Finding a husbun <3

[QueenThumper]

  Thumper was spayed a couple of days ago, and after she is all healed up, I plan on taking her to to rescue shelters so that she can scope out a husbun.  Would it be better to wait 2 weeks or 3?  She was really groggy the first 24 hours after the surgery and wouldn’t eat, but she is now eating normally and exploring things like her normally adventurous self.

I was doing research and found a place in the LA/Long Beach area called Rabbit Rescue that does matchmaking and even takes the buns to neutral territory for a few days while they bond.  Their buns are already desexed and what they do is bring in potential mates one by one to see which ones click, letting the bun make the decision about a partner.  I was just wondering if anyone else knew of places that do this in my area.  Rabbit Rescue seems great, but they do not have as many male rabbits to adopt as they have females.  I want to make sure my Thumper has the pick of the best bachelors she can!

[Sarita]

I would wait a full 3 weeks if it were me. That way she is fully healed.

That sounds like a great deal if they will help with bonding too! I would go ahead though and email them in case you need to fill out an application and then go from there. Also while they don’t have a large amount of males, I would still give them an opportunity since they offer that service.

[Sarita]

http://www.larabbits.org/adopt.htm

Is this the group?

[QueenThumper]

Thanks, I’ll definitely wait the three weeks. =) I’ve already printed up an application that I’m going to fill out and fax to them. I may even attend one of their events to meet some of the buns before actually bringing Thumper for matchmaking.

The one I’m talking about is at Rabbitrescue.com. I’ve seen the site you were at and they have a wide selection to, I’m just really into the idea of them being experienced bonders and matchmakers. Although I could be mistaken, I don’t think LA Rabbits does the matchmaking or helps with the bonding process. I want to know specifically if there are any other places in the area that to matchmaking as well.

[Sarita]

I agree – they seem very committed and I looked on their website and they seem to have more females but they do have quite a few males too – sometimes too much of a selection is overwhelming.

Usually these smaller groups too really know the personalities of the rabbits as well. I would definitely go with them.

[QueenThumper]

Mmk, will do! =)

[jerseygirl]

We have a BB member from Long Beach who volunteers with a shelter. I’ll email her and see if she some more local knowledge.

[Lightchick]

Hi!

Jerseygirl said I should come give my opinion, for what it’s worth! I live in Long Beach, and have dealt with several of the shelters in the area.

Definitely wait 3 weeks (if not 4). Even if Thumper seems all healed, you want to make sure her hormone levels have stabilized.

I have not PERSONALLy dealt with RabbitRescue, although I hear good things about them from several other people. What these people have done is dropped off their rabbits, and Rabbit Rescue charges a daily rate for trying to bond the bunnies for them. This was successful in the one case I know of, and in the other, after having the rabbits for 6 weeks, ultimately unsuccessful. But one can’t really blame RabbitRescue…in this case, the owners adopted a girlfriend for their boybun without any dating, and sometimes rabbits just don’t get along.

Another organization you might want to check out is the BunnyBunch in Montclair. http://www.bunnybunch.org. Caroline is the founder and does all the bonding. Again, you can go in for bunny-dates, and you leave the bunnies, and Caroline keeps them with her 24 hours a day for…10 days I think?…for $300. She told me the only time she was REALLY unsuccessful was when someone wanted 13 rabbits bonded together. Apparently, the first 12 were ok, but the 13th was just an unlucky lagomorph who didn’t want to get along!

Of course, both these options mean dropping off your buns and having someone else do the bonding for you. I’ve never been into that, and have kept that in the back of my mind only as a last-last resort, because I wanted to be there and know what was going on, and use the process to bond MYSELF with the rabbits, even as they were bonding to each other.

Any of these places, if you pick on them and nag them, will probably help you with the first couple of dates, if that’s all you want, to get you started. They’re all volunteer-based organizations, so they might not volunteer their time, but if you ask for help, I’m sure they’d be happy to do whatever they can.

I volunteer at Zooh Corner Rabbit Rescue http://www.mybunny.org. We currently don’t do any bunny-bonding, but definitely accomodate dates at the shelter, and have lots of knowledgeable people to help answer questions! Probably someone could help you out with a couple bonding sessions, but the shelter is at a Humane Society with barking dogs and whatnot–not the best environment for such things. Feel free to check out the website, and go over to Petfinder (I just took over the updating of photos and descriptions, and I’ve only made the smallest dent…if anybunny looks interesting to you, please let me know and I can tell you more about them! We have a BEAUTIFUL English Spot named Bobby with blue-eyes who’s the sweetest attention-whore you’ll ever meet…and then there’s Sneakers the Californian who literally does cartwheels off the side of his hutch–he’s a little hyper. Still needs to be neutered!…anyway, I could go on and on. Feel free to email me directly with any Zooh Rabbit questions!)

Hope that helps!

[mrmac]

I had never experienced real bonding when I did my 3. My first two bonded instantly and were living together completely in 2-3 days. I found that by doing the bonding myself (we did not do bunny dates so we took a great chance) I learned the ins and outs of all their personalities and I learned alot about bonding them. I would reccommend bunny dates, as we got very lucky, but definitely explore your options!

[QueenThumper]

I would probably prefer to do a couple of bunny dates with the experts and then do the rest of the bonding on my own so I can get to know the bunnies better. Thumper is just my first bunny and I don’t know much about the bonding process, so I want to at least get a few good tips in from people with more experience. Mostly, I want to go somewhere for a few dates in order to find somebunny she really likes as opposed to someone I like but she may not. Thank you so much for the tips and info, I will definitely look into the other sites as well! I do have a few more weeks to do so, after all! =)

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