I thought lapiki (la pee kee) would like banana since she love apples, papaya and goes bonkers for strawberries.  So I tried the banana on the head trick.  I put it on ‘ele (eh lay) since she seems to need a little more work and time than him.  She went up to him and sniffed, but then left it at that. ( I should have known considering she is a picky veggie eater)  I was left with a bunny with a banana head!  They will occassionally sniff noses, but he will thump and take off not long after it starts. 

Thanks. We adore both of them. ‘ele is currently recovering from his banana head cleaning. They are both back in his cage zonked out….separately.

Today we had more of the same, but a couple of nose to nose encounters. I’m not sure of ‘ele is just getting bolder or we are progressing. She was at his cage when I got home from work next to the door just waiting for it to be opened. They are both out and he is exploring the hutch. The phone just rang, so she just took off to the safety of the back of the tv cabinet. Everything seems status quo as it has for the past few days. They are normally both allowed free roaming while we are home. On Sunday we did leave his door open for an hour or so while we were gone. Everyone was just as we left them! I feel like we are kind of in a holding pattern – except for when I did try the banana on ‘ele’s head and she went up to him and sniffed and kind of looked at him like “dude, what happened to you?” and left it at that. I did take some video that I will post from last night, just to give an idea of what they are doing.

Here is a video of common interactions we see with these two:

http://s847.photobucket.com/albums/ab39/jepartenheimer/piki%20and%20ele/?action=view&current=pikiandele.flv

You can see the cage door is open and they can come and go as they please, which they are both very aware of.

Tonight they seem to be in closer proximity to each other more often. They were both out of the cage quite a bit with only a little of the chasing by lapiki that you see in the video.

Right now she is flopping down inside and he is also in there lying down. They are still apart from each other. He is behind his little plastic igloo and she is along the front. I don’t think she likes it when it’s time for her to get out and close the door. I think the only reason she can stand it at night is because she goes upstairs with us and sleeps under the bed with her blanket and toys she has dragged under there. Until I see them snuggling together I thought I should keep his cage shut at night. He isn’t big enough to get up the stairs either- at least I don’t think so. He’s never ventured to check them out. they also spent more time getting a little closer and checking each other out.

I think we are doing well based on other bonding cases I’ve been reading about g about. I don’t worry about them out together at all even when I’m not in the room. I went in the kitchen to start dinner before my husband got home and don’t even need to check on them every couple of minutes like earlier in the week. Of course the bangin around in the kitchen meant they were hiding anyway

We are on day 10…ready for 11 tomorrow!

OH OH OH! Lapiki was all kinds of flopped out in the cage and taking quite the nap. ‘ele was eating and then came over next to her along side of her. It is the closest thing to snuggling I have seen with them! Lapiki stayed for a minute or two and then got up and moved. She went off and groomed and then gave a little chase like in the video. I’m so excited that snuggling may be in their future soon!

My husband was home today so the buns have been out together all day…12 hours so far. He kept me posted. He said they pretty much ran around for the first hour separately. Lapiki got a little tired and went upstairs and crashed up there much of the late morning/afternoon. ‘ele continued romping and exploring the kitchen. When I got home, he was out and in the hutch eating away. She came downstairs when she heard me come home. They just seemed to do their own thing. I haven’t seen as much of her chasing him. We laughed because he was in the hutch using her litter box and eating her food (same as his) and she was in his cage doing the same thing. They did a little bit of nose touching this evening before he shoots off like a flash. Just a few minutes ago he was lying down in the cage and she came up to him and groomed him for about 10 seconds…maybe there is remnants of that bananahead. My husband has taken to calling him “poor little banana head”. After she was grooming him for a few seconds he took off. I’m not sure if he is still a little nervous. She went off to eat for a few minutes and then went back to him for a little but more grooming and him taking it for a couple of seconds before bolting. Since she is so much bigger, he must feel like it is Godzilla coming over to groom him! Right now he’s flopping and she’s eating…hopefully more progress!

I haven’t seen anymore grooming- or attempted grooming. Last night was ‘ele’s first night with his cage open. His cage has been left open since yesterday afternoon. No problems so far. They have been playing in their bunny haven for a while this evening…funny they didn’t like it when I had it at two levels, but I changed it to one and they played and played. ‘ele seems to follow Lapiki around quite a bit. We put them next to each other for a few minutes and pet them tonight. They did well with that. So no major advances, but no real problems either. I have some video, but am having an issue getting it uploaded. I will try to do it again tonight.

We had some more grooming from ‘ele.  Lapiki will tolerate it for a very short period of time.   He has discovered upstairs though.  So she spent the morning up there rearranging all of “her” things.  They are still getting along fine and have access to each other all of the time.  They are near each other most of the time. It will be interesting to see if he comes up tonight when she does. 

We have removed the cage we were using for ‘ele completely. They are both able to freely roam the house. They are doing well together. I haven’t seen any true snuggling yet, but there is grooming for very short periods and they are always near each other. Right now they are both zonked out about 4 inches from each other. We’ve never had any fighting with them, even in the beginning, so I think we were lucky. They take turns in the hutch for eating and drinking. But where lapiki goes, ‘ele is sure to follow. We are still dealing with some territorial potties from lapiki around, but those are getting better too.

So how do I know when they are truly bonded? Lapiki is currently grooming ‘ele. (maybe the poor kid’s head still smells like banana from that disaster!) They have spent time in the hutch together today- at one point both in the litter box. During the day we still get pooping from lapiki, who never went outside of her litter area before and we know it is territory. We are bringing the front cage part back to the hutch tonight for times when we are gone for long periods. Someone (or both) have peed outside of the litterbox – and not just a little miss a couple of times- once yesterday and once today. I’m pretty convinced that is ‘ele. He still really young. But we are hoping that keeping them caged will help reinforce litterbox habits. They will be allowed full freedom when we are home. I haven’t seen true snuggling yet, but they are never far apart. They are really too cute together. Lapiki is definitely the boss, but ‘ele loves to follow her everywhere.

‘ele was neutered last week. Lapiki has been less than happy upon his return. He was kept caged for several days to reduce his activity and not have the stress of being out with her. Yesterday, I let him out for a little bit. It was just him around the living room, lapiki was upstairs. She came down and there was some chasing, then a little bit of a tiff. He went back into his cage. Today he was out again for a little bit while she was upstairs. She came down about 15 minutes later and the same thing. He went back into his cage. They are starting over in a worse place than they left off before the neuter. I am excited for him to stop marking in the next few weeks though!

The first attempt at bonding was actually pretty easy and no major issues. Since ‘ele came back from being neutered last week, Lapiki has turned into the bunny version of the Kraken. They were never aggressive with each other before other than a quick nip if she wasn’t getting what she wanted.  We put them next to each other last night and pet them. They seemed okay with that. My husband was holding lapiki while ‘ele had a little time out. He was acting a little stir crazy. Lapiki squirmed her way out of his arms and we had a fight. Each pulled out some fur from each other. We were able to wrangle him back into his cage. They have never been like that with each other. I think we are back pre-square one.

Even though they had a rough patch. I think their initial bond helped the second time. About a month after ‘ele’s neutering, we tried the laundry basket trick a couple of times. That seemed to go okay. They still didn’t especially want to be friends outside of it though. After a couple of initial laundry basket trips, we had them in the bathtub. That seemed to really do the trick! The first time they were together in the morning for about 45 minutes and no problems. Later that day they were in again for about a half an hour. Afterwards, ‘ele would just run as fast as possible up to his hutch. The next day it was for about an hour in the morning and half hour in the evening. Again no problems with them at all. Lapiki would groom him, although he didn’t reciprocate. They then seemed okay to be out together. They were allowed to be out together. They were still separated at night and while we were gone. After a couple of days of that, we tried leaving them out together at night. That went well, so we then removed ‘ele’s run and they have been happy ever since. That was about 2 weeks ago. They both have access to all of the house. They have a great time with each other. Over the past week, there has only been a little bit of poo left around. That gets better every day too. They are adorable together.