New rabbit

[RocketsMommy2012]

On Monday night I was at work, I'm a veterinary assistant, and this older couple brought this female black and white lopped eared rabbit 3 years old in for euthanasia. They said she hadn't eaten or gone to the bathroom that whole day. Well she looked healthy to me so one of the Drs convinced them to surrender her to me which they did. So now I have her along with my other male neutered rabbit, Rocket. We named her Panda. We plan on getting her spayed. Until then, her and Rocket will stay acquainted through a cage. I have a couple questions though that hopefully some of you have experienced before. Question 1: has your female bunny ever circled around you doing little nibbles on your leg along the way?
Question 2: has your female bunny ever mounted you?
Question 3: she has these weird poops that Rocket has never had before. They're soft and in a clump. They kinda remind me of a raspberry but brown. She doesn't seem to eat them after she eliminates them. Her stool sample came out negative as I took her to the vet on Tuesday. Here is a picture: View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1452877454.749862.jpg

 

[stevesmum]

Those are her cecotropes which normally she would eat.

 

[Azerane]

Female bunnies can circle and mount like males, though not as common I believe.

Stevesmum is right, the poops are cecal poops. They are usually eaten, the fact that they're not could be for a couple of reasons. Either she can't reach down to eat them, or she is producing too many. The fact that she's now probably on a new diet could be part of the reason, it may be more rich than what she's used to. Give it a few days and if it's still happening it could be for another reason.

 

[Aki]

I agree with what was said above. Cecotrophes, nothing to worry about, rabbits who leave them uneaten are often fed with pellets which are too rich. Non-spayed females can indeed circle, mount, spray urine and do all of those charming hormones related things males do. It is pretty frequent when you have another rabbit in the house (especially from the opposite sex) even if he is neutered. Maybe her being a bit hormonal explain why her previous owners got rid of her as some rabbits can get pretty nippy especially if they are kept in a cage (considering how they seemed to care for her, I would be surprised if she wasn't kept in one 24/24). Spaying should put an end to those behaviors.

 

[RocketsMommy2012]

I had a feeling that's what the poops were. But it probably is totally why she's producing a lot! I didn't think about the food change. Her previous owners didn't feed her the best pellets. I feed them oxbow. She only get 1/8 of a cup a day as she eats like a bird it lasts her all day. I do not she had a lot of human interaction previously. She's in no way "a mean bunny" she just nips as she's circling. I say no and push her head to the ground. My only concern is that spaying her won't help considering she's probably had this behaviors her whole life and now I'm worried it could be a learnt behavior. But we'll see! Thanks for the advice.

 

[Azerane]

While the behaviours may not go away completely, the hormones that drive them will so you should at least see them less often, or at least less extreme versions of the behaviour.

 

[RocketsMommy2012]

Any advice on bonding when the time comes? I've done some research but I wanted to hear from someone on here who's actually bonded rabbits and was successful.

 

[Aki]

A lot of us did. I did it twice and I don't don't think there is a magic formula. It really depends on the rabbits and their compatibility - some rabbits will see each other, get the hierarchy thing out of the way in five minutes and be bffs after that, for others it takes months (I remember reading about two rabbits that took years to get along). Some rabbits really don't share our love for rabbits and you can't know before you see them with other rabbits. I remember a doe who hated rabbits, all of them, and who never changed her mind for as long as she lived. With a spayed female and a neutered male the odds are pretty good if the space is big enough. If you've read about the process, you've probably got all the advice you need to do an easy bonding. The key is to stay calm, ready to break fights and not to be scared to see a bit of fur flying. I'm all for leaving the rabbits sort their differences as long as there is no blood (even if rabbit fighting can be **** impressive). Personnally, I put the rabbits outside of the room where I wanted them to live together. I vacuumed and put vinegar wherever it was possible to remove the smell. Once it was clean, I put the rabbits in a small neutral territory (the bathroom) and stayed on the floor to intervene in case it went badly. I put food (like carrots, parsnips, pellets - things they really like) for the rabbits to give them something to do. When the rabbits looked amiable enough, I put them inside the same pet carrier and released them together in their intended new place after making sure there was no place where one of them could be backed in a corner. With my first couple, it was all it took. It went swimmingly and the rabbits were perfect for each other with a very submissive male and a dominant but benevolent female - he gave her back rubs, let her steal a carrot once in a while and hump him as a reminder of who's boss once in a while and the rest was marital bliss. The second time, it wasn't that easy. It took me a while to realize what the problem was. At first, I thought the male was dominant as he refused to wash the female and she was taking offense. And one day, I realized he wasn't dominant, he was just lazy and didn't even wash himself. I left them sort their problem between themselves (while supervising !). There were some scuffles and it took a few weeks before I could leave them together on their own. In the end, my female is a clean freak and can't stand nasty smells, so they compromised (like all couples should ^^) : she cleans him while retaining her boss dignity by extorting a token lick on the nose afterwards. It took about a year before they were as tightly bonded as my first pair had been after five minutes. Now, they've been together for two years and they're getting along great - just last month, the male nursed my female back to health, spending 2 days snuggling against her to keep her warm when she got a bout of GI stasis.

 

[RocketsMommy2012]

Thanks for the advice! I did let them meet today in my bathroom, and it was going fine for a couple minutes as they were just scoping out the environment but then Panda (the female) started to mount Rocket without him even seeing her and immediately picked her up and separated them. Maybe I shouldn't have done that so quickly since no aggression was shown? But I just freaked out and didn't want a fight to happen.

 

[flemishwhite]

Question 1: has your female bunny ever circled around you doing little nibbles on your leg along the way?
Question 2: has your female bunny ever mounted you?
Question 3: she has these weird poops that Rocket has never had before. They're soft and in a clump. They kinda remind me of a raspberry but brown. She doesn't seem to eat them after she eliminates them. Her stool sample came out negative as I took her to the vet on Tuesday. Here is a picture: View attachment 16888

When my bunny laying on the floor, I will lay down on the floor, and scoot up next to her and massage her back and like a bunny I would pull gently the hair on her back. She wanted to reciprocate by standing up with her front paws on my head and do the same to me!!! She would start grabbing my hair with her teeth and gently pulling my hair also. My previous near 12 year old bunny never demonstrated this personal interaction that my now Flemmish 4 months old baby exhibits.

 

[flemishwhite]

When my bunny laying on the floor, I will lay down on the floor, and scoot up next to her and massage her back and like a bunny I would pull gently the hair on her back. She wanted to reciprocate by standing up with her front paws on my head and do the same to me!!! She would start grabbing my hair with her teeth and gently pulling my hair also. My previous near 12 year old bunny never demonstrated this personal interaction that my now Flemmish 4 months old baby exhibits.

Because of this Forums 5 minute rule, a large amount of my message was lost. why have this 5 minute rule?

 

[flemishwhite]

O Question 1: has your female bunny ever circled around you doing little nibbles on your leg along the way?
Question 2: has your female bunny ever mounted you?
Question 3: she has these weird poops that Rocket has never had before. View attachment 16888

I think I previously answered Question 1, before I was blanked out by this forum's 5 minute rule.

(2) Has your female bunny ever mounted you. Well..not me but the answer is yes. For a bunny mounting another it's a question of dominance. A Female rabbit that has an attitude of dominance, will mount a male or another female. Of my two female sisters, we've seen the dominant one mount the other sister...and later we saw tufts of hair pulled out! Happily, this aggression is not being repeated.
(3) The weird poops are Cecum pellets. They are not really poop. Bunnies are ruminants and like ruminants, they need to chew their cud. Most ruminants regurgitate their fermentation stomach contents up to their mouth for re-chewing and swallowing again. Bunny's fermentation stomach is at the juncture of their small intestine and large intestine...the Cecum...known in humans as the appendix...they cannot regurgitate since rabbits cannot vomit.....the Cecum contents instead pas out through the the large intestine and our their rectum.. Rabbits know when a Cecum pellet is coming out of their rectum. They will bend over and eat the pellet. A rabbit that has elderly spinal problems or an obese rabbit that cannot reach out an eat the pellet, will soil their bottom with this smoochie pellet.

 

[Aki]

Mounting is completely normal. If the other rabbit accept it, it will settle quickly, it's just a matter of showing who's boss (my female jumped without hesitation on the back of a male who was twice her size when she saw him). But, I wouldn't try to bond the rabbits before your female is spayed and recovered from it (about 10 days after the operation if everything goes well) because the inevitable separation of the rabbits will take you back to 0 in the bonding department and you will have to do it over anyway. Also, an unspayed female is more likely to react violently and to hurt your buck (your buck might also try to mount her in a sexual way if she is intact, even if he is neutered, which she might not take too kindly - contrarily to popular belief, female rabbits are pretty selective when it comes to mating and with them, no means no... meaning if they have to gut or castrate the male with their teeth to make him stop, they definitely will)

 

[RocketsMommy2012]

I just wanted to try it to see what they would do but I'm definitely going to wait until she's spayed. Hopefully it will happen this week. Do you recommend taking them on a car ride together? I heard that's a good start.

 

[ladysown]

that behaviour is hormonally related.... so spaying WOULD help in that regard.

BUT if it's the only behaviour she shows should you really NEED to get her spayed?

 

[RocketsMommy2012]

Well I'm trying to bond her with my male rabbit so I don't want her to consistently try to mount him. Also they can get female cancer if they're not spayed and I don't want that to happen.