Have a baby boy – How to add older girl? Suggestions would be very helpful

[Jenalynn]

Hello,

I have a 5.5 month old boy bunny named “Buzz light year” that I adopted Jan 1 2009. He lives alone in a gigantic 5’x5’x3′ NIC condo cage and has access to run around my room whenever needed.  I am going to  be making arrangements within the next couple of weeks to get him neutered. I am going to school to become a Vet technologist, and at school I train/work with a 3 year old white rabbit named sweet pea….. who is sooo gorgeous and tremendously sweet… I have grown very very very attached to her and would like to try to adopt her in 3months when she is up for adoption. Ofcourse I know bunnies are not the easiest to bond and have NO experience bonding  bunnies which is why I came to you guys. I would like to bring sweet pea home for  a weekend or 2 to see if her and Buzz will possibly get along before getting my hopes up of owning her. Ofcourse I will make sure at least one of them if not both of them are fixed before this bonding occurs. My questions are…. how do I start the bonding process….. do I let them smell eachother first in separate cages for a while…. do I let them meet eachother face to face on my floor??? Should I definitely have Buzz fixed before I even try to bond them? Will that make a difference? If they do not like eachother will I know instantly? What are the reactions like if they hate eachother?  Buzz is a sweet little guy, he lets my cats walk around the room and doesnt bother them…  hes very nice when I play with him and pet him, runs around like a crazy man and loves attention & treats…..  but absolutely  REFUSES to let me pick him up..

Sweet pea lets me hold her, cut her nails, bathe her when needed…..  she is a doll….

My dream would be to own them both and know they are happily keeping eachother company….. I can not keep them separated because I dont have the space to give Sweet pea equally sized space to play and live, so the only way to have her is if her and buzz hit it off

PLease any suggestions would be sooo helpful…..

Thanks!!!!!

Jena

[BinkyBunny]

It is definitely best if both bunnies have been neutered/spayed for at least  a month (to let their hormones die down)  I am assuming she is already spayed?

When you do introduce them, be sure it’s somewhere neutral.  Someplace they  have never been before.  Some people use their bathrooms as it seems to be a common place that bunnies may stay out of.  (slippery floor or ??)

The best scenarios are bunnies that either ignore each other or groom each other rather quickly .

The worst is if they fight right away. 

Most bonding scenarios are usually in between those extremes.

Here are some great links for you to check out first:

http://rabbit.org/faq/sections/introductions.html  (this also goes over the possible introductions scenarios)

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

San Diego House Rabbit Society Chapter

 

[jerseygirl]

Cute name! Makes me think he’s got lots of energy?
I just wanted to add that as you have 3 months until Sweet Pea is ready for adoption – that is ample time to get Buzz LY neutered and settled before an introduction/bunny dates. His personality is probably affected by hormones at this time due to puberty whereas Sweet Pea’s personality is obviously already evident. If you plan to adopt her, look into getting her spayed beforehand so she’ll have time to heal and settle before you begin bonding. But mostly to prevent the cancer risk by leaving her unspayed.
 

[MooBunnay]

I have found that in most cases – if you are very committed to bonding two bunnies you can usually make it work, but the amount of time it takes can vary greatly. You will need to be prepared to have some kind of set up for both bunnies to be able to live in your house separately at least for awhile until they are both bonded. I don’t want to make you nervous, but sometimes this can take months so you’ll want to think ahead of time of what you can do to give each bunny the proper amount of time and attention while the bonding process is going on. I really do think though that bunnies really enjoy companionship and living in pairs – so if they have to sacrifice a bit while the bonding process is ongoing, I think it is for a good benefit.

Definitely take them on some bunny dates ahead of time, if there is full blown fighting, it may be too big of a task to overcome. The fact that your boy is a little bit younger I think will help. I bonded an 8 month old bunny to my girl in one afternoon because he treated her more like his mom than his new girlfriend Have you read the bonding info section on this site yet? There are a lot of great tips and tricks to get you started.

[Jenalynn]

Thanks all!!! I take Buzz this Saturday to get an exam for his first time and then I have surgery scheduled June 15th to get him neutered. I found out sweet pea is still intact but I am going to talk with my school and see if they will spay her for me… I believe they spay and neuter all their animals before adopting them out… so I hope that is the case. Over the next month I am going to be reading lots and lots about bonding bunnies. I have read only 4-5 articles so far. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to transport buzz to the vet???? In a regular cat carrier? would that be fine? Anything special I will need with me? I transported him in the cat carrier when he was just a baby but have not since he has grown and decided he hates being held.
Thanks again for all the info…. i have my fingers cross…… I HOPE they do not fight right away when they see eachother – my heart will break – I want them to have someone to live with.

[BinkyBunny]

Yes a regular pet carrier is fine – make sure to add some soft bedding, and I usually add a handful of hay (even though they are normally to stressed out to eat any of it in the carrier).

I sure hope that they will have her spayed for you (at least a month before they meet). Another thing is IF they don’t spay her, you HAVE to wait at least a month even after the surgery because as you may already know, there can still be viable sperm left over after surgery.

[Sarita]

I hope you can make it all work out – it would be great if you could give Sweetpea a good home. I love the big white rabbits they usually always have a very good disposition.

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