Caring for a friend’s bunny: Mimzy is not happy!

[Mimzy]

Hey everyone! I haven’t been on in quite a while, heh.

Well my ex just got a bunny not long ago (I was not happy about this). He left on vacation today & dropped off Bunny at my house last night. I have a cage made for him with an extra gate surrounding it because I figured Mimzy wouldn’t be ok with another bunny in her territory.

She didn’t seem to care last night. I had her in her cage while Bunny got free run of my room to get used to it. All morning Mimzy has been aggravated & shaking the outer gate to Bunny’s cage. She won’t even eat her veggies because she’s too obsessed with getting to him.
Bunny is very relaxed & easy going so he couldn’t care less about her or what she’s doing.

There’s no way for her to get to him, so should I just let her be angry & she’ll have to get used to it? He’s going to be with me all week & I don’t think there’s another room I can put him.

[Sarita]

Hopefully she’ll calm down once the novelty has worn off of a new rabbit in the house.

When I rabbit sit I have always kept the rabbits together – they like to see each other however I don’t let the visiting rabbit out and about exploring – it’s not ideal but it’s usually for a short while and I think they are safer in their pen and my house is safer too…

[Sarita]

I don’t mean together in the same enclosure just in the same area so they could see each other…that didn’t sound right when I reread it.

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

If Mimzy doesn’t calm down today – could you move Bunny’s cage to the hallway? We used to set up a baby gate in the hallway to separate the two buns.

[MimzMum]

Hey my bunny’s namesake! Good to see you here, I’ve been pretty much AWOL too so I was hoping you’d post to update us on your girl.

Referred aggression is a pain. Years ago I tried to bond Fiver to Mimzy and Pip and Mimzy was willing, but Pip got all territorial and came up to Fiver grunting and thumping and chased him off. (They were in separate pens side by side-Pip and Mimz in one and Five in the other.) I should’ve realized she wore the pants in the family! She has never really accepted him and her bond with Mimzy was severed not long afterwards (due to illness not lack of bonding). As such I have had to keep/exercise them all in their separate areas for the last 6-7 years.
Maybe a little extra attention for Mimzy will get her to be less confrontational. I’m sure she just doesn’t appreciate that Mr. Bunny has been getting his feets all over her space.
I hope things will settle down and Mimzy won’t be too hard on you when the guest goes home. What kind of bunny is he? And I share your dismay regarding what appears to be an impulse buy…are you on good enough terms to enlighten him on bunny care if he so needs?

[jerseygirl]

Maybe try block things visually at least. She might settle a little more.

[Mimzy]

Sorry I didn’t reply while Bunny was still here! He’s gone now, it was a busy week

Mimz mum – My ex didn’t buy Bunny, but he definitely got him on impulse! His friend was giving hers away & he right away said he’d take it. I was nervous about this from the start lol. But I figured he should know a fair amount of how to care for them after caring for Mimzy WITH ME for almost a year. Apparently not lol. He has basics down but he’s confused about vegetables. Bunny hasn’t really had a proper diet all his life. The friend my ex got him from constantly fed him different veggies all the time & also says romaine is bad for bunnies?? I never heard that before lol.

& when she left for college, her mom fed Bunny all the time so he was kinda fat, still is but he’s now on a diet. I went with him to get veggies the other day & told him how to introduce a new veggie.

But he never cleans Bunny’s things! When he brought him, his dishes were all dirty, the litter box was gross. I once saw the litter box while stopping by his house weeks ago & asked when he last dumped it out for new litter. He said it had been several days, it looked really bad :/

Anyway, the week was a success Mimzy started to calm down a little after a bit except when Bunny would start running everywhere, she didn’t like that. & I did let him run around my room even though it was temporary simply because I was unable to give him an adequate sized cage & even for a week, I felt bad confing him to it.

I couldn’t put him in the hall because our hall actually is very small it would’ve blocked anyone from being able to walk or even get out of their rooms lol. Plus we have 3 dogs & a cat running the rest of the house. But nonetheless, my room worked out Bunny mostly stayed in his cage the first few days even though it was open.

Mimzy was kind of a pain leaving poop & pee in various places but that was to be expected =/ Bunny was well behaved until the last couple of days when I guess he started to get comfy. He started nipping me & pooping everywhere as well as peed out of his litter box a few times. And what really upset me was when I found out he used Mimzy’s toy box as a litter box & ruined some of her toys So by the last day, I was ready for him to go home lol. He was a sweetie though. Aside from territory markings, it all went fine I’m sure Mimzy is glad to be an only bun again Thank you everyone!

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