I have a male rex, Stormy, who is a little over a year old. I adopted him about 2 months ago and he still hasn’t bonded with either me or my boyfriend. We adopted him from a guy who recently got him and his brother from a woman who let them both roam the house. That guy then put them both in a small cage, and they started to not get along, so he rehomed Stormy to me.
Since the day we got him, he’s been a bit of a handful. He has never really liked us, and he typically uses his “thumper” tactic whenever we try to hold him, and he also bites us every time we do, so we only really take him out of his cage maybe two or three times a week, including the day I clean his cage every week. I have a big two-story, cage for him, and when either of us walk in the room, he goes straight to the bottom. In order to get him out, we have to take apart the whole cage, which is another reason we don’t try to take him out too often. He also flips his water dish and food dish over when we walk into the room, which is irritating as well.
I’m thinking of getting another bunny to see if that helps him become nicer or calms him down, or at least so he’s happier because I just don’t think he is happy with us.
I recently had my friend’s female bunny over just to see what he would do with another bunny around. He seemed to be really interested in her, and tried to almost cuddle with her and she tried cuddling with him too and stuff, but then he was trying to put his nose near her privates and humping her and stuff, and I read that that’s just the “dominance” issues that I would have to work out. I realize bonding two bunnies takes time, but I would really like to give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, I do have a separate cage that I had from a previous bunny I owned.
I would have to get him neutered if I went through with this all, I’m just hoping that doesn’t make his attitude worse than it already is….
What do you all think? Any advice? Does this sound like a bad idea? I would really appreciate any input you guys have!
Thank you all so much!