I am not good at creating simple sentences, so it most likely needs quite a bit of time to read through and conjure an answer. Still, i hope it won't be that big of a deal. What can i do if i have the need to explain everything that may eventually get asked?
Some of the folks that have been here for a while are most likely aware that i managed to have a pair of rabbits for about half a year, until Lümi's passing little over a month ago. I had major qualms about safely finding a bondmate back then, and mostly winged it after seeing a ''rehome me'' ad for the ''sweet, friendly and silky soft''(literally, that's how the FB post described him) kissy boy that we knew as Lümi. It was a bumpy ride and in the end, they were largely unbonded- decently accepting eachother not as direct roommates but more like next-door-neighbours. Obviously, they were both neutered and Storm is still up to date with his vaccine, updated just before spring season.
The following is regarding my situation, points that i'm worried about, what should i look out for, etc etc. I feel the need to add a little menu bar to help people better navigate what's going on here.
The first block of text is with four points that i feel i need to explain. These are mostly regarding my statements on what sort of environment he's having now, just so i would save all people trying to answer, the trouble of asking what sort of setup/diet/space/toys he has.
The second block of text is just what worries me, thus, basically the core of this series of questions.
The third block of text revolves around various issues that i will have to deal with when looking for a new bondmate.
The fourth block of text contains four questions which i am most curious about. They pretty much sum up what i want to know from this horribly long post.
I
Since Lümi's gone, Storm has seemed kinda mopey-luckily still eating and pooping, alert and whatnot, although something has been off about him ever since.
POINT ONE: SPACE AND TEMPERATURE. He has more space than ever, being allowed nearly 50square meters (540sq feet?) of space about 12-18 hours of the day. Despite that, he will spend most of his days lounging in some corner for the most part, only occasionally moving around only to seek out another cool place. The log house is more than 100 years old, so it stays nice and cool at around 19°C (65-68F?), i have slightly-ice cubed water, and as of recently, ceramic tiles. Most floor is bare and it is cool-ish too, so i don't think that he's so lounge-ish because of heat.
POINT TWO: HEALTH. Went to the vet this thursday (suspicion about ear parasites) and he was all good- heart&lungs sounded clear, ears were considered healthy(vet said that it's just rabbit boys' wax buildup, nothing unusual) teeth were nicely equal and no spurs or out-of-the-ordinary stuff. At 1y3.5 m, his adult weight measured 4.98kg (10-11lbs?). So it couldn't be anything related to his health.
POINT THREE: DIET. He gets unlimited grass hay, about a lidful (40-50 grams or so) of burgess excel adult mints, and fresh forage, mostly a mix of orchard, timothy, meadow hay and whatever else hay we have growing. Also dandelion leaves, and a plant that we call ''harilik naat'' Aegopodium podagraria L. , if anyone knows what it's called. He doesn't get other herbs at the moment due to avaliability issues. I don't measure his greens in ''cups,'' i just go by his poops, making sure they're uniform, fibrous and odourless. Mostly it is fine, but there is a part which i cannot control despite all my efforts- mum's treat-giving. Right now it has swapped to mum bringing in excessive amounts of grass while it used to be carrots, potatoes, beets and all that. So for the meantime, a smaaaalll improvement. I'll take it. Anyway, i think that his diet isn't a concern either.
POINT FOUR: ENRICHMENT. Due to where i'm from, rabbit-safe amusement items aren't really a thing and shipping something not local is breaking my bank. I am not willing to pay 20EUR to ship items of the same value. If it were 10EUR shipping for a 20EUR ''subscription box'', i would really consider it. Storm being a big-breed rabbit doesn't make it any easier for me either. While pet rabbits are super slowly gaining recognition here, avaliable toys are created for those little fluffers that go under 3kg.(Most notably, hideyhouses and tunnels way too small for my big buggy boy) So in the meantime i've got to do with a maize placemat(he's bored of it), a treat roller, a throwing cube(bored of it), a cat ball(he'll toss it just for the noise), laundry-basket-tunnel with a homemade ramp, a fat apple stump that came when dad cut down a tree(stripped the bark and now bored of it) and a makeshift ''stretching station.'' It is basically home-dried hay put on a grid (safely attahed to the wall) that he has to stretch up for and pull from the spaces to get. No worries, it is ultimately a ''toy'' for my lack of better words, his main portion of hay is still in his litterbox. He will also amuse himself with digging at my mattress (i am absolutely fine with that, i don't sleep on it anyway) and at some carpet (again, old carpet, i don't mind). But i still feel that it isn't enough. I have tried any and all varieties of toilet-tube-toys i could think of, but he's not interested. I've tried weaving wreaths and braids of willow branches and hay, he's not interested in those either. He has also lost significant portion of interest in apple twigs from our own untreated tree. Nothing i can do about it though.
II
WHAT WORRIES ME. To continue what i had stared talking of, Storm isn't the same since Lümi's death. He's always been fussy and bossy and stompy, but it has amplified by a considerable amount. He will grunt at me when i try to pet him, he will give me the cold shoulder and more often than not, our interactions end with him flicking me off. Or him bite-nipping me- strong enough to scathe skin but weak enough not to make it bleed. If i give him greens, he will grunt and try to lunge at me, even if i make the effort of ''waving'' them at his side so he could see them coming. He will also thump at random more often than he used to. He still eats well, but he was eating a bit more when he had his neighbour. When we went driving to the vet, he seemed very nervous, very anxious and all that, sometthing that one would expect from a rabbit that isn't used to tavelling around. I must admit that the few times he was on the ride with Lümi on my lap and him in the carrier, he was much calmer than now being alone. As Lümi didn't fancy beds or blankets, there was nothing with his smell that i could give to Storm for consolation. Even though they weren't fully bonded, i can still see that Storm is more agressive, spooks easier and isn't a fan of interacting with us, even though he had been very fine with it before the incident. He's not fully happy, and i want to help somehow, but i am limited in what i can do.
III
THE MAIN ISSUES WITH SAFELY GETTING A NEW BONDMATE?
So i talked to the vet about Storm's off behaviour and she said that if he doesn't chill out in a few months' time, considering that even neutered rabbits may get hormonal frustration in the current season, it would be best if i enriched him more, or found him a new bondmate altogether. Both are important, i know, but as mentioned in point four, i am very restricted on what enrichment i can offer him. So i was really thinking on how to get him a new bondmate. Now there are several issues that i've run into.
ONE: Our space issues. While in the cottage, we have ample space to comfily house two separate rabbits(my room, parents' room, living room, kitchen, also a small toilet room and the not-ideal-shed), and it is possible to try bonding them in a pen or something outdoors, the only place Storm hasn't truly claimed. In our apartment, we have a small, small kitchen, the living room, and then the cluttered parents' room; wc room being way tooo samll to house anything (and yeah, it also has a shed, but it is in even worse condition than the one at . If we have to wait a few months to see if Storm will get better, and then a few more to wait for possible partner bun's fixing recvery (discussed in the next point) then it will be the time where we've definetly moved back to the tight space. I see no way that i could house two separate rabbits in that small apartment. It has happened, but i isn't fair or equal to both rabbits.
TWO: We have absolutely zero rabbit rescues. I could not find one after quite a massive online digging. Resorting to regular shelters, i saw that the last recorded rabbit rehomings have been mostly two-three years ago. Even if i phoned all of them, personally asking if they had any rabbits in, specifying that i was looking for a shelter rabbit, they could only point me to some local breeders or ''to look in facebook groups.'' So it is extremely hard to find a shelter rabbit. And unlike the overseas, these few shelters that we have, even if they end up having a rabbit in them, it would not be fixed before being put upp for adoption. If the rabbit didn't come to them fixed, they won't do it. The responsibility will be rolled onto the new owner. They do pre-spay and -neuter cats&dogs though. Not all pets are treated equal, then. Also, since there are so few in them ever, finding one with a temperament that may go well with Storm, and the size/general look we would like the new rabbit to be, is likely not going to happen. (Self-note that most of those rehomed rabbits had been small breeds, like lionheads or mini-lops, or any random mix.)
THREE: As stated above, since the rare rabbits that pop into shelters are likely not being fixed before being sent to new homes, the idealistic ''bunny pre-dates'' will never happen here. Even in FB groups, if i see about 6 posts per day for ''looking for/giving away a cat/dog/kitten/puppy'' it will get, like, 10-20 responses within a week. (on a side note, why won't those people look from shelters first, is it cause they wanna have a youngling? I understand we don't have shelter rabbits, but cats n dogs are still overflowing like anywhere else.) If i look specifically for rehomable rabbits that don't come from a breeder, if i get lucky, i will find one post per week for a rehomable rabbit. Unlucky enough, such a post may come only once a month. And even then, the breed, gender and temperament are ''questionable.'' 98% of the time it will be at least 100km away from us and still, not fixed. More than that, the same precentage is of them not being up to date with vaccines. So it would amount to being almost the same as taking a rabbit from a breeder. The only perk of FB groups' rehomees would be that the owner should know to tell us more about that specific rabbit's personality (Lümi was described as cuddly and sweet, which he absolutely was). Which is what good breeders should be able to do too, for most of their rabbits aimed more as pets.(Talking about smaller scale, hobby breeders, rather than big breeding mills) At least that's what i think. I vaguely know that @Hermelin got her bunnies separately and bonded, but i don't remeber the details how.
IV
QUESTION ONE: no matter where we might end up getting the other rabbit from, we are safe to assume that any fixing and vaccines are our responsibility, and transition to a good, stable diet is too. (I don't trust those big bags of feed that are too shy to list their ingredients, nor the small colourful feeds.) Is there any way to get a grasp of any specific rabbit's personality without bringing them home, fixing them up and then seeing what the end result will be? (without hovering around the owners' nose with the seemingly preferred rabbit (or more for many candidates) for an hour to see if they would fit our needs. Most owners get ticked off by that.)
QUESTION TWO: is there any way to ''assume'' or get an idea that any particular rabbit may get along with him better than any other? Storm is quite the dominant bun, Lümi was submissive and they worked quite well, saving for the moving dispute and way too rushed bonding. If i were to seek out more submissive (female) rabbits, would there be a bigger chance of them getting along? Because i do not think that bringing a neutered rabbit to a bunch of unneutered ones and doing half-dates like that would be beneficial. I am sure that it would end up backfiring.
QUESTOIN THREE: It is quite the touchy topic, getting my parents to accept that Storm is, despite his personality and our limited choices, still better off with a rabbit partner, even if they do not get along completely. Especially considering our lack of enrichment possibilities. Mum stated that she won't have another bun because the heartbreak of losing one again would be too much on her heartstrings. I get her, but still, we must do what is best for the bun, not for ourselves. She is hard enough to reason with, so i haven't mentioned the topic to her again, only telling what the vet said about Storm possibly needing a bondmate further down the line. I tried asking dad that if, hypothetically, there was a fixed rabbit in the shelter (not mentioning the looks, size or breed), would he be willing to give it another go, since i found that if one is unable to keep their pet for any reason, it must be returned to the shelter, thus giving us a sure way to back off if things were to not work out between the two. I guess dad was still too hurt by Lümi's crossing, as he looked at me with the face what i like to describe as '' i don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon, dear''
QUESTION FOUR: I have dumped all this talk onto the thread. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with my walls of text. I am also sorry for all the people who struggle reading long sentences. And/or complicated ones. But i care for Storm too much not to do something so silly as a giant brick of explaining and questions. if someone would be so kind and help with their wisdom, answering by points so it would be easier for them to answer?
eg question two: yes/no and then a short or long explanation of why, maybe add how you would handle that situation, or how you've heard other people handle it.
Oh dear, i ended up writing more than i had anticipated. Anyways, if you've busted through these walls of text and know how to help with any point i'm concerned with, it is always much appreciated!
Some of the folks that have been here for a while are most likely aware that i managed to have a pair of rabbits for about half a year, until Lümi's passing little over a month ago. I had major qualms about safely finding a bondmate back then, and mostly winged it after seeing a ''rehome me'' ad for the ''sweet, friendly and silky soft''(literally, that's how the FB post described him) kissy boy that we knew as Lümi. It was a bumpy ride and in the end, they were largely unbonded- decently accepting eachother not as direct roommates but more like next-door-neighbours. Obviously, they were both neutered and Storm is still up to date with his vaccine, updated just before spring season.
The following is regarding my situation, points that i'm worried about, what should i look out for, etc etc. I feel the need to add a little menu bar to help people better navigate what's going on here.
The first block of text is with four points that i feel i need to explain. These are mostly regarding my statements on what sort of environment he's having now, just so i would save all people trying to answer, the trouble of asking what sort of setup/diet/space/toys he has.
The second block of text is just what worries me, thus, basically the core of this series of questions.
The third block of text revolves around various issues that i will have to deal with when looking for a new bondmate.
The fourth block of text contains four questions which i am most curious about. They pretty much sum up what i want to know from this horribly long post.
I
Since Lümi's gone, Storm has seemed kinda mopey-luckily still eating and pooping, alert and whatnot, although something has been off about him ever since.
POINT ONE: SPACE AND TEMPERATURE. He has more space than ever, being allowed nearly 50square meters (540sq feet?) of space about 12-18 hours of the day. Despite that, he will spend most of his days lounging in some corner for the most part, only occasionally moving around only to seek out another cool place. The log house is more than 100 years old, so it stays nice and cool at around 19°C (65-68F?), i have slightly-ice cubed water, and as of recently, ceramic tiles. Most floor is bare and it is cool-ish too, so i don't think that he's so lounge-ish because of heat.
POINT TWO: HEALTH. Went to the vet this thursday (suspicion about ear parasites) and he was all good- heart&lungs sounded clear, ears were considered healthy(vet said that it's just rabbit boys' wax buildup, nothing unusual) teeth were nicely equal and no spurs or out-of-the-ordinary stuff. At 1y3.5 m, his adult weight measured 4.98kg (10-11lbs?). So it couldn't be anything related to his health.
POINT THREE: DIET. He gets unlimited grass hay, about a lidful (40-50 grams or so) of burgess excel adult mints, and fresh forage, mostly a mix of orchard, timothy, meadow hay and whatever else hay we have growing. Also dandelion leaves, and a plant that we call ''harilik naat'' Aegopodium podagraria L. , if anyone knows what it's called. He doesn't get other herbs at the moment due to avaliability issues. I don't measure his greens in ''cups,'' i just go by his poops, making sure they're uniform, fibrous and odourless. Mostly it is fine, but there is a part which i cannot control despite all my efforts- mum's treat-giving. Right now it has swapped to mum bringing in excessive amounts of grass while it used to be carrots, potatoes, beets and all that. So for the meantime, a smaaaalll improvement. I'll take it. Anyway, i think that his diet isn't a concern either.
POINT FOUR: ENRICHMENT. Due to where i'm from, rabbit-safe amusement items aren't really a thing and shipping something not local is breaking my bank. I am not willing to pay 20EUR to ship items of the same value. If it were 10EUR shipping for a 20EUR ''subscription box'', i would really consider it. Storm being a big-breed rabbit doesn't make it any easier for me either. While pet rabbits are super slowly gaining recognition here, avaliable toys are created for those little fluffers that go under 3kg.(Most notably, hideyhouses and tunnels way too small for my big buggy boy) So in the meantime i've got to do with a maize placemat(he's bored of it), a treat roller, a throwing cube(bored of it), a cat ball(he'll toss it just for the noise), laundry-basket-tunnel with a homemade ramp, a fat apple stump that came when dad cut down a tree(stripped the bark and now bored of it) and a makeshift ''stretching station.'' It is basically home-dried hay put on a grid (safely attahed to the wall) that he has to stretch up for and pull from the spaces to get. No worries, it is ultimately a ''toy'' for my lack of better words, his main portion of hay is still in his litterbox. He will also amuse himself with digging at my mattress (i am absolutely fine with that, i don't sleep on it anyway) and at some carpet (again, old carpet, i don't mind). But i still feel that it isn't enough. I have tried any and all varieties of toilet-tube-toys i could think of, but he's not interested. I've tried weaving wreaths and braids of willow branches and hay, he's not interested in those either. He has also lost significant portion of interest in apple twigs from our own untreated tree. Nothing i can do about it though.
II
WHAT WORRIES ME. To continue what i had stared talking of, Storm isn't the same since Lümi's death. He's always been fussy and bossy and stompy, but it has amplified by a considerable amount. He will grunt at me when i try to pet him, he will give me the cold shoulder and more often than not, our interactions end with him flicking me off. Or him bite-nipping me- strong enough to scathe skin but weak enough not to make it bleed. If i give him greens, he will grunt and try to lunge at me, even if i make the effort of ''waving'' them at his side so he could see them coming. He will also thump at random more often than he used to. He still eats well, but he was eating a bit more when he had his neighbour. When we went driving to the vet, he seemed very nervous, very anxious and all that, sometthing that one would expect from a rabbit that isn't used to tavelling around. I must admit that the few times he was on the ride with Lümi on my lap and him in the carrier, he was much calmer than now being alone. As Lümi didn't fancy beds or blankets, there was nothing with his smell that i could give to Storm for consolation. Even though they weren't fully bonded, i can still see that Storm is more agressive, spooks easier and isn't a fan of interacting with us, even though he had been very fine with it before the incident. He's not fully happy, and i want to help somehow, but i am limited in what i can do.
III
THE MAIN ISSUES WITH SAFELY GETTING A NEW BONDMATE?
So i talked to the vet about Storm's off behaviour and she said that if he doesn't chill out in a few months' time, considering that even neutered rabbits may get hormonal frustration in the current season, it would be best if i enriched him more, or found him a new bondmate altogether. Both are important, i know, but as mentioned in point four, i am very restricted on what enrichment i can offer him. So i was really thinking on how to get him a new bondmate. Now there are several issues that i've run into.
ONE: Our space issues. While in the cottage, we have ample space to comfily house two separate rabbits(my room, parents' room, living room, kitchen, also a small toilet room and the not-ideal-shed), and it is possible to try bonding them in a pen or something outdoors, the only place Storm hasn't truly claimed. In our apartment, we have a small, small kitchen, the living room, and then the cluttered parents' room; wc room being way tooo samll to house anything (and yeah, it also has a shed, but it is in even worse condition than the one at . If we have to wait a few months to see if Storm will get better, and then a few more to wait for possible partner bun's fixing recvery (discussed in the next point) then it will be the time where we've definetly moved back to the tight space. I see no way that i could house two separate rabbits in that small apartment. It has happened, but i isn't fair or equal to both rabbits.
TWO: We have absolutely zero rabbit rescues. I could not find one after quite a massive online digging. Resorting to regular shelters, i saw that the last recorded rabbit rehomings have been mostly two-three years ago. Even if i phoned all of them, personally asking if they had any rabbits in, specifying that i was looking for a shelter rabbit, they could only point me to some local breeders or ''to look in facebook groups.'' So it is extremely hard to find a shelter rabbit. And unlike the overseas, these few shelters that we have, even if they end up having a rabbit in them, it would not be fixed before being put upp for adoption. If the rabbit didn't come to them fixed, they won't do it. The responsibility will be rolled onto the new owner. They do pre-spay and -neuter cats&dogs though. Not all pets are treated equal, then. Also, since there are so few in them ever, finding one with a temperament that may go well with Storm, and the size/general look we would like the new rabbit to be, is likely not going to happen. (Self-note that most of those rehomed rabbits had been small breeds, like lionheads or mini-lops, or any random mix.)
THREE: As stated above, since the rare rabbits that pop into shelters are likely not being fixed before being sent to new homes, the idealistic ''bunny pre-dates'' will never happen here. Even in FB groups, if i see about 6 posts per day for ''looking for/giving away a cat/dog/kitten/puppy'' it will get, like, 10-20 responses within a week. (on a side note, why won't those people look from shelters first, is it cause they wanna have a youngling? I understand we don't have shelter rabbits, but cats n dogs are still overflowing like anywhere else.) If i look specifically for rehomable rabbits that don't come from a breeder, if i get lucky, i will find one post per week for a rehomable rabbit. Unlucky enough, such a post may come only once a month. And even then, the breed, gender and temperament are ''questionable.'' 98% of the time it will be at least 100km away from us and still, not fixed. More than that, the same precentage is of them not being up to date with vaccines. So it would amount to being almost the same as taking a rabbit from a breeder. The only perk of FB groups' rehomees would be that the owner should know to tell us more about that specific rabbit's personality (Lümi was described as cuddly and sweet, which he absolutely was). Which is what good breeders should be able to do too, for most of their rabbits aimed more as pets.(Talking about smaller scale, hobby breeders, rather than big breeding mills) At least that's what i think. I vaguely know that @Hermelin got her bunnies separately and bonded, but i don't remeber the details how.
IV
QUESTION ONE: no matter where we might end up getting the other rabbit from, we are safe to assume that any fixing and vaccines are our responsibility, and transition to a good, stable diet is too. (I don't trust those big bags of feed that are too shy to list their ingredients, nor the small colourful feeds.) Is there any way to get a grasp of any specific rabbit's personality without bringing them home, fixing them up and then seeing what the end result will be? (without hovering around the owners' nose with the seemingly preferred rabbit (or more for many candidates) for an hour to see if they would fit our needs. Most owners get ticked off by that.)
QUESTION TWO: is there any way to ''assume'' or get an idea that any particular rabbit may get along with him better than any other? Storm is quite the dominant bun, Lümi was submissive and they worked quite well, saving for the moving dispute and way too rushed bonding. If i were to seek out more submissive (female) rabbits, would there be a bigger chance of them getting along? Because i do not think that bringing a neutered rabbit to a bunch of unneutered ones and doing half-dates like that would be beneficial. I am sure that it would end up backfiring.
QUESTOIN THREE: It is quite the touchy topic, getting my parents to accept that Storm is, despite his personality and our limited choices, still better off with a rabbit partner, even if they do not get along completely. Especially considering our lack of enrichment possibilities. Mum stated that she won't have another bun because the heartbreak of losing one again would be too much on her heartstrings. I get her, but still, we must do what is best for the bun, not for ourselves. She is hard enough to reason with, so i haven't mentioned the topic to her again, only telling what the vet said about Storm possibly needing a bondmate further down the line. I tried asking dad that if, hypothetically, there was a fixed rabbit in the shelter (not mentioning the looks, size or breed), would he be willing to give it another go, since i found that if one is unable to keep their pet for any reason, it must be returned to the shelter, thus giving us a sure way to back off if things were to not work out between the two. I guess dad was still too hurt by Lümi's crossing, as he looked at me with the face what i like to describe as '' i don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon, dear''
QUESTION FOUR: I have dumped all this talk onto the thread. I don't want to overwhelm anyone with my walls of text. I am also sorry for all the people who struggle reading long sentences. And/or complicated ones. But i care for Storm too much not to do something so silly as a giant brick of explaining and questions. if someone would be so kind and help with their wisdom, answering by points so it would be easier for them to answer?
eg question two: yes/no and then a short or long explanation of why, maybe add how you would handle that situation, or how you've heard other people handle it.
Oh dear, i ended up writing more than i had anticipated. Anyways, if you've busted through these walls of text and know how to help with any point i'm concerned with, it is always much appreciated!