Your advice re adopting second bunny

[NKS]

Hi everyone! My family adopted a bunny from a shelter in August - we love her and she's thriving. We're strongly considering getting her a companion. We know it's best to let them "meet" a few other bunnies, but with COVID it's a challenge. Do you have advice on picking a second bunny in this context? For what it's worth, she was born in a home with 49 bunnies, 7 kids, and a beagle (!), but has seemed quite content being solo at our house (with lots of petting, plus she grooms my husband regularly...). She's 7 months old, spayed, and pretty calm (spends most of the day lounging in her x-pen).

We would really appreciate advice on whether and how to adopt a second bun now. How often do any two bunnies ultimately bond (with slow careful introductions in a neutral area, etc), as opposed to fighting or just not liking each other? Is it best if the second bunny is young? Any other tips?

Thank you so much in advance!!

 

[Mei]

Hello! So I feel like right now with covid and such, it's hard to do bunny dates like you said. We have our lionhead, Snowy (fixed) whom we've had since 8 weeks old so recently we decided to get another bun cus we wanted him to have a wife. Well she is still healing from her spay, she has her own room away from him, but ONCE my husband accidentally left the door open to our room ( let me make a note that he learned from his mistake lol) and snowy charged in HER territory and she ran up and kissed his head and he got so mad and was trying to like kill her!! It was so scary I was crying, never have I experienced that. Thankfully I was able to get him RIGHT before he got her, but the moral of the story is, you never know how your bun is going to react to the new one, it will obviously take time and on neutral territory. With adopting a new bunny, you have to be okay with the fact they may never bond and will have to be kept separate for the rest of their lives and will need equal attention and care. That's honestly what we are going to do I think because we can tell it would put way to much stress on our buns personally, so just gotta think of that before you go into it sorry for the novel! I seem to always reply early without my morning coffee so it always sounds so scrambled, I hope you get the point I was trying to make you came to the right place to ask! The amazing members on here helped me with the same question before I got my newest bun!

 

[NKS]

Oh your poor bunny, I'm so glad she's ok! And I really appreciate the advice. I feel so tempted to rush ahead and get a second bunny and hope for the best, but it's probably good if we can find a way to either "date" in a safe/distanced manner, or wait. Hard to control myself with those shelter bunnies out there but I will try! Thanks again and enjoy your two parallel bunnies!

 

[Mei]

Oh your poor bunny, I'm so glad she's ok! And I really appreciate the advice. I feel so tempted to rush ahead and get a second bunny and hope for the best, but it's probably good if we can find a way to either "date" in a safe/distanced manner, or wait. Hard to control myself with those shelter bunnies out there but I will try! Thanks again and enjoy your two parallel bunnies!

Thank you! Me too! But I was the same way!! When everyone gave me the same advice, I decided to wait! But then in the end, I ended up being impulsive I saw her at the shelter online and I just felt drawn to her, drove a total of 5 hours to get her lol so worth it! She's my baby it's like we both picked each other! I feel like you'll know when it's right, you know? But thank you!!! If you end up getting another or need more advice, this forum is seriously wonderful for any help needed!

 

[Blue eyes]

Having your spayed female choose for herself from among other fixed rabbits is the best way to have the most likely success with bonding. The rabbits themselves each have their own unique quirks that only another rabbit will see and decide whether or not they like a particular rabbit. (Getting a young intact rabbit is not advised.)

Of course, the obvious place to find the most fixed rabbits is a rabbit rescue (as opposed to a generic shelter). There are a few in the DC/ metro area. They will work with you to ensure you wind up with an actual bond, typically allowing an exchange if one of their rabbits refuses to bond with yours. The chances overall of a success are very generally more likely than not. It depends somewhat on luck as well as fairly accurate reading of their behavior when they are introduced.

 

[Semac]

I foster rabbits from our local shelter. They stay with me before/after being spayed or neutered. Once they are healed they go back to the shelter for adoption. Of course I have a few foster fails. Actually that is how I ended up with all my current bunnies, they are all foster fails.

I had four bunnies, each living in their own space. The two girls were too young to spay and the boys did not get along with each other. I waited until the girls had both been spayed and had settled down before attempting to bond. They all live in close proximity to each other and I regularly switches them between each other’s living area. I decided to bond each pair based on their personalities. Dominant bun with passive bun. The change in all my rabbits now that that they live in bonded pairs was astounding. They are just so much happier. In my experience it is easier to bond boy/girl but I have bonded two females. However, their bond did not appear to be as strong as the bond I see between my boy/girl pairs. That could have just been the personalities of the rabbits though.

 

[NKS]

Thank you all, this is so helpful! We decided to go to a bunny speed-dating event held by a local rabbit rescue that also helps with the bonding (bunnymoon!). It's tomorrow - wish us luck! And thank you for encouraging this more cautious approach We don't have space for two separate bunny lairs!