Alabama and Abacradabra

[KayEm]

Brought home a second bunny today – a spayed girl to give my neutered male some company when I’m not around. He’s four months old and shy, she’s a year or two and known for being decent with other bunnies. 

So far it seems to be going surprisingly well, even though to be honest I rushed it a bit – when they first met, Alabama sniffed her… and ran away. Sniffed her. And ran away. Gave a quick paw swipe and ran away; gave another quick paw swipe and ran away. No injuries or full out fighting. Then they mostly ignored each other for several hours. Even got them co-existing in the same large cage for a little while (with the door open, and me ready to open the roof on a moments notice.)

But suddenly Alabama has started chasing Abracadabra around. The good news is, when he manages to corner her… he sniffs her. Doesn’t smack her, doesn’t tug at her, doesn’t even try and mount her. Just. Sniffs her until she runs away again. But I’m still not sure what to make of it. Any advice?????????

(…It’s sort of adorable, if it’s harmless – sometimes he stops running and she keeps going in a circle and comes across him again. But I don’t want to be sitting and doing nothing when she’s actually quite scared.)

[LittlePuffyTail]

Congrats on your new bunny. I think you should give her some time to settle into her new home before you work on bonding. A new home is stressful for a bunny. I would wait at least a week before doing any more bonding work.

I’m assuming Alabama is just curious and excited.

[KayEm]

That probably would have been a good idea – but I guess I just got really lucky in the end (I didn’t want to move Alabama’s cage out of the room, and I didn’t want to stick her in the old smaller one of his, or make her spend time in my room with the dogs and cat before a re-introduction for that matter…..)

They still aren’t precisely friends, but they don’t hate each other either. They both stay out full time, generally on opposite sides of the large room (though neither has staked out a particular territory, and they often change spots.) Alabama will sometimes scare Abracadabra off by coming closer – and sometimes Abracadabra will do the same. Yesterday, with a pile of food that Alabama didn’t eat, they took turns scaring each other off the meal for a while. It was sort of adorable (Though I want Alabama to eat more.)

Sometimes they get closer to each other than others; I’m just allowing them to bond at their own pace, since they aren’t fighting or chasing each other. (That said, I have been sleeping in my office with them this entire week. I’m almost ready to trust them alone, but…. Just a couple more days. ;P )

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