New Bunnies :)

[Dozed]

I haven't been on here in a while... but i'msoooo excited and worried at the same time! We just went tothe pet store on Sunday and bought two new bunnies. They areadorable! They are both long haired. One is albinoi believe, and the other one is white with gray.

I already have Bayle, which i've posted picks of on here a whileback. The problem is, i'm not sure we did things right whenit came to Bayle. Bayle is NOT spayed or nuetered (not sureif he/she is a he or a she). I DO plan on it as soon as i getthe money, which shouldn't be too long, I just got a secondjob.
Anyway, its been really hard bonding with Bayle. We finallygot it to where she would come up to us and let us pet her, but wenever had that gutts to pick her up because she seemed like she hatedit so bad. We would let her (i really think its a girl eventhough all this time, my bf and I have been saying HE) out to roam in abunny proof room and she would come up to us and sniff us if we werestill. VERY SKITTISH! I have no idea what we'vedone wrong, but if there is a way to fix it i would love to know how.

To make matters worse, we bring home two MALE bunnies, and I believenow that Bayle is a female. The two male bunnies areneutered. We have two cages set up close, but not RIGHTbeside each other, Bayle is in one and the two males are inanother. We also have small dog fences(2), one is attatchedto Bayle's cage and the other is attatched to the males'cage. This way we could leave the door open on the cages andlet them have more space.

I have let Bayle out of her pin so she could check out the two males,and she seems very intense.... like she wants to get to them.I have also let the two males out so that they could check out Bayle,but I haven't tried to let them all out at the same time... I believethis would cause big problems. The question is, is it a badidea to have their cages close like this.... I can try to take apicture and post it sometime, but i'm not sure if this is a goodidea.

I really don't know what to do, any help would be greatlyappreciated. Is it a bad idea to give bunnies a lot offreedom or space before you bond with them? I love them alland I want them to trust me. I have no idea how to dothis. I picked Bayle up and I held her close to me (i'm verygentle when I pick them up) and I thought she was going to go crazy!!When I went to put her back down she scratched me all up. I'mexcited about my new bunnies, but I'm very worried that i'm doingeverything wrong!!! Do I have them two close toosoon? Do I have to have them im separate rooms until Bayle isde-sexed? Wow I didn't realize this post was this long, sorryguys :/
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
~Mandy

 

[Shuu]

Ara, that is a long post. I'll try to weed through it and answer your specific questions to the best of my ability.

Keep in mind some rabbits just have the type of personality Bayle does.Have you tried, when s/he's out, laying out treats near yourself thengradually feeding then to her from your hand. If she associates youwith food, she's more likely to want to come to you. Also, you couldtry, after a while, holding the treat out to her but keeping it in yourhand and letting her try to eat it while you attempt to pat her.Essentially the point I'm trying to make is, associate yourself withyummy treats.

It is common belief that it's easier to bond a male to a female thentwo sexes together. It would be more likely the two males might getrough with each other as they get old. Speaking of which, how old arethey? You said they're already neutered? Was that a guarantee? I'm justhoping the pet store didn't screw up. The last thing you want is twounneutered males with each other or with a female.

Putting cages close is a great idea as long as they're not touching.I'll use myself as an example; Loki and Tyr were bought from a petstore at different times, but ever since I brought Tyr home, his cagewas right near Loki's. After Loki was spayed and Tyr was neutered, ittook me two afternoons to bond them fully and they've been livingtogether ever since with no complications. I do indeed attribute thatto housing them next to each other for several months before they wereboth old enough to spay/neuter.

If Bayle is unspayed/neutered, I would try to not let her come intocontact with them as it doesn't take much to set a rabbit off and a lotof damage can be done through cage bars.

Before you even consider letting them out together, read through this.

And, please get all three to the vet as well for a checkup.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dozed]

Wow! Thank you so much for your reply. I appologize again for its size and confusion.

Bayle is unspayed and was approx. 8 weeks old when we got her on the22nd of May. She does take treats from my hand when I putthem in front of her while she is near me or I'll hand them to her overthe fence. I always pet her I give her one, so this isprobably the only reason I can pet her today. Although herpersonality had definately changed a bit since we've brought theseother two males in here. I'm blaming this on hormones, due tobeing unspayed.

The two males are neutered according to the petstore (PetCo)..... thisis why they cost more, but I have no idea if they would lie about it toget more money. The only other things that she could tell meabout them were that they were born "around August", and have also hadtheir rabies vaccine. When she told me all of this, I wasthinking if they were born in August... that they were a bit young tobe neutered already, but I could be wrong.

On the male to male bonding issue that you brought up... I bought themtogether because they were so cute together. One was cleaningthe other ones eyes, and they seem to get along really well.They sleep together and give each other kisses. I'm sure theycould change their mind about one another, only time willtell. I will definately keep my eye on them.

Bayle and the two males HAVE met with bars between them, but we are notgoing to do this again until Bayle is spayed so we don't end up withany injuries.

On another note.... we have decided on names for the twomales. One is Clo and the other is Shaze.... I should havepictures on here soon!

I'll keep ya posted
P.S. Thanks for the link also
~Mandy

 

[Nicky Snow]

i just wanted to add that after a nueter themales should still be kept separate from female to ensure all sperm isgone (one month),

and as for Bayle, have you tried lying on the floor and letting her check you out? it's good to get down on their level.

Good luck with everything and can't wait for pictures.

Nicole

 

[Dozed]

Bayle seems to come around more when I lay on myside and let her come up to me and sniff me. As soon as I goto touch her if she is out of her fence, she bolts, and does her crazybunny flipping in the air thing lol. Although I haven't seenher do all that cute crazy stuff since we put the males in there onSunday.

I'm concerned with having them all in the same room in cages that arenext to each other. Bayle sure doesn't seem to happy about it.

Maybe I'm too paranoid, I don't know. I just don't want toupset Bayle anymore than she already is. I just went in thereand sat in her fence with her and she let me pet her, but she went overto where she can see the other bunnies, thumped, and ran back to meabout three times until I pet her and she calmed down a bit.She is grunting a lot and thumping every once in a while.

The cages have been set up close to each other since sunday when we gotthe two males. When people say that bunnies shouldnot be under stress for too long... how long is too long and whatexactly would be considered stress... I would consider Bayle prettystressed right now.

Thanks a bunch for the replies
:heart: ~Mandy

 

[Shuu]

Maybe if you put some cardboard between the cages for now so they can't see each other but can still smell?

Saying the two boys were born in August is ridiculous. Rabbitsshouldn't be younger than 4 months when they're spayed/neutered, idealy6 months. They'd barely be three months now. I doubt their testicleswould have even dropped. I can't help thinking someone is doingsomething wrong. Please get them to the vet ASAP. I'm hoping it was theage that was wrong. :?

 

[Dozed]

I'm going to call around to different vets inthe area and see how much they cost tomorrow. I hope they arejust older, because I don't think they can even neuter a bunny who'stesticles haven't dropped, so i'm going to be one ticked off mommy ifthey did something screwy.
PetCo will definately hear something from me if they lied, considering they cost more because they were neutered.

Thanks for the idea about the cardboard, maybe I'll give this a try.

~Mandy
Bayle, Clo, and Shayze:kiss:

P.S. They also said that they had their rabies vaccination. Ithought this was strange also, because I didn't know they requiredthis. I live in the U.S. (North Carolina) and I didn't thinkthis was common.

SO CONFUSED!!!

 

If I remembercorrectly Rabies shots are not required forrabbits. and I think I read somewhere that the shot isnt goodfor them . PetCo is in league with the Humane Society and manyRescues so it would not surprise me atall they were Surgically altered at an early age.Its a more invasive surgery Kin to a spay . Risk ofinfection is very high watch them closely .

As for Bayle , not being altered , Iwould just keep them serperate for now .wait untillt eh younger ones grow up abit. Let them see each other but not getclose enough to let any accidents happen ( bites ,scratches etc. ) .

 

[bluebird]

I quaruantine all new rabbits for two weeks .youmight be bringing home potentially fatal diseases, rabbits can becarriers and not show symptoms.I was unaware that there was any rabiesor any other vaccines approved for use in the US.bluebird

 

[Dozed]

I am sorry I am soooo full of questions.... but here goes another one.

Bayle (the "?female?" we have had since May of this year) use to stayin our bedroom. We moved her to the other end of the houseabout 2 months ago, and was wondering what everyone's thoughts were onbringing her back in the bedroom. This way she wouldn't seeus messing with the Clo and Shayze, and she wont be right beside them(she wouldn't be near them at all).

We would leave her in our room until she was spayed and we wanted to start trying to bond them all.

Is this a good idea? Or will she just be more stressed out about moving back?
Any ideas?

Thanks again for everyone's help!

~Mandy
Bayle, Clo, and Shayze!