question about a rescue rabbit

i have a little 5 month old velveteen lop who is the sweetest thing ever ever ever. i have been considering getting her a companion. i know a neutered buck would be best, but i found a rescue doe that i am considering. i'm i am putting a link to the rescue bunny's petfinder ad in hopes someone may be able to give a breed mix. she was dumped in a feral cat colony and the tnr person who takes care of that feral colony rescued her. she spoke to me today about her and she sounds very sweet except she is apparently a little food aggressive if she thinks you are going to take away food she was just given. i have no experience with this at all and am wondering if that could carry over to being food aggressive with my lop when they eventually were bonded.

any help would be appreciated.

http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/23864730

There is no way to tell for sure if the food aggression will effect a bond. I will say that bonding two females can be more challenging than a m/f pair. And, in any bond, the struggles come with when they can't sort out their dominance and are both vying for top bun.

If this rescue has somewhat of a dominant personalty and your bun does too that could pose a problem. However, sometimes the way buns are with humans is completely opposite with other buns. A sweet, mild bunny with their human slave could turn into queen boss with a rabbit so you never know.

The best thing is to take your girl on a bunny date with this rescue to see how they get along. By the way, is your girl spayed? You will want both rabbits altered in order to attempt a bond. Also, it can take a week or up to a few weeks for hormones to completely dissipate after a spay or neuter.

I'm currently bonding my male and female buns. I've done a lot of research on bonding and I'm right in the middle of it. Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to help if I can

:yeahthat: We have a couple of females that are fine with us but won't tolerate any other bunny.

I wouldn't say she is a Flemish giant or even a mix of one. She could be anything for breed but her color is broken chestnut agouti

A meeting of the rabbits will tell you a lot.

thanks to all for the replies. i ended up getting a boy bunny as that seems easier to me as far as bonding.

Great! How's bonding going?

best of luck with the bonding! ask all the questions you can think of here - we've got lots of folks who have recently gone through the bonding process and will be happy to help

well, he LOOOOOOVES her and she is pretty indifferent to him so yay!

ok. i do have a question now. the boy bunny was neutered right before i got him, which was fine as i knew i would be keeping them separate until they decided they liked one another. i was keeping the boy in the hutch and my girl in a playpen until last night when i finally divided the hutch. i put the boy on one side and the girl on the other after making sure there was no way they could get over, under, or around the divider since my girl isn't spayed yet. well, i went in my craft room just now and they were both on the same side of the hutch and the divider was still completely in place. since then, my girl has been acting very skittish and scared, but the boy is still happy and okay. i had planned on having her spayed at the end of this month, but now i am worried she may be pregnant. and, i am worried she is going to be skittish and scared from now on.

i hadn't planned on getting another bunny until after she was spayed, but i saw the rescue bunny in my original post and started thinking about getting a rescue. then, the boy bunny really needed a home and i couldn't say no. and, i know i should have kept him in the hutch and her in the playpen until she was spayed or i knew for sure he was sterile. aaauuugggghhhhhhh

eep!

if you're worried about an unwanted pregnancy, you should contact your vet and find out if an emergency spay is an option (basically the same as a regular spay, it's just got a different name if the rabbit is pregnant). during a spay, the uterus is removed, so the emergency spay functions as an abortion. this can be done until about 2-2.5 weeks into the pregnancy.

thank you for the info!! will she stop being skittish at some point? i am hoping she just got a little freaked out that he got into her side of the hutch and will calm down soon. but i'm worried she won't be the same sweetie she has always been since her trauma.

there's a part of me that would love to have babies, but my husband would kill me, i think. they would be really cute babies though - 1/2 velveteen lop, 1/4 lionhead and 1/4 english angora. how cute would that be???

hehe... hopefully she'll get over the trauma pretty quickly. mine have dealt with vet trips and spay surgeries and forgave me for them

good to know! i am going to continue to bribe her with apples and bananas and hopefully she will eventually forgive me and all will be well.

just make sure you don't bribe her with more than about 1 teaspoon per 2 lbs of body weight per day

poiema wrote:

thank you for the info!!    will she stop being skittish at some point?  i am hoping she just got a little freaked out that he got into her side of the hutch and will calm down soon.   but i'm worried she won't be the same sweetie she has always been since her trauma

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My 2 cents is that I would be a *little* concerned that she's so scared of the male. Here is a common scenario: the male (acting out of remaining hormones and possibly a dominance thing too) probably mounted her. If her personality is to act now scared or skittish, this could hinder a bond.

ALOT of times what happens is the scared female eventually retaliates because she kinda "snaps" and then a fight can break out. Plus, since she is not spayed she is acting on hormones too....which can make her a bit grumpy. Attempting a bond pre-spay can be challenging. If they fo form any type of connection at all, you risk that being all messed up when she has to leave and go to the vet and come back smelling different.

Long answer short I'm saying this not to be pessimistic but give you something to think about which is this-you might want to keep them seperate until the spay so you can start fresh after that. You don't have to, but it might be the path of least resistance.

Lastly, with all that being said, things could end up being fine too. She might learn to accept the males dominance and humping and be fine, so no need to totally worry, but with ALL the research I've done on bonding lately, I just feel compelled to share my thoughts

Sorry for the ramble........

thank you! i have separated them and have made sure they can't get to one another again.

i have no idea why, but all of a sudden, niffle and the as yet unnamed boy rabbit have fallen completely in love. it was very quick! i was keeping them side by side so they could smell and see, but not get to one another to cause damage or whatnot. when i let them out to play, niffle jumped up in the air and ran over to the boy bunny and started licking him. he licked her back and then they both jumped up and played a game of chase (no fighting or biting or mounting). after that, they flopped beside one another and have been good ever since. is that normal??

also, if she does end up having babies, she is an opal velveteen lop. he is a black lionhead/english angora mix. what color babies should i have and do you think they will have long hair or short? and, would they have floppy ears, do you think?

also, any suggestions on a name for the boy bunny?