Okay, before you click the play button I should apologize for one instance of my potty mouth and a good deal of bunny on bunny head humping (however funny we found it to be). This is the first time we've had multiple bunnies at one time and we are complete newbies when it comes to bunny bonding/reunions. I've read about how to go about introductions and know that the humping is a display of dominance or control that bunnies do to figure out the balance of power in their relationships with one another. I would step in and separate them whenever I felt that one was being too vigorous or forceful and always made sure that the more submissive bun had the option to escape the other. For anyone new to this blog, both Simon and River were neutered/spayed 4 weeks ago and this is the amount of time that their Vet told us to wait before allowing them to have contact with one another. If nothing else, you should get a pretty good laugh towards the end--we certainly did!
After they tired of the head humping, they either played tag or explored the apartment. Here, they're discovering that they both like the vertical blinds.
They're a bit sulky after an argument about who holds the deed for the bunny condo.
Simon has some boundary issues to work out. River is like, "Hey, that's
my cage!"
After pulling Simon out of River's cage, we find River in a huff and ignoring Simon. Simon is pretending that he isn't bothered by River ignoring him and is trying to look like he's ignoring her right back. I'm not sure how he thinks that's a good idea.
Well, they seem to have settled their differences for now and are happily grooming one another. Overall, I'd say that their reunion went rather well. It'll still be a while before I trust them in the same cage together, but they're making progress.
Thank you all for visiting and I hope you have a great weekend! I'll be back on Monday.
4 comments:
Any plans to introduce the 2 to your other bunny?
Sadly, Penny passed away this past Thanksgiving of a quick-moving respiratory infection. I just couldn't start this blog without adding all of her contributions--my husband and I joked that she'd haunt us if we didn't! You may see pics of her in some of the skits if I think that it would be in keeping with her personality, though. She gave us almost 8 great years and I can't help but share some of the pics that made us smile with all of you.
Seeing other peoples bonding experiences is *really* useful for when you have to do it yourself, thanks for recording it :)
You're welcome! I'm glad I could help. :)
I noticed in my research that there really wasn't much in terms of videos or even descriptions of what to expect when bonding bunnies. I figured that since we have a Flip video recorder, why not try to capture the moment? The best advice I can give is to watch them like a hawk the first few times you let them out to see if they're starting to get along and to step in as soon as you see fur in one of their mouths.
I'm happy to say that we've let them out together three times now and found dramatically less head humping each time as they worked out their differences. They only got a bit rough with each other once (River almost ended up on her back) and I quickly stepped in to hold both of their heads down, then pet them and released them again. Oddly enough, it looks like River rules the roost here now.
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