Rabbits Make Me Angry

[Butterscotch]

I was browsing craigslist today and saw so many ads for rabbits. One was a dutch mix, gray and white, tiny and adorable, and I want her. But I have a well established bonded pair and I cannot risk upsetting their utopia by adding a third rabbit to my household, so now I'm angry at my rabbits for being rabbits (I am NOT being serious here). Last summer I put down a deposit on a beautiful show bunny but I ended up changing my mind. She was a seal point Netherland Dwarf and even to this very day I wish I had bought her to try bonding my pair into a trio. She was the same age as my two, who had not been fixed yet and were not bonded yet, and I feel like there was a small chance it might have worked out and I just wish I had tried. It is far too late now to try adding another bunny, I know that, but I get mad at the territorial nature of rabbits and how they make themselves difficult to rescue. Again, I am NOT seriously angry, but do you know what I mean? Why can't they behave as nice as they look so that we can rescue more of them? Why do they have to be so difficult? I just want more bunnies, that's all. Is that too much to ask? Really?

 

[Catlyn]

I understand but i cannot relate. Can you relate to my problem that i have a single, territorial, young little brat boy rabbit living with us? One that is always jumpy, hates everything and anything, isn't the least bit food motivated, and just jerks off, randomly nipping without reason snd waking you up in the friggin 4 in the morning? That jumpy bastard went ahead and leaped into the barricade 80 cm high!
He's the opposite of the gentle calm giant Musti that we had to let go despite his youth, compared to him Storm is an absolute jerk!

 

[Butterscotch]

Nope, can't relate. My bunnies are so sweet.

 

[Hermelin]

My bunnies aren’t even bonded and it get quite annoying. Specially when they think 03:00 is the time to growl at each other and fight through the mesh. Waking me up and me telling them off and going back to sleep

They always stop after I call their name, how they will look after I tell them to stop fighting.

Often they will just smell each other and ignore the other bunny, but it will all depend on how Toste will react. If he growls, he will trigger Odin.

Odin is only in the cage during the night, during the day the house is split up in two sections one get the hallway and kitchen area while the other have the other hallway and my bedroom.

I’m getting a girl for one of the boys and will try bonding her to Odin, then later try bond all three when I move out from my parents house which will be in a year if my studies are done

Don’t really want to give one of the boys up, they have quite a lot of character and after spending a lot of money and time on both of them. I want to keep them, sometimes you wish they weren’t that territorial. They are both neutered, so I have no intact buck.

 

[Catlyn]

My bunnies aren’t even bonded and it get quite annoying. Specially when they think 03:00 is the time to growl at each other and fight through the mesh. Waking me up and me telling them off and going back to sleep

They always stop after I call their name, how they will look after I tell them to stop fighting. View attachment 49093

Often they will just smell each other and ignore the other bunny, but it will all depend on how Toste will react. If he growls, he will trigger Odin.

Odin is only in the cage during the night, during the day the house is split up in two sections one get the hallway and kitchen area while the other have the other hallway and my bedroom.

I’m getting a girl for one of the boys and will try bonding her to Odin, then later try bond all three when I move out from my parents house which will be in a year if my studies are done

Don’t really want to give one of the boys up, they have quite a lot of character and after spending a lot of money and time on both of them. I want to keep them, sometimes you wish they weren’t that territorial. They are both neutered, so I have no intact buck.

That is quite a situation to have. Two neutered dudes and still squabbling with each other? Now i feel somewhat calmer that Musti and Storm didn't have to exist in my life at interlapping times(yeah his death and the other his homecoming overlapped but yeah... not in the sense that you have.) I hope that one day they will bond and calm down! Best of luck to you!

 

[Hermelin]

That is quite a situation to have. Two neutered dudes and still squabbling with each other? Now i feel somewhat calmer that Musti and Storm didn't have to exist in my life at interlapping times(yeah his death and the other his homecoming overlapped but yeah... not in the sense that you have.) I hope that one day they will bond and calm down! Best of luck to you!

I’m hoping when I move the stressful trip and new territory will make the bonding easier, maybe it will make them bond a bit peacefully and I can better supervise them. I don’t want any fighting. I got the advice that I should just let them fight but I’m not doing that. I can tolerate a bit of fur flying and chasing but I can’t handle fights. If it’s any signs of fighting or going to be triggered I stop it. Because I rather keep them safe and not getting any wounds. I’ll just accept they aren’t fit together but they once worked together at least for a week when I just had gotten Toste. So I still have my hopes up a bit. But I bonded Toste to Lilja which passed away in mars.

But Toste have totally new personality now compared when I got him. So he’s a lot more bossy and more safe in different environment. Instead of being a bunny with traumas and felt unsafe all the time. He even dares to steal food right from my fork with no hesitation before I could just say no and he backed away.

When Toste was new to household and spent time with Odin:

 

[Cloverhouse]

I have to say one of the reasons I'm a rabbit person is because I like their personalities and quirks. I like them just as they are, little rebels! The thing with rabbits is that they are not "pair" animals, they are colonial. It's probably easier to have five or six rabbits together, who work out their own pecking order than to try to force two or three to get along. Not practical for most owners, but that's how rabbits are.

That being said, a sole house bunny who has a family seems quite content to be "top bun"! I have to admit I am not a huge fan of bonding when it has to be forced, cajoled and super stresses the rabbits. If it's that hard to accomplish, maybe it's not meant to be. Rabbits just don't operate that way, if they did, it wouldn't be so hard to accomplish.

Every rabbit is so different in temperament, I find them fascinating. But underneath it all I think that my own personality and psychology is similar to rabbits, that's why we click. I would be just as snarky as they are if someone tried to tell me who I needed to buddy up with, where to make my bed, and to stay where I'm told. I'm always charmed by the latest way my boys have found to get what they want or outsmart me.

Also, rabbits are the only animal I know that are born with telekineses. If a rabbit sees something it wants, I swear it can "think" the thing over to itself. I have had rabbits get thing that were absolutely impossible for them to get any other way than magic.

My boys live in separate parts of the house, they are not bonded to each other, but both love the heck outta me!

 

[Eve84]

I think rabbits are eating and therefore pooing and peeing way too much which makes it also complicated to have more than one rabbit

 

[DelawareRunner]

I wanted to get another bunny to bond with my Precious, but I decided against it given the rescue said they tried to bond her with a couple other rabbits and it did not go well. She came from a hoarding situation of 100 rabbits and she most likely does not like other rabbits because it was a survive if you can mindset. Thankfully, she was young when she was seized by the authorities.

I decided to get two baby guinea pig brothers instead, and that was a good idea. They are totally bonded to each other and it's so sweet to watch them together.