Bonding Journal – Tinkerbell & Baby

[SashaD]

I got a new friend for Tinkerbell on Wednesday.  Baby (the new bunny) is about 5-6 months old I think and real sweet (underweight standard/giant Chinchila breed).  Tinkerbell is about 2 years old and we’ve had her for over a year (Dutch).

 

I picked up Baby on Wednesday, Day 1, (couldn’t take Tink with me) and just let them get used to having their cages next to each other (but not touching).

 

On Thursday (Day 2) I let them have 15 mins together in the bathroom.  Tinkerbell is a very tolerate bunny, we have dogs, birds and children and she is good with all of them.  So she bounces up to Baby to sniff her and Baby tries to attack her – I broke it up with the water spray bottle.  Baby kept going for Tink and I kept breaking them up.  After a while Baby realized that she was only getting wet and calmed down.  By this point though Tink was very scared of her and trying to hide behind me (at one point she lept over the baby gate I had at the doorway!!!).  Baby relaxed and started to eat a little parsley.  But Tink didn’t.  I put them back in their cages when they were both relatively calm (Tink was still nervouse though). I let them out for their playtime at different times in their shared space (the whole house!) but they could both smell each other – not too much marking from either of them.

 

Friday (Day 3) – This went MUCH better than Day 2.  Still a bit of chasing by Baby, but not too bad.  Baby would go up to Tink to sniff her, but Tink would get nervous, thump her foot and run off.  By the end of the session (20 mins) they were both relaxed/grooming/eating in each others company (but far apart). Continued letting them have seperate playtime in the house to get used to each others scent.

 

Today (Day 4) – Went very well today.  Didn’t use the water spray bottle at all.  Tink did try to sniff Baby a couple of times, but would back off when Baby turned to face her.  At one point Baby lowered her head to get Tink to groom her, but Tink just thumped and ran off.  They relaxed in each others company very quickly – reached the point where I was happy to take a shower (with the shower door open so I could see them) while they were in the bathroom with me.

 

Only bad thing about today.  During Baby’s playtime one of my kids opened Tinkerbell’s cage door and Baby got in there.  It scared Tink, but it’s a large 3 level cage and she just jumped up to the next level.  Baby did use her litter box as well.

 

I’m going to do another bonding session in the bathroom today.  So hopefully we will make more progress.  Please feel free to let me know what you think of the bonding process and any tips you have or comments.

[RabbitPam]

Congratulations on getting Baby!
She sounds like she’s feisty, but Tink seems to be handling it well. I’m not as experienced as the others, but you sound like you’re doing a good job of bonding so far.

I assume one or both is speutered, so it’s safe to be together.

[Beka27]

Aren’t you brave taking on two females!!! I’m looking forward to hearing how your process goes.

[RabbitPam]

Oh, duh.
*slaps forehead*

[SashaD]

Yep, Tink is spayed. I’ve only just got Baby, so still got to get her spayed. I’m starting to save up for it now, but not too sure when I’ll be able to get her done – very soon I hope. Baby wasn’t a planned addition to our family, I heard about her through a friend of a friend. She said she knew of someone trying to get rid of their rabbit – they only fed her lettuce and bread (no rabbit food!) and she was kept in a small dog crate (the kind you take a dog to the vets in). So when I heard that I rushed round to see if I could save her. The family were more than willing to hand her over to me – thank goodness!! Little’ girl’s pet that she got bored of – very sad. So Baby is quite underweight and needs some TLC. She did have a sister, but the sister was killed by that family’s dog!

Back to the bonding – Day 5. We had a great session today. I kept them together for about an hour in the bathroom. I put a gate at the door, so I could sort laundry etc in the bedroom. Tink had got into the habit of hiding behind me or jumping on my lap, so I wanted to remove myself from the room and see how she did. Nervous again to start with. But after about 30 mins they were nose-to-nose trying to get each other to groom each other. We did have a bit of mounting and dominate behavior, from both of them. Spinning in circles and grabbing hold of the fur – I guess this is trying to work out who will be dominant? I was impressed with Tink – she was trying to mount Baby too (and manged it a few times – backwards!).

They are having a rest now, might do another short session later. I just got a couple of small blankets and rubbed each rabbit with one and gave it to the other rabbit.

[SashaD]

 

This is a video of them ‘spinning’ and mounting.

 

Should I break up this behavior or let them carry on?????

[Monkeybun]

If I were you, I’d wait until Baby is spayed to start bonding. Her hormones may cause her to be very aggressive with Tink.

[SashaD]

Ideally that’s what I want to do. But I’m not sure how long it will be before I can afford it. The vets in my area are very expensive and as I wasn’t planning on getting Baby (but I couldn’t leave her in that horrible situation), I’ve got to budget and save up for the operation. The cage Baby is in is smaller than I would like (a regular pet store cage) and I do give her plenty of playtime but it just seems cruel for a big rabbit to be in such a small cage. I’d like them bonded as soon as possible so they can be in the big cage together.

Just had another bonding session. Lots of mounting behavior again. Tink was trying to mount Baby a little, but mainly Baby on Tink. Don’t seemed to have made as much progress today as yesterday.

[SashaD]

I did another bonding session yesterday. Still lots of chasing and mounting. Tink was a lot more nervous this time.

Sooo… I’ve rearranged my budget and I’m taking Baby to the vets on Friday to have an exam and schedule her spay! So I’m going to put a hold on bonding for now and start again once her hormones have settled down.

[Beka27]

I’m glad you’re going to wait. These behaviors are only going to escalate as Baby gets more comfortable in her surroundings and territory. If they were to have a very bad fight, one or both could be injured, and that could make bonding impossible in the future. In the meantime, if you wanted you could try switching them between each other’s pens everyday, or every couple days, to mix up the scents.

Thank you so much for rescuing Baby from a less-than-ideal situation. Now she can work on getting strong, putting on a little weight, and pretty soon, she’ll have a friend too!

[SashaD]

You were right! Tink did get injured. I took them to the vets on Friday to have a check up before getting Baby spayed (I took Tink as well, because it had been a while since she had been checked over). And the vet found a BIG wound on Tink’s belly. I hadn’t seen it, it looked like it was a day or 2 old. I can only assume Baby did it, but I don’t know when. Possibly one of the few times Tink mounted Baby, as she mounted her ‘backwards’ (head to tail). We were very lucky it didn’t damage any of her organs, it was very deep, but in ‘lucky’ spot.

Well, the vet had to keep Tink for surgery – $350 later, she is doing great! Got a check up tomorrow, but the wound looks much better. So we’ve had no more bonding sessions, but I’ve kept their cages near each other. And when they are out their cage (separately) they ‘kiss’ noses through the bars, with no sign of aggression. At the moment Tink has to be in a single level cage (no jumping for my poorly bunny!), so I can’t do a cage swap until she is better.

Baby is being spayed a week tomorrow. Then I’ll give it a few weeks before I start bonding again. Tink needs a lot of time to heal too.

[Beka27]

Oh no! Poor Tinkerbell! I hate when I’m right about bad stuff :o(

(((Healing vibes!)))

I hope this doesn’t affect their ability to bond later on. Does Tink appear to be scared around Baby now?

[Twinklie]

Oh SashaD, it is so sweet of you to rescue Baby. I am sorry to hear that Tink was hurt, but much relief to know that she is alright. Currently I am bonding two, please refer to my “Bonded or Not Yet Bonded”. I am so hoped that my two will bond. Good luck and keep us update.

[SashaD]

Tink doesn’t seem too scare of Baby. They ‘kiss’ noses through the cage bars and Tink seems very interested in Baby. She’s a pretty laid back bunny, so I think she’ll be OK.

[Author]

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