He could smell the new bunny…

[LBJ10]

As you may already know, we have recently brought a new little bunny home. Our other rabbit has not met him yet since the newcomer hasn’t been neutered yet. Well… my husband thought it would be fun to see what would happen if our rabbit could smell the new rabbit. Normally, he is in his own little room. We usually put a baby gate up while he’s out playing so he can still see us. He has never really wanted to venture too far from there because the floors in the living room are bare and his feet slide around. Anyway, my husband took the baby gate down and allowed our rabbit to enter to living room. The new rabbit has his cage in the living room, but it is raised up off the floor. So when our rabbit ventured out into the living room (a little bit more adventurous than normal, I might add), he could definitely smell the new rabbit. He kept trying to see him, but the cage was too high for him to reach. Hopefully this won’t cause any problems with potential bonding later on down the road. My husband isn’t exactly the patient type. But I guess our rabbit wasn’t going all crazy either.

What I did notice though was when I came home from work tonight, our rabbit was sitting in his cage waiting for me. I opened up the top and I picked him up and he actually let me hold him! He doesn’t normally like to be held, so this was really weird. So I was petting him and I gave him a treat. And when I put him back down, he was licking my hand and rubbing all over it. Do you think he’s jealous? Like he knows there is another rabbit in the house, so he wanted to appear extra “cuddly” so I wouldn’t forget about him? I don’t know, this was just so out of character for him.

[Deleted User]

I don’t know why he let you hold him but I have noticed too that rabbits can act in new ways when confronted with a type of change that impacts them, such as a new rabbit. This little investigation of the living room where the new bunny resides will not hinder your bonding efforts later.

[angelicvampyre]

Least you did not have him peeing all over the place! Letting them know each others smells I think is a good thing, Anya lived on a level of a condo above Bugz so when it was time to put them together there was not such a shock of who they where they where use to each other.

[LBJ10]

Apparently he didn’t pee anywhere in the living room, but he was sure to poop in the corner as soon as he was back in his room. :-/
But yes, this was extremely out of character for him. He just doesn’t like to be held all that much and the fact that he let me scoop him up without the slightest struggle was practically a miracle. What’s sort of funny about the new bunny is that he actually likes being held. I can sit on the couch with him on my chest and he will just doze. He’s just too cute!

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