I Give Up

[MimzMum]

After last night’s fiasco that ended up with Mimzy getting an apparent poke in the eye, I formally toss in the proverbial towel on getting the two buns to room together.

They had been doing SO well in the xpen lately, VERY little scuffling and dominance behavior. They even shared the litterpan at the same time yesterday evening! (I laughed thinking that they were so close they couldn’t stand to be apart while one of them had to go wee! Boy was I wrong!) So I figured at last maybe the time had come to rebuild the honeymoon suite. And all looked well when I finally passed out at about three this morning.

But by five some kind of a serious fight had broken out. Pip was being VERY domineering and I could see Mimzy was getting the worst of it (through my bleary-eyed and sleep clouded mind). So I put a stop to it and separated them again.

It would seem, while they can tolerate one another for a bit in the xpen, living quarters are most definitely going to have to be separate but equal. They like being in the same room together and to see each other, but when it comes to bunking on the same floorboards…well…it just ain’t gonna happen.

Will this shorten their lives and/or the quality of same, do you think? I worry that they will pine in some part of their hearts or that, if I lose one, the other will go shortly thereafter. Anyone have evidence of this kind of thing happening with bunnies?

*sigh* They looked so cute together!

 

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[BinkyBunny]

Sometimes when they go to a “new” territory they want to re-establish who’s the boss. I think it would be worth it to take a step back and have them go back to where it was working – in the xpen, and let them get bonded for a longer period of time. How long were they getting along in the xpen? Then when you actually move them to a new place, supervise and help diffuse if need be.

Now you may just be fed up after such great disappointment. I would be feeling the same way!

If you decide you just don’t want to deal with it and/or they have just proven they will not get along, then whether their life will be shortened by not bonding is really hard to tell, because some bunnies just would RATHER be alone, and all the stress of bonding or just barely getting along/tolerating is not healthy either long-term.

Bonded pairs whose mate has passed can suffer greatly. It’s a very individual thing. While one bunny may easily bond with another bunny and seem to move-on okay, another bunny may suffer from depression and be very resistant to bonding right away with another bunny.

[Beka27]

have you tried the xpen thing that Markus had posted? with the barrier halfway in between… so they are together, but one can easily get away. and are you moving them to a smaller space than the xpen? they may start feeling crowded too. i get that feeling from my buns… they’re quite happy in the larger room but once the territory starts to decrease, they get a bit more testy.

i would continue to do combined playtime in the xpen if they tolerate that and have their cages next to each other so they are always in each other’s presence. is the xpen in “their” room? if not you could try moving it in there. that seemed to help along my buns, they were getting along in the neutral territory so it was my next logical step.

i would continue working with them. do you do some bonding or are they playing together everyday? don’t give up just yet. it might take some more time.

[MimzMum]

Well I’ve been using the xpen configuration suggested by Markus and it’s the best setup I’ve used yet, they really seem to like it! This was the one they were in when they got into the litter pan together.
But yes, I think the confined spaces of the single pen seem to be too much for them. (I did combine the top of one superpet pen with the top and bottom of the other, as I posted in another thread) I think I may have to just stick with the separate night pens, since I simply can’t stay up all night for who knows how long to make sure they don’t fight.
Pip is in a real snit today and has been throwing her litter box all day and most of last night. She only does this when she’s extremely unsettled. Everything was fine until I tried to put them in the same bunk bed. It’ll easily take me awhile to get her calmed back down. And until then, she’s just too dangerous to be around Mimzy without someone sitting right there to keep her from taking it out on him.

Their routine has been disturbed and now I’ll have to work hard to get it re-established.

The nice thing is, the next Binky Box arrived and they got to try those new dried willow bundles with the leaves still on? OMG, did they snarf those like their butts were on fire! They LOVE them! So that made us all quite happy today. ^_^

[Beka27]

and you’re not able to try the xpen as the permanent home base for them? their cages may just have too much of “them” on them… if that makes any sense. they know it’s their cage, but it’s different and it might be making them go a bit nutty.

[MimzMum]

No Beka, I just don’t have the room and we’re working on it, but it’s coming along WAY slower than I want it to.
I’m pretty sure they’ll at least be able to have more time out together when I can get the xpen set up permanently, but that’s going to block off an entire room in the house as just theirs, with the two housecats and the kids and all, plus any relatives that still plan on landing on us this year *AHEM!*, I want them to be in a traffic-free zone, but not so isolated that they feel shunned.
Pippi has been VERY busy re-christening her pen with litter, poop and pee. I am hoping this will settle down here soon, as I dont’ fancy having to spray out her pen every day. (I even asked my hubby to look for the drill and those zipties for the hundredth time…anyone else here have a man who hoards his tools so you can’t use them yourself?)

I just don’t want either of them hurt. It just kills me to see one of them nursing an injury that could only have come from the other. (The cat likes to try to poke them with her paw through the xpen when she thinks I’m not looking, but she gets Hades for that!) These are tiems when I wish they had been brought up together instead of trying to bond them when they’re both obviously very set in their ways.
I don’t know…maybe they just don’t WANT to be bonded? 0_o

[JodiM]

Well…. I am totally feeling your frustration on the whole situation.  I have no suggestions for you as I feel I am in the same boat with my two buns and I’m ready to throw in the towel.

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