Male is lonely after losing female yesterday please help

[KyleBruce]

Hello all,

i am very sad as I am writing this… My favourite little pet Luna has passed yesterday. She was truly the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen and loved her very dearly. I went to a vet claiming they specialize in exotic animals and spent 500$ for X-rays and treatment. I give my rabbits a treat everyday right after work and Luna did not come two days ago. I immediately went to the vet and followed everything they said she died the day after. She was only 3 years old 🙁 and I went to the same vet in December with her and she wouldn’t poop and i had her hospitalized her and she was better after but this time… anyways… god bless her beautiful little soul

 

her companion Leo is usually always lying beside her they are free roaming the house and sometimes go in their cage whenever they want… we sometimes try to play with them but they really are mostly interested in treats and they run off together and hide and they don’t wanna be approached be petted or anything and they would stick around together like that for years… when you try to pick them up they run as fast as they can and if you really want to pick them up you have to get them in a corner and get a firm hold of them because they will escape. Then it’s possible to hold them up high on a couch and pet them they won’t jump down but generally we do not pick them up.

now that my dear little baby Luna is no longer with us I have great fear that he will feel lonely and fall into depression. He is really a very handsome 4 year old lion head which probably needs a haircut lol. And he is the most adorable little fluffy guy and runs around it makes me happy to see him running around. I love him so very much but our relation is not to pick him up and cuddle with him and stuff like that. I’m worried that he could also stop eating if he feels lonely always hiding in a corner by himself.

 

I am looking for advices according to the fact that even after having him for four years the only relation I have with him is when I shake a bag of treats they come running and circling around and they’re crazy for a treat but you give it to them and they’re gone in a corner somewhere hidden as fast as they can. They are fine with our two cats but the cats and bunnies are not necessary friends or enemies either at all they walk beside each other all day and generally never ever charge at each other but they don’t lay down beside each other cuddled together and that either.

i can’t stop thinking he usually always cuddle hidden in the corner with her but now he is alone and they are very social animal I think? And to miss your companion alone in the corner hiding all day I don’t want this to be his life. I wanna bond with him and make him play with me and do tricks like I see in YouTube videos and people seem to be very very close with their bunny we do not share that…

 

what should I do?

I really appreciate any suggestions to help us. thank you

[poopsweeper]

Sorry to hear your heartbreaking loss.  I have two young female holland lops 4 months old now, which I adopted from the local animal hospital.  Several were given up on the same day (ie I confirmed they were from same litter and would be bonded, but amazing how inseparable they are!)  I can’t imagine how it would be if something happened to one of them.  From what I’ve researched about that, the lone bunny may now become more attached to you, more bonded to you now that Luna is gone.  I hope that happens, it might help with the loss for both of you.

[Bam]

I’m very sorry you lost Luna. Practically all rabbit illness first manifests as inappetence. Often its “just” about indigestion and a bit of gas, but even really grave illness will as a rule first show up as refusal to eat. Since you did take Luna to a rabbit savvy vet and she received treatment, I’d suspect that something was very wrong with her, not “just” indigestion.

As poopsweeper said, its highly likely that your boy will now turn to you for companionship. Rabbits are indeed very social creatures. Imo the best thing you can do is to try and spend as much time as you can with him. You dont have to push yourself on him, just show him that you are there. Talk to him, maybe hand feed him his daily pellets. You could sit on the floor a bit to make yourself more approachable.

A thing I do when I have a new rabbit is to read aloud to it 😄. For some reason, buns seem to respond well to being read to. It seems silly, but maybe they like the sound of our calm voices? Rabbits, like other prey animals, have an instinct for “safety in numbers”, meaning that they instinctively know that a predator is less likely to be able to sneak up on a bun if there are many ears and eyes around that can detect danger early.

 

 

 

[KyleBruce]

That is very encouraging! Thank you for your responses! Luna and Leo were not from the same litter but we had him neutered and we never ended up getting luna spayed. It did appear to us as if she was the dominant lol. They groomed each other but she sometimes she humped him in a weird way lol… sometimes we felt like they were in a fight but not very often at all… I think bunnies from the same litter may be more bonded than ours were… but most times you could spot them sitting side by side…

I have my doubts about him wanting  to see more of us because she isn’t around anymore… according to what we read online we also allowed for him to see her body for a couple hours after we found her to help him understand what happened… we just went to get her cremated this afternoon.

i often used to lay on the ground and stay still and they eventually would jump alll over my body and it was a great way for them to interact with me on my day off!

i am hopeful and will try to hand feed him and maybe even reading to him! A bunny storybook maybe! I bet he will come to enjoy that. These were very valuable tips and I thank you guys for your kind words for luna

[Bam]

Not all bonded rabbit couples cuddle all the time. Mine cuddle quite a bit, but they also do stuff on their own. Theyre not from the same litter or breeder (both are rescues), my girl is a year older than the boy. It is however completely normal for bonded buns to be a lot less interested in their humans than single buns typically are.

I read Watership Down (Richard Adams) to my buns. I love that book! Here’s a picture of my bun Snöa while I was reading to her on the veranda. (Yes, I know its silly but she did seem to like it 😄):

 

[Author]

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