I thought I’d give an update in case anyone else is going through this same situation….
Buddy still seems the dominate bunny while Baby Fatso is anywhere but on the bed with me. They display all the dominate/subordinate behaviors with no struggles although I have to admit it’s not always very obvious to me who is which unless I watch carefully but to my puny human understanding it is still Buddy. They are snuggling more and more but still very much like their own alone time.
The thing that puzzles me the most is that Baby Fatso is human shy, it wouldn’t be fair of me to say he was abused by his previous owners but he surely wasn’t respected as a bunny, this was displayed when I went to get him to take him home and he was brought out to me being held by the scruff of his neck (he’s at least 10 pounds). Earning Baby Fatso’s trust has been a long slow road so it puzzles me that he would even want on the bed when I’m on it, sometimes he gets on the bed even when Buddy isn’t on the bed although as soon as Buddy sees Baby Fatso is on the bed Buddy Congress racing up as fast as possible to make sure he’s not missing anything.
While they’re on the bed Baby Fatso inspects the entire bed, Buddy kinda takes a dominate position and sort of corrals Baby Fatso, peacefully guiding where he can go. After this “dance” they both settle in at the foot of the bed for some mutual grooming, it’s at this point that Baby Fatso will mount Buddy. He’s on top for a few seconds, Buddy speed it without problem, then they both hop off the bed. Last night was the 3rd night that it’s happened and I’m not sure if it means Baby Fatso is trying to assert some dominance or if it’s just a touch of spring fever.
Since I still haven’t been able to find any definite information on this at this point I’m going to play it safe and not move on to the next stage of moving them to semi neutral territory until this new behavior either stops or turns into something else. I really don’t want any major setbacks since we’ve come so far.