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It's been a sad weekend, Bebu was the first pet I've had that died in front of me. I feel guilty of not having checked in on my hammies the morning of the day I found her sick. I keep thinking that I could have probably had time to take her to the vet if I did. I've been checking on Gerby all day this weekend, but she's totally healthy and scampering about. Here is Bebu before we went to the park to bury her.
*Sigh* :'(
Despite the sadness of this weekend, I do have good news. Mayah & Bunlov have progressed in their bonding. I've moved them both to unneutral territory and they are behaving really well, they are both licking eachother now and sharing. Bunlov does take a nip of her fur now and then though so it may be another two weeks before I can put them in the same cage.
Bebu passed away a few minutes ago. She was sick last night when I went to feed them. She had wettail and was extremely lethargic. I cleaned her up and hoped to take her to the vet this morning. She didn't make it. She got so sick so fast and I don't know how it happened.
I was there with her when she took her last breath. It felt so bad cause I knew she was in pain.
When she passed, I placed her in a tiny box and my boyfriend and I went and buried her in the park under a beautiful tree facing the river.
:'( Bebu, I'll miss you my little mousy poo.
In this corner we have Bebu, the Dwarf Hammie from New York City. In the other corner we have a questionable ball of red fur from...China?
See them rumble, see them tumble. Place your bets now people!
OK, So the bunnies have been doing the same thing for the last few sessions. I scare the poo pellets out of them and then they lick each other. Next step is taking their daily 6 min sessions and doing them twice a day. I just hope they don't end up hating me cause I'm the creature who makes scary metal scraping on metal noises.Yep, things are lookin' good. In celebration of their bonding success I decided to let them out of their cages all morning (they usually only come out from 6 pm and on). They could not have been happier, binkying and running back and forth like I had given them banana chips or something.
I did something else, just for shiz and giggles. I introduced Mayah to my Hammies. Well, just Bebu. Since Mayah is so mellow I figured she would be nice and not growl at them like BunLov did.
So this is what happened:
NOTE: No hammies we harmed while making this video. Maybe she got dizzy but dizzy is not harmed. Harmed is getting body parts bitten off and that DID NOT HAPPEN.
Dare I say, that after 4 days of BunLov being an outright punk to Mayah, today we have finally taken a baby step forward.
Now, I've been trying a bunch of techniques that I found on this here interwebs and all of them have failed.
The list:
Switching cages:
Supposedly to get them used to each others scents. Well they just pee and poop everywhere when I do that, marking their territory I guess. They just decided "you take me out of my home, I shit in this one". As much as I enjoyed cleaning the cages day and night, and mopping up puddles of pee after having very well liter trained buns, I had to stop this.
Using a "stunt bunny":
This one involved me killing two plush toys, stuffing them with each rabbits fur and rolling them around their litter for a few days. Again, a technique to get them used to each others stinkyness. Mayah immediately started licking the Bunlov double. But she's not the problem, now is she?. Mr. Attitude however immediately started biting, punching, nearly ripped the ear off of it the first 10 min. So after a few days, while Mayah slept lovingly next to the BunLov double, her double was hanging off the edge of cage, dangling by a half eaten ear and clearly unloved.
Changing the neutral bonding space:
The first neutral space- my room turned into Mayah's territory. I knew that it wouldn't work after the first few days since she left poo's and tiny pee puddles there immediately after being released. After a few days there, I decided to use the kitchen, bathroom, bathtub, and hallway. I'm still doing these rotations, keeping them on their toes. They're not marking these spaces so at least that's good. Too soon to tell if it's working.
So what has finally really worked? Scaring the crap out of them of course! Why didn't I think of that before. Take my poor cute bunnies and make them have a heart attack. How did I do this? No, I didn't release them to the hounds but from the look on their faces, I might as well have done just that.
Here's what I did. First I had already had a session where he growled and lunged at her 3 times. After a 30 min break I put them in the tub. They ignored each other. As soon as I saw him get ify, I took the curtains (I have lovely metal pole and metal curtain clips that are the noisiest thing in this apartment besides the upstairs neighbors) and yanked them across the pole. They both immediately stopped in their tracks, ears forward and eyeballs about to pop out of their heads. I kept yanking back and forth, they inched closer and closer to each other. When I stopped, Mayah buried her head under BunLov and he, he, he LICKED HER! Yay. A tiny lick- twice actually but he did it! Yay! After 4 days of pure hate, he showed her some lovin!
Next time they're going on a NY cab ride. I'll probably have baby bunnies after putting them through that.
Saturday Apr 11:
We take BunLov to the shelter to get himself a lady friend. Yes, my bunny is a pimp.
Intro Bun #1: A sweet black and white lady that looked almost exactly like him. He had his tail up and immediately confronted her in a not so nice way. Bad news, she was not accepted by the BunLov.
Intro Bun #2: He LOOOVED her, went right over and licked her. She was not too interested but that's a good thing. Even though she seemed perfect for him. We decided to show him a third lovely lady.
Intro Bun # 3: This was a big no no. He hated her, went straight for the jugular. Growl, bite, fight! Holy smokes, she must have cursed him out silent bunny style or said something about his momma. She was not a keeper.
Needless to say we took bun #2 home and renamed her Mayah.
Sunday Apr 12:Mayah and BunLov have their first 2 minute session in the tub. BunLov wants to get close and sniff her bottom, she looks cautious so I try to keep him away from her. He turns around and ignores her for the rest of the 2 minutes. She ignores him back.
Monday Apr 13:
The second two minute session in the tub again. This time my boyfriend keeps an eye on them. Unlike me, he lets BunLov sniff her and WHAM! He gets a tuft of her fur. The session ends in 1min 30. Mayah was startled by the fur pull but didn't fight back.
Tuesday Apr 14:
I change the session to my bedroom. Two minutes. I keep and eye on them this time. BunLov approaches Mayah while she's in a litter box, sniffs her nose. She lowers her head and he digs his face under her chin and pushes up. She hops away, he follows while I keep him away from her rump (typical little man isn't he?) Two minutes end.
Wednesday Apr 15:
Session is in my room again. This time they ignore each other a little more. He keeps looking her way, she is hoping around like nobody else exists. The two minutes are up but since they being amicable I leave them one extra minute. All ends well.Thursday Apr 16:I decided to let them date for 3 minutes today. The first few seconds he ignores her. She ignores him as always. Then she starts licking her paws and I think that meant "Come on over big boy" cause he darted over to her like a torpedo. He smushed his face under her chin. I was staring, wanting her to lick his head, but no. She pushed him. She then went to sniff his bottom so I let her. Her tried to sniff hers but she tensed up and WHAM! Again he took a tuft. Now this all happened before the 3 minutes we up. 2min 40 exactly. Oh well. I think they both want to be dominant. Good news is, if this continues I'm going to have enough fur to make myself a lovely comforter filled with rabbit fluff.
Friday Apr 17:4 minute session. BunLov ignored her for the first 30 seconds then ran to her leaping. She came towards him too and they just head bumped. Him pushing against her and she seemingly pushing back. Then he growled at her, BAD BUN! I took him away and she ran off. I held him for 30 seconds the released him again. The same exact thing happened and the session ended with me taking him away for growling. Today I'm switching their cages.Saturday, Sunday, Mon, Tues Apr 18,19,20,21:Same thing that happened Friday, it's like that groundhog day movie. I'm gonna have to go to the Costco and stock up on a jumbo box of patience.
Here she is in all her glory. Big bunny feet, big bunny ears, salt and peppery fur. She's easily twice the size of BunLov. Typical little male, loving himself a big girl.
