stressed out bunny parent!

[digitalsushi]

hello all - i had made a previous post about my new bunny meeting my current bunny - but I'm having more issues. We have a giant balcony at our apartment which Mimi has her hutch and litter on and we just purchased 30" high pet
fencing to fence off half the area for Angus - so being fenced off, he and Mimi can get to know each other without the fighting. I've had Angus in the Laundry for the past 8 days without the exception of a breif 30 second meeting with Mimi which wasn't positive. So today I decided to put Angus in his Pen. I set up his bed and litter and gave him some extra treats and when I put Angus in there he was a little freaked out of being outside (of all the bird noises I think!) I made sure that Mimi was inside while he was getting aquainted to his new space. After an hour or so, Angus seemed pretty chilled. He was running around the pen, eating and using his litter. So Mimi got outside and immediately tried to fit her fat head through the pen. The weird thing was is that Angus decided to sit right at the edge of the pen - so he was right at Mimi's face level. So what happens - Mimi sticks her head through the pen
and nips Angus. He runs off startled but he comes back to the edge of the cage - where he gets nipped again and he does the same running away and coming back to the Mimi firing line. I then tried to pick him and put him in the middle of the pen, yet he wandered back to the edge of the pen. So I'm confused - he's getting bitten by Mimi and obviously it's not fun, but he doesn't get in a safer position - is he just too scared to move?
Should I provide some photographic evidence of what's happening just to explain it better?

Thank you in advance

Annie

 

[digitalsushi]

here is some photographic evidence of what's happening in bunnydom.

1. Angus hanging out at the edge of the fence

2. Mimi going in for the nip - but Angus just comes back to the same spot

3. Mimi talking to Angus - I'd like to know what she's saying.

 

[Pipp]

That's a normal bunny thing. All my rabbits immediately run to the other rabbits' pens when they get out, and the penned rabbits stay close to the bars. They either do their poop and pee wars thing, or nip each other, but they never move.

They're very social critters, they do all really want to be together, but they all want it on their own terms. In their natural environment they'd be establishing a hierarchy, or at least various positions in the warren.

Before I got Radar, he had stuck his nose in a girl bunny's pen at the shelter and the bunny practically bit it off. He had blood gushing down his face... but after his initial jump-back-and-rub pain reaction, he hopped right back up to the cage and stuck it in again. ("Uh, is that your final answer?")

You may need to take both of them to a completely strange place together. A nice long car ride with both of them in a basket will often do the trick. Partners in stress and then bonded mates. :bunnieskiss


sas :goodluck

 

[Pipp]

PS: I see that you had Mimi first and Angus is new. Mimi is probably bonded to you, so I would step back and let someone else bond them if that's possible.

At least don't let Mimi see you cuddling Angus, or don't be holding Angus when you introduce them.

And don't be too afraid of the chase-and-hair-pulling behaviour, there's bound to be some of that. Sometimes you have to steel yourself to a bit of fighting and keep some Betadine around for the nicks and bites. (And they're easier to spot the day after once they scab over a bit).

Pipp is bonded to me and fiercely territorial and would always attack any other bunny (or cat) that I was paying attention to -- although she's gotten her butt kicked so often now, she's a lot quieter these days, LOL! She didn't even go after Mikael yesterday when I had him on my lap in our room. Maybe she realized that she only weighs 2 lbs, not a good idea to be attacking the 14 lb Flemish!

I had a mini-rex boy (Dill) that lived next to a mini-lop girl (Darry) in a row of cages in an old, dark shed for at least a year, maybe two before I got them. I figured after all that time with no humans or bunnies around, they'd be pals. So when I got them home, I put them in the bathtub together with an open carrier. But nope, they were chasing and nipping, no way would they share the same carrier.

The lop almost immediately bonded to Radar, though. Just one or two little scuffles and they were married.

And I let Dill have free run of the place and had a foster dwarf, Sherry, locked up in the hall with a solid barrier between them. Sherry kept jumping the barrier and following after Dill, who would promptly turn around and beat her up.

Sherry constantly got out of her area, and after awhile I realized that the scuffles weren't really hurting her, she had lots of room to run away. She'd go back to following him right away, just staying a few feet back, so I stopped worrying. After two or three weeks of this, I came into the living room one day and they were necking on the couch.

After Dill, and then Radar, died, Sherry bonded to Marvin, and Darry bonded to another mini-rex (Mister) both pretty much immediately.

So you never can tell.

I had a two foster mini-rexes, mom and daughter, who I think had always been together, but they arrived here and one or both had patches of fur missing. The person who brought them thought it was mites or something, but I suspected they were having scuffles. Putting them in a larger pen helped, but it didn't totally stop until I added a second shelf to the pen. Sometimes they just need their own space I guess.

Offhand I'd say to try the car thing if you can and/or just let Mimi and Angus out together in foreign territory with a lot of space and escape routes and a human in charge of each bunny to grab them if they start fighting (and best to separate them after the first nip or hair pulling, and not let it progress -- end the sessions on a happy note) and see how it goes.

sas :clover:

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Pipp wrote:

I'd say to try the car thing if you can and/or just let Mimi and Angus out together in foreign territory with a lot of space and escape routes

It took me 15 months to bond my twne of them had to conceded dominance to the other. If I held them together, they were OK, but on their own, they would go for each others throat. Whatworked for me, was that I was able to cram both of them into a small pet carrier so they couldn't have much room to move around in. If any scuffling started, I wouldlift and lower the carrier like an elevator (up and down), or swinging the carrier (back and forth)to give them the sense of motion, and they started to seek security and comfort from each other when that happens. So the cramped space and motion (helplessness inside the carrier)stopped their fighting.

 

[Amy27]

Pipp wrote:

That's a normal bunny thing. All my rabbits immediately run to the other rabbits' pens when they get out, and the penned rabbits stay close to the bars. They either do their poop and pee wars thing, or nip each other, but they never move.

They're very social critters, they do all really want to be together, but they all want it on their own terms. In their natural environment they'd be establishing a hierarchy, or at least various positions in the warren.

I agree with what Pipp said above.

I bought an x pen and put it around my rabbits cages so the holes were smaller. I also bought a small rat x-pen and zip tied to to the spots they would try to bite each other through. The holes were so small on the rat x pen that they couldn't get the tip of their nose through.

Good luck.