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- This topic has 7sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 10 months ago by
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As some of you may vaguely remember (I don’t post here very often), Weatherwax crossed to rainbow bridge in December, leaving Ogg alone. After a few quiet weeks Ogg did okay alone, but we decided to take her to our local RSPCA (who currently have quite a few rabbits) for a meet and greet.
They have a good sized area away from the cages they used. Ogg instantly claimed a tunnel as her own, and whenever she was introduced to a new rabbit, told it exactly where it could go. The rabbit she tolerated the most (although he wasn’t allowed in the newly claimed tunnel either) was Sydney. She didn’t attack any of them or get into any fights, just grunted and chased them a few steps. Sydney was mostly spared this and they sniffed noses a few times.
So Sydney has come home with us, and been renamed Sir Terry Pratchett because apparently all rabbits in this house get named after Terry Pratchett characters, or when your husband can’t think of a suitable character, the rabbit gets renamed after the famed author himself!
Ogg and Terry are currently in separate living quarters in the study. They are next to each other though, and they can sniff each other but not bite. To my surprise, within 20 minutes they were having a very polite sniff with no angry grunts. Terry is still adjusting though, it hasn’t been long. I have been reading lots of guides on bonding to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible.
All I know of Terry’s history is that he is around 1 1/2 years of age. He was surrendered mid last year (owner didn’t have enough time for him), desexed, and adopted out. Last week he was brought back, but they don’t know why.
I’m not sure of his breed, but perhaps if I can get some better photos later when he has settled there might be some guesses here?
This is a photo I took at the RSPCA. Looks like he will be such a poser! I will get some of him at home when he has relaxed a bit more.
Funnily enough, I showed a few people photos of the rabbits the RSPCA had on their website. Everyone told me to get Sydney. I had to explain that Ogg needs to pick, and so everyone then insisted Ogg has to pick Sydney! Looks like everyone got their wish!
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I will post a couple of updates already, because this has been quite funny and interesting.
1) Terry is super confident with people and has happily let us pat him a few times.
2) Terry loves exploring and is super adventurous. I have already let him out to roam the study a few times (supervised) and he loves it and runs around and has tried a few binkies.
3) Terry is super clumsy. Watched him rush into the rabbit area of the study, try to binky as he turned, slip on the lino, and land on his backside. Also watched him try to jump really high to avoid Ogg (who grunted at him), flail, and land directly on Ogg.
4) Terry and Ogg are already getting along fairly well. While Terry was having his out time Ogg escaped her area (my fault, I hadn’t shut it properly!) and they had a few sniffs and no major issues so I have been letting them roam the study free together (supervised) for half an hour now. Obviously will separate them when I am not around for now, and overnight, but I am happy with this start!
5) Ogg is the most relaxed I have seen her since Weatherwax passed. She hasn’t acted super stressed and she has flopped on the rug with me in the study sometimes, but not like she has in the last half hour. She ate some hay near Terry for a bit, wandered out, and flopped on her back before rolling on her side. I have never seen her on her back before! She has been doing a lot of relaxed flopping since I let them out together. She is also still demanding lots of attention from me. As I type this she is nudging my arm for a pat.
I will try to get some more photos of Terry tomorrow, but it is looking like things will work out nicely. Although I am getting the impression Terry is going to be a bigger mischief maker than Ogg, which is impressive!
EDIT: Bonus update! They went suspiciously quiet after I posted the above. So I checked, and Terry was grooming Ogg. He groomed for a good minute. Now he has flopped 30cm away from her.
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When I separated them for the night they spent 5 minutes trying to get back to each other.
I have a couple more photos to share now. The first is of Terry on top of his litter tray. He loves it up there!
Next is Terry obsessively grooming Ogg. He has done a lot of it now, and she certainly isn’t complaining.
And last was when I managed to snap a photo of them next to each other. First they were leaning on each other then Terry went to Ogg’s other side and they checked out a chew toy together.
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. Thanks for the bonus update at the end – after reading everything I was wondering if he had groomed her yet lol.
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