Prebonding Progress

[Moonlightbunny66]

This will probably be a long post, sharing my progress on prebonding Pinky and Muffin so I can take you all on my bunny bonding journey. And so you guys can share advice and suggestions. If you’re up for a long story then keep reading 🙂
Background of the bunnies: Pinky and Muffin came from the same shelter, I adopted them on the 16 of August. They were neutered on August 12. So it’s been just over 4 weeks since the neuters. Pinky was given up to the shelter from a petting farm. He was fighting with other unneutered males, so they gave him up. He has a scar on his nose that I assume is from that. He’s about a year and a half old. He was at the animal shelter for at least six months I believe. My guess is that he was born at the petting farm from breeding and they didn’t separate the litter of bunnies before they went through puberty. So they started getting territorial and aggressive towards each other. Then it probably got too much for the petting farm and they didn’t know any better. This is just my guess on how this happened, since he was probably around the age of going through puberty when they gave him up. Muffin was given up to the shelter along with three other rabbits from someone who has a terminal illness, and could not care for them anymore. I feel so bad for the previous owner, but I will take care of Muffin the best I can. It must be so hard to have to give up your beloved pets.
Prebonding:
I just started prebonding the bunnies late last week I think? I of course switched things in their pen, not always on purpose. Sometimes it was just so they have different toys.

Then for a few days I would pull up the blanket that covers them from seeing each other. I would only do this in the morning when I feed them to try to get them to associate each other with something good.

Now I’ve been doing cage swapping for a couple days. Definitely some territorial smelly poops from Pinky… But both looked around for a bit and sniffed stuff. I saw some chinning on objects from Pinky, didn’t see any of that from Muffin. Pinky even chinned one of Muffins poops? Strange bunny lol. They settled in and were fine in the other buns pen. No more chinning after that. Not sure about marking since Pinky’s litter habits are not great to begin with. He likes to pee in the front corner of either pen, and will poop anywhere. The onion poops made me think he was being territorial over this new space that smelled like Muffin.

They also share a playtime area and never poop or pee in it. Just some cecotropes (idk if that’s how you spell it) that Pinky left behind when he was eating them.

I learned I have to switch them back to their own pens at night because Pinky will lift up Muffins pen and drop it on the ground in the morning, waking me up too early. He can’t do this as well in his own pen, since it’s from a different brand (has a gate).

Today I fed them the same way, letting them see each other. I left the blanket up for a while after they ate to get them more used to seeing each other. They sometimes put their noses through the bars and sniff each other. If one of them finishes the food first, they’ll sniff over to the other one hoping to get some of theirs lol. Pinky also sticks his nose through the bar a lot. Maybe he wants Muffin to groom him? Or just trying to get a good sniff of him!

They both groom, lay, and eat in front of each other. I pulled up the blanket again earlier and have kept it up since. They’re acting normal. I haven’t smelled any territorial poops so far. They seem to be acting normal. But of course I’m going to be continuing prebonding for a few weeks. 🙂

Also, they can not touch each other through the pens if you were wondering. And the may pens look small in the photos but Muffin’s is in an L shape and Pinky’s is wider. 🙂 And since they switch they get different kinds of spacing, and I let them out at night separately for a few hours at night.

Thanks for reading! Any advice or suggestions are welcome!

[DanaNM]

Sounds really good! It’s awesome they aren’t just marking all over the free-roam area. 🙂

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Moonlightbunny66]

Sorry I’m not sure what’s up with that coding and spacing of the text at the top!

Thanks DanaNM! Yeah I totally thought they would mark all over lol. But they seem to be okay! 🙂

[DanaNM]

Sometimes when I copy paste things I’ve noticed I get weird code showing up (something we’ve noted on our list of glitch fixes). I went ahead and deleted it for you using the edit option.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Moonlightbunny66]

Thank you so much DanaNM! 😄

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