Bun going to have a lot of changes to routine soon – advice?

[Sleepy]

We got our female mini-rex back in February and she’s essentially been our bae, especially since we got Guinness
when she was 3 months old and we’ve had a lot of time to be with her. Her current routine has been out time in the morning for an hour/hour and a half and out time in the evening for another hour and a half in the same play area.

However, we also got a male dutch bun last month (same routine for most part but we’ve been keeping him in a separate area of house) and we’re going to have less time soon. The plan was to get the buns used to their out time in the evening only (with likely an extra half hour out) and then try bonding them properly late May/early June, with pre-bonding including things like sharing supplies/toys/cage+splitting the play area in half with fencing to let them get used to each other and sharing an area.

We’re less worried about Bleu since he’s still getting settled into things, has already fixed, and his routine is more easily adjustable. We’re more worried about Guinness, though, since her routine’s been set for much longer, she’s getting spayed next week (thus we felt we’d change her routine to correspond with her recovery), and the play area’s largely been ‘hers’ but she’s going to have to learn to share it. 

Is there a way to transition her over to changes coming to her routine a bit easier or is it just stick to it and hope she adapts soon?

[BinkyBunny]

I think once she gets spayed, that will help relax things a lot. About a month after she is spayed, once the hormones die down, she may adjust to new scents etc without getting freaky about it. Right now, there really is no way to predict how she will react. I think the pre-bonding ideas are good and you are readying things the best you can. I think you are planning things out appropriately and now it’s more about “keeping our fingers, and their paws crossed”, that things run smoothly.

Just be sure to let her heal fully and get over the stress of surgery before introducing her to Bleu.

Honestly, though, you have really put quite a bit of thought and care into this — I think they are in good hands. Bonding is just stressful for everyone (especially humans), so remember to try to chill out emotionally during bonding the best you can when the time comes.

[Sleepy]

Thanks, that’s comforting to hear ^^. We’ve held off on introducing their scents to each other too much since we heard scents/temperaments can change and want to give them as clean a slate with each other as possible. Is there an appropriate time to start doing that part of pre-bonding before letting them meet (such as, three-four weeks after spay) or would it just be better to wait until the full month for all the hormones to get out before even doing that?

[Author]

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