Animal Lovers Web Blog

The on-going saga of our male dwarf lop rabbits reluctance to get on in a civilised manner has finally been resolved and all parties seem to be happy at last!  Despite three costly castrations and our many attempts to integrate our male rabbits, we were resigned to the fact that our bunnies just preferred the single life. 

For the past four months or so, the rabbits have had to put up with less than perfect accommodation, rotating between hutches, our dog run (minus the dogs!) and one of the stables to ensure that they all had equal access to grass and a good run around at some point each day.  Like most rabbits, they really didn’t enjoy constantly being picked up and moved and we realised that, once it became clear that integration was not on the cards, we needed a more permanent solution to our rabbit housing problem.

Over the Christmas period, we have invested in three really spacious rabbit runs, complete with their own little houses for sleeping quarters.  Two of the runs arrived just after the new year and our rabbits Charlie and Snowy have enjoyed their new accommodation, much to the annoyance of poor Phil, who had to wait for delivery of the final run until today.  The rabbits still all get to see each other as the runs are housed together in one of the stables but they (and we!) no longer have to endure the thrice-daily ritual of trying to avoid being caught - even if it was for their own good.

Our rabbits seem much happier (well as happy as a rabbit can look) with their new living arrangements.  The rabbit runs  are spacious enough for us to sit in with them and it’s great seeing how much more relaxed they are in our company.  It’s lovely to see them hop over and take a carrot from our hands or have the confidence to jump over to sniff us out! 

Each rabbit has their own corner litter tray, although Charlie seems to think his new wooden house makes a much better toilet at this stage.  Phil and Snowy have obviously read the rabbit care book and realise that rabbits can be toilet-trained and are really good at using the tray.  It’s going to mean that we get to spend much more quality bunny-friendly time with our rabbits as cleaning out will be less time consuming, not to mention the many hours over the past few months of rabbit catching that can be much better utilised for rabbit cuddling.

Diane

www.AnimalLoversWeb.com

We wrote a couple of weeks ago about our 3 male rabbits who have been castrated and the problems we were having trying to get them to live together. We have had one more attempt at introducing them to each other as we are getting worn down rotating them around the cages and runs and cleaning out 3 rabbits living quarters. Not to mention, it is just much nicer to see them together and having some companionship.

We are, however, very pessimistic now about our chances of success in ever getting them to happily co-exist. Other than through the wires of their cages, and even then, they sometimes try to have a nibble at each others noses.

Our last hope after researching the forums and internet generally is to try the introductions to each other on neutral territory, where none of our rabbits have been before. Up until now we have been rotating the rabbits around the 3 living areas, with the hope that with all 3rabbits scents in all 3 areas, none of them would be too defensive over it. Clearly this hasn’t worked. Many people have suggested a bathroom as a good venue for it, for some reason.

What we are not clear about is, even if it works on neutral territory, how long for? and how many times? Before it is safe to try them together again. We are going to have a go this weekend and will update the blog with how we get on with our male rabbit integration attempts.

John

www.AnimalLoversWeb.com

Our experience of having more than one male in any of our animal types has not been good. It has usually led to aggressive behaviour and fights of a serious intensity sooner or later.
We were somewhat perturbed then, to discover recently that our 3 lovely dwarf lop rabbits were all male at about 4 months old. Both the pet outlets and the vet had wrongly identified them as 2 females and a male.
They had gone from a lovely group of friendly rabbits playing around and feeding
together, to 3 very separate individuals who, even when hungry would not go near the food bowl if another rabbit was already there. Even worse, we realised that they had started to fight as they were showing signs of minor injuries on their ears and noses on a regular basis.
We had no choice but to separate them as soon as we were sure that they were fighting. So it was off to the vets and a hefty bill of over £150 to have the three rabbits castrated. We then waited for 6 weeks before trying to see if they could possibly live together again.
We had gone form having the rabbits all together in one run, which was very spacious, to having them in 3 separate housing areas, always withing view of each other so that they remained familiar. This looked less fun for the rabbits and was certainly more onerous on ourselves in maintaining and cleaning their living quarters, so we were very hopeful that after their ops they would again be able to get on with each other.
Over the last week or two we have cautiously tried to re-introduce them to sharing the same living areas. Unfortunately, other than brief spells when distracted by food it has invariably led to them fighting fairly ferociously and us having to separate them. I accidentally even got bit by one of the rabbits on one occasion! We have tried about 6 times under close supervision and have now accepted that it is not going to work. For their own good we have had to continue to keep them apart. It is such a pity as they were so lovely together.

John
www.AnimalLoversWeb.com