Question about bonding older rabbit

[skibunny8503]

Hello!  I adopted my rabbit Sandy 7 years ago (she was just a month old when we got her from a rescue so we know that’s her age).  She’s a mini lop.  She’s always been a single bun but when we adopted her we had a bonded pair (I had tried to make it a trio but it just didn’t work and she didn’t get along with the female).  She was used to the company of the bonded pair being by her cage.  The female (Gracie), we had to show her to the rainbow bridge.  We had thought about bonded Sandy with the male but the male seemed ok and we had a lot of stuff going with our new baby that we decided to keep them separate.  Then 2 years ago the male (Archie) passed away sudden (no medical condition and wasn’t really old).  You could tell she was sad even though they weren’t bonded, she loved having the company by her.  We got our house ready to sell and last spring moved into a new one.  Now everything has settled down.  She’s ok in the basement but when we got down there she gets eager to come out.  I bring her upstairs and let her run around but she just lays by the patio door the whole time.  She was never a bunny to run all around and binky like Archie.  She just keeps to herself and is content but I just wonder if she could use a friend.  She’s 7 years old and I’m wondering if she’s to old for a mate, to old to be messed with bonding.  We started bring up about getting another one but only if we could bond them.  I had been told by someone else that she was to old but I wanted to get more options about this.  I mean Archie was 5-6 when he passed and Gracie was about the same age (we were sure how old she really was but she had a lot of problems) but I had a rabbit when I was younger that lived to be 13….so who knows how old is old in the bunny world?? 

Thanks for your help!

[tobyluv]

I don’t think she is too old. I had a 10 year old male rabbit, then we found a bunny on the street, who we estimated to be a year or less of age. Although we had no plans for a second bunny at that time, we kept her. I had no idea how it would work, and it was really my first bonding experience, but it worked beautifully. My senior rabbit died at age 12, so they only had 2 years together, but they were both very happy.

I also bonded a 7 year old rabbit with a 2 year old rabbit a few years ago.  He was a little bit frail due to some health conditions, and she was livelier than she presented herself at the shelter, but that also worked well and they loved each other’s company.

Some rescues do have senior rabbits. You may not be able to get one the same age as Sandy, but you may be able to get an older one – one who may be close to her activity level. I adopted a 4 year old rabbit from the local shelter last year. I had been looking for a companion for my 4 -5 year old bunny and most of the ones listed at shelters and rescues are more like one year or less, so it took a while for me to find him, but there definitely are older ones out there in need of a home.

Regarding bonding, you never know how that’s going to go. I have bonded a few pairs and all of them were easy bonds, but it doesn’t always go that way. It can be almost instant, or it can take a lot of work, and time to bond. It’s usually easiest to bond a female with a male rabbit (spayed and neutered, of course) so you would probably have an easier time if you did adopt a male for Sandy to bond with.

I see that you are in Ohio.  I know that there is a chapter of the HRS in Ohio.  Most HRS chapters offer bunny matchmaking services.

[skibunny8503]

Thanks Tobyluv!  It’s a little nerve-racking because I’m afraid if she won’t bond, I don’t want to have 2 cage setups (I know you do when you first start out).  When I bonded my other two they took about 2 weeks but they never fought.  When I tried to bond Sandy with them she would attack the female!  Then the male became so tired of grooming the 2 female and no one ever grooming him that he attacked Sandy (he actually growled and scared me!).  I’ll have to take a refresher course on bonding because it’s been so long.  I’m actually in Northeast Ohio and when I looked up HRS they’re in Columbus, 4+ hrs away from me   We’re still in discussion phase so we’ll see but I wanted to ask before even thinking seriously about this.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hi, Skibunny

I don’t think 7 is too old if she is healthy and not an overly-stressed out bunny. If you could find her a senior mate that would be lovely if they could spend their golden years together. Maybe you could look into if there is a closer animal shelter near you and you could do a trial foster to see if you can get a bond before committing.

[tobyluv]

Here is one good article on bonding – http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/. There are others on the HRS site, as well as an article here in the BUNNY INFO section.

To see rabbits in area shelters and rescues, you can go to petfinder.com and perform a search. One of the categories you can filter results by is age, and they have a senior option. You may not want to limit yourself to just that option, though. I’m not sure at what age most rescues consider a rabbit to be a senior. They could have some that are 5 or 6 years old, and have them categorized as adults, not seniors. A rabbit that age is close to Sandy’s age, and might be a good fit.

[skibunny8503]

Thanks guys! That’s a good idea littlepuffytail! The closet shelters are a 1/2 hr away from me, the one has mostly females and she’s due for her baby any day now but the other one did have a male bunny. I messaged them to ask the age and they said 3-4 years old but they had another one that was older that we could look at too. So I put in the application and maybe we can see them this weekend. The older one they said he wasn’t a people person so I’m not really sure what that means.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Good luck!!!!

[skibunny8503]

Thanks! She told me last night they have another rabbit that might be a good match; he’s over 5 and very sweet. Made an appt. for Monday to go. She said to bring Sandy and a blanket of hers and maybe if she picks one that they’ll go home in the same carrier. I’m bringing my other carrier though because I didn’t think you can have them together that soon?? I’m not an expert in bonding though. I didn’t think we would be able to get one so soon so now my husband will have to be back to work building another cage just in case! o_O

[tobyluv]

I hope that this bunny will turn out to be a great companion for Sandy. Some people do bond rabbits by putting them together in a carrier. That sort of forces them to get along since they are packed in pretty tightly, and there isn’t much room for fighting, but someone would need to be sitting beside them in the back seat to break up any biting or fighting, so it’s probably best to have 2 carriers with you.

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