Layla, Charlie’s new girlfriend

[Cassi&Charlie]

I’m so excited that I have to share, I have a new bunny! She’s beautiful and we are picking her up on Wednesday. We adopted her today from our shelter, but they couldn’t desex her until Tuesday so we can’t get her until Wednesday but that gives me plenty of time to prepare.

She has her own NIC condo, which we have just finished modifying so she doesn’t have any levels to jump up to while she’s recovering from her operation. I’ve put some towels down and made sure that her litter tray is low so she doesn’t have to jump to get over it. I can’t wait to bring her home and introduce her to her new (much larger) condo and I really hope she will settle in ok.

I don’t plan on introducing her to Charlie for atleast a week – but any advice her would be appreciated because I know she wont recover straight away but I want to introduce them as soon as possible. The shelter people said a week but I’m not counting on their knowledge because they mainly cater to cats & dogs.

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[jerseygirl]

Awww So cute. Congrats Cassi! She looks wubbuly! Good on ya for adopting and good luck with the first date!!!

[jerseygirl]

Oooohh! I just read your reply on “Charlies fall” thread! Cheeky girl, playin’ on the mans guilt like that!

[JK]

No!!!!!!! Layla is perfect for Edson!  You must give her to me!  What a darling.  Exactly what I am looking for for my boy (the arranging marriage mother that I am).

[Beka27]

she’s beautiful! thank goodness she’ll be altered already… it will take about a month for the homones to subside, so that would be ideal. if you do introduce them earlier than that and there is some fighting, i would separate again b/c she could rip her stitches in a scuffle very easily.

[MimzMum]

Aaaahhh! It’s Mimzy! In female form! 0_0

Awes…how lucky are you? *wants to snuggle Layla* I wish I could get my hubby to let me have just ONE more! ^_^

Congrats! The BF just went up quite a few pegs in my book!

 

EDIT: Okay I posted this before reading the other thread about Charlie’s fall…sorry to mistake the flatmate for the bf! Still…lucky you! ^_^

[minnieservis]

awwww how cute!!!!!!!!!!

[LittlePuffyTail]

She’s so cute! Looks like a big bunny! Lucky!!!! Congrats

[BinkyBunny]

Yes, I would wait a least a couple of weeks – ideally a month. She needs a week or so to recover, and then it can take a month or so for her hormones to die down. In the meantime you can prepare each of them by switching their litterboxes, offering “stunt doubles” see the bonding page towards the end.

You may find Charlie will start marking when he smells her in the house. It is temporary until they bond.

Just be sure to check out the bonding section – going slow is very important.

[Cassi&Charlie]

Thanks Binkybunny, I printed out the bonding section of this site & the house rabbit society & stuck it up on the wall to remind me & boyfriend. I also made sure boyfriend had a good read through your photo journal so he knew what sort of behaviours to expect.
We’ve put a stunt double in with Charlie with a section of Layla’s hair and he is going really well with stunt Layla, licking her, snuggling up with her and NOT biting stunt Layla…which we were afraid of.
The shelter refuses to allow us to give Layla a Charlie stunt double because they say it doesn’t help and just stresses them. So I restate my initial point…that I don’t think they are as well educated in rabbits as they are in other animals.
I’m just so excited about her!

[Beka27]

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

this is my favorite bonding article.  it’s long, 10 pages, but very thorough.  i printed it out and read it about everyday while i was bonding.

[Sarita]

She’s a cutie. Beka, this is one of my favorite bonding articles as well – it’s very thorough.

[kimberleyanddarren]

My best advise for bonding is to keep switching them ie. put charlie in one pen and layla in another then after a day or so put layla in charlies and vice versa, this usually (in my experience) makes bonding much easier, also make sure the pens are next to each other if there is space so they can get used to each other sights and smells before introducing them – good luck and keep us posted

[Cassi&Charlie]

Layla is meant to come home today, I spent all morning re-arranging her house because I had a brain storm last night and decided everything has to be different, but she hasn’t recovered enough from her surgery (spaying) to come back today. I’m really disapointed and worried about her. She’s eating but she hasn’t pooped yet so they’re waiting on that.
I finally found timothy hay, I’ve only been looking for a year. It’s only an hours drive away as well, a small farm that occasionally has it for sale so we’re heading over today to pick some up.

[Lightchick]

Oh, yay! For your new bun…sorry you don’t get her as soon as you like! Everybody’s telling me on the Diet & Care Forum that Oat Hay is almost as good as Timothy…is that more readily available?

Your sweet floppy bunny…can’t wait to see how she and spunky Charlie get along!

Is boyfriend forgiven, yet? (I will forgive him from my honorary dispproval for your sake, if you say so! )

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

She’s gorgeous!! She’s worth the wait-and good on the shelter for holding her to ensure she’s recovering!! Can’t wait to see pics of her in her new ‘mansion’

[kimberleyanddarren]

wow keep us updated!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Layla is doing well and can come home today. Unfortunately I’m working until 1pm and can’t pick her up until then (since it’s 10am now it’s not that long but it seems like forever). I am crazy with excitement but really very concerned about the diet advice given to me by the shelter. They’ve told me to feed her unlimited pellets, any variety will do, with hay and vegies.

I went everywhere yesterday looking for pellets with at least the ingredients listed on them, and found only one lot in Big W, which were lucerne based anyway so it looks like I’ll be ordering online from oxbow after all.

Charlie LOVES the timothy hay, he did nothing but eat it all last night which is good because a bale of hay is considerably larger than this city girl thought it would be. I don’t think I’ll be buying hay for a while!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Lightchick – my boyfriend is forgiven because he’s so excited about Layla and has been really helpful.

[ADEE]

sooo is she home!? I know your excitement and cant wait to hear all about her

[jerseygirl]

How old is Layla? You can give Lucerne based pellets to rabbits under 1 year. The protein is important at this stage and if your getting her straight onto timothy hay I don’t think the pellets would be an issue. Chances are that’s what she was getting at the shelter as that’s what is readily available here in Oz, so you want want to switch her onto something unfamiliar  too quickly.  If she is young, you’d be ordering the Oxbow pellets for growing bunnies anyway right? So I’d just get something local to save $$. Prob not Big W line thou. Try from a feed store. Only prob I find with these is they’re often repackaged and don’t have the nutritional info on the bag – grrr!   I’ve had to email the manufacturers to get more info.  Anyhow, you can get lucerne based with pretty reasonable fibre content as well.

Well done on finding the Tim hay. I was worried you were going to go all way to get it, pay extra and come home to a disapproving Charlie! Glad to here he went for it. I’m trying jersey on pasture/grass hay(from Big W!) and she’s not interested. I think the freshness is a big key to success.

[Cassi&Charlie]

Yeah Charlie hated the Big W hay, he would dig it all out of his litter box in a very disapproving way and look at me in disgust that I would dare feed him this crap.
I noticed that they were feeding her lucerne hay there so I picked up some lucerne to mix into her timothy hay so she doesn’t get too shocked straight away.
I’ll have to look into pellets but the main prob is we don’t know how old she is. They estimated about 8 months but didn’t tell me what they were estimating this on. I’ll get her some feed store pellets and slowly introduce adult oxbows into hers and charlie’s diet.

[Cassi&Charlie]

Adee,she’s not home yet but will be very soon!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Now that Layla is home I think she’s younger than 8 months but I may be wrong so any advice would be seriously welcome. She’s small, even for a lop but has big feet that she looks like she should grow into. She’s also definately crossed with something else because she had one ear up and so I’m worried that she might be crossed with a rex because she has super super soft fur. Charlie had really soft fur when we 1st got him as a baby, so could this be a sign of youth?
She is so beautiful! She did a binky already in her new house but we don’t want to encourage binkying (even though I love it) cause she has just been spayed. I hope she’s a binkyer because Charlie only ever binkies when we take him into our courtyard to see the sun and I’m always so jealous that other people have bunnies who binky for other reasons!

[Lightchick]

I’m glad your new sweet bun is home and happy! Wow, so she’s a baby, huh? Cute!

[Cassi&Charlie]

She is a binky MACHINE – it’s great! Except the poor little bun is probably overstretching her self after spaying, silly thing.

[JamieM]

Ah!  My bunny’s name is Layla too!  Ha.  too Cute

[Author]

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