Qu on bonding special needs rabbits

[jerseygirl]

Specifically bonding Special Needs Buns to “Able-bodied” Buns.

Can anyone share their bonding experiences with this or what they’ve witnessed?  I’m interested to know how normal, healthy rabbits relate to special needs rabbits.  Do they recognise the disabilities/vulnerabilities in the other rabbit and take on a care taker role?  Or is that specific to the personality of the rabbit?  Is it not acknowledged at all?  Would a healthy bunny be more stressed being the more vigilant one of the two, having to protect the other? 

Thanks

[xParadise]

Hmm, that’s an interesting thought, jerseygirl. I would be curious of people’s experiences with that as well.

[MarkBun]

I have seen it happen more than not that a healthy bun realizes there’s an issue with a disabled one and helps them. At SaveABunny, Scooter would actually herd a blind rabbit whenever it began to go somewhere unsafe or help it to find the food when it was dinner time.  And, like i mentioned elsewhere, the evil Maryann actually did not attack one bun because he had a weepy eye.  Instead, she hopped up to him and tried to clean it for him.

[rabbitsmba]

One of my bonded pairs went thorugh something that was interesting to watch. Binky and Fluffy are madly in love. Two years ago Fluffy came down with head tilt – for anyone who has had a bunny with tilt, you know the initial onset can happen rather quickly. Of course, Fluffy was falling, rolling, really confused and withdrawn. In the begining, whenever he would roll, Binky for some reason, took it as a sign of aggression, and she would run up to him and growl and bite him – this of course was very upsetting to me and to Fluffy, but I guess she was just confused about what was going on. But it didn’t take long for her to realize that Fluffy was actually sick. Soon after, every time Fluffy would roll, she would run over and park herself on the side that Fluffy rolled on to keep him steady. And even when just sitting together, she would always sit on his “tilted” side, giving him extra support, licking him. It warmed my heart to know that she understood he was sick and she was comforting him. Fluffy eventually fully recovered.

A friend once told me about a bonded pair of hers, one sighted, one blind. They both lived in a large pen together, but one day she had to move them to a new space. She moved the pen to it’s new location and tried to place eveything exactly as it was before so Blind Bunny could find things. She noticed something strange when she put the bunnies back inside the pen – sighted bunny pushed blind bunny up against the side of the pen. Blind bunny tentatively ventured out again but sighted bunny nudged her back up against the side of the pen. Inch by inch, blind bunny explored and sighted bunny kept herding her up against the side of the pen. Then when they reached their original starting point, sighted bunny hopped to the middle of the pen and flopped for a rest.

My friend soon realized what sighted bunny was doing – he was guiding blind bunny around the new perimiter so she cold get her bearings. After that, blind bunny seemed to know where everything was.

There is no doubt in my mind that animals can sense an illness or disability with another animal and sometimes their level of compassion can be heartwarming and beautiful….

[MooBunnay]

That is the sweetest thing I had some difficulty trying to bond my blind bunny Grace because whenever another bunny got near her it would scare her and she would turn and lunge at them. We haven’t tried bonding her again since the initial attempt because it stressed her out so much, but I really do think that it can work out but it will probably take a bit more time than a normal bonding just because you need to factor in some time for the bunny to learn the others disabilities and how to work with them. I know that Kokanee&Kahlua has successfully bonded Chuck, a blind and deaf rabbit, with her other two, so she may have some more information.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I have a couple of experiences to share-hope they help!! Are you thinking of adopting special needs? That’s sweet of you Jers!!

So my first was Rupert, he has a crooked leg (it’s ninety degrees from the natural angle) from a break that occured (presumedly) during the time that he was a stray. He’s not really high maintenance and has pretty good mobility. He’s slightly incontinent and requires bum baths approx. monthly. He is slower then other rabbits and I really feel that he’s sensitive to his handicap there. We brought him home and he was very defensive towards Kokanee and Kahlua. He seemed afraid they would get him, so he charged if they even looked at him. I was working on bonding them into a trio, Kokanee really like Rupert until she saw him try to nip Kahlua-after that it was on and she hated him. She got sick and we stopped trying to bond her to him, and continued working on Kahlua to Rupert (planning to continue when she was better, which didn’t happen). Kahlua is not very bright and I don’t think their is anyway she notices anything different about him. I think Kokanee did.

After Kokanee passed away I brought home Chuck, knowing he was blind but finding out he was deaf as well. As you know i brought Kahlua and Rupert with me, partly to not leave them alone and partly to start the bonding on the trip-neutral territory, car rides-great oppurtunity.

Chuck had a good personality. He’d often been paired with bunnies at the shelter, and they told me their is no one he can’t get a long with. I think that played a big part. However introducing him to Rupert, instead of how Rupert normally reacts to new rabbits -charging, aggressive, angry,-he perked his ears in his super curious way, checked him out a lot and was fine with him off the bat. He humped him once, for a few seconds and was fine with him after that. We then introduced Kahlua to Chuck-she literally jumped two feet in the air when she saw his face-the side where he has no eye. She seemed scared of him, but kept checking him out and then groomed him alot. A little humping but mostly grooming.
I would say they definitely noticed that and were good to him.

I did have them in a trio, but I found that Rupert and Kahlua were startling Chuck too much when they approached him (he’s a very deep sleeper as you can imagine) and we seperated him to his own ‘quarters’. He is doing great and they still visit him when he’s playing on the couch. So although I wouldn’t say they are a bonded trio anymore, they get along great.

Soooo I don’t know if that helps but basically I think depending on the handicap they will notice. And I don’t think they’ll think it’s tough or a burden. Animals with special needs don’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves, they ‘live in the moment’ like Ceasar says, and other animals may be less threatened by them, or protective, but I don’t think they’d feel guilty or sad for them

[lilmizzsnickerz]

my bunny has a lil problem it had a brain infection thingy and hasnt been right since but she still attacked my freinds bunny !

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