Attitude adjustment needed!

[P'Up2.6]

Hey y’all, awhile ago I posted about my Tommy being depressed from losing his little baby sister. Well we got another rabbit, a male who was probably an Easter bun that out grew his baby charm, we named him Gunnar. Tommy and Gunnar did not get along and I figured little Gunnar needed to be neutered and maybe it would help them get along better. Tommy, meanwhile has reclaimed the couch as his property (constantly deficating on our only couch), but lays next to Gunnar all day as long as they had a fence between them they were fine. I even saw Tommy grooming Gunnar through the bars on a few occasions. About 2 months after we had gotten Gunnar neutered, we woke up to a horrible scene that our little Gunnar was dead and cold in his cage. I could only believe that he had tried to jump through the top and broke his little neck. We were devestated even though the boys didn’t seem to want to get along, Gunnar was a happy, grateful, chipper little boy and it hurt terribly to lose him so suddenly. We figured since Tommy had started marking the couch againg when we brought Gunnar home that maybe he would stop since Gunnar died. Well he didn’t. He started marking his dad’s side of the bed every once in awhile. We thought maybe we didn’t give him his extra nightly banana, or maybe we did something that offended him. Now I’ve been noticing Tommy trying to get attention from his canines, who of course look at him like,”what do you want, not a dog?” Tommy also spends most of his napping time under the bird’s cages too. I’m not sure if he is lonely, I know that our dog was after our foster dogs went back home, so we adopted a pound puppy and they are the happiest dogs in the neighborhood. The bird’s have each other, the dogs have each other, is it time to try to find a match for my bun or will it cause more behavior problems? Sorry for the long message, yesterday the pound where Tommy and our puppy came from emailed me about a female rabbit in need of a home. It always breaks my heart, but maybe it is time for a rabbit companion for my special boy. Pictured is Tommy and his baby sister Lilly

[tobyluv]

I’m sorry about the loss of Gunnar.

You may have to somehow block off the sofa and the bed, to keep Tommy from going to the bathroom there. Or, some people put a shower curtain on their bed. Rabbits are not going to like the slippery surface and will likely get down, but if they do use the bathroom, it won’t soak in.

Is the female rabbit at the shelter spayed, or will they spay her if she is adopted? You shouldn’t try any bonding unless she is spayed. If they wait until you adopt her, or if you have to have her spayed yourself, then you will have to let 2 weeks or more elapse after surgery for her recuperation and for her hormones to level out before you can start the bonding process. You would have to keep them apart until then.  They could be in the same room, but with no physical contact.  It’s impossible to know if getting a new rabbit companion for Tommy will stop him from using the couch and bed as a bathroom. It’s rare, but there are some instances where rabbits just won’t bond – their personalities aren’t a match maybe. So, you always have to be prepared to house another rabbit separately if you can’t get a new one to bond with Tommy. It is generally easier to bond a male with a female – neutered and spayed, of course.

[P'Up2.6]

Thanks for your suggestion, I did not get the shelter rabbit. I actually washed my couch with a lemon oil soap mixture and rinsed it with white vinegar and he won’t go near it now. As for the bed, we got a new mattress and the second night he had peed on the bed, thank goodness for the new mattress pad, we locked him in his condo all night and the next morning he was totally submissive and a happy camper, maybe he just needed discipline?

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