My daughter wants to get a second pet rabbit .. advice needed.?
My 12 year old has a dwarf bunny. He's 4 years old, but she's only had him for about a year. Tonight she mentioned she'd like to get a second one, but my concern is regarding whether or not it's safe to add another rabbit to the same cage. I know with some animals it is absolutely NOT safe, as one will kill the other ... territorial issues. But admittedly, I don't know enough about rabbits to know one way or the other.
So I told her I would check into it before we discussed it any further. I'm hoping someone here has a little more experience with rabbits. My daughter will drop the subject indefinitely if there's any chance it will put her pet at risk ... or any other animal, for that matter.
Help please?
2008-09-25T21:24:12Z
Thank you, but I already know there are articles online. I'm looking for personal experience, or people who've dealt with these issues at length. This *is* online, and I'd rather first hand experience than articles I can't verify.
2008-09-25T23:05:50Z
Thanks for so much input so far!
I thought I should add, since I'm seeing it mentioned here often, that there are no facilities in our city for neutering a rabbit. We're a rather small city, and care of animals smaller than cats is almost impossible to find. Surgery IS impossible to find without travel. I'm more than familiar with our vets services only because we happen to run a home based animal rescue .. but it's restricted to dogs and cats.
So, from my understanding from the posts below, without this rabbit being neutered, and he's not, it's not a good idea to introduce him to another rabbit. That's unfortunate, since her reason was that she gets the impression Frankie is 'lonely' .. but neither of us want to risk Frankie or a new roommate becoming injured or worse.
Maybe we'll look at bringing Frankie with us when we visit Winnipeg at Xmas, and see if he can be neutered while we're there.
Thanks again for all the replies!
*****2008-09-25T22:01:56Z
Favorite Answer
If both rabbits are spayed and neutered and you introduce with care, it is very possible they will get along fine. You will need a second cage for use during the bonding process. While occasionally they are instant friends, the bonding process can be weeks or months long. If you go into it thinking you will be successful, and you move only at the speed the rabbits are comfortable with, you will be successful, but it can be frustrating. Check out the materials here under the socialization section: http://www.rabbit.org/behavior/index.html
Add: Breed, size, and 'type' are not factors in whether a pair is successful or not. Much more important is personality- if your rabbit is submissive, a more dominant personality can be OK. If he's dominant, a submissive rabbit is the best bet. Also, opposite sex pairs (spayed and neutered) are much easier than same-sex to bond.
Rabbits are herd animals and do well with other rabbits.
At least most of them do. Males will fight if they even smell a female rabbit. Females may get territorial with each other. It's rare, but possible. Each animal is an individual, of course, and some pets decide they need to be only children.
Best thing to do is get your daughter's rabbit neutered and get a spayed female. Rescue is the best place to find a spayed female, or you could just have the surgeries done at your vet.
YOU WILL NEED 2 CAGES! Until they get to know each other, they both need their own space. Gradually, over time, they can sniff each other through cage bars, and meet in neutral territory, and eventually become friends.
Shoving "strangers" into a cage together is not kind. Imagine someone opening your front door and shoving in someone who doesn't speak English, wants to eat your food, use your bathroom, smells funny, and stares at you constantly. Not fun right?
Shared cages need to be large. Cramped living conditions cause fights.
Well it depends a lot on the rabbit. Is he neutered? if so there is quite a good possibilty that he'd like another rabbit.Normally i like to have my rabbits in pairs because they are social animals but some rabbits just don't like other rabbits. Your daughter should know that you can't simply put two rabbits together bonding can be a pretty hard process. Here are some good articles on bonding: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/multiple.html http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/introductions.html http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-8/rabbits-in-the-plural.html
honestly you never know....they may turn out to be immediate best friends or they may hate eachother....and the reaction would be differnet with each individual rabbit. the only thing you can do is try them out before hand and give them plenty of time to get introduced before they share the same cage. there are lots of articles on the net about introducing rabbits.
i could get 2 rabbits ideally male ... For me the Dutch rabbit may be the main suitable as they're often very calm and uncomplicated to handle ... Dwarf rabbits have been customary to be somewhat frightened ! ... nonetheless there are exceptions...in case you prefer u may additionally get domicile rabbits while muddle experienced they may be stored interior properties !! although they do % grass for his or her digestive device ! once you're house is amazingly heat and out of doors is chilly it could desire to no longer be this sort of competent concept to convey it interior and out because of the fact the rabbit could desire to capture a chilly while uncovered to the chilly outdoors after the warmth temperature indoors !! nonetheless I do convey my rabbit indoors and she or he's fantastic !! additionally think approximately that rabbits (even nonetheless they're small) do % a paintings (cleansing hutch feeding and so on.) I shop my rabbits in the storage ! and convey them in the backyard accepted !! whether it is not achieveable to enable them to in the backyard for some days it may be ok ... in basic terms feed them hay ! And in case you do enable them to/it run around in the domicile make useful the rabbit/s have not any get right of entry to to cables as they love chewing those !!! i wish this facilitates !!:)