Riesling and Peanut Butter… *BONDED*

[foxtailskies]

So, Peanut Butter has been neutered for a little over a month, and it seemed like the time was about right to start an introduction! (Nutter’s behavior has been vastly improved- very good litter box habits, being much more polite about me handling stuff in his cage, tolerating being picked up; much calmer overall than when I got him). Tonight was the first night they met each other outside cages; my housemate and I threw them in a towel-lined bathtub.

They did GREAT!!!!! I think Riesling really misses having a friend (her buddy Basil died this past spring). She cuddled right up to Peanut Butter while he was eating a carrot, and Nutter didn’t mind at all. Of course, when the carrots were gone, he was forced to pay attention to the world, so he got a bit amorous with his new friend She was very good about tolerating it for a minute but then threw him off… it only got bad when Nutter got angry about being told “no”, and then I had to intervene with a big thick magazine. We got them ignoring each other pretty quickly though, and we ended with Nutter putting his head under Riesling in what looked very convincingly like “I’m sorry!” They lasted WAY longer without any aggression than Basil and Riesling did on their first meeting, so I’m seeing promise!!!! We’ll see how this goes in tomorrow’s session!

 

*UPDATE 8/21/2010*

Riesling and Peanut Butter have shared the same space for 2 days with absolutely no issues whatsoever, first the ex-pen then the pen + Riesling’s cage. This afternoon, their new canine roommate Cedar came home, and while Cedar is in fact scared of the buns and wants nothing to do with them, they are rather frightened of him at the moment and are not happy that they’re sharing their space with a dog!!! On the other hand…. I believe the bond is pretty much sealed They are in Riesling’s cage and are all snuggled together and grooming each other at the moment (poor Cedar is out cold, he’s had  a long day!)…. so…. I’m going to call that bonded!!! Riesling is SO happy to have a friend again, she’s vastly more brave than she was even the last few weeks. They’re so adorable together… two bunnies are not 2x cute, they’re cute squared Hooray for an easy bond!!

[jerseygirl]

Good start! Hope you’ll have them together in no time. I really like Rieslings markings. She has ”je ne sais quoi”. How could Nutter resist?!

[jstukey]

What beautiful buns! Good luck!

[foxtailskies]

Thanks for the good wishes!!!

Day 2 was not nearly as wonderful as Day 1… carrots proved to be an insufficient distracter and Nutter immediately went after his new lady friend. Again, she threw him off after a minute, and again, he had a hard time being told “no”!!!!! He got really angry and started pulling out chunks of hair- it was bad enough that I had to grab them both and hold them in my arms until they calmed down, since the magazine defense wasn’t working But, wanting to end on a good note, I put them both back in the tub and kept a hand on each, rubbing their heads as they sat right next to each other, and they were very calm and good about this. Maybe tomorrow we’ll just do that that- sitting and head rubs- until we decide to play nice again without intervention. They were very well behaved when I held them both at the same time (they’re both very small, ~3lbs each) so maybe I’ll try to carry them around a bit like that- like the “car ride” principle (stressed bunnies seek bunny comfort) minus the car.

My housemate who helped me yesterday did not believe that rabbits had the ability to be as violent as I described… needless to say she believes me now The Monty Python rabbit is definitely based in fact…

[foxtailskies]

Day 3 was GREAT!!!!

I stuck them both in a small carrier and then vacuumed my room… it needed it anyway and they both absolutely hate the noise Then I threw them in the tub, sans towels after yesterday’s fights, and they stuck to each other like glue on one side for a good ten minutes! I gave them one towel since they were being so good and they promptly shifted over to that, but were still very quiet and well mannered. Riesling even got some grooming in and gave Peanut Butter’s ears a few kisses! Nutter did try some humping but was much better about stopping and not throwing a tantrum when Riesling threw him off- much improved since yesterday. We must have spent a good 20-30 minutes together with no real violence to speak of!!!!! So proud of them!!!! Just trying not to get my hopes up in case they explode with rage tomorrow or something Nutter has pulled a few chunks of Riesling’s hair out in mounting her, but a) he’s been gently corrected with a mild nip from Rees and b) I think he hates the hair in his mouth, he gets such a look!, so I’m hoping he’ll stop soon. Looking good so far though! I would LOVE to not have to clean two cages in another few weeks…

[foxtailskies]

Day 5…. WOW!!!!! First day in the exercise pen and they are doing better than I could possibly hope for. They were binkying around each other, snuggling together, and doing all kinds of cute things without any hint of fighting! I think I’ll be putting them in the ex-pen as much as possible this week and see how it goes… if there’s really no fighting in the next couple of days I might do a trial with the ex-pen around the cages. Riesling is not the least bit territorial- Basil jumped all around her cage and she didn’t bat an eyelash when I was bonding them- so I may actually just start by scrubbing her cage and litter box down and placing the ex-pen in the front like a porch. This worked fabulously last time, so maybe it will be successful again.

SO HAPPY. The faster I’m back down to one cage, the happier I will be

[Author]

Messages