As "chance" would have it just at the time I was wondering if a tri bun bond were a possibility The Qi Papers had a new visitor, Christina, her blog is Rabid Tidbits. On visiting her blog I noticed she had not one but 2 tri bun bonds, so I asked about bonding. As "luck" would have it she is the bonder for Heartland Rabbit Rescue. We had a great consult via Email, I felt "fortunate" and as prepared as I could be. Soooooo yesterday I opened the door separating the Spots from Amelia and replaced it with a quadruple thick Xpen. I hope no bun will get nipped, as Amelia did the first day, if the fencing is layered and a nose cannot poke on through to the other side. See here for an example of that.
Both rabbits presenting for dominance. Tyler and Sydney would do this for minutes on end in the beginning, heads pressed together, waiting for the other to groom.
First Tyler sniffed at Amelia, then he wheeled and nipped at Sydney and they both sprinted away to hide under the bed. As a peace offering I brought them both, they were snugged up together, some Nasturtiums. Amelia got some too. This was repeated one more time with thumping. Sydney went and sulked in their pen, so I brought her some greens, Tyler was eating by the fence with Amelia. Having finished his greens, Tyler came to see if Sydney have any left. I told her "your brother still loves you, Syd." and bless his little lagomorph heart, right on cue, he flopped on her.
Girls sniff, Amelia was the first to growl.
Sydney now approached Amelia, who was remarkably unfazed by the behavior of the Spots. The girls sniffed, there may have been a little growling, then Sydney chased Tyler away, this happened a couple more times. A series of comings and goings ensued, at one point every bun was chewing purposely on grass matting. Both Spots took up posts at the fence. Sometimes rattling the the bars, stretching up, eating, generally acting out, while Amelia lay supine and flopped against the bag of Oxbow litter that held the fence stable on her side. She did perform some antics, running is small circles while Tyler poked his nose at the fence.
The Spots rampage around and eat snacks while Amelia flops.
You can just see her hind end above Tyler.
More Spot antics while Amelia is casual.
Around noon both Spots went under the bed for their naps, after about ten minutes Sydney came out to check on Amelia, then for hours all was quiet. Around 4:30 I came from in from gardening and found Sydney and Amelia on their respective sides both grooming; girl stuff. In the evening the Spots were mostly uninterested, though I did see the girls visiting, Tyler joined them and all seems pretty calm and friendly. There has been some marking perpetrated by Sydney and some doot scattering by both Spots, but not Amelia....The plan is to keep the fence up for a week and then...........
Next to the fence Amelia naps and waits for the return of the Spots.
19 comments:
Bunny bonding can be rough on us bun moms. I believed that Pink and Elvis would never be friends, but Elvis wouldn't give up--he so wanted a buddy to flop with. It took months, even after they were neutered. What helped was to move them both to a strange room that was no one's original territory. When Peaches came, I was prepared for the whole go-round again, but she slipped seamlessly into the group, maybe because she's a girl or spunky, or just the right personality. Pink ignored her for a while and Elvis followed her around, mounting her relentlesly, but soon all was fine. Hopefully the spots will take to Amelia easily and they'll all be stretched out together napping, which is the best sight.
Good luck :)
So you've decided to keep Amelia?
It's interesting to see the three of them keeping you running in circles. Such confidence in themselves. '~) Very nice work, Miss D. I hope everybun has a great Bunday Monday.
This is not a bad beginning at all. I think you are handling this like a pro. Way to go Syndey, Tyler, Amelia and Mom. Woohoo
good luck, I know how challenging it can be, having watched the bunns at Gorgie Farm! Our Anya was only ever by herself....
This is so exciting! You are doing really well, and I am crossing everything that the bond works!! I look forward to hearing more on the bonding process :)
It sounds like things are going pretty well. Amelia is probably used to bunny power games, considering where she came from.
I hope they're soon all flopping together, plotting lagomorph conspiracies!
Does she let you handle her?
You sure you want three conivers all together like that????
Good for you for the quadruple thickness. We have found that 4" of seperation is necessary to avoid nips and the often resultant infections. I read too much of that in many blogs ....
Based on remembering some of the bonding parties around here in the past, this sounds like great promise!
Fun, eh?
Thanks for visiting everyone. We had a pretty good day today, until a clatter and crash and Amelia had another bloody lip. I'm not sure if Tyler (my sweet boy) got her or he was just massing with the fence and she got hit by it. She is fine, I gave her some Arnica and some soft/cool lasering on her poor lip. She was somewhat subdued for a a couple hours but is quite fine now. Whew. I'd better make sure we have four inches. thanx RG.
PJ-Amelia is very easy to handle and a real love bug, tooth purring and kisses, ankle bumps, the whole deal.
Sounds good so far! Eating in each other's presence is good, it's a calming activity and helps them to realise that the other bunny isn't a threat. I wish you the best of luck with bonding the trio :)
I, too, hope to bond all my buns together someday in the future even though I've read that trios are easier to bond than quads. For now, Hans' & Bailey's playpen fences still have wire mesh attached to prevent any biting through the fence. Occasionally, Buttons still tries to box at them trough the fence. It's good that neither Tyler nor Sydney is that aggressive towards Amelia :)
These sorts of transitions are always a bit nerve wracking! (You should have seen us trying to acclimate our 3 year old gigantic black lab-mix to our teeny-tiny 8 week old kitten. NOT good at the start. Of course they love each other now, but in the beginning I had dreams of death and carnage frequently...
Good luck!!!
I bonded Mario and Chloe and it was not an easy thing. Crossing my fingers things go smoothly...
wow D it sounds like it's really going well, even with the lip cut you mention here in the comments. Amelia sounds like she's just enjoying living around other buns as it was meant to be. All the bonding I've done over the years the biggest thing that always cracked me up were all the doots at the separation between them.
Sounds typical that the female Syd would be a little put out by the new girl.
I am so glad you have Amelia - she's blessed to have you and the spots. I love her little black nose... reminds me of this post:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/09/04/funny-pictures-the-fire-cat-saiz-u-wont-get-hurt-he-saiz/
Oh so now you have a 3rd bun yay!! that's more fun..I await for the day when they finally bonded. In the days of rabbits..we noticed some bonded and some were just born enemies from birth, but I am sure the 3-some will do well together :D
oh...happy weekend D...why is the avatar under construction?
Ooh, good luck! I'll be following this as I've always thought of maybe adding a third... :) (Don't tell A!)
Sounds like tri-bun bonding is going pretty well so far! Good luck!
Thanks for sharing, We'll definitely check back whenever Biff, Sogna and I are able to acquire a third!
this is a real cliffhanger of a nail biter! is it next week yet????
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