Being patient: a happy ending and a new beginning

[Orrin]

Last year a surprise litter was born to a supposedly spayed rescue doe we adopted. After being weaned we picked two of the kits, a buck and doe to share our living quarters. All was bliss. The babes were very well behaved. We loved them to death and they returned the favor by being perfect little bunnies.

Then, came puberty. The buck's hormones kicked in and he wouldn't leave his sister alone; he pursued her constantly and wouldn't give her a moment's rest. We had to separate them. We figured that after neutering and spaying their hormones would subside and they could share quarters, again.

It didn't look as though it would ever happen. Months went by and every time we got the buns together the buck would chase and mount the doe. Constantly. The thing of it is, she never tried to fight back, only flee. If she would have swatted him across the nose he might have stopped; but, she's not a fighter.

It wasn't a dominance issue. If we took the doe out of her quarters and let the buck in, he would go completely berserk over everything that had the doe's scent. He would get about as hyper as anything can ever be.

There were false starts along the way when everything calmed down and they'd be snuggle buns; but, as time went by that stopped happening. The doe is left, the buck is at the right.


We despaired that they'd never be able to play together, again. We scratched our heads, trying to come up with some combination of our six buns that would make three bonded pairs.

Finally, this week, about three months post-spay and four months post-neuter, our buck has settled down and leaves his sister alone, most of the time. He still gives half-hearted attempts at mounting and will chase now and then; but, we can now let them roam together and they act like pals, again. Instead of chasing, the buck will lead the way while they go exploring and playing. Just to make sure the doe gets her rest, we separate them at our bedtime and during their midday naps.

My wife and I are happy and so are the Alfie and Blue. Finally, we have peace and contentment. In the before puberty picture, boy Alfie is the steel grey one and girl Blue is the brown one. (Don't ask. ;-) )

 

[A & B]

I'm so happy everything worked out in the end. Those pictures are adorable!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Time and patience.

 

[Orrin]

Here is a follow-up. Alfie the buck is getting better behaved every day. It has been a long wait and there were times we thought it might never happen; but, at long last Alfie and Blue are best buddies, again.

Here's another shot that looks as though we are running an iron salvage operation in our house. Blue was chewing up the carpet so I had to do something in a hurry to stop her. I grabbed the rusty piece of metal from the shop and used it to hold the scatter rug over place where she was doing bunstruction. The scatter rug represents many hours of bunny chews.