Need some advice!

[Mimzy]

Brief on how the bonding is going…I’ve been doing bonding sessions with Mimzy & Bunny for a few weeks now. Mimzy tends to get a little frustrated when in the bathtub & takes it out on Bunny by nipping him. He thumps at her a lot in there but it usually calms down pretty fast especially when I squirt her with water.

 I’ve had the most success in the stroller I have for them, I don’t even have to be pushing it. I just put them in it, turn a movie on & they sit snuggled together. They both allow each other to reposition & move around, these are lasting about 2 hours now. If Mimzy nips Bunny (usually his ear) I just move or shake the stroller a little bit & it helps. I did have to push it around the house a little last night as Mimzy was getting a little more flustered than usual but they do well for the most part.

My boyfriend is trying to jump ahead of me quite fast wanting to change my room around & deep clean everything & just put them together. No worries! I’m not letting him do this! I keep telling him they can’t be caged together yet. Right now Mimzy is still territorial of the room, their cages used to be next to each other when I wasn’t going to keep Bunny & Mimzy would not have that, I had to make it to where she couldn’t see him next to her because she was so angry. Now, their cages are on opposite ends of the room, they can see each other though especially when one is out of the cage & there is hardly any aggression from Mimzy that way unless Bunny is right next to her in the room.

My question is, my boyfriend is coming over later today & wants to help me switch cages. After reading other old posts on switching cages, would you all recommend I first do stunt doubles or putting their cages closer together again before swapping cages? They do well in bonding sessions, Mimzy is just still stuck on “her” territory. Also, for switching cages, how long do I leave them in each other’s cages for? Do I switch every day or every few days?

[QueenTwitch]

With our two, we did something similar to you, in that their cages were next to each other for 3 weeks – first with a wall so they could smell each other but not see each other. Then we allowed them to see each other and sniff each other through a 3 inch gap for a couple of hours a day, then we took the wall away. Then we put them in the bath, and our girl hated the new boy, so we changed tack and switched only their litter boxes, so that she had his and he had hers. This worked really well – we left them in there for a day at a time for a week before emptying them and giving them back to their original owner – because she got used to his smell and found in non threatening, so that when we put them both in a neutral room, they played together really well without any issues.

I’m not sure how much of my experience was luck, but giving them one another’s smells without the actual other bunny really helped her territory become theirs.

Good luck!

[MimzMum]

No advice I’m afraid because I’ve never completed a successful bonding, but wanted to send happy couple vibes and wish you good luck!
((((((((((((((((((Mimzy and Bunny, sittin’ under a tree….etc, etc ))))))))))))))))))))

[Mimzy]

Thanks so much for the vibes!

Queen Twitch, after you mentioned just the litter boxes, I was thinking maybe I should just do that instead of cages entirely but the litterboxes I have won’t work in each other’s enclosures :/ that’s a great suggestion though.

I did go ahead & switch their cages entirely. The first night (last night) was horrible! Though to be expected. Bunny was not using the litter box in the cage at all, while Mimzy would use the box when she was in the cage but was also pooping & peeing on my floor outside the cage :/ Not fun to clean up!
It’s cleared up a little though, Bunny is now using a litterbox in the cage except not the one I would prefer him to use. I put a 2nd box in there where he was going mostly & fed him dinner inside it, he’s been using it since but he will NOT use Mimzy’s main litterbox. Hoping he’ll use the main one eventually because I can’t have that 2nd box where it’s at right now, highly inconvenient & in the way of a ramp lol.

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