Baxter and Quincy, Officially Living Together
It’s been a long long time leading up to now, but I’m happy to say that our two rabbits (Baxter and Quincy) are now officially sharing the same space.
For months now, ever since we brought Quincy back home with us, the two of them have been in separate pens. To get the adjusted to one another, we kept their pens close together, and had a series of meeting/bonding sessions where they would share the same space for a few hours.
While they got along for the most part, there were the occasional scuffles. When rabbits fight, they can get pretty vicious… so we were always nervous about things escalating out of control. There was only one super big fight that I can recall, and after seeing that incident… I’m that much happier the two of them are getting along, and sharing the same room.
The bonding sessions have been numerous. Liz has spent innumerable hours sitting in a chair nearby, watching them together as she knits. We’ve set up the bunnies in different rooms, hallways, different smaller spaces like bathtubs and improvised chairs. We even went so far as to taking them on car rides (putting them in a mutually stressful situation was a recommendation we read about).
About a week or so ago, we decided the two were getting along pretty well… and decided to just dive right in. We broke down their individual pens, and basically set up the entire sunroom as their shared area. It’s bright enough where it gets a decent amount of sun, but shaded pretty well by the trees along the boulevard.
The area is big enough so that, if they needed to be apart… they could easily do so. We’ve got a couple of cardboard boxes that serve as impromptu apartments for each of them, so they can definitely get away from one another if need be.
We found a large tuft of Quincy’s hair one morning (suggeting there was some kind of disagreement over the night), but beyond that… they’ve been great! No fighting so far, and no real problems. It’s been fun to watch them together, particularly when it’s dinner time. The two of them end up pushing one another around, jumping over one another, trying to jockey for position like concertgoers rushing a stage.
Baxter, hanging out. We used an old adjustable shelving thing to serve as a makeshift gate, and that’s worked out pretty well so far.
A shot taken later in the day. We put down more carpets so that they’d have a bit more traction, when running around.
I seriously can’t explain how good it feels to see them together, settled, and sharing the same space. While the two of them may not be snorgling or cleaning one another… it’s definitely a start.
Snorgling. Highly recommended.
juliwr (May 29, 2010 at 9:27 pm)