Baby Bunny Circling

[MazzyStar]

I have two baby bunnies and their gender/age isn’t known for sure. According to the shelter, Cinnamon is a male and is around 7 weeks old and Basil is a female who is about 6 weeks old.
Cinnamon originally came home with another bunny who died after 3 days, but those three days were spent snuggling together and grooming each other. Both bunnies were very happy.
When I brought Basil home for Cinnamon, he hopped in circles around her and was so desperate for attention from her. While they get along great, eat together, explore together and sleep cuddled up or flopped next to each other, Cinnamon has desperately been trying to get her to reciprocate the grooming by shoving his head under her and she never once groomed him – until today during play time.
He immediately groomed her back and they took turns cleaning one another and then he got up and hopped circles around her, over and over, only stopping to enjoy more grooming. He never tried to mount her or anything like that, so my question is: Is he circling her because he’s overjoyed to have finally been groomed or is it possible that he’s courting her in a more amorous way – even at such a young age?

[Mikey]

Youll want to separate them sooner than later. They are around the age (as early as 2 months in males, as early as 3 months in females) that they will soon be able to mate, and your little females body wont be able to handle that. Note that they can also mate through the bars, so keep their cages/pens about six inches away from one another

The circling is part of the love dance

[MazzyStar]

Ah, Mikey… You answered my next question too!
We just bought them an XL dog crate that comes with the divider so the crate can have two sides. I thought it was perfect for when we had to separate them
They were in an x-pen with a waterproof bottom until I discovered that the bottom wasn’t waterproof at all and 3 weeks worth of pee accidents had soaked through onto the wool rug underneath .:face palm:. It’s now their outdoor pen.
I guess I’m gonna have to come up with another solution soon – Like really soon!

[Mikey]

The separator should be fine, as long as they cannot reach one another through it. Like, if its just bars/grids, youll want to find a way to block it off. I have sheets of coroplast i used for something similar, but i think i have heard some people using fleece blankets. Be away if you use blankets to block them, youll want to wash it everyday, so make sure you have atleast two fleece blankets to alternate. Youll also want to make sure they cant climb or rip down the blanket

That sucks it wasnt actually waterproof! If you have the money for it, i always recommended people check out C&C cages for coroplast sheets and/or the coroplast cages. They even have half covered dividers that might work for you. For a custom divider, you can either use multiple of their single dividers and use clips to keep them together, or buy the grids and coroplast sheets separately and set it up however you want to. They are the cheapest ive found for their size, and my bunnies love their stuff!

[MazzyStar]

I’m actually super pissed that it wasn’t waterproof. Not only the money it cost to buy, but the damage to the rug too
I might have my husband rig up some wood to attach to the divider in the meantime to make sure these bunnies don’t have an incident.
It’s sad because Cinnamon was sooooo sad the day his first bunny friend died and when we brought Basil home he was overjoyed. I hope he doesn’t get depressed if he can’t be with her all the time.
Somehow I don’t think she’ll care. She likes her people as much as she likes him

[Azerane]

As long as they’re side by side they shouldn’t be depressed. But as mentioned definitely just make sure you have a solid divider between them, or if mesh, use two dividers about an inch apart. Rabbits can mate through bars and mesh.

[Mikey]

In the meantime, you can try the toy tactic, but youd have to make sure your male isnt going to hump it Each bunny gets a stuffed animal toy about their size, and after a week swap toys to the other bun, then continue swapping them every 2 to 3 days. Its usually used for prebonding, but your buns might appreciate it so they know they arnt completely split

[Author]

Messages