Bonding seems to be going well. Should I continue the car rides?

[JeffS]

Fellow Rabbiteers,
I've taken them on a few car rides, but I think they might only be working on Pancake. Afterwords, Pancake is exhausted and wants to chill and cuddle. In fact I can pick her up and she doesn't struggle. Riley still has quite a lot of energy and wants to be alone in his cave (a rubbermade thing with a hole cut in it). If I pick him up he struggles. In the past couple days Riley's stopped mounting anything, so I believe I can trust him in the same cage as Pancake now. I'm not sure if after the car ride if I should put them in the same cage or their own cages. Or, if they shouldn't see each other at all, I could move them to different rooms. (Their cages are next to each other.)

Should I bother with more car rides? Should I keep them in the same cage now, or keep them separate? Let them go where they want? Pancake will tend to imitate and follow Riley while Riley mostly ignores Pancake.

Now that I think about it, for all I know they're as bonded as they're going to get, but I suspect not since Riley is a bit of a cuddler.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Flashy]

You sound still in the very early stages of bonding, so I wouldn't go for the same cage yet unless it is neutral territory and you are going to completely supervise them and it is easy to get bunnies out if they fight.

Personally the next thing I would do would be to put them together in neutral territory and just see how they get on. If one is following and one is ignoring then there is still work to be done. The reason I say that is because they probably haven't established who is dominant and who is submissive yet and that can lead to fights when it does happen.

I would just go for long supervised playtimes together (going through dawn or dusk if possible) so that you can build the confidence and know exactly where they are.

 

[JeffS]

OK thanks, I'll do the supervised play thing again tonight. You didn't mention car rides so I guess they're not necessary. Although, now that I think of it, perhaps they weren't ever really necessary since they've never fought. I just figured the car ride would help anyway.

Riley's been the dominant one by far. When Riley is showing signs of dominance Pancake mushes herself flat. That is unless she's scared he'll hump her.

I'd like to have them in the same cage since they have large cages taking up tons of room and they're so cute together... *sigh*

But if it means they're even happier later on, that's what I'll do.

Edit: Now that I think about it, neither of them really has their own cage. I have 2 cages that I leave open most of the time, and they're free to roam wherever. Since they don't fight and as long as Riley's not aggressive to Pancake, I've just assumed it's ok to let them run around. For instance, right now Riley's in Pancake's cage inside her rubbermaid hide-away, which Pancake never uses anyway, and Pancake is running around chewing on paper.

 

[Flashy]

Car rides have a time and a place and if they work, then that's great, but I tend to find they are a good platform to use to get the rabbits to tolerate each other or learnt o huddle together, and that's definitely working for you. Maybe use it only if things go backwards?

You can eventually get them into the same cage together. I just want to clarify, are they both free roam all the time with each other? Do they go in and out of each other's cages? How do they react with that?

 

[JeffS]

Hi again Flashy, thanks for helping so much.

Yes, they go freely into each other's cages and neither of them care really. When Riley was in Pancake's cage early this morning I watched Pancake clean Riley's left ear, something I never saw before.

I'm not even sure if Riley thinks of a particular spot is his, even though I made the cage for him. His favorite spots seem to be behind it or under my desk.

 

[Flashy]

To be honest, they sound pretty bonded if that's the case.

 

[JeffS]

Amazing! inkelepht:

 

[Flashy]

When you cage them together supervise them as much as possible for 48 hours (a baby monitor or similar can be useful) but hopefully you won't have any problems.