Debating adopting another rabbit

[Kramer98]

Hey,

Starting this December I am moving into my own place.
Because I was not allowed to adopt a second rabbit at my parents house, I plan on adopting another rabbit before I buy my furniture.
I just wanted to know if anyone had any tips on both bonding and house training the rabbits.
From what I understood I should adopt the rabbit right as I move so that it is considered metal territory.
I also have two large cages, two large litter boxes as well as two litter boxes fort inside the cage three sets of bowls, hay feeders and water bottles.
Is there anything else I would need?

[GlennTheLionhead]

Hello!

Great to hear you want to adopt a bunny, I would definitely recommend it. My rabbits are so happy now they have eachother!

First things first, opposite sex rabbits work best, ideally you want a male and female not a male and male or female and female, although same sex bonds do work they are more likely to fail due to territorial aggression.

You want to have them both spayed when they are sexually mature and before their first ‘date’. Some owners will tell you to spay/neuter them before prebonding which is probably easiest, however I did not do this, I had a neutered male and unspayed female living adjacent with no issue. This was because I adopted my girl Maggie at 12 weeks old , she was too small to be spayed for months. I will stress however do not let them physically meet without the protection of cages and pens if they are not both neutered/spay.

Are you going to have the rabbits free roam? You didn’t mention a pen, you would either need to have them free roam or a large pen and daily exercise outside of the pen. Space is a must for a healthy and happy bunny, they love to run and jump and binky in decent size spaces. I have mine as mostly free roam with a cage and pen for night time and when I am out the house as they are too destructive to be trusted alone lol!

There’s lots of info under the bonding and care section of this site but just some quick tips-

Prebond for a couple of months before introducing them together, I would recommend have them in separate rooms for a few days and swap their toys and litter trays, after a couple days you will want to have them living in adjacent pens and cages with a small gap between so they can’t bite eachother through it but close enough for them to smell eachother. Continue to swap stuff and have separate exercise time outside the pens. If you want them free roam I would still recommend housing them like this as it’s only temporary, for mine i just alternated so one would be free roam for two hour then back in the pen and the other free roam for 2 hours ect ect.
The first week they will probably be obsessed with eachother and stare at eachother all day but this will come down and they will so stop bothering eachother.

After a couple months and after they are both spayed introduce them on short dates slowly increasing the time they can see eachother e.g start with 10 mins and after a couple week this may increase to 5 hours depending on their behaviour. Watch carefully preventing fights ect.

When you feel comfortable leaving them in a room together unattened or when the time feels right ie no fights, calm and happy in each others company you can cement the bond (allow them to spend the night together and sleep in the same room to prevent possible fights).

Hopefully after all that you will have two happily bonded buns, pack up the second cage and pen and let them share!

As for litter training I have no tips as neither of mine needed much training at all, but some rabbits will, so check out the info section.

Hope that helps a little, very excited for you and your future bunnies!

[GlennTheLionhead]

Oh also toys! They love chewy toys and a variety of toys for their pen

[Asriel and Bombur]

Agree with basically everything said above. Assuming your current bun is fixed, the best idea is to speed date to see who they are best compatible with. It could be same gender or different gender. The idea is to see either mostly positives or neutrals in the date.

[DanaNM]

Hi there, welcome

Great to hear you are thinking things through!

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is to make sure you are financially able to take care of a second bunny if something goes wrong. Some bunnies can have loads of medical issues, and you never really know what you’ll get when you get a new one. If you don’t have credit or savings built up yet, you might consider getting health insurance for the buns in case unexpected expenses come up.

I agree mostly with what was said about bonding, but pre-bonding for several months is pretty extreme. I’ve usually had a 1-3 week settling in period, where you leave the new bun to themselves and let them get used to their surroundings. Then at least 1 week pre-bonding, more if it seems necessary. You basically want to wait until they don’t really react when you swap sides, and aren’t acting aggressive towards each other through the fence (running the fence, marking all over, etc.). Again, really you are basing this time off of how the buns are acting. If the new bun is still very scared, give more settling in time. If they are trying to box each other through the bars and running the fence trying to get at each other, do more pre-bonding. If they are lounging near each other, not trying to nip, and mirroring behaviors (eating at the same time, grooming at the same time), then you are ready to start bonding sessions.

Also figure out where you will do bonding sessions. The space should be as neutral as possible, so you are right in waiting till you move. You could potentially adopt and do pre-bonding in your old place, or just be sure to save an area of the new place for bonding sessions.

I think important tools for bonding are x-pens, at least 2. That way you can give them free-run time at the same time without them being able to nip each other through the bars, and you can use the pens as bonding space if you set them up in a neutral room.

Litter training might be kind of hard until they are bonded, but they should improve once they are bonded for a little while.

I recommend reading through the “bonding ” section in the “bunny info” tab at the top of the page for all the basics. It can also be nice to read through bonding journals that members have written. The search function isn’t working, but you can search “binky bunny bonding journal” in google and get lots of results.

Here’s one of mine to get you started (this was a pretty tough bond but they are wonderfully happy now): https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/164900/Default.aspx

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Kramer98]

My local shelter does bunny speed dating. So I think that won’t be an issue.
Also all shelter rabbits in nyc are fixed before adoption as long as they are old enough.
If they aren’t old enough they give you a certificate to get the surgery when they are.

In regards to housing them for now I have two separate cafes and I plan on eventually allowing them to roam free.
For now they would most likely be held in separate cages when I go to bed and when I’m out of the house meaning they Will have full access to run around in what will be a bunny safe living room/dining room.

My first rabbit was litter trained within a week and I don’t think that litter training another readout would be difficult.
That being said will I need two separate litter boxes or will one large cat sized litter box work?

[Bunny House]

You will probably need multiple boxes around the place since buns don’t like to travel far to go potty, I use large boxes and have several since they are very decisive of where they go haha

[Anamaria85]

Bunny House, i think it depends from rabbit to rabbit. I often hear my bunny, in the middle of the night, jumping out of the bed, running in the living room, jump in the litter box and after a few minutes, running back to bed Before July i was living in a house, bedroom upstairs, litter box was downstairs, in front of my toilet, she was acting the same. I had many litter boxes in different places of the house but she never used for duties, only to dig in or overturn them.

Kramer98, i want to tell you that i have a friend who moved in with us for a couple of months, with her rabbit. Mine is a female, not fixed, very territorial, while hers is a fixed male. They met in our attention for the bonding part and were separated during night so they dont make disaster. All the time they spent together and everything went great. They love to have a companion or many.

I am thinking to adopt another rabbit also but i dont know if my Misty will change behavior with me, keep distance, not let me touch her and the new friend, not needing my attention anymore… Maybe someone can share some opinions….

[DanaNM]

Hi Anamaria85,

you might want to start a new thread regarding your question about how your bun’s behavior might change, but since it’s relevant to this thread I’ll answer it here as well.

Usually rabbits do not become less friendly when they have a bonded friend. My buns have always become more outgoing and still come to me for pets. I’ve had shy bunnies become more friendly with an outgoing friend.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Anamaria85]

 Thank you for your answer! 

I asked here because the topic is about second rabbit but  will start a new one also

[Author]

Messages