naturestee
Well-Known Member
As some of you may know, I've been havingtrouble bonding Mocha and Loki. The good news is, we actuallymade some progress today! Hooray!
The long story is that the bathtub meetings just weren't workingout. It always ended up with the buns literally at eachothers throats. Mocha especially is a demon, but Loki oftenstarts it. They had several days without dates at the end oflast week as there was a death in my family. Saturday night,we put them in a box in a room they hadn't been in and ran the vacuumnext to them in an attempt at stressing them. Mocha wasterrified, but Loki got over it pretty quickly and then refused tocooperate by multiple attempts at jumping and climbing out of thebox. Sunday we tried the bathtub again with noimprovements. James and I had been talking, and we decidedthat the problem with the bathtub is that it is too small.There just wasn't room to get away from each other, and mostof the problems stemmed from Loki wanting to be left alone and Mochawanting attention.
So Tuesday morning James let them both out in the bunny room at thesame time. Not a good idea!:shock: He said theywere fine for a while (I was not home) until Loki got the bright ideato go over by Mocha's cage. She dashed over and sat down nextto him. After a taking a little bit of her intimidation, hereached over and gave one of his signature slow, lazy nips.That was it for Mocha. She turned into a blazing furry demonand chased him around the room, ripping fur out of his butt at everychance. James rescued him and, after finding no bleeding orany skin attached to the removed fur, plopped him back in hiscage. I came home to find him trying to keep Mocha frombadgering Loki while he was in his cage while picking up all the tuftsof fur, the vast majority of which was Loki's.
Obviously, it's going to be a long time before they can play in thebunny room together. This morning, I re-bunnyproofed mybedroom (Mocha used to be allowed in there until she hit puberty) andput them both in there. I was a bit worried that she would beterritorial over this, too because it's always been her favorite placeto be. She tries to sneak in every chance she gets.They actually played in there for about 45 minutes! At first,Mocha kept a close eye on Loki and would follow him around alot. A few nips later, she realized that he doesn't want asecond shadow. She still tried sometimes, but she would leavehim alone when he shifted his body posture. He pulled alittle of her fur, but not bad and it was easy to break themup. They both came over to me for nudges and pets.Mocha kept trying to get Loki to join a bunny 500 but he wasn'tinterested. About half an hour in, they were both doingoccasional binkies and flops! Woohoo! I only endedthe session because Loki decided the drapes neededspraying.:? I had hoped he was done with that, but apparentlyhe's going to do it every time he's in new territory.
Sorry this is so long, I'm just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy rightnow! Oh, and here's a pic of what happens when Loki goes nearMocha's cage. She's been getting a little more relaxed,though. I should have left the red eye in, as she reallylooked like the demon she is!
The long story is that the bathtub meetings just weren't workingout. It always ended up with the buns literally at eachothers throats. Mocha especially is a demon, but Loki oftenstarts it. They had several days without dates at the end oflast week as there was a death in my family. Saturday night,we put them in a box in a room they hadn't been in and ran the vacuumnext to them in an attempt at stressing them. Mocha wasterrified, but Loki got over it pretty quickly and then refused tocooperate by multiple attempts at jumping and climbing out of thebox. Sunday we tried the bathtub again with noimprovements. James and I had been talking, and we decidedthat the problem with the bathtub is that it is too small.There just wasn't room to get away from each other, and mostof the problems stemmed from Loki wanting to be left alone and Mochawanting attention.
So Tuesday morning James let them both out in the bunny room at thesame time. Not a good idea!:shock: He said theywere fine for a while (I was not home) until Loki got the bright ideato go over by Mocha's cage. She dashed over and sat down nextto him. After a taking a little bit of her intimidation, hereached over and gave one of his signature slow, lazy nips.That was it for Mocha. She turned into a blazing furry demonand chased him around the room, ripping fur out of his butt at everychance. James rescued him and, after finding no bleeding orany skin attached to the removed fur, plopped him back in hiscage. I came home to find him trying to keep Mocha frombadgering Loki while he was in his cage while picking up all the tuftsof fur, the vast majority of which was Loki's.
Obviously, it's going to be a long time before they can play in thebunny room together. This morning, I re-bunnyproofed mybedroom (Mocha used to be allowed in there until she hit puberty) andput them both in there. I was a bit worried that she would beterritorial over this, too because it's always been her favorite placeto be. She tries to sneak in every chance she gets.They actually played in there for about 45 minutes! At first,Mocha kept a close eye on Loki and would follow him around alot. A few nips later, she realized that he doesn't want asecond shadow. She still tried sometimes, but she would leavehim alone when he shifted his body posture. He pulled alittle of her fur, but not bad and it was easy to break themup. They both came over to me for nudges and pets.Mocha kept trying to get Loki to join a bunny 500 but he wasn'tinterested. About half an hour in, they were both doingoccasional binkies and flops! Woohoo! I only endedthe session because Loki decided the drapes neededspraying.:? I had hoped he was done with that, but apparentlyhe's going to do it every time he's in new territory.
Sorry this is so long, I'm just SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy rightnow! Oh, and here's a pic of what happens when Loki goes nearMocha's cage. She's been getting a little more relaxed,though. I should have left the red eye in, as she reallylooked like the demon she is!
