Hi All,
I am new to this website and need some help!
Me and my boyfriend have 2 Netherland dwarf bunnies, 1 male (Louie) and 1 female (Milkshake). They are the cutest little cucumbers and I love them, but they are starting to drive us nuts.
I will give a bit of backstory first…
We had Louie first, since he was very young, and he was never a problem, very smart guy and trained easily. Once he was of age we had him neutered. We don’t believe highly in cages so Louie always lived freely (and quite spoiled) in his own room (small storage room). Once he was trained we let him have free reign to the living room where he would usually sleep on the back of the couch at night.
We moved into our new place, where Louie had the same idea in a new room (a bit larger). Everything was fine- he adapted and was happy.
We adopted Milkshake later on, as I researched bunnies are best in pairs and wanted Louie to be as happy as possible..She was not spayed when we got her, but we tried to start the bonding process anyway as some male/female pairs immediately love each other.
Unfortunately this was not the case.. We then followed the steps to properly bond (let him explore each other etc. for periods of time), we ended up having her spayed as well.. further bonding, and then moving them into the same room.
I was always worried we bonded them too quickly (where they weren’t fully bonded), but things started to fall into place and Louie was grooming Milkshake and laying together and spending time together. Note that I have yet to see Milkshake groom Louie.. although she seems interested in it sometimes..
PROBLEM 1: Around this time, the bunnies started destroying the baseboard in our house, which we rent, so we need to fix and is causing us stress now. We weren’t sure who or both- and assumed Milkshake as Louie was never interested in chewing trim.
PROBLEM 2: All of a sudden, we noticed spraying, droppings, etc. all over their room. Again, we assume Milkshake was the culprit as Louie was always extremely well litter trained, and when we adopted her she was not. But seeing as it was spraying, it quite possibly could have been Louie going crazy.
This came out of nowhere as they were always fine to use the litter boxes before. We ended up adding a couple extra litter boxes to their room (in various locations) which seemed to solve this issue.. but Louie’s territorial behavior continues.
PROBLEM 3: I noticed Louie seemed “on edge”, irritable and more territorial. When he comes into our space now (living room), he rubs his chin on everything and will nip if you try petting him when he’s on a blanket or the rug sometimes. It is odd as he was always our sweet pea bear. Now I’ve noticed he will chase her sometimes as well, though he still grooms her at other times?
I still receive nose kisses and bonks every once in a while (from Lou, Milkshake is still getting used to us), but at times this territorial behavior trumps all..
What the hell is going on?