Peters Legacy: Zoey’s Rescue Bunnies

[Cottontail]

I haven’t been on here much since we lost our Pete earlier this year….  I did share our boy Duncan with you when we rescued him from the shelter, but we moved again shortly afterward.  Things have been busy and unpredictable this year in our household, and I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here and doing okay. 

For those not familiar with us,  Peter was our first rabbit;  an orphaned cottontail that we raised and spoiled with all the love we could.  He was our April fool and the baby of the family… Zoey, our lady cat, bonded with him immediately and taught him how to use the litter box, hunt bugs, play with string toys, and play tag.  He was our fast introduction and literal crash-course in bunnies… without him I would be lost and we would never have considered adopting rabbits in the first place.

Tilly came second, and our first domestic breed.  She was adopted when a neighbor faced eviction and was facing the possibility of releasing her into the woods nearby.  We couldn’t see her being abandoned, so we took her in and she’s been a cuddle-bug ever since.  She has gained a lot of confidence and can be a bit of a diva, but she is a lover more than anything.

Shortly after we lost our Pete to a final bout of stasis, we saw Duncans picture at a local shelter… They weren’t set up for bunnies but were giving him what they had.  When we went and saw him we couldn’t leave him there… We’re sure he’s an escaped meat-bunny, by the tag on his ear and his mixed breeding… He’s an expert at destroying or getting around barriers, and has some anxiety attacks that eventually resolve in getting lots of kisses and cuddles from either me or his new bun-wife, Tilly.

During their bonding, we came across some abandoned bunny-kits on the side of the road… The 3 mini-rexes were caught, vetted, and desexed (after some fund-raising), with the hopes that they would be able to find forever homes.  Local shelters were either full or wouldn’t help due to county lines, so we were pretty much on our own.  One of the babies found a new home way up in New York, while the other two continued in make-shift foster care here in South Carolina. We finally got some assistance from the local HRS after they had been desexed, but it’s been 3 and a half months since they were picked up from the side of the road and they are currently munching away the remains of their breakfast in my kitchen.

Now I’m sitting here, a little more than half way through my first pregnancy and I have a house full of bunnies and one mommy-cat.  With the holidays upon us, we don’t forsee finding a forever home for the munchkins, and we’ve grown quite attached as we’ve watched them bloom from the feral kits we tried so hard to catch–into a bonded pair of lovey little goof-balls that love being house-bunnies.   At this point, it would hurt to part with them… and we’ve gotten into a pretty good routine throughout the day.  They’re going to be staying, too.

So that brings us about up to speed.  In January we had a cottontail and a cat that only cared about her “kitten.”  It’s now December and our mommy-cat now has 4 domestic bunnies running around the house.  Over the next 4 months we hope that our 2 bonded pairs will become a quartet, and we look forward to welcoming our new baby girl come April. 

I’ll try to do regular updates to let you know how we’re doing… but if I miss one here and there, it’s likely just due to being a bit on the busy side.  Vinny and Velvet, our foster-failures, have their own facebook page that was set up to draw attention to them since local adoption techniques were not working…  I’ve not made the big announcement there yet.. but it’s coming.  I wanted to let my BB family know first, since you’ve been there since before you knew we were here…  I found BB the first night we had Pete, even if it took some time before joining, I still found so much help and support here from the start.

[LongEaredLions]

So glad to have an update, we miss you around here CT. I can’t wait to hear more about Duncan, Tilly, Vinny, Velvet, and the baby, and hopefully see pictures.
We all miss Pete’s crazy stories around here, but I know he would be so proud of what his family has grown into.

[MoxieMeadows]

So you’re planning on keeping Vinny and Velvet? How wonderful.

Glad to see you on here again, hopefully you’ll be posting more.

Plus…we need PICTURES!

[tobyluv]

I think that Vinny and Velvet have the best home ever with you – the home they were meant to have. It’s wonderful that you are keeping them.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear you are keeping them!!!!! They are lucky little buns!

[LBJ10]

Yay! They’re staying!!!! =D

And CT, I have to agree with LEL, you are very missed around here. Please stick around and continue to give updates. We love hearing from you.

[Q8bunny]

Thanks for the update, Cottontail. Stories like yours just warm the heart. Chewie and I are sending healthy, happy, safe vibes to your little-now-big family and hoping 2016 finds you all hopping along nicely.

I’m a writer, and my current project is inspired by my own zany furbaby – to the point where I’m giving illustration a first try (scary step, scary step). It’s amazing how much these twitchy-nosed little imps can change our lives – and I think most of us love every day of it.

[Cottontail]

^_^ So glad to be back. I’m going to try to do more regular updates and catch up on some of the boards… Pictures will be hit or miss as I’m still trying to figure out the best way to manage it. I’ll be sure to post some soon, though!

The buns had their first formal introduction to each other last night… it was a busy evening.

First thing was to introduce the boys to each other, as they are our high-energy anxious little trouble makers.
We gathered up Vinny and Duncan and brought them upstairs to the tub (probably the only place other than Tilly and Duncans room that Vinny hasn’t been)… we had clean sheet across the whole bottom at first, but quickly removed it when they started circling and pulling fur. The lack of traction made both boys utterly pitiful… They slipped and slid for several minutes, giving each other little honks and nips when they tried to push off from each other and only slid instead… so we put the sheet back in the tub, but folded so there was just barely enough room for them both to lay on it. This seemed to do the trick for about half an hour before there was another scuffle. Since noises didn’t work to break up the fight, I picked up the edges of the sheet, causing them to get shoved together a bit, and shifted it to the other end of the tub. They settled down and there were no more scuffles. Duncan actually gave Vinny a couple licks on his ear and one on his head before trying to get him to lick him… but unfortunately for Duncan, Vinny thought that Duncans big head made a better pillow than something to lick.

While we had the boys in the tub, we got to the business of gathering the ladies (our soft-spoken alphas). We got a tall laundry basket and set it up in the next room over. Once they were set in the bottom of the basket together they had no real room to turn around without crawling all over each other. There were some grumpy looks and nose twitches, and they spent a good portion of the time with their heads turned away from each other, but there was no fighting.. just grumping and lots of shedding.

After a while we decided the boys were behaving well enough but were also worn out enough that they probably wouldn’t start anything. We moved the ladies into the tub with them. The were set down on the opposite end of the tub at first, with me as a wall between them and the boys; just to see how they would react to eachother now that they had room to move. Both ladies seemed more interested in checking on the boys than starting any fights. I got out of the tub and we moved their little cloth over to the boys. The boys perked up a bit once the ladies were reunited with them, and luckily there seemed to be no aggression left. They started looking around the tub and trying to figure a way out, but then settled back down into a bunny pile as there was now only enough padded area in the tub for the 4 of them. The munchkins did, at one point, venture onto the slippery tub surface, but were placed back into the bunny pile with no problems. Through the whole process, Vinny seemed to distance himself from the group the most, but still looked for comfort from both his sister and Tilly. Duncan tried shoving his head under each of the 3 other bunnies but nobody bathed the poor boys head. Tilly and Velvet did lots of sniffing and crawling around the boys and each other, but no bathing or biting.

We decided after the overall 3hours mark that we would call it a night for bonding. Everybody got cranberries together in the tub, and then we gathered the munchkins into a box to bring them back downstairs to their enclosure, leaving the big buns in the tub together… After a few minutes we went back and got Tilly and Duncan and brought them back to their home-base in their room. Everyone got another cranberry once they got back to their territories and then it was dinner time. The rest of the evening was quiet with no upset. We let Duncan and Tilly run for about an hour before bed and they left the munchkins’ enclosure alone.

Today we hope to do a second bonding session. With any luck, they will all be happily bonded by the time the baby is due.

[Cottontail]

2nd bonding session is underway!
We skipped last night because of family stopping through town unexpectedly… but the buns seemed to take the time to reinforce their normal boy-girl bonds; so I figure no harm done.

Tonight we put the boys into one basket and the girls into the other basket. They’ve been there for about 10 minutes at this point… The ladies are starting to self-groom and the boys are laying on top of each other looking pitiful… no aggression from anyone as of yet. In a little while we’ll be moving everyone back to the tub. Wish us luck!

[Cottontail]

2nd bonding session update: We’re still at it.

They all went into the tub, but Vinny kept separating himself from the group and thumping. after a while of trying to get him to stay with the group, and a small anxiety attack from Duncan, we moved them from half the tub into a large laundry basket inside the tub with a sheet over it. They’ve got just enough room to cover the floorspace of the basket and still wiggle against/past each other, but can’t get to a spot where they are not in physical contact. With the sheet over it they cannot see who’s in the room… It’s been pretty quiet so far… just some shuffling around every once in a while…. It’s their dinner time now and they are usually pretty good about knowing when they are supposed to be fed… so I’m sure that’s probably increasing the stress a little. If there are any scuffles I am close enough I can break it up, but I also have noise makers to startle them. We’ll see how this progresses….

[vanessa]

I’m very happy to read your story. I also have 2 pairs, and tried a trio with them, but the stress on them – was too stressful for me! I felt to bad for them, and too guilty at causing them stress. I’ll keep reading your journal and decide if I want to try it again. A quartet might be a tiny bit less work than 2 pairs. It is definitely easier to give attention to all 4 if I don’t have that annoying dividing fence to step over

[Cottontail]

So we just now ended the session…
About 45 minutes into the basket we removed the top sheet and then we had the first bit of humping. Velvet humped Tilly a couple times, but Tilly didn’t really fight her at that point. After a couple moments she moved out of the way but that was about it. Duncan spent most of his time shoving his head under the other 3 bunnies like an ostrich, and Vinny still tried his best to ignore that the entire situation was happening. We let them stay like that for another 10-15 minutes, and then released them back into the tub. At this point they were all tired and a bit stressed… we gave them all some cranberries and the mood improved drastically… we even had some grooming going on. Duncan gave Tilly and Velvet some kisses on their noses and ears before tucking back under… And Tilly gave kisses to Velvet and Duncan. Velvet, Tilly, and Duncan sat snuggled of their own free will for a while, slowly inching forward into Vinny, who was still trying to avoid social interaction. At this point we were more than 2 hours past dinner so I sat down in the tub and started stroking everyones heads (in groups of 2 wherever possible) and I had a lap full of bunnies (Vinny was cuddled first into my lap). Finally, Tilly stretched over and gave poor Vinny some kisses on his head and brow.. he held his breath as she kissed him but relaxed a little bit more than he had been once she was done. We decided to end it on a good note so the hubby made dinner-salads while I sat with them. After the salads were in place we transported the pairs back to their home-bases with food waiting for them. Everyone dug in as if they hadn’t been fed in a week!

We hope to keep these sessions going for a while, and eventually start full day sessions. Over all this one was positive. We had a little bit of an upset during basket time, but I flipped on the vacuum cleaner for about 15 seconds and it went from a bouncing grunting blanket to a blanket over a pile of cuddle bunnies. Other than that there was nothing that really needed to be broken up this time around.

Vanessa – I know it’s a lot of stress for them and for us, but since we have a baby on the way in April and a rather small apartment, it would be best if we can make this work for them. The boys have similar hobbies and energy levels and tend to need more buddy time than the ladies do… The ladies also tend to tire out more and just want to cuddle instead of go digging and running all day… so we’ve got our fingers crossed that they recognize it too and get along!

[LongEaredLions]

Sounds like it is going pretty well, CT. I can’t wait for you to have a quartet! How FUN!

[Muffinluv]

This is so exciting, I can’t wait till you have all those bonded buns hopping around together

[vanessa]

My boys and girls are similar. The boys prefer to be active ad playful. The girls like to cuddle and play. One pair is destructive, the other pair not. Multiple personalities are interesting. I do hope they are able to work it out. I’ve added 2 stuffies to my more sensitive pair 🙂 It seems to keep my needy demanding female calm 🙂 Which means her pal gets a break from her being bossy.

[Cottontail]

will update more bonding sessions tomorrow. it’s been a bit busy here the last couple days.
I will say that Duncans mood has greatly improved since we started bonding the buns… He spends more time cuddling his lady and when he decides he’s going to bother the munchkins’ enclosure he’s no longer digging at it.. instead he just chins it and binkies off.

[LBJ10]

Oh wow! It sounds like things are going really well so far. I agree, I can’t wait for all four to be running around together. Just think of all the cute pictures there will be of bunny piles!

[Cottontail]

Bonding session wasn’t very successful tonight. We had lots of upset buns and not much progress… To make things worse, it got really warm in the house before the air finally kicked back on so everyone was warm and agitated on top of it. Both ladies did some pitiful honking to illustrate their distress during the session. Tilly was so upset at one point that she left the neutral zone, hopped into my lap and nipped my belly, leaving a pink mark (No skin breaking, no bruise, no ripped clothes). We tried giving them some greens since food seemed to improve everyone’s mood in previous sessions, but no one was interested.

After finally getting everyone back to their home-bases Vinny and Velvet relaxed a bit and started eating… Tilly and Duncan took some time to settle. I layed on the floor with the two of them flopped and breathing fast for a while, hand feeding them little bits of kale, until they relaxed enough to get up and eat on their own. They washed their faces and stayed close to each other… since it was still warm I brought them a frozen bottle in a pillow case; Tilly ignored it, but Duncan rolled it around for a couple minutes before finally settling against Tilly.

We might give it break tomorrow and see how things go Tuesday… I’m not sure yet. I don’t like seeing everyone so upset with no notable progress or positive interaction.

I’m not giving up, just trying to figure out how to regroup and figure out (other than it being warm) what was different about this time that made it less successful than previous sessions. We may have to find a new neutral territory if the next session doesn’t go well either.

[LBJ10]

Sometimes a break does wonders for bonding bunnies. I would give everyone a breather, let the regroup, and try again.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Oh golly it sounds like military organisation and planning, but it will be so worth it…. keep on with gentle insisting, you will be rewarded. And you have a whole BB family rooting for you all !
Reasons for a different session? full moon? new moon? PMT…. ? ;o) maybe…… maybe not…. ;=)

[Cottontail]

No sessions today; just a nice relaxing semi-rainy day.

The big buns ran around for a while early on, and seemed to be in good spirits.  I even caught Duncan lounging next to the Munchkin enclosure (privacy sheet up; they can smell/hear eachother but no seeing or nipping).  Tilly stuck her nose through the sheet to get a better sniff, but didn’t bother them much.  After they wore themselves out they went back upstairs of their own accord and flopped out in their tunnel for grooming and cuddles. (about 4hrs this morning.. will have 3 more soon)

Vinny and Velvet got to run for about 6.5 hours today.. I would have given them another half hour to an hour but we decided that we didn’t need help assembling the baby’s changing table.  Vinny was in high spirits, running and swinging around paper-towel tubes.  He got so into it he actually bonked his sister on the head!  She wasn’t impressed and decided that she’d rather have some head pets and go nibble on some willow.  I got a good bit of attention from Vinny today.  The bonding sessions seem to be making him more social with me than making him more social with the other bunnies.  I even got some surprise toe kisses and toe nibblings before he went binkying off through the room!

Everyone is happily munching on their evening salads tonight (plain salad of kale and romaine to be easy on everyone’s tummies).  There’s something soothing about listening to bunnies nom on greens…

Tomorrow I’m thinking I’ll do another short session, but I’m going to focus on Vinny with Tilly and let Duncan and Velvet wait a while before we add them in… Tilly is naturally a lover but has been getting about as stressed as Vinny the last session or two… I think if they can get to where they trust each other more that it will go a little smoother in group sessions…  Velvet is the most confident of all 4 buns during the sessions, followed by Dunny (his anxiety attacks excluded).  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow and I will keep you posted!

[LBJ10]

CT – Sometimes breaking them up and working on two at a time helps. Did you try it yet? This last update was a couple days ago.

[Cottontail]

Sorry for the gap in updates; we’ve had quite a bit of non-bunny activity going on including car dramas, furniture delivery and construction, and family in and out… Just lots of stuff in general so it’s not been easy to get back to BB.

LBJ – We start the sessions with the girls in one basket and the boys in another basket, before introducing them to the tub in a group…. I think it might be worth it to make some extended sessions with just pairs, but I’m not sure whether to do the girl-boy groups or continue with the girls in one and the boys in another… The ladies are my “quiet alphas” while the boys are definitely the rowdy troublemakers due to their anxieties and insecurities.

I’m down a set of hands for most of this week, so I’m focusing more on them being able to smell and see each other without interaction for the most part again right now.. just because it’s physically and emotionally a lot easier on me by myself at the moment. I may do some individual pair bonding sessions this week though.

[LBJ10]

I say to try one-on-one sessions with the two that you think will be the most difficult bond. So, probably a boy-girl pair since it sounds like the boys are good together and so are the girls.

[Cottontail]

Velvet is confident whether it’s one-on-one with Tilly or in with all three of them that she is the alpha bun (despite being the smallest)…
Tilly just wants to kiss, cuddle and not get nipped…
Duncan swtiches between wanting to hide under other buns, kissing their ears, and grunting and lunging at Vinny when they have more room to move…
Vinny will pull chunks of fur from Duncan if they get to nipping, but generally wants to distance himself from the whole ordeal or hide under a female…

I’ve got to take Zoey to the vet today so they’re just going to have another day of sniffing through the gate and sharing poops… we’ll do more tomorrow.

I let the munchkins run all night and didn’t clean up the territorial poops (sounds and looks horrible but I was exhausted)… I put them back in their enclosure and let the big buns out into the run space that was still littered with munchkin poops… If anything they seem to have left fewer poops mixed in with what was already there and seemed just as happy to run and play in the space… They even left the enclosure alone rather than upsetting the munchkins (intentionally or unintentionally). I am currently sitting here staring at the poop minefield and I know I have to clean it up, but I’m waiting and observing my big pair to see how it goes when I don’t clean up for them to make fresh mess…. I was not expecting the calming effect it seems to be having, but the minefield will have to be cleaned soon.

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