Hi, we adopted 2 8 week old babies last October. A boy and a girl from the same litter. Sadly, the baby girl died and our boy (Lettuce) was left on his own. He would sleep inside in a house cage at night, go into a large outdoor run with enclosed bedroom space during the day (if not too cold) and spend some evenings in the lounge with us, or in the house with us during the day. He is very affectionate and will hop onto the sofa for strokes and then groom us. Although he is not a massive fan of being picked up and can get very scrabbly. Lettuce was desexed at 6 months old. Lettuce also appears to be bonded with our small maltese girl dog (desexed), although they are never together without me present, they sniff each other affectionately and Lettuce will hop into the dog’s bed with her.
However, I felt that Lettuce was lonely and after much thought, and reading about what gender would best bond with our boy, we adopted an 8 week old baby girl who is related to Lettuce (grand-niece I think!). We have built a large bunny condo for the bunnies to share, however at the moment we have moved Lettuce into the condo and placed Blackberry nextdoor in the (cleaned out) indoor cage. Outside we have 2 enclosures set up side by side. They seemed quietly interested in each other and were sniffing each other through the bars so I let them both roam together last night in the lounge and again tonight. They seem to really love each other. There is lots of grooming and binkies. Although it is mostly the baby girl who is grooming Lettuce, he loves it and lies down so she can do it. The only cause for concern I have is that on occasion Lettuce sniffs her bum and she runs off. Sometimes he gives chase. But there has been no aggressive behaviour.
I had hoped to move them in together in a couple of weeks, all going to plan. Having read some posts on the forum, I get the impression there may be trouble ahead before Blackberry is desexed and that perhaps they should be separated around that time. My question is, do I keep them separate until she is desexed or can they live together beforehand, given that they seem to be bonding well.
xx