Hey there..
I have my 2 male rabbits of I guess about 2years old each who are both neutered and live together.
Recently I was given 2 baby lops, supposedly male.. I kept them apartfrom my adult rabbits as they were tiny and I was worried they'd gethurt.. anyways one turned out to be a female, but she is now spayed andher brother is neutered also.
They are now close enough in size to my other 2 rabbits and i'd like totry introduce them together so if not live together, they could atleast play in the enclosure together in nice weather. (they liveindoors though
)
I know bonding 2 pairs is supposed to be difficult but I'd like to try anyways.
So basically I have 3 neutered males and a spayed female.. 1 of thepair of males is highly docile and very submissive, as is the female ofthe other pair.
Pair 1: Captain and Jack
Pair 2: Pippin and Shadow
I let them out in the room together at the weekend to see initialreactions.. dont worry I wasnt just throwing them together.. I let themsee and sniff each other for a long time beforehand and I was ready tointervene before any aggression started if it did..
and basically what happened was Jack went off exploring the roomignoring the other rabbits altogether, Captain hid behind a cabinet fora while.. Shadow hid in the carrier where she likes to sit.. and Pippinsat in the open munching on the food.
It stayed like that for a while, then Captain ventured out and hoppedpast Pippin a few times without either reacting in theslightest..Captain was interested in shadow and sniffed herfor a while before hopping off again to lie beside the wall. Shadowdidnt seem defensive or afraid when he did so.
Then Pippin showed first sign of interest in Captain and went over tosniff his nose, and Captain was frightened (He's a rescue rabbit and isscared of everything anyways)so he made to run away and sincePippin had his ears pricked and looked like he was about to chase him Ipicked him up for a while because I dont want things to go too fast andhave any of them frightened.
After a bit I put both Pippin and Captain on my lap beside each otherstroking them both and neither were tense or showed interest in eachother.
Then I put Shadow & Pippin back to their cage and let Jack playwith Captain for a while to make sure he didnt get confused by smellsand then put them both back.
So that was the first proper not behind bars encounter for them.. doesit sound semi promising? I'm expecting it to take a long long time tobond them anyways I was just wondering about the initial reactions asive never tried to intro rabbits before really except when I introducedCaptain and Jack, but Captain is a pushover anyways so it was kind ofeasy.
The 2 strong characters are Pippin & Jack and they didnt really'meet' properly yet so im not sure how that will work out yet..
I was hoping it might be promising since nobody dashed or charged an attack at another.. :?
Thanks
I have my 2 male rabbits of I guess about 2years old each who are both neutered and live together.
Recently I was given 2 baby lops, supposedly male.. I kept them apartfrom my adult rabbits as they were tiny and I was worried they'd gethurt.. anyways one turned out to be a female, but she is now spayed andher brother is neutered also.
They are now close enough in size to my other 2 rabbits and i'd like totry introduce them together so if not live together, they could atleast play in the enclosure together in nice weather. (they liveindoors though
)I know bonding 2 pairs is supposed to be difficult but I'd like to try anyways.
So basically I have 3 neutered males and a spayed female.. 1 of thepair of males is highly docile and very submissive, as is the female ofthe other pair.
Pair 1: Captain and Jack
Pair 2: Pippin and Shadow
I let them out in the room together at the weekend to see initialreactions.. dont worry I wasnt just throwing them together.. I let themsee and sniff each other for a long time beforehand and I was ready tointervene before any aggression started if it did..
and basically what happened was Jack went off exploring the roomignoring the other rabbits altogether, Captain hid behind a cabinet fora while.. Shadow hid in the carrier where she likes to sit.. and Pippinsat in the open munching on the food.
It stayed like that for a while, then Captain ventured out and hoppedpast Pippin a few times without either reacting in theslightest..Captain was interested in shadow and sniffed herfor a while before hopping off again to lie beside the wall. Shadowdidnt seem defensive or afraid when he did so.
Then Pippin showed first sign of interest in Captain and went over tosniff his nose, and Captain was frightened (He's a rescue rabbit and isscared of everything anyways)so he made to run away and sincePippin had his ears pricked and looked like he was about to chase him Ipicked him up for a while because I dont want things to go too fast andhave any of them frightened.
After a bit I put both Pippin and Captain on my lap beside each otherstroking them both and neither were tense or showed interest in eachother.
Then I put Shadow & Pippin back to their cage and let Jack playwith Captain for a while to make sure he didnt get confused by smellsand then put them both back.
So that was the first proper not behind bars encounter for them.. doesit sound semi promising? I'm expecting it to take a long long time tobond them anyways I was just wondering about the initial reactions asive never tried to intro rabbits before really except when I introducedCaptain and Jack, but Captain is a pushover anyways so it was kind ofeasy.
The 2 strong characters are Pippin & Jack and they didnt really'meet' properly yet so im not sure how that will work out yet..
I was hoping it might be promising since nobody dashed or charged an attack at another.. :?
Thanks
