker’s cage.  The woven cloth rug. It’s in the washing machine right now.  I might move that litter box to the bottom..depending on how Drue needs it.  I put a few of the toys that either Tucker isn’t fond of or that we have doubles of up here for now.  The three grids all the way left…those will be the upper shelf once we get the extra pack of grids.  We ran out for now so right now Drue will just have the one floor, the shelf and the bottom little foyer area.

 The look into Drue’s level when the doors are open.  Since it’s so high I made the doors up one grid, this way I can get into it just fine to clean but it’s a bit of a more sturdy door so that he doesn’t accidently lean on it and have a clip pop open and out he falls!

  A look into Drue’s level showing how he gets down onto the little step there.  And Again Tucker trying to sleep again.

  A full condo shot from another angle.

  This shows the area where they will be able to see each other.  It’ll be the three grids on the bottom that will be the biggest issue.  That’s the only area where I can see any fighting being able to take place.  The grid o the end is a mesh grid so they can’t get through that.  Thinking about it now I wish I had used those for all of  the coexisting areas…although then tehy wouldn’t get as used to each other..and also I was trying to leave all grids that were already in place…in place. I couldn’t find a good way to double the grids here…and I ran out of them..so until we get more I have to think of another way that I will block them from fighting in this area.  Hopefully this won’t even be an issue but for safety’s sake I think maybe I’ll buy some mesh and zip tie it on??  Is there anything like that that is bun safe??

  Tucker Bunz awake again!  I’ve been calling her Lady Tucker lately, as if Tucker was her last name

  This shot did not come out at all..I think because of my window being open.  I had to adjust the fill light online for it to come out at all.  But this is the view of the condos from the other side of the room.  It’s dark but I think you can make out how the grids go across the room.  They go all the way into the kitchen which is also bun space.  However, once Drue comes home I’ll be wrapping that pen around to closing off behind the toy box and then the other bun we’ll get gated into the ktichen with baby gates during their run time.

I use whatever she doesn’t eat lol.   Luckily she doesn’t eat fleece at all but she loves it.  She likes to burrow under it.  I actually have to find my purple fleece that I have somewhere and make another one of those blankies because that’s actually hers so I have to take it out of the other side.   I just had it up there yesterday because she was my test subject to make sure that the floors were accessible for a bun her size   Drue is only about a pound and a half bigger then her so I figured it was a fair judgement. 

Anyway, with her I can also use towels, receiving blankets, sheets.  Any of that stuff she is ok with.  The stuff that she has on her shelf is a baby blanket (cotton) and an old towel (again..cotton) and she just likes to cuddle on those, never chews them up.  I’d say anything of that sort would be ok unless the rabbit is eating it.  Sometimes she’ll bite her blankets but it’s only to put them into position.  The only thing that I have to watch with her really is regular pile carpet.  She just thinks that’s too much fun to pull apart.  I’m actually going to look for some berber remnants because she doesn’t seem to pull that apart at all. 

Thanks

We got them from home depot I think.  Or Lowes’ …trying to remember which one, Lowes’ I think.  Our town is weird and jams every store into the same 2 mile radius so everything looks the same and it’s hard to remember which is which.

hehehe yea probably not!  My husband picked these  out actually

I added an extra level to the cage tonight The three squares on the top left are now Drue’s upper loft   I love it.  It looks so much more spacious now   I can’t wait!!!

Well today was day 1 of the lived in divided condo. 

We had to add mesh on 9 of the grids.  They were fine with each other until Drue figured out how to get to the lower shelves.  Then..they started sniffing each other, I thought all was well and then boom growling and I guess nipping through the bars.  Finally got Tucker to go in the kitchen and installed the mesh.  There was still some sniffing through the mesh but now finally both are calm.  Sheesh.  Well hopefully they’ll get used to each other a bit through the mesh during their “pre-bonding” phase.  Man I hope so. 

Hopefully I grow some extra nerve by the time we do the actual bonding.  They’ve got me worried that somehow they’re going to get to each other in those littler corner spaces and kill each other while I sleep tonight.  I’m actually afraid to go to sleep lol.

There ends up being about an inch between them too since the mesh and the regular cubes didn’t lay flat next to each other.  So far there’s been no more fighting between the bars.  They will actually just sniff each other nicely.  And if they are both out in their runs I’ve been putting a blanket up between them if it’s a shared wall of cubes and they will sniff each other through the blanket and then both binky and run like crazy up and down the blanket.  So, I think they’re getting used to each other.  Hopefully by the time that they are ready to be bonded they’ll be really used to each other and I won’t have much of a problem.  It’ll be interesting to see which one gives up the dominance though, both of them have shown Peanut (the cat) that they dominate over her and she’s now grooming BOTH of them for fear that if she doesn’t she’ll be hopped on by them.   She tried showing her dominance over Drue the first night but he showed her!

You mean with a gate between them? Or in the same area with me around?  I don’t usually feed their salads next to each other because that’s breakfast and they’ve been lazy bums in the morning and have gotten breakfast in bed.  Drue’s a big eater though so I have been feeding them a snack salad in the evening too, so I could try that with them near each other.  I DO feed their pellets near each other though.  There’s just the one mesh grid between them during pellet time.  And their hay bowls are each right there too, so they spend alot of time munching right next to each other.  They seem to do fine with that, no quarrels.  Tonight I think I’m going to try just the gate between them when they’re playing so that they can see each other.  I might do it just in one spot and double grid it there just to be safe, but during that time my husband and I are in the same room watching tv so we’d be there to interrupt any fighting.  Right now if Drue the lazy bum would ever get up and come down I have Tucker in the kitchen and there’s a grid gate and a accordian wooden baby gate separating them.  They could probably see each other pretty well through that.  Although that’d also require Tucker to come out of her big box house (that’s housed in the kitchen) and she loves that thing so that’s doubtful..and Drue coming down from his condo is doubtful too..he was just munching on some pellets and then went up and flopped I’m thinking he’ll be there for quite a while lol.