I am currently trying to bond my 2 yr old Dwarf Demon with Lil, a Dwarf cross breed rescued from our local RSPCA. I will give you what i know of their background so you can get a feel for the bunnies and their behaviour.
Demon was my first rabbit, i got him late one saturday as i knew i had sunday and monday and tuesdsay to stay with him. I got him from a pet shop in the next town and i was told he was about 2 months old. Day one went fine but day two i could see that something was wrong, I called the vet and explained his behaviour, they told me to bring him straight in and that as soon as i arrived they would put him in with which ever vet was not seeing a patient. You can imagine that from that i knew it was serious. The vet explained that he had a belly ache (i reallse that now this was not the case but the vet was over simplifying for me) she gave him an injection and said to bring him back the next day if he did not produce anymore droppings.
Next day I have a good hunt around his cage but no droppings so back to the vet we go, it was then i was informed that he had gut stasis and that he was probably only about 3 weeks to one month old at the most and therefore unlikely to pull through. Thus began our two weeks of twice daily visits to the vet for medication to encourage his gut to go, another injection to put fluid under his skin so he did not become dehydrated, another of antibiotics to stop the germs building in his gut while all its contents just sat there going stagnent and another injection to make sure he was not in too much pain. Poor thing was like a pin cushion.
Luckily the company i worked for had no objections to me bringing him in while he was ill so i was able to care for him 24 -7. During the day he was given, much to his dislike, pure fruit baby foods by shringe ever hour from 8 am till 11pm and a bit bigger doses at night but three hours apart.
All the work and sleepless nights paid off, at the end of the two weeks the vet could feel droppings in his intestines but after a few days none were coming out. Over the next days we had seen him looking like he was trying to poop more and more but to no avail, eventually we picked him up while he was pushing and could see a little bit of poo just in side, so we left him to push, after two hours it had not moved and bunny was looking even more sorry for himself.
When he didn’t eat we pushed food down one end so now if he was not pooping i would have to help on that end too so out came the tweezers!! Over the next few days when it became obvious he was not able to pass something I would have to repeat this process of very gently and very slowly pulling any stuck droppings out along with a lot of a stretchy dry glue like substance which i could only assume was the old food and medication, usually once the first bit was removed for him the rest would follow naturally for a while. Eventually much to everyones suprise and delight he pulled through and was eating and pooping normally and unaided.
As you can imagine Demon is very tame and seems to have some normal bunny behaviours, he digs a little but not with any inthusiasm he has never got anywhere near a tunnel, more like moving dirt around, he grunts at me but its not aggressive, its just his way of getting my attention and demanding more strokes, he does it a lot if he realises i am going out to work of if he feels i have not been stroking him for long enough.
Its mainly due to his open dislike of me and my partner leaving for work that we decided to get a second bunny as a friend for him.
Demon is a true house rabbit, he does not even have a cage, he has access to every part of the house, the only room that is ristricted is our bedroom, he is allowed in at night or when we are in the room but not when we are not in. everywhere else is open to him 24 hours a day, including the bathroom, admittedly he does not really go in the tub, apart from once when he got curious and jumped in, and then sat waiting patiently for me to have heard the bang and go and get him out.
Lil was born in the RSPCA her mum was a stray and when she was brought in it was found she was pregnant, Lil was the last one left all the others had gone to new homes but she had been left down by being reserved and then the person who reserved her not wanting her as she did not realise you had to pay for them. By that time she was past the cute baby bunny stage and it makes it harder to home them. but she was the only female of the right size for Demon so we were very happy to reserved her and picked her up in a week.
When we picked her up she had a chunk out of the end of her ear so either she had been put with another agressive bunny or her ear had flopped into the cage next to her and the bunny next door must have took offense, either way she was a bit more fearful than before.
Day one, the introduction,
in the week before Lil arrived we had put up a part way barrier and put her dirty bedding in both Demons area and her area but Demon still had full access to both, He seemed to take her bedding well just gently sniffing it for a long time and then not really paying it anymore attention so we had high hopes that this would go well. ABout two days before Lil was due we completely closed the barrier so he could not have access any more but there was still bedding from her in his side.
Lil came in and i left her in her now closed off half of the room to let her come out of the carry case of her own free will, she came out quickly and was happily exploring her area, Demon on the other had probably nearly broke his nose full on charging into the fence and trying to bite her while growling at her, everytime she went near the edge.
This carried on with Demon getting more and more distressed charging and grunting even at me really aggressively everytime i or Lil moved, luckily he always seemed to realise at the last second it was me and would not bite, although i felt his teeth on me a few times, but still charging and still grunting, and not the stroke me grunts i am use to hearing from him, full on snarling grunts.
I was not use to the aggressiveness but i tried to just treat it the same as i would normally when he grunts for a stroke and just put my hand down flat on his head which he then lowered to the floor and allow me to stroke him and talk to him till he calms down. Until Lil moves close to the fence that is, then he is off again and short of picking him up he does not notice anything i do once he has her in his sights.
I moved into her pen and stroked him through the bars to show him the it was ok, this seemed to help as a few hours later Demon is more tollerant and is just sniffing her through the bars now, he grunts if she hops away too quickly but nothing too agressive, its more like what he does to me when he wants more strokes. 8 hours later we are still at the same point but Demon will still run grunting at the cage when he sees her approaching the side too quickly.
At this point my partner comes home and Demons seems to calm down a lot not being aggressive or charging at her at all, so I pick up her and my partner picks up him and we let them sniff each other while in our arms, and my partner has a good grip of demons scruff. No agression at all, nothing, demon happily sniffs her she is frightened and just lays still in my arms.
Next step my partner puts Demon on the floor and sits her on his knee, again Demon is fine sniffs her, she sniffs him all is going well, until she hops a little, he turns and grunts she freaks and runs and he chases, expecting this as i had seen what they were like earlier we manage to block Demon and let Lil hid under the table, realising that this is not a good set up as Demon may easily be able to corner her under the table and we would not be able to get under fast enough we block this area off so as none of them can go under there.
It seemed to go amazingly well for a first time, Demon would grunt and chase her if she went towards him too quickly but otherwise just ignored her, when he chased her he was not trying to bite her anymore just grunting when he got her he simply bumped her and she would continue to run. so then he would continue to chase.
The problem is she now just sits in the corner or hops up and down one small space and if demon gets near her she gets terrified and freezes and then demon just walks away after having a sniff or she panics bangs her feet and runs, the sudden movement sets Demon of chasing her again. After he chased her for a few seconds he would stop and wonder off else where, later on he would wonder over causiously step by step sniffing eventually they would sniff each other and even though i did not see Demon do anything aggressive she would still sometimes panic run and of course he would then chase and the whole process repeats.
Just before bed she was sit in the corner doing nothing demon would come over for a sniff they would sniff each other and demon would walk away, she would stay in her corner. I did not want to leave them with access to each other overnight so i put her in the fenced off area so she could hide under the table and demon could not get her in the night, as soon as she was on the other side of the fence she bagan to wander around and explore her area, Demon went mad again and started to charge the fence.
That night he spent up in our room as he normally does the only thing is that he did not seem to wander down stairs for a drink and something to eat and to go use his litter tray, well not that i was aware of, he does have hay and water in our room , but no litter tray and no pellets.
Day Two,
Hoping that after last night stage of ignoring each other, to an extent, that they may progress a little more today.
I went down stairs with Demon in tow as normal, i walked into the back room where Lil is currently situated and went out the back door to feed the chickens (trying to keep it like any normal weekend day) I was pleased to see that demon totally ignored Lil, i extended her fenced bit to be half the room so they would have more access to see each other and Lil would not be just hid under the table and again demon walked up sniffed her and wondered off, this repeated a few times so i was happy this might be a good day..
While he was out i switched the fence so it kept Lil out in the room but blocked off the table as it was last night, she seemed happy to wonder round the room, when Demon came in he just hopped past her and sat and watched, i had shut the door to the rest of the house as i dont want a house wide chasing session, so he looked to see if he could get to the rest of the house, he couldn.t so he hoped over to me for a treat, i gave him one and he seemed fine, he hopped to Lil she froze and leaned forwards for a sniff, demon leaned in for a sniff all good so far, demon hops away Lil hops in the same direction, all hell breaks loose. Demon chases after her with more aggression than last night, lil sits terrified in her corner again, Demon seems calm and goes over for another sniff no aggression again just tippie toes towards her slowly, sniffing like he is curious but Lil panics stomps and starts to run and again we start with this cycle, now demon is not starting the chasing he is just reacting to her running.
Bath time!!
I read the advice a few days ago about the bath, thought we may give it a go today see if we can get them sat together with out the kill chase attitude. I wash it out to make sure it does not have any scent in it and put in clean towels to help slippy feet. I put Lil in first for a few mins, she has a little hop around, i go get demon, he is unusually nervous about being carried but is ok when i put him in the bath, Lil is in the middle of the bath and sit perfectly still, Demon has a little sniff, promptly grunts and tried to box her, she runs and pins herself at the side of the bath demon goes after her but i block him, he settles down and sits at one side off the bath but Lil is still pinned to the other side and refuses to move, demon wonders over to sniff her a couple of times but then wonders off. Lil did not move the whole time, just sat shivering at the bottom of the bath as flat agianst the wall as she could be, demon is stressed too and keeps looking at me to get him out and attempting to climb the sides, after ten mins his breathing is really fast and he looks a lot stressed so I pick him up and carry him out the bath, he sits with me and gets a cuddle while he calms down and then hops off my lap for a little lay down.
I tried to leave it on the most positive note i had which was her shivering in the corner and Demon ignoring her. but not really very good.
Lil is still in the bath to let her grow some confidence in her surroundings I think i will try again in another hour or so.
I am hoping that if they can get a bit more confidence in each other today Demon will stop launching at the bars and they then can get to know each other better through the bars, if the bath works I will use it once a day for as long as they seem comfortable or untill its food time for them. I really hope they both can happily have full access to the house. I will keep posting to let everyone know how its going, please give any pointers or advice you have.
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