Good morning – our rescues are full and someone gave me a domestic rabbit that was let loose in the downtown in the city and recaptured on September 1st. Her cage was located and was filthy (crawling with pantry beetle larvae) and she had worms. She has been treated for pinworms, roundworms, mites and fleas and doesn’t exhibit respiratory or eye discharges for concern – the vet indicated she is “healthy” but couldn’t find a scar to verify if she was spayed. She was quarantined from my other pets (including a pair of bonded spayed/neutered bunnies) during treatment.
I would not have adopted another rabbit as I don’t have the time to give another pet attention – she is incredibly socially (with humans) however and craves interaction. But I don’t want to have her euthanized given lack of a home – she is not at all aggressive or skittish (unlike other bunnies I have had/have) – she is a sweetheart.
1. Will a mate provide sufficient attention for a highly social bunny? My other bonded bunnies are very self-sufficient – they snub me in favour of each other in fact! Is the desire for human interaction the same as bunny interaction? The local humane society will not allow pre-dating visits with their rabbits (I already checked) for me to even get a feel for whether this bunny would click with another and I don’t want to adopt another bunny to keep “separate”. I don’t want to interfere with my happily bonded other pair either (previous strays, also rounded back up, but very skittish). I am wary of letting this rabbit completely loose around my other pets as well for safety reasons.
2. Is it too soon for health reasons to be introducing the new rabbit to another (could she still have undiscovered health issues even though the vet has signed her off as ok – they didn’t seem particularly bunny knowledgeable as I had difficulty getting them to fill one of the medications she needed and had to call other vets)? I don’t want her to get too “possessive” of her new territory so would rather introduce a second bunny sooner rather than later, while it is still a “neutral” type habitat. I had her in a different location for the past month in quarantine and have now moved her to the permanent location – I have two cages to keep the buns separate for bonding, but it would be the running area I don’t want her to become possessive about before any bonding.
Thank you for any advice!
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