Cuddly Toys

[Palomino_Bun]

So our rabbit’s wife passed away a little while ago and until I can get living arrangements sorted out to be appropriate for another bunny, I am trying to “bond” Pickles to a cuddly toy but would like some advice…how do you do it?!  It probably seems a stupid question but I tried to “groom” him with the teddy and he thumped and hopped off, even though I’d rubbed shavings into the toy before trying. Now I just left it on the floor to see if he will show any interest. 

 Do you have any positive stories to share? He’s quite depressed without a friend and this might provide a short term fix. 

Many thanks!  

http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums…lrl82v.jpg

[RosieSatellite]

I think that maybe just letting him grieve might be best. try to give him lots of attention and pets so he still has interactions. Rabbits are pretty smart and unless you’ve scented the toy by rubbing it on another bunny he will know that it’s not a living thing and probably won’t really bond with it. Plus it might make it more difficult to re-bond him when you do get another bun.

Just give him as much love as you can for now and he will get better! it’s normal for animals to be depressed after a loss.

[vanessa]

I gave both Guin and Lancelot stuffed bunnies while I was working at bonding them. Guin had recently lost her husbun. It had been 4 weeks since she lost her husbun, when I brought Lancelot home from the shelter. Guin was still not completely happy, but she had started to greet me once more, so I brought Lancelot home, and gave each of them stuffed bunnies. I groomed them with their bunnies to get their own smells on them, and then just left the bunnies on the ground. Lancelot never paid his bunny any attention. Guin took to grooming and snuggling her bunny bery quickly. Now that Guin and Lancelot are bonded, I took the stuffed bunnies out. I’m not sure why ancelot never paid his bunny attention. He took a long time to warm up to Guin. I wondered for a while if perhaps he just wanted to be with a human instead of a bunny. Lately he has started to be snuggly with Guin. She really appreciated having a stuffed bunny. To keep it somewhat more real for her, I moved the bunny around in her room. When ever I stepped in, I moved the bunny to a new spot. Sometimes I moved it up to her to “snuggle” with her. She seemed to bond to it very easily. But to answer yoru question – I groomed them with their own bunnies, then left them to figure it out.

[vanessa]

It took Guin 3-4 months to start acting happy again. For the first month, she wanted nothing to do with me. Gradually she started allowing me to pet her again. I gave her plenty of snuggles. After 3/4 months, she was binkying up to me and demanding attention. The stuffed bunny helped too. She is actually a lot more bonded to me now than ever before.

[Palomino_Bun]

thank you all for your help! here is pickles aka pixie with his new friend – “plushie”!!
http://i.imgur.com/ZRhMfYf.jpg

[vanessa]

Thanks for the pic! Pickles and Plushie look super happy 🙂 I’m so glad it is working for you 🙂 Plushie is a great name!

[vanessa]

P.S. Now that I have bonded Guin and Lancelot, I took away their plushies, because I wanted them to focus on eachother. I haven’t experienced anything negative with the plushies. they bonded great with eachother, and are even more demanding of my attention than before. The plushie helped them while they were living alone, and there was no drawback to removing the plushie once they were living together. Every rabbit is different – but I had a good experience with the plushies. (Even though Lancelot didn’t bond with his plushie – only Guin did).

[Author]

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