My Bonding Journal & welcoming advice/suggestions…

[CampBuns]

First…some history on my bunnies Miley and Kelly (Nibbles):

Miley was found abandoned outdoors and was picked up by the Humane Society on Nov 30-12. The shelter estimated her date of birth to be Jan 29-10. To everyone’s surprise, Miley was pregnant. She was placed in a foster care to have her babies (rabbit gestation is 28 – 31 days). On Dec-29-11 she gave birth to 7 kits; 6 male and 1 female. The kits were weaned and placed up for adoption at 7 weeks of age.

The only female kit was given the name “Kelly” and was adopted by a girl that wished to have her be a companion to her other pet bunny. The new arrangement didn’t seem to work out and within a couple of weeks she was seeking to find a new home for Kelly. I adopted Kelly on Feb-14-12 and gave her the camp name “Nibbles”.

Nibbles was such a great bunny that I wondered if she might happen to have a sibling still awaiting adoption at the shelter. I contacted the shelter and found out that Miley (the mother) was still waiting for adoption. After everything that Miley had been through, she deserved a home to call her own. A reunion was in the process. The shelter wanted to hold Miley for a few more days because she was part of their March Break education program. Miley was adopted on 03-18-12. Her first meeting with Kelly (Nibbles) was 03-19-12 (Bonding Day 1).

Journal: Bonding Day 1 – introduced the bunnies through the play-yard fence. They clawed at each other. Not love at first reunion for mother and daughter as I had hoped. I let each of them out to run around periodically which would involved coming across the scent of the other.

Bonding Day 2 – Moved the play yard to a new area and put one of each of their litter boxes inside. I sat in the middle petting both bunnies. Gave them a chance to make contact and they tried to fight. I can’t tell which one is the bigger problem with the attitude. I know have Miley in the pen and Kelly roaming free. They can interact through the gate but they aren’t really bothering with each other. Miley is laying at the edge of the yard and Kelly is busy somewhere. We are in a big room where I work – like a nature room.

I was reading about stunt doubles and will likely try that this week.

Any suggestions?

[edited by RP (and later peppypoo). Spacing and type size changed. Was this cut and pasted in?]

 

[Beka27]

Hmmm. I tried to resize the text but it ended up spreading it out instead. Let me message BB (the site’s owner) to see if she can fix this post.

[CampBuns]

Update on Miley & Nibbles: 11:35am (Day 2) – they are laying beside each other, but on either side of the play yard gate. Sorry about the small font above, I hope it can get fixed.

[Beka27]

Thanks for fixing that, guys! I couldn’t figure it out, but I know my vision isn’t great… lol.

They are not going to still have a mother/daughter bond. Once buns get older, they are like any other buns with no prior connection. They have both been spayed, right?

[Author]

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