Previously close rabbits separated

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 4sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 6 months ago by Mikey.

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- 08/25/2016 at 8:12 PM
  Taylor
  Participant
  33 posts
  Yesterday….the inevitable finally happened. Wallace, my ten week old lionhead was humping Trippy’s face. Trippy is the same age, a dutch girl. I was like…Aw dangit. So, we got out the spare cage and tried to make accommodations for Trippy to be moved into it. She seems to like her new cage, but there have been times where I could tell she was distressed, and it’s breaking my heart.
  
  I tried to let them both our of their cage to run around their separate pens, (which they usually do together for most of the evening while we are home) and I just could not get Trippy to leave her cage. I enticed her out with bananas, but she wouldn’t jump out. I thought maybe she was scared to jump, so I picked her up and put her near the food I layed out for her and she jumped right back in. I took the top off the cage so she might feel more free to jump out herself, but she just got as near to the cage she used to share with Wally as she could and started biting the bars, pacing, and generally refusing to leave that spot, shoving her face in between the bars. I picked her up and put her back in the place I gave her to play and she FOUGHT me to get back to that spot. so, I had to block that part off. She will not leave her cage and continues to go to the closest corner to Wally’s and try to find a way out. I’m just heart-broken. They’ve been together for practically forever, and they’ve never known anything else. They have always gotten along, they’re affectionate towards each other, but we know it’s safer to leave Trippy out of the danger of impregnation, as well as away from the danger of being bitten or swiped at while we aren’t home. We are taking them to the vets this weekend for a general checkup, (great timing Wally with the humping!) and we will probably talk about best options for neutering.
  
  My question generally is just what advice you may have, and will this affect their bond when they’re ready to be put back together? I just hate it for them. Wally isn’t nearly as stressed out, but he is never stressed out about anything–he’s a different sort of bun.
- 08/25/2016 at 11:05 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  Shes likely fighting to get back in because thats her house too. Not necessarily because Wally is in there, but because you removed her from the place she considers home. For some rabbits, thats a huge stresser, while others dont care too much about being swapped cages. Any possible way to move Wally into the new cage instead and letting Trippy have the one they shared?
  
  If she is just that attached to him that she is stressed without him near, there isnt too much you can do. You can try to give Wally a stuffed toy, then after a week or two give it to Trippy so she has something in her new cage that smells like him close by. What effects it has on them when you try to rebond them is different for every bun
- 08/26/2016 at 4:42 PM
  bpash89
  Participant
  307 posts
  They aren’t fixed? Then they need to be separated until both of them are altered and have adequate time to heal. Then they will have to be bonded again. Any bond they had will be broken after they are fixed and spend that length of time apart. They will need to be reintroduced and rebonded before they can be put back together.
  
  Her reaction is most likely because of the new housing arrangement (bunnies do not like change) as well as being separated from Wally. Their separation will have to be semi permanent until they are both old enough to be fixed (if they are both 10 weeks old you’ve got a few months to go…) so she will get used to it and settle into a new routine soon enough.
- 08/26/2016 at 4:58 PM
  Paradigm
  Participant
  479 posts
  I would arrange Trippy’s cage so that as much of it is close to Wallace’s as possible. Leave enough room so that they cannot bite each other (hormones do strange things to buns). She’s probably distressed about being separated and might like to lay near to Wallace.
- 08/26/2016 at 8:14 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  If Wally is also not fixed yet, youll have to keep them a bit farther away as rabbits can get pregnant through the bars. Youll want to keep them roughly 5inchs apart if not more
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