Questions about bonding a hypothetical pair

[Cambridge]

Oh, man… where do I begin?  Ok.  So I’m adopting an intact senior male rabbit in the very near future, and I found a rabbit-savvy vet in my backyard who neuters and spays rabbits regularly.  I always intended on neutering my future bunny, but now I’m considering on altering him to make bonding a second bunny easier.

Why did I decide to have a two bunny household?  This gorgeous girl from my local pound:

I mean… how could you not love that face?

I completely understand that rabbits must be quaranteed at least two weeks before introducing them to each other, that both bunnies should be altered, and that male rabbits should wait about one month after neutering before being introduced to an intact female.

But are there any recommendations about how long I should wait after a spay before introducing a female rabbit?  I mean, would any additional stress significantly inhibit her healing time or not?

 

My second question is about how to seperate two pre-bonded bunnies.  I currently have a 3x3x3 NIC cage and I figured that I could just make a divider in the middle so that it’s essentially two cages stacked on top of each other, and I could always convert it back into one mega cage when (if?) bonding is successful.  Is this acceptable, or would it be more ideal to seperate the bunnies into two seperate rooms before they are ready to bond?  I’m assuming that both bunnies are not litter trained yet so they’re going to be poop bombs one way or another, so that’s not an issue. 

 

Finally… I’m completely assuming that the bunnies I’m planning on adopting are properly sexed.  I know you Binky Bunny forum-goers have loads of experience under your belt, but any same-sex bonded anecdotes would be appreciated while I prepare for the worse.

[Monkeybun]

I’d wait at least a month ofter a spay, for hormones to die down. Its the hormones that cause bonding issues, and you want to make sure they are completely gone before bonding.

As to housing, I’d suggest having at least a couple inch gap between their living spaces, so they can’t fight through the bars.

Good luck!

[jerseygirl]

These bunnies keep multiplying! hehehe

Do you have Sweetpea yet or is she still to come? I was just looking back at the condo you built. Are you thinking to divide it in half so there’s a top and bottom cage, 3×3 grids. That does save on space some. If space isn’t an issue, could you leave condo as is and set up a pen?

[Cambridge]

@Monkeybun: I was actually planning on separating them with a solid piece of wood separating the two levels apart, so (hopefully) there’d be no point of access between the two bunnies.

@jerseygirl: No, I have not adopted her yet, but she’s scheduled for euthanasia tomorrow morning so I’m planning on adopting her after my morning Tae Kwon Do class. There’s only one other area of the house that I could set up a pen, but that room isn’t bunny-proofed yet. I’d prefer to split the condo into two separate levels, but if that doesn’t work out I could always move on to plan B.

Alright! So just so we’re clear:

[ ] Introduce both bunnies about one month after EACH are altered.
[ ] Be prepared to set up a pen in another area in the home.

I think I got it! Oh man. I tried to convince myself all day that I shouldn’t adopt another bunny, but now I can’t possibly think of any reason why not. I’m very excited! Thank you so much!

[Beka27]

She’s so cute!!! I hope you get her!

The month waiting period, as well as being useful for the elimination of hormones, also serves to protect the incision site. Spays are invasive surgeries, and if they start to scuffle during the introductions, that could cause some trauma to the area.

[TARM]

OMG! New bunny! Squee!!!

[kralspace]

Sweetpea is gorgeous! I don’t blame you a bit. I would keep a buffer space. Some bunnies are low enough (cough – Pringles – cough) to grab another’s whiskers through the bars so they can bang their heads against the grid!

JerseyGirl, that is a theory that needs some research. I was amazed that I started out with one spayed bunny and found myself with 6 within 3 years!

[Cambridge]

I adopted her this morning and you couldn’t ask for a nicer, happier bunny. I’ve deiced to call her Sweetie instead of Sweet Pea. She LOVES to be petted and held and she binkies every ten seconds when let out of her cage. I’ll have to borrow a camera because all I have on hand is a cell phone and the picture quality isn’t doing her justice.

They are some rules that we need to lie down. She seems to be litter-trained already, but is using her dig-box exclusively to go potty in. Maybe it’s because I’ve used CareFresh bedding inside the dig box? I’ve been placing her poos and urine-soaked cardboard pieces inside the litterbox to give her an idea where *I* want her to go potty, but I’m very pleased that I have a good foundation to work on already (I was expecting a bunny with no previous litter-training).

She also tends to gently nip my clothing if I was foolish enough to stop petting her for a second. >_<# OF COURSE I just had to wear my nice TKD dobak today so I told her "NO" and she seemed to get the idea, but like all good scientists she had to repeat her experiment again and again to see if she could achieve the same results. I imagine this is going through her mind:

EXPERIMENT 10,781: Nipping clothing and snuggles
HYPOTHESIS: I bite clothing and then I get snuggles.
OBSERVATIONS: Silly human tells me “no” and then herds me into my cage and then turns her back on me.
DATA: Previous 10,780 experiments confirm these observations.
CONCLUSION: Not enough data. Must perform the nip clothing to achieve snuggles experiment several thousand more times to see if the human *really* wants me to stop nipping her clothes to beg for snuggles.

[MirBear]

lol!

[jerseygirl]

haha! Yep, that’s about how she’d be thinking. They’re smart!
Well congratulations and thankyou for saving her just in time. Just so hard to believe a beautiful, happy, friendly creature like her was about to be put to sleep!

[Beka27]

I’m so excited for you! She sounds like a Sweetie!

[Author]

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