Monday Bunday

Rabbits3 seem to be making slow, through steady progress. We would all like to acknowledge Sydney for venturing outside. Amelia likes to go out pretty much any time and at night will wait by the door so she can go out and look at the night. Tyler prefers daytime forays. And Dear Syd, is just getting used to the whole concept. It's not about what a bun can do, I tell her, it's about how hard a bun tries.

Sydney only just barely outside using the basil not for food but for cover.

On the bonding front spaces between rabbits continue to close up, and retreats from aggression shorten. Amelia, who in the very beginning could get aggressive, is still just retreating. Syndey is much more likely to go for fur, though Tyler was guilty of one incident. Only very small amounts of actual fur have been removed from anybun (it is hard to tell whose fur it is without a DNA check). Amelia is more and more standing her ground with head down asking for grooming, she and Tyler have had a few almost grooms.....

At home with Rabbits3; typical domestic scene.

I have noticed Sydney and Amelia playing a game I will call "Trading Places". I know, you thought this was a reality TV show, but it a trickster rabbit game. Bandit introduced this game to me. First when she was an only rabbit she would establish a pattern of places she would be at set times. When she thought I'd gotten the hang of it she would switch it all up and have a good laugh into her dewlap. When she got a companion, Biscuit, the waves of of silent lagomorphic laughter were palpable when I walked into their room one morning and they had switched beds. This was made even more amusing by the fact that Bandit, being a big girl, did overflow Biscuit's Bed and little Biscuit was almost swallowed by Bandit's bed. Sydney and Amelia are just in the beginning stages of "Trading Places" and so the switch was fairly rudimentary. Amelia had established under the chair as her habitual area, and Sydney often planted herself where Amelia's pellet bowl would be, in hopes I might forget that she shouldn't have free fed alfalfa pellets. Then a couple days ago they switched. Sydney has never lounged under the chair, but there she was, doing a fair Amelia imitation.

Sydney and Amelia choose to share a dish.

Notice their ears are exactly the same:

right ear lightly back and left is out to the side.

I've started putting the greens in three bowls (all the same amounts, mind you) and placing the bowls an equidistant triangle. For a while the Spots would run Amelia off under the chair and return to eating, she would stay under the chair and I would put a bowl there for her. Lately she has been returning to the triangle. Last night she and Sydney were sharing a bowl for what seemed like quite a long time until Sydney took a little lunge at her. Within 10 seconds they had re-configured and Tyler and Syndey were sharing a bowl and Amelia was back at her original place.

Then Tyler and Sydney share a dish,

when there is enough to eat,

eating is a non-competitive social activity.

Have a great week everybun.