Going from 2 to 1 bunny?

[stinkybunnies]

I have two holland lops, a buck and doe. I bought the buck first and a few weeks later, got the doe to keep him company. Obviously, aftera few monthsthey started to mature and get hormonal so separated them and had the buck neutered. I still have them apart to make sure that 1) the doe isn't pregnant, and 2) the buck won't be able to get her pregnant until all his hormones are completely gone (it has been about 4 weeks since his surgery and since they were seperated.) If I still don't have babies in a week or two from the doe, will get her spayed then.

They seem reasonably happy alone right now and I am feeling overwhelmed with pets and kids. I feel like I don't get them out much and although they have large cages and get fresh greens 2x a day, etc., that they aren't getting enough attention. When I have time, I pull out the doe because she'll sit on my lap while I check email etc., or while I sit in my bed watching TV. The buck loves attention but doesn't like to be held as much so he usually gets less attention simply because of my lack of time and because he needs to run around and won't sit with me. I can't let him out when I'm not around because I have indoor cats and an indoor puppy and wouldn't want him to get hurt.

Question is, would they be happy separated permanently if I found a good home for the buck and kept just the doe? I guess I didn't realize HOW much care bunnies need, especially when you have two cages to maintain. They stink so quickly they need to be cleaned out daily, and then of course the fresh food twice a day and the handling and care. Should I just wait a few more weeks until the doe is spayed and try rebonding them and go from there? I know that if they rebond I won't be able to home them seperately which will make it harder to find a good home for both. Any tips to make it easier to maintain both of them? The buck is not as hard to care forsince he's fully litterbox trained, but the doe still poops everywhere and only pees and puts some of her fecals in the litterbox. I don't have bedding in the cages, so that she will want to use the litterbox, but I think maybe her not being fixed is causing her to poop all over the cage nonetheless.

Anyway, just wanted some advice. My husband has been suggesting I find them a new home together because he thinks they'll be lonely apart. He also thinks they don't get enough attention and since they are so people-friendly, I think they really need it.

So my options, 1)keep both, rebond after female is spayed and hope that with one cage the work will be less (and that the doe will start using her litterbox all the time.)
2 ) find a home for just the buck, spay the female and hope she is more reliable with the litterbox.
3) rebond after spay, and then find a home for them where they can stay together.

Please don't make me feel bad about this. I give them great care, and wouldn't place him (them) anywhere but a great home if I decided to rehome. This isn't some emergency situation where I need to find a solution immediately, just something I've been thinking about lately.

Thanks!
Jill

 

[DeniseJP]

Spaying the female should help... those hormones probably have her thinking that she has to mark everywhere she goes as "mine"... "mine"... and "oh, mine too" especially if there is another bunny sharing her space.

I found Carefresh bedding to be the best at soaking up the smell of rabbit urine... was introduced to it by my feed store person who had a number of bunnies on it and there was no smell emanating from the cages. I have five cages bedded with it (including my wonderful SpinArt spraying young bucks - show buns that are not neutered - and I cannot smell urine).

If the bunnies are not a bonded pair, you could probably go to one bunny if the bunny that is staying has lots to keep her occupied... attention from her people, toys and activity but I am not an expert on bunny relationships as I have show buns that are intact.

I do have a pair of intact bonded littermate brothers who I have tried to separate and they will not have it...that is a first for me. One escaped his sturdy cage (or so I thought) to get back to his brother. They groom each other, share food together and race around together so I am learning on this one as I go.

Best wishes to you - life can get overwhelming.

Denise

 

[aurora369]

In my personal experience, it all comes down to the number of cages. I find that two bunnies in one cage is about the same work as one bunny.

I think that you should get your girl spayed, let her heal and then try bonding. If they bond and you can get them into one cage, then I think you'll find it much less work.

I use a compressed wood pellet litter, and I think it's awesome. I can go about two or three days before the litter boxes start smelling. I try to clean every two days, but life does get in the way sometimes

Also, I think that if the bunnies are getting cleaned regularly and fed well, but don't get a ton of people attention, that's okay as long as they have a buddy. If a bunny had a buddy, then they keep each other occupied and you don't need to worry about them being lonely or lacking in entertainment.

I have also found that a larger cage is easier to clean. I have a couple of litter boxes, so those get dumped and refilled, and the floor of the cage gets swept with a hand broom. It only takes me about 10 minutes to clean one cage, and I have 2x5 two level NIC condos.

Spaying should also really help your girl get better litter habits. Females actually tend to be more territorial than males, and I've found them a bit harder to litter train. However, once they get the idea, they often have better litter habits than the males.

--Dawn

 

[missyscove]

If I were you I would get her spayed and try bonding them. Not only will spaying the doe help with her litter habits, if you do manage to bond them, they'll have eachother for company.

As far as the time commitment for cleaning, what sort of cages and litter are you using? I'm sure we can come up with some suggestions to streamline your cage cleaning.

 

[stinkybunnies]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I am using a pelleted wood litter called Terramigo that is great for odor control, and very affordable. I buy it at the feed store as it's also used for horse bedding. Neither really marks with urine, they both pee in the litterboxes, but the doe poops everywhere (in the box and outside of it.) The buck is very good with the litterbox, I can go several days in between sweeping out his cage because it is primarily in the box. The smell seems to be far more from the fecals and cecals than the urine. The male urine is not very stinky now that he is neutered. The females is stronger but still not really a problem if I do the boxes daily. Even dumping them completely each day they start to smell within hours because they produce so much poop! Who knew something so small could poop so much I can't image the poop out of something like a flemish giant!

I cut down their pellets to 2 tblspoons each, 2x a day of a timothy pellet mixed 50/50 with rabbit chow maintenance (since I had a huge bag of it), about a cup of greens 2x a day, and unlimited timothy hay. I noticed a big improvement in the number of cecals, but the boxes still really stink.

The cages I have are one store brand one, I think it is 40" x 20" and has a shelf in it, plastic bottom. Then the other is a cage I made out of wood, plexiglass and hardware cloth. It is approx. 4 feet long, 2 story with the top floor being sealed wood and a wood shelf, the bottom floor is wire mesh with a drop pan and there is a hole to go from floor to floor.

I think I will do what you suggest and just try to get the female spayed end of next week or the week after. It has been 4 weeks and a day since I had my male neutered, so if she doesn't have kits in the next week, I think I'm safe to assume she didn't get pregnant and spay her. Hopefully the work will be cut down when they're both altered and in one cage. When they were babies they were best of friends, always snuggled together but obviously had to seperate once the hormones kicked in. I hope they re-bond. Then I wouldn't feel as bad if I couldn't give them as much attention.

Just so you know what my daily workload is, I have a 1 yr old son, 2 yr old daughter, 4 cats (2 with special medical conditions and 2 that pee everywhere), a puppy, 3 horses, 7 chickens, and two bunnies. It is a lot of chores to do! I wish more people were made aware of the work involved with bunnies. I ran into someone at the s/n clinic that saw Cranberry and said, "oh, are bunnies as easy to take care of as I have always heard?" I told her, not at all, IMO, cats are much easier!"

Any other suggestions would be great. Anything I can feed them to make their poops less stinky? They are in our main TV room and I just feel like our house always stinks, no matter how hard I try to keep their cages clean!

Thanks again,
Jill

 

[aurora369]

Again, spaying should help with the odours. Her poops are probably smelly because she's putting her scent oil on them to help mark her territory.

All of my buns are spayed/neutered, and none of their poops stink. I can pick them up an sniff them with no odour.

I do understand the stinky cecal smell. I had a foster litter that would leave cecal's all over the cage and it just stank so bad.

Another issue that might be the cause of stinky poop could be coccidia. Here is the link to our library thread on it:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=39592&forum_id=10

Have you tried cleaning litter boxes and cages with vinegar? It's amazing at getting rid of bunny odours. I keep a spray bottle filled with a 50/50 water/vinegar mixture for spraying out litter boxes and wiping down floors.

--Dawn

 

[fuzz16]

cats are a lot easier than rabbits, i agree! I have two giants, one who free roams and another kenneled.

I am a single mom with 3 cats, a dog, and 2 rabbits workin a full time job. i know how busy life can get-specially yours with the extra load of the other animals!!! cant imagine how busy you get!

Personally I would try and work things out to be able to keep them both. rabbits are much happier together and once you figure out how to fit them in a routine and get down thebedding and everything right then their a LOT easier to take care of