RE: Peanut and Buttercup’s Bonding Journey

[sarahthegemini]

Today is day 9 and I think me and my boyfriend are going to take the next step – by that I mean, one of us (probably me!) is going to sleep downstairs with the bunnies. I mean, actually sleep as opposed to staying up all night with the lights on watching them intently! I’m nervous though but I can’t work out if I’m just extra cautious plus pessimistic? Or whether I’m rushing? 

Good points:

-Flopping together 

-Snuggling together 

-Seeking one another out to snuggle/lay near

-Mutual grooming

-Sharing hay

-Sharing a plate of veggies 

-Sharing litter boxes 

-Sharing water bowl 

-Sharing toys although Buttercup sometimes gets her face a little close to Peanut’s face whilst he’s chewing so he’ll dig at the top of her head for a few seconds to get her to move (is this concerning?)

Negative/Neutral pounts:

-Peanut still attempting to hump Buttercup HOWEVER he isn’t persistent and when she hops away, he won’t follow to keep humping. Usually as soon as he starts sniffing her butt intently,  and tries to put a paw on her back end, she’ll immediately hop/twist round. She will then either demand grooms, groom him or she’ll just continue with what they were doing prior to attempted hump. Occasionally she’ll actually hop away and sometimes jump in the litter box and Peanut will either carry on with what he was doing before or he’ll approach her once she’s stopped and ask for grooms or snuggle. It’s also worth noting that he hasn’t attempted face mounting in a few days now and I believe the reason he was mounting her face before was because Buttercup was twisting round and he was perhaps a bit confused. I think he deliberately face mounted at first but then he tried mounting the back but Buttercup is so quick to turn around, he just kept mounting lol. Buttercup jumps/twists round a little more drastically now so that she is actually away from Peanut by a few inches (as opposed to just twisting on the spot) so he doesn’t have a chance to get confused and face mount.

Obviously you guys know that the scuffle they had made me very nervous and it’s what’s making me hesitate a little now BUT I do believe that the scuffle was because Buttercup felt trapped within the cardboard castle when Peanut tried to hump and so she lashed out so to speak to stand up for herself. I think if I hadn’t have given them the castle, the scuffle probably wouldn’t have happened as she would have felt she could get away. Said scuffle was 5 days ago now. 

I know generally, bunnies are considered bonded  and safe to be together without supervision once they can spend 24-48 hours together with no incident. Well it’s been 5 days now. So am I just being overly protective? I couldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to either of them but everything points to happy bunnies. Do I need to just get over it and see? Will the hierarchy business go on for some time? Do people usually wait til that’s been established before allowing the bunnies to be together unsupervised? 

Sorry for so many questions, any input would be much appreciated!