Head Games?

[ManDuke]

I adopted a 5 y/o female bunny almost two months ago. She’s been spayed for over a month. I have a fixed, male bunny, BunBun, that has not been very happy to have her around. At first we tried following the step in the “House Rabbit Handbook” but the problem is  BunBun  just goes into “sleep mode”-or whatever you want to call it- in these situations and doesn’t reacte to anything so it defeats the purpose. We started letting them both run around together when we’re home. (Previously, we were switching them out about every hour.)  It looks like they’ve made alot of progress which is much more than we expected this early in the game. I’ve only become concerned because the new female, Madeline, really wants to cuddle with him and lately he’s been letting her. Sounds great except he’ll cuddle and then suddenly nip her. I was ok with the ritual nipping and fur nabbing because it was mostly from her bum and she was quick to dodge it. While I don’t want to discourage the “good” behaviour I’m worried about Madeline getting injured. Any suggestions?

More background:

• When we’re not home they share a bedroom but are seperated by a pen side.

• They will “hang-out” close to eachother for extended periods of time until BunBun decides to be a brat.

• Madeline is always visibley submissive.

 

-Thanks!

 

[Gravehearted]

actually it sounds like they’ve been making some very positive progress. 

the nipping is another way of BunBun reminding Madeline that he’s in charge.  It’s a way in which bunnies communicate.  It could also be that he’s saying HEY pay attention to me!  The fact that she’s not nipping him back is actually a good sign, and may help keep it from turning into an actual fight.

you want to always look her over carefully to ensure she doesn’t have any boo-boos.

one way i know people deal with this is by putting the nippe on top of the nipper, so right as it happens pick Madeline up and put her accross BunBun – like the photo below for about a minute or so.

 

 

[ManDuke]

Thanks Gravehearted! Turns out I didn’t have much to worry about. Since then BunBun and Madeline have been getting along very well. To the point where we have been able to join their pens together – they have an entire room to themselves now.

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