monis
Member
I posted a few questions earlier about havingtwo rabbits together - at that time I had only one neutured male rabbit- and decided afterwards to actually go through with the idea ofgetting Balder a female companion. Since I did not manage toget in contact with the local rescue center nearby, I posted an add ona Norwegian rabbit forum and I was soon contacted by a breeder whothought she had just the rabbit I was looking for. I completely fell inlove with her after having seen a photo of her, and the same evening Iheaded out to the breeder to take a closer look at her and ask a fewmore questions about her. I ended up bringing her home with me the verysame evening, after I had made sure that it was ok to bring her back ifBalder would be extremely aggressive and unwilling to bond with her.
Afrika is only 3,5 months old, and I will have to spay her as soon asshe has matured and reached the age of at least 5-6 months. I was alittle confused about whether I should wait until then before Iintroduced them - but ended up letting them meet later the same night(in a neutral territory). The first meeting went ok, Balder nipped hera few times but wasn't really aggressive. Theyspent the two following daysmostly seperate, having bothcages in the same area sothey could smell each other and say hello throughthe bars when they had their time outside the cage. This went reallywell, no aggression at all - but trouble started as soon as Balderfound out that Afrika had FOOD in her cage. He LOVES food... he'll doanything for food..... He attacked her cage to get to it, making poorAfrika very nervous in her cage. So I decided to let him into her cage,ready to jump in there myself if things got ugly. But Balder was onlyconcerned about her food, leaving her pretty much alone. He didn't evenmind her eating together with him. He ate all her hay and pelletsbefore he left her cage. I let them spend some more hours togetherafter that, Balder was not territorial at all. She visited his cageseveral times without getting any reaction at all from Balder - he wasmore concerned about her cage and to check if he could find more foodin there. He did nip at her and chase her around a bit if she came tooclose, but this did not last long. I then gave her some running-timealone, so that she would feel more secure about both the area and us -she did seem a bit stressed out after Balder chasing her around a fewtimes.
I brought her home on a friday evening - on the next monday eveningthey groomed eachother and Balder had stopped chasing her aroundcompletely. I let them out together for several hours and whole daysthe following days, and I never saw any signs of chasing or aggressionbetween them. I gave them lots of vegetables and greens sitting side byside, which seemed to calm them down and created a friendly atmosphere.Now they are sharing the big cage, and I've never seen anything thatindicates that they are fighting. Maybe it was a bit soon to let themshare a cage, but it just felt right and also safe. I tested it for afew hours at first, while I was close and could take immediate actionif any trouble occured. Things have gone very smooth so far.
Buuuut, now I wonder... Could she become aggressive towards him whenshe matures sexually? Is it not safe to keep them in the same cage incase this happens? And another thing - if they do stay peacefullybonded until she is being spayed, should I put her back in the cagetogether with him when we come back from the vet, or does she need tohave a cage all by herself to make sure he doesnt stress her up andcause the wound to heal badly?
That's all I can think of for now...
I love my bunnies, they have both great personalities andare really fascinating and fun to observe and interact with. Afrika isstill a little shy, but in time she'll learn to trust us - she'salready come a long way just in a couple of weeks. Btw, Balder did notlose his good litter habits after Afrike arrived. He is still a goodboy (as I said, he did not show any territorial behavior at all):colors: Afrika is a good girl with the wet stuff, but I do pick upsome droppings after her througout the day. She is still young, and notneutured, so there is hope for her too. As long as she gets the peeingright, I can live with some dry droppings on the floor
Here are som pics of my babies:inlove::
Balder testing out an alternate floor solution for his old cage. He was very thorough:
Afrika suddenly found out that our shoes was nice to chew on - so I ran out and found an alternate chewing-object
The first sign of love!!! I was SO happy!
Look how happy Balder seems to be:
I brought in some sand and made a sandbox for them to dig in. They'veused it a lot, and in this photo you see Balder groom Afrika whilethey're both sitting in the box
Afrika is only 3,5 months old, and I will have to spay her as soon asshe has matured and reached the age of at least 5-6 months. I was alittle confused about whether I should wait until then before Iintroduced them - but ended up letting them meet later the same night(in a neutral territory). The first meeting went ok, Balder nipped hera few times but wasn't really aggressive. Theyspent the two following daysmostly seperate, having bothcages in the same area sothey could smell each other and say hello throughthe bars when they had their time outside the cage. This went reallywell, no aggression at all - but trouble started as soon as Balderfound out that Afrika had FOOD in her cage. He LOVES food... he'll doanything for food..... He attacked her cage to get to it, making poorAfrika very nervous in her cage. So I decided to let him into her cage,ready to jump in there myself if things got ugly. But Balder was onlyconcerned about her food, leaving her pretty much alone. He didn't evenmind her eating together with him. He ate all her hay and pelletsbefore he left her cage. I let them spend some more hours togetherafter that, Balder was not territorial at all. She visited his cageseveral times without getting any reaction at all from Balder - he wasmore concerned about her cage and to check if he could find more foodin there. He did nip at her and chase her around a bit if she came tooclose, but this did not last long. I then gave her some running-timealone, so that she would feel more secure about both the area and us -she did seem a bit stressed out after Balder chasing her around a fewtimes.
I brought her home on a friday evening - on the next monday eveningthey groomed eachother and Balder had stopped chasing her aroundcompletely. I let them out together for several hours and whole daysthe following days, and I never saw any signs of chasing or aggressionbetween them. I gave them lots of vegetables and greens sitting side byside, which seemed to calm them down and created a friendly atmosphere.Now they are sharing the big cage, and I've never seen anything thatindicates that they are fighting. Maybe it was a bit soon to let themshare a cage, but it just felt right and also safe. I tested it for afew hours at first, while I was close and could take immediate actionif any trouble occured. Things have gone very smooth so far.
Buuuut, now I wonder... Could she become aggressive towards him whenshe matures sexually? Is it not safe to keep them in the same cage incase this happens? And another thing - if they do stay peacefullybonded until she is being spayed, should I put her back in the cagetogether with him when we come back from the vet, or does she need tohave a cage all by herself to make sure he doesnt stress her up andcause the wound to heal badly?
That's all I can think of for now...
I love my bunnies, they have both great personalities andare really fascinating and fun to observe and interact with. Afrika isstill a little shy, but in time she'll learn to trust us - she'salready come a long way just in a couple of weeks. Btw, Balder did notlose his good litter habits after Afrike arrived. He is still a goodboy (as I said, he did not show any territorial behavior at all):colors: Afrika is a good girl with the wet stuff, but I do pick upsome droppings after her througout the day. She is still young, and notneutured, so there is hope for her too. As long as she gets the peeingright, I can live with some dry droppings on the floor Here are som pics of my babies:inlove::
Balder testing out an alternate floor solution for his old cage. He was very thorough:
Afrika suddenly found out that our shoes was nice to chew on - so I ran out and found an alternate chewing-object
The first sign of love!!! I was SO happy!
Look how happy Balder seems to be:
I brought in some sand and made a sandbox for them to dig in. They'veused it a lot, and in this photo you see Balder groom Afrika whilethey're both sitting in the box
