First off, no judgement. We all make mistakes and raising rabbits is like raising kids. I feel like every time i ask for honest help anywhere i just get yelled at for anything i do.
So I have two, 5 months old male brothers who recently go in a small argument. Since they have been born i have been careful about their bonding, and they seemed like they where doing well. I wanted to get them neutered at 6 months which is in mid may. But I made a mistake and saw my buns grooming each other and left them out together while I went to work. They had been together every day since being born besides when im not home or sleeping so i just thought it would be fine and wanted to give them extra play time.
Well i came home to my house absolutely covered in hair and thought I was walking into a murder scene. I actually was so emotionally distressed and started crying thinking i was either coming home to a naked and scared bunny, or a dead bunny. When i found them under the couch, they where fully furred and grooming each other. I got them out from under the couch and inspected them because i couldn't figure out why there was HONESTLY SO MUCH FUR all over my house. I found on one rabbit a small 1 square inch patch of fur basically scalped off the nape of his neck (but still does not explain the crazy amount of fur i found) and the other one got scratched and some of the fur ripped from the top of his head and close to his eye.
It was really confusing because it looked like they had got in a flight but they where playing and grooming together. But yet their wounds said otherwise. So i instantly took one of the rabbits over to my boyfriends house and left one at my house. This happened yesterday and this is the first time they have been separated since birth.
I thought i was doing very well with bonding my two rabbits until this. Now they have to wait to get neutered in about 2 weeks, and wait another few weeks after to heal and have the hormones cool off. I dont know much about re-bonding after a fight and have a few questions.
My boyfriend asked if we should have them live separately but still have them "visit" each other so they dont forget each other. Since for the most part they like each other, he said he worries it might be hard to bond them together again if they forget each other. Should we do like small supervised visits so they dont forget each other, or let them try to fully forget each other then try to start the bonding over again.
Should i just keep them separate for a month or two until they are fully healed from being neutered, or even before neutering, let them ave small visits?
Is there a chance they will unbond being away from each other and never bond again? If i can not bond them together im not sure what to do. I cant keep one rabbit at my boyfriends house forever and my house is a loft apartment with no separate rooms besides the loft. While its large in size, is very open and would be too hard to have they separated for the rest of their lives in my house.
Im really at a loss and emotionally so upset over seeing them like this. These rabbits have instantly become like my babies and i really just want to have them live peacefully in the same house again in the easiest and safest way. I feel like every time i ask for help with rabbit care i get yelled at about how im not doing good enough and even had someone yell at me for keeping them in a pen while i was at work and calling it abuse. I know the rabbit community is used to seeing people treat their rabbits very poorly and are defensive, but please just sympathetic help is what i need and not people yelling at me right now.
here are some photos of my boys as well.
So I have two, 5 months old male brothers who recently go in a small argument. Since they have been born i have been careful about their bonding, and they seemed like they where doing well. I wanted to get them neutered at 6 months which is in mid may. But I made a mistake and saw my buns grooming each other and left them out together while I went to work. They had been together every day since being born besides when im not home or sleeping so i just thought it would be fine and wanted to give them extra play time.
Well i came home to my house absolutely covered in hair and thought I was walking into a murder scene. I actually was so emotionally distressed and started crying thinking i was either coming home to a naked and scared bunny, or a dead bunny. When i found them under the couch, they where fully furred and grooming each other. I got them out from under the couch and inspected them because i couldn't figure out why there was HONESTLY SO MUCH FUR all over my house. I found on one rabbit a small 1 square inch patch of fur basically scalped off the nape of his neck (but still does not explain the crazy amount of fur i found) and the other one got scratched and some of the fur ripped from the top of his head and close to his eye.
It was really confusing because it looked like they had got in a flight but they where playing and grooming together. But yet their wounds said otherwise. So i instantly took one of the rabbits over to my boyfriends house and left one at my house. This happened yesterday and this is the first time they have been separated since birth.
I thought i was doing very well with bonding my two rabbits until this. Now they have to wait to get neutered in about 2 weeks, and wait another few weeks after to heal and have the hormones cool off. I dont know much about re-bonding after a fight and have a few questions.
My boyfriend asked if we should have them live separately but still have them "visit" each other so they dont forget each other. Since for the most part they like each other, he said he worries it might be hard to bond them together again if they forget each other. Should we do like small supervised visits so they dont forget each other, or let them try to fully forget each other then try to start the bonding over again.
Should i just keep them separate for a month or two until they are fully healed from being neutered, or even before neutering, let them ave small visits?
Is there a chance they will unbond being away from each other and never bond again? If i can not bond them together im not sure what to do. I cant keep one rabbit at my boyfriends house forever and my house is a loft apartment with no separate rooms besides the loft. While its large in size, is very open and would be too hard to have they separated for the rest of their lives in my house.
Im really at a loss and emotionally so upset over seeing them like this. These rabbits have instantly become like my babies and i really just want to have them live peacefully in the same house again in the easiest and safest way. I feel like every time i ask for help with rabbit care i get yelled at about how im not doing good enough and even had someone yell at me for keeping them in a pen while i was at work and calling it abuse. I know the rabbit community is used to seeing people treat their rabbits very poorly and are defensive, but please just sympathetic help is what i need and not people yelling at me right now.
here are some photos of my boys as well.
