Advice needed

[michele]

I have been thinking about adding a new bunny to my family for awhile as a playmate for elliet. There is a 2 year old female lop at the humane society here that I am interested in. For one of my college classes we were assigned an animal at the shelter that we had to observe for 3 months well Tink (the lop bunny) was my animal to observe. I thought about adopting her back in october but then she was adopted. Well now she is back but here is where the hard part comes in she has some behavior issues. She will charge anyone when you stick your hand in her cage before she got adopted she would never bite just head but well today when I went and saw her she not only charged but tried to bite. I can handle this behavior because she is totally different when she is out running and around. when I took her out to play she seemed very happy to see me and hopped right onto my lap. What is making me not sure about adopting her is that I want a play mate for elliet and not sure if they would get along. I know they probably wont beable to live together but would 2 females beable to bond. Tink is spayed and elliet will be spend within the next couple months. So any advice would be helpful.

 

[gentle giants]

Is she spayed? How old is she, or do you know? If she wasn't acting this was before she was adopted the first time, then either she has jsut hit puberty and all the hormones and crankiness that entails, or the people that had her were treatingher badly.

If she is spayed, I would say what she needs is patience and someone who knows how to treat a bunny right. If you are interested in bonding her with your girl, you would need to have a bunny "date" first, where you take your girl to the shelter and let them meet. Also, is your girl spayed? Because both girls would need to have been spayed for long enough to letthe hormones die down before it would be possible to get them to bond. It is harder to get girl couples, or boy couples, to bond than it is male/female couples.

 

[michele]

Tink (the bunny at the shelter) is around two years old and yes she is spayed. She was cage aggressive before she was adopted but is much worse since she has been returned but once she is out of the cage she is wonderful and hops right up on my lap. She is housed next to other rabbits and she does not seem to mind them.


Elliet (my rabbit) will be spayed when I am home on my christmas break by my vets back home. She is around 6 months old. But she is very sweet and loves everyone. She met another bunny a couple of weeks ago and was in love.


I feel so bad for Tink because she always gets over looked because of her cage aggression. The people that adopted her said they had allergies and thats why they brought he back but I don't think that is the truth because I talked to them a couple days before they brought her back and they did not say anything about that.

 

[TinysMom]

Wow - you have some good questions and have made some great observations.

First of all - if they didn't bond or couldn't live together - would you have space for them and time to let them each get some playtime? That is one thing to consider in the back of your mind.

I would be concerned about trying to bond the two (I'm NO bonding expert by any means) - largely because if she has cage aggression issues, to me that signals being territorial and that might hinder her from being bonded to another rabbit.

Then again - we don't know what she has experienced. I don't know if the stress of being at the shelter, adopted and then taken back to the shelter could do to the rabbit. I wish I was more knowledgable.

The thing that strikes me though is that it is pretty obvious that you have some feelings about this rabbit. I think that when we have a connection (or can make a connection) with a rabbit - perhaps we can work with them to help them to change and become more secure. But that is just based on personal belief - I can't quote studies, etc.

I would encourage you to consider adopting her if you can have an additional cage and are willing to have her knowing that they may always live apart. Perhaps some times they can play together -but she may not want to share her food bowl and her cage and her toys or whatever.

From reading your message, the thing that comes across to me the most is that you do care about this rabbit. Even if your circumstances aren't ideal - it could be that because of your feelings about her - a home with you would be far better than waiting for the "ideal" home.

So I would encourage you to adopt her if you can handle it if they don't bond...but yes...two females can be bonded.

Peg

 

[polly]

Peg put some really good thoughts forward there. I would like to add cage aggression is the buns defence mechanism if she is this bad she has figured it works and keeps humans from picking her up and handling her. The best way to deal with this is to

1 invest in some really thick gloves so that when you do go to handle her she can't hurt you. It also means she will have to learn to except that charging and biting won't work anymore. (she will in time figure out it doesn't work and stop.

2 get her used to trusting you without picking her up that will help as she will safer.



Just because she is cage aggressive to humans does not mean that she will necessarily be bad to other rabbits, thats a suck it and see moment whether they will get on or not!! but just remember to take it slowly

 

[michele]

TinysMom wrote:

Wow - you have some good questions and have made some great observations.

First of all - if they didn't bond or couldn't live together - would you have space for them and time to let them each get some playtime? That is one thing to consider in the back of your mind.

I would be concerned about trying to bond the two (I'm NO bonding expert by any means) - largely because if she has cage aggression issues, to me that signals being territorial and that might hinder her from being bonded to another rabbit.

Then again - we don't know what she has experienced. I don't know if the stress of being at the shelter, adopted and then taken back to the shelter could do to the rabbit. I wish I was more knowledgable.

The thing that strikes me though is that it is pretty obvious that you have some feelings about this rabbit. I think that when we have a connection (or can make a connection) with a rabbit - perhaps we can work with them to help them to change and become more secure. But that is just based on personal belief - I can't quote studies, etc.

I would encourage you to consider adopting her if you can have an additional cage and are willing to have her knowing that they may always live apart. Perhaps some times they can play together -but she may not want to share her food bowl and her cage and her toys or whatever.

From reading your message, the thing that comes across to me the most is that you do care about this rabbit. Even if your circumstances aren't ideal - it could be that because of your feelings about her - a home with you would be far better than waiting for the "ideal" home.

So I would encourage you to adopt her if you can handle it if they don't bond...but yes...two females can be bonded.

Peg

Thanks for the advice Peg. I do have an extra cage and room for her. And I have time that both of them would beable to get out and play. I don't care if they don't live together but at some point I would like them to beable to play together.

There is def. a connection between us before she got adopted while I was still observing her for class she would hop to the front of the cage when she saw me come in and we were are the point where she wouldn't charge at me anymore.
And last night when I went and saw her when she first saw me she turned her back on me and wouldn't look at me and when I put my hand in she charged like crazy. I just left my hand still and let her head butt me a few times and them she let me pick her up and hold her. It was almost like she was angry at me because when I let her run around the room she sat at the other side for awhile and glared at me for a few minutes before she came and sat by me.

Polly thanks for the advice. I will definantly take it slowly.

I'm going to go see her again on Wed so she will probably come home with me on thursday.

This is a picture of her