Hey all,
I have read these forums for info for a long time without posting, but finally I have some (roughly a billion) questions of my own.
THE SITUATION:
I have a 4 y/o female lionhead rabbit named Peaches. I have had her since she was 1.5, and she has been an “only child” all her life until this past weekend. She is spayed.
I adopted a very gentle and sweet female lop (of some kind, unsure of the actual breed) named Suki, whose age is unknown (guessing around the area of 2 years old). She is not spayed, and has had a rough go over the past year and a half (5 different owners, all neglectful, and a false pregnancy). I don’t know much about her history, but knew enough that I wanted to rescue her and give her the life she definitely deserves.
All in all, Suki is an extremely happy bunny (especially given what she’s been through) and she is adjusting amazingly to life with a new owner and a new house (minus the learning curve of litter training, which is to be expected). She is very calm, very happy, and very comfortable in the presence of people.
Suki’s bottom is still quite dirty/a bit smelly from the owner she was rescued from. I don’t believe it is causing her pain or that it’s an emergency situation, but I am dying to get a better look and get her cleaned up. She is very comfortable laying down with her butt out, so I’ve been able to get an idea of what’s going on down there and there is some slight matting (she has short hair, it would be easily taken care of) and since her fur is white, the dirt is very visible.
THE QUESTIONS:
As she is a new rabbit, I have held off on giving her a safe butt bath or cleaning her anal glands as I don’t want to put her through stress during an already stressful period of adjustment (I also don’t want her to be afraid of me, or associate me with unpleasant things like uncomfortable grooming). Should I just bite the bullet and do it and get it over with? Or should I give her a week or two to settle in?
In respects to bonding them: from all advice/knowledge I have gathered from this forum, I have kind of developed a “tentative” plan for bonding the two of them, but I would like input from anyone/everyone who cares to read this whole novel.
I am keeping them in enclosures in the same room, separated by a couch so they can’t see each other.
Last night I let them see each other for the first time through the walls of their enclosures, it went well (minus a little nip from Peach when Suki put her face under her chin) and I let them go into each other’s enclosures to rub their scent on each other’s areas so they can get used to the smell of each other. This just kind of happened naturally, and I let them do what they were both doing- should I not have let them do this?
Because of Suki being new, I wasn’t planning on trying to rush bonding them, as her being comfortable in my house needs to come first (or at least I think it should).
Should I hold off on anymore bonding steps between them until I get Suki spayed? Since she has already experienced one false pregnancy, I don’t want Peaches to somehow stimulate her into having another.
How long should I wait to start the bonding process between them (slowly)? I was thinking maybe a month, with occasional meetings with the wall of the enclosures between them and some toy swapping.
There are so many factors to be considered- I am feeling pretty overwhelmed and wanting to make sure I do this right so that every bunny is happy.
Any and all help is appreciated, thanks to everyone who reads this. I will provide some photos of them/their rabbitats when I am home from work! <3