destructive behaviour

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jack&hetty

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Last night I triedto get black jack and hetti to get along. No sooner was sheout of her cage than she attached her teeth to black jacks back as hepulled her around the hutch.

I'm not sure what this is but it didn'tlook very nice so I seperated them again, getting scratched in theprocess.

This morning therewas loudthudding coming from our spare room which we thought was coming fromdownstairs but hubby has gone into the spare room to see the rabbitsand Jack has kicked his way out of the wooden hutch and hetti iskicking at her indoor hutch.

Really really not sure what to do now.

Any suggestions gratefully received :(
 
Hi Sam

Don't they like to put you through it :?.

Personally I'd keep them completely apart for a while - a weekorso - and then take them both to completely neutral groundto restart the bonding process. The links Buck gave you are really goodand do work if you follow them. I think right now though they mighthave both got stressed up about their territory and other issues so I'dlet them cool off about it.

In the meantime just keep loving them both and letting them have a free run at different times.

I know how hard it is to feel patient about how long it can take tobond, but there are plenty of us on here who have hadto taketime andrepeated effortover a period of weeks topersuade our rabbits that falling in love is a good idea.

One thing it might be worth checking after a comment you made yesterdayis that Hettie really is a girl. Pet shops are notorious for makingmistakes and even experienced people can get it wrong. Hopefully sheis.

If she continues to be so aggressive whenever she meets Jack it mightbe worth not trying to bond them until she's been spayed in a couple ofmonths. Neutered animals often bond much more easily with lessaggression, though it can still take time :(.

Don't give up, it'll be worth it :).

Kate
 
Kate,

I have to book them in eitherthis wk or next for their injections so I will get the vet to checkthat for me whilst we are there.

There cages are a meter apart. Jack is allowed free run so he has access to her indoorrabbit cage with the pen between him and the cage.

Yes they defianetly know howto put you through it my arms look like a war zone:(

Will follow the advice on thethread the thing that gets me most is that friday - monday they werebonded and now they are not...I thought I was going to have at easy...think again :?
 
I would not allow Jack to have freerun. He is stressing out Hetti and he could cause someserious injury to her. Either not let him have free run, orcompletely block off Hetti's cage where they cannot even see each other.
 
hey? Jack hasn't done anything wrong? it is hettithat starts on him. Jack has had free run for the past 2 months as heis potty trained.
 
he was my first rabbit and i dont c how blockinghim in cos she is moo bag will help any that seems a bit cruel. he cantaccess her hutch anyway. Have u miss read what I have written?
 
She doesn't mean to offend, we're just trying to help you out.

When I brought Valuran into my herd, my doe Abby did not likehim. It was much the same with her and him and I really thought theywould never bond. Now I have all three of my rabbits happily living inthe same cage.

If you follow the directions on the link that Buck gave you, it willwork out. It takes a lot of time and patience, but it's well worth itin the end. It took me two full weeks of 20-30 minute sessions, twicedaily, to get Abby to finally accept Valuran.

Look at them now though. As you can see, it's well worth the work.

Unfortunately, your rabbits aren't just going to magically get alongand love each other. Sometimes that does happen and sometimes itdoesn't. I can convinced if you follow the instructions in that link,it'll work for you as it did for me.
 
I didnt say i was offended I'm just saying thatrabbit hasn't touched hetti yes he scratched at the beginning but whyshould he lose his freedom because she attacked him?

I'm just being a mum.
 
Sorry, yes, I misread. Still recommendseparating them so they cannot see or have contact with eachother. :)
 
sorry lissas just really upset about the wholething at the moment i didnt mean to have a go...feel like a completerabbit failure :(


 
Rowan wrote:
...One thing it might be worth checking after a comment you madeyesterday is that Hettie really is a girl. Pet shops are notorious formaking mistakes and even experienced people can get it wrong. Hopefullyshe is.

Good golly, Kate! How right you are. It is so basic, yet no one picked that point up heretofore.

We tried to bond Ernest to our doe, Mitzie, with no successfor about three weeks until we received "his" neutering papers from"his" previous owner, only to find out "he' had received anoviohysterectomy and thus became Ernestine right then and there.

As a three year old, who had been fixed by his owners, who believed himto be a buck for some reason, we never thought to verify it by lookingand accepted the owner's word at face value.

When we did look, we disagreed about her sex and needed expert andcostly professional opinion to settle the argument conclusively.

The fact she was a doe, unbeknownst to us, would account for thedifficulty in affecting a bonding between her and our otherdoe. Not that it can not be done, just that it would be moredifficult than if between a buck and doe.

Black_Jack....bonding occurs most easily between buck anddoe, doe and doe, buck and buck, in that descending rank orderofsuccess. Some people maintain that all rabbitscan be bonded provided one uses the proper techniques , make the effortand has the patience to draw the process to a successful conclusion.

Others claim there are simply some individual rabbits who will not bondwith some other individual rabbits regardless of what you do.We happen to adhere to that point of view, but will be the first toadmit we don't have the patience to work at the process for more thanthree weeks for any particular pair.

We have two does, who came to us as bonded siblings. We sentthem both out at the same time to be spayed and they were necessarilyseparated for the procedures. We kept them separated one moreday upon return home. We when placed them together again,they began to fight viciously, never to assume their bonded roles again.

I am at a loss to explain why Jack and Hetty were fine for a day ortwo, then NOT. All it would take would be a littledisagreement, that blew up into a major altercation. It couldbe hormonal as she is not spayed, right? It could besomething like I described in the paragraph above. It isoften difficult to understand and explain rabbit motivation,I am afraid.

One of the best sites for explaining the hows and whys of rabbitcommunication is The Language of Lagomorphs. It mightgive you some clues as to what is occurring between Jack andHetty. The link is available in A Cheat Sheet for RabbitCare on the contents/subject window, but I will insert it here inorder to make it easier for you to access.

http://www.muridae.com/rabbits/rabbittalk.html

Buck

 
There are some great tips for bonding on here if you do a search. I am sure there are more online also.

One thing I have heard is to start moving their cages slowly togetheruntil they nearly touch. It takes time. Bepatient.
 

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