Jealous bunny?

[Goochball]

Hello!! I have a 6-7 month old male lion head (not neutered, I found a clinic nearby that does it, so I plan to have him nuetered in the near future) and a possibly five week old New Zealand bunny( we think is a boy, but obviously not nuetered yet). I had the lion head rabbit first, his name is Wall•e, but due to some people being allergic to him, he had to move to a room off of the garage. Since it is so quiet I rescued a New Zealand bunny to keep him company. They both needed more space, so I expanded their room and made a new divider. That night the baby New Zealand bunny ( I named him Euro) wriggled through somewhere and got into Wall•e’s cage. In the morning they were fine, but they had both left territorial markings everywhere and left a huge mess. I picked up Euro and got him away from Wall•e and cleaned up the room. Euro is back in his part of the room, but Wall•e can see him through the fence. Euro went back to his neat litterhabits, but Wall•e leaves a mess of what I’m guessing is just over the top territorial markings because he never was very good about getting everything in his litter box anyways. Euro settled back in, but wall•e just isn’t himself, he is tearing up his newspaper and just goes on sudden runs around the room and goes back to destroying things. He never has been super friendly, but now he seems super distant, almost like he never had a human in his life. When I try to pet him or when he comes up to me he just sorta hops off. When I’m on Euro’s side of the room he comes over and does something cute or destructive to make me come back to his side, then he hops off. Is he jealous when I spend time with the other bunny?Will this get better once he is nuetered? Any advice or help appreciated :!!!

[Asriel and Bombur]

I’m sure others can address the jealousy issue, but I just want to ask why you got a 5 week old? Bunnies should be with their mother until they are 8 weeks old. Please take him to a vet asap as he has not been properly weaned from his mom. Get him checked over for everything and anything. Babies that leave their mother’s too early can often have fatal issues, and their digestive systems are not yet really ready for much besides hay and their mother’s milk. Please keep a very close eye on him the next 3 weeks and please get him to a vet.

[Goochball]

I’ll be honest, I really don’t know how old he is. That was just an ignorant guess of five weeks because he is about 8-9” long. He has food meant for younger bunnies and is really good about eating. The man I got him from was a professional and had already weaned him and his litter mates from his mother and said he was ready to go.

[kurottabun]

Unfortunately many people let their bunnies go way too early I second A&B in getting the baby bunny seen by a rabbit savvy vet to ensure that he’s in good health and also gauge his age. Depending on how old he is he might still need to be on a milk replacement diet. Don’t give him any fresh vegetables until he’s a few months old.

Also just a thought – could those people be allergic to the hay instead of the bunny himself? There are lots of people who thought they were allergic to bunnies at first but found out later that the allergy was actually due to the hay (usually timothy) or the dust that comes from the hay.

For the jealousy part, bunnies are territorial animals and since Wall E was the original bunny, he probaby felt threatened by this new addition and hence feels the need to mark. It’s common for bunnies to suddenly turn aggressive or distant and also lose their litter habits once their territory has been “invaded”.

Bear in mind that since Euro is still a baby, you won’t be able to know the gender till a few months later. He may be a she and you really don’t want an accidental litter. Bunnies can get pregnant at a very early age and it’s very dangerous for a young bunny to have a litter, so do keep Euro and Wall E separate at all times (they can’t even meet for playdates). Even if Euro turns out to be a boy, you’ll still have to keep them separate because two bunnies of the same gender are very likely to fight if they are not bonded. Make sure to block all access – they can’t be “wriggling” to each other.

To bond then you need to get both bunnies fixed and then go through a prebonding and bonding process (check out the BUNNY INFO or BONDING forum section for more info and to read out other people’s experiences with bonding bunnies)

[Goochball]

Ok, I’ll be looking into a vet who could check him to make sure he is healthy, also, I didn’t know about them not needing to eat vegetables until they are older.
I don’t think they can get to each other, but I’ll be keeping a good eye on them and improving their dividers

[Author]

Messages