Advice?

[Doyskii&Minstrel]

Hi all,

As you may know I lost Minstrel a few weeks ago and Doyskii has been pretty sad at the loss of his ‘wife’. After lots of cuddles and time spent “bonding” with my Shih Tzu, Mimi, Doyskii is pretty much back to his usual self. After Minstrel died, I made a habit of keeping Doyskii with me at all times – even at work – giving him plenty cuddles, treats and playtime. My Shih Tzu (very small at 2.6kg) sort of took Doyskii under her wing. She kisses him, plays very gently with him, sleeps with him, gives him toys etc. I think this has helped him immensly. He runs to her as soon as he sees her and will kiss her nose.

 I contacted my local shelter about any bunnies available and they have five. Four females and one male. The shelter is not very rabbit-savy. All the bunnies are alone and in wire bottom cages – I almsot FAINTED when I saw them all, their poor feet almost falling through the bottom of the cages. Their nails are all really long as well. They haven’t been socialised with each other and the only human contact they get it is when they’re fed – ONLY pellets! Three of the females are HUGE. Very overweight and very very timid to the point you can’t even touch them. The littlest female (a small grey one) is very cute and I could touch her but she did shy away a little, especially when I touched her head which I suspect is because I saw a shelter lady pick up one bunny by his ears! I shouted at her and told her NEVER to do that. She didn’t care. The young male they have is very sweet. He was abandoned in a park and the shelter helped rescue him. He’s very friendly and even started licking me. He is very placid and you can touch him anywhere so I suspect he was looked after at some point. He does have a small skin issue ( you can see in the attached pic) it’s also on his back, like little white scabs. I’ve asked a friend who volunteer’s at the shelter to give me as much info as possible on this little boy.

My question is how would I go about seeing if this boy and Doyskii can get on? I did also consider the little grey girl. The other girls are massive – two are twice the size of Doyskii and the over weight one must be at least four times the size of him. I still have to find out if the boy is neutered. Doyskii has been since January. The little grey hasn’t been spayed yet but will be. I would love to adopt them all and get them out of those horrible cages and let them have a chance to be bunnies! But time and money is limited at the moment.

Any advice would be appreciated <3

This is the little boy…

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1…09be60.jpg

[FrankieFlash]

I’m no expert in bonding but I’ll chip in what I know. Dating with unbonded buns is unreliable because if they do bond then you get her spayed it could break the bond. Is the little boy neutered? I think you’re probably end up in the same situation as me where you’ll get them, care for them, get them healed from spay/neuter then try bonding. It’s a risk for sure. It might not be an easy bond. But sometimes it what you have to do. Well not have to but have to if you want to save a buns life. You could see if the shelter has a neutral room where your boy and one of the buns could meet. I would be leery though because I bet any room they have will smell like cats or dogs which we’ll put the buns on edge.

About the shelter- If you have time maybe you could print off some documents about hocks and wire cages and how damaging picking up a rabbit by it’s ears. I’m glad you yelled at them but my heart breaks for those buns. I don’t blame them for fearing humans when they are being hurt by them. If nothing else, the ASPCA should step in because there are certain standards of care that are expected to be held at all shelters.

I hope I was of some help.

[Doyskii&Minstrel]

Thanks foe your help. I should find out today if little boy is neutered and I’ll go from there.

Regarding the shelter and their methods of housing rabbits, I have two options. Volunteer, educate and change everything. Or adopt all five bunnies. There is no ASPCA here or any laws regarding animal cruelty. I live in Macau which is an SAR of Mainland China. The shelter lady who picked the boy up by his ears has never been educated that rabbits are pets. Her only knowledge of bunnies is for food

[Author]

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