Another Bunny?

[Gregmo]

Presently I have a mini-rex who is approximatley 9 months old.  We are thinking about getting a second bunny to keep him company the few hours we are not home but I have many concerns or questions.

First, our bunny is male.  Should I get another male?

Should I get another mini-rex or would a netherland dwarf be ok?

My biggest concern is in the training of a new bunny.  Our bunny uses the litter box without difficulty – will the new bunny use a litter box that another bunny uses?

Also, our bunny has learned when he can’t chew on in the house – baseboards, some furniture etc.  There are still a lot of things he nibbles at that we catch him on on occassion.  With a new bunny will I have a whole new list of things that i am taping up or bunny protecting?

[HereComesTheBun]

I only have one bun, but I’m hoping to eventually adopt a girlfriend for him, so I’ve been doing some research. Hopefully, someone else with direct experience will chime in. I’d also recommend checking out the “Bonding” forum and reading Binky Bunny’s article on it: https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO…fault.aspx 

As far as the gender goes, although many sources say that males and females bond easier, I’ve heard of many successful same sex rabbits pairs. Both will have to be fixed, though, even two of the same gender. Males, in particular, can fight, and it can take a month for their hormones to die down. 

The breed of the rabbits doesn’t matter! I probably wouldn’t get a second rabbit that varied in size significantly from yours (I’m thinking a of a bigger size difference than a mini rex and netherland dwarf), but only because they can fight during the bonding process. But I’m sure there are members here who have bonded rabbits of different sizes.

I can’t answer the litter box question for certain, though I think I have heard of bonded rabbits sharing litter boxes before. However, he or she will have to have his own litter box, at least for a while, because they won’t be able to live together right away. 

Unfortunately, not all rabbits chew on the same things, so you may have to do some additional bunny proofing. 

I would recommend looking at rabbits from a shelter or rabbit rescue. In most cases, they’re already spayed or neutered and are often litter trained. They sometimes let you bring your current rabbit for “speed dating,” so that he can pick out the rabbit he best gets along with. Since bonding rabbits can be tricky, it can be helpful to have your rabbit’s input. Also, you’ll already have a sense of the rabbit’s personality, so if chewing is a concern for you, you can pick one out who’s less of a chewer. Of course, not everyone is able to or chooses to adopt a second rabbit from a shelter, so that’s not a necessity. Just something to look at!

Best of luck! By the way, I absolutely love mini rexes. 

[Bam]

As HereComesTheBun says, speed-dating for bunnies is excellent. If you just bring another rabbit home, there are no guarantees that the old and the new bunny will get along. They may in fact hate each others’ guts. With bunny dating, the bunnies can choose their mate, and they like to do that. Plus you’d need to have the new bunny desexed+ healed before introductions, which requires additional time. Shelter bunnies are often desexed when you get them.

There is very often a loss of litterbox habits when two rabbits are introduced into the same area, manily regarding poop. This may persist for 6 months or for the rest of the bunnies’ lives. And as for the chewing – some bunnies are chewers, some are not. I have one of each kind.

[Gina.Jenny]

I have a bonded pair of boys and two girls, both currently each in their own cage. I didn’t exactly chose to have this set up, both girls were homeless and the local RSPCA were already full to capacity with rabbits and asked me to keep them. The boys are used to having the run of the house at least once a day to give them a good run around, so I don’t have a neutral area, also the cages the girls are in are too small to be in all the time, so they both get the run of the house, at different times, while the boys are in the garden. I hope, over time, everybun will just get used to everywhere smelling of everybun, and not have too many territory issues during bonding.

The boys have several big boxes with hay around, and one has been chosen by them as designated litter box. When either of the girls is out, one of the first things they both do, is hop into the boys litter box, and use it. This doesn’t seem to bother the boys. So yes, bunnies can and do share a litter box.

[kirstyol]

My recently bonded boys use the same litter box for pee, but Ron (the new bun) insists on pooping right next to the litter box rather than in it! To be fair to him, his litter training wasn’t the best when I rescued him and its only been a few weeks so I am hoping this will improve, he has already gone from pooping pretty much wherever he feels like, to pooping in the pen attached to the dog crate, to pooping right next to the box so I am hoping the next stage is pooping in the box.

I have two neutered males, and literally from the moment they met they have been best friends (I have a post in the bonding forum about it if you are interested), but I got very lucky with them. We were planning on getting a second bun in a few weeks when I finish uni and would have time for bonding, but Ron so desperately needed a home and one that would look after him properly that I simply couldn’t not take him. Size wise, my boys are quite different there is about a kilo of a difference between them weight wise, with Ron being bigger than Bramble. I was a little worried that Ron might injure Bramble because he is bigger, but Bramble is the alpha bun believe it or not and spends a lot of time being groomed by Ron and generally telling him what to do, Ron doesn’t mind I think he is just happy to be somewhere that he is being taken care of and have someone to spend time with. Because you have a small bun, I would probably go for a small bun for a friend as well, but they don’t need to be the same size.

Of course you will have to litter train the new bun, you will probably want to start with separate boxes so that the new bun doesn’t get confused but its definitely possible to get them both using the same one eventually.

You need to treat the new bun as just that – a new bun that will need all the precautions you took when you got your first. You need to bunny proof everything because you have no way of knowing what the new bun will be like. Plus bunnies tend to chew things that are new to them to try and find out what they are so a bun in a new environment might chew things for the first wee while then never chew again, or they might just be a chewer. My Bramble is a chewer so I didn’t have to do any additional bunny proofing to bring Ron home, but I definitely would have done had the place not already been bunny proofed within an inch of its life.

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