Did I adopt a cottontail?

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This topic has 7sd replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Vienna Blue in France.

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- 08/31/2016 at 1:01 PM
  Melon
  Participant
  41 posts
  Hello everybun,
  
  I adopted Lemon hoping that she can bond with my rabbit. My rabbit humped her and started to groom her afterwards. However Lemon has no response and keeps ignoring him. I am not sure what to do next
  
  She came to the shelter as a stray, so she probably has never been a house rabbit. She stays still when I pet her, but it seems like its out of fear. I think she does enjoy her new home somewhat, as she sometimes lay comfortable outside her hiding place. Does she look like a cottontail, which belongs to the wild? Is there hope for her to be a house rabbit?
- 08/31/2016 at 2:12 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  She looks like a gray or chinchilla dutch to me It also looks like she was just spayed, so i would avoid trying to bond her with your other bunny until she is healed
- 08/31/2016 at 2:18 PM
  tobyluv
  Participant
  3310 posts
  Lemon is not a Cottontail. A Cottontail wouldn’t have the white fur around its neck and on its face. Also, a Cottontail, unless it was very sick or injured, would not have allowed someone to just pick it up and take it to a shelter.
  
  Was Lemon just recently spayed? If so, you should wait a month before starting the bonding. And she needs some settling in time. The fact that there was no fighting when you put the rabbits together is good. It’s not uncommon for one of the rabbits to ignore the other. She may have been frightened and didn’t want anything to do with another rabbit, or she just may not know how to interact with another rabbit.
  
  If enough time has elapsed since her surgery, keep trying with the bonding. I have always had success putting the two rabbits in an x-pen, and my husband and I get in with them. You can be there to comfort any rabbit that might need it, you can stop any fighting (some scuffling can be normal) and you can stop the humping if it goes on too long.
  
  Bonding can take time, so you have to have patience and you may have to try different methods.
  
  Here are 2 good articles:
  
  https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/9/PID/940/Default.aspx
  
  http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/
- 09/01/2016 at 7:06 AM
  Q8bunny
  Participant
  6345 posts
  Nope. Don’t think so. But she is very lovely.
- 09/01/2016 at 10:55 AM
  Bam
  Moderator
  16872 posts
  I agree she’s not a cottontail but an oryctolagus cuniculi, i.e a European rabbit. She’s beautiful
  Totally agree about the bonding as well. She needs at least a month to recover and for her hormones to die down.
- 09/09/2016 at 11:38 AM
  Melon
  Participant
  41 posts
  Thank you everybun! She is now happily living together with my other rabbit
- 09/09/2016 at 1:51 PM
  Sleepy
  Participant
  190 posts
  Congrats~ Do you have pics of the two together?
- 09/09/2016 at 2:48 PM
  Vienna Blue in France
  Participant
  5317 posts
  Ahhhhhh we LOVE happy endings… or rather happy beginnings……
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