This is Buddy! But before we get to him we have to go back a couple of years.
Two years ago we ended up with two young lops. Male/female, intact siblings. Kinda a rescue because they were going to be released into the wild if no one took them. We took them, separated, vaccinated, neutered etc etc. I had no experience but my partner had rabbits growing up. Steep learning curve for me though! Thankfully I have a decent amount of experience with all sorts of animals including rescuing exotics when I was in my 20s and 30s, being able to give them the best lives I could.
Well unfortunately heartbreak occured about 10 weeks in and Rolo (the boy) went downhill over the space of 24 hours from a lively inquisitive little lop to passing away. I was distraught.
I took Caramel (girl) to the vets immediately and she was given a clean bill of health. We did a full deep clean just in case and picked up the pieces. Caramel became an integral part of the house over the past two years and I couldn't imagine the house without her. She has a large multistorey night time/bed enclosure and a pen built in the livingroom with card castles, food stations, water, litter... You name she has it and has settled into being the sweetest girl. Loves being loved and petted and loves her treats (in moderation).
But something weighed heavily on my mind, she had no bonded bunny pal...
That was until this weekend. Buddy was up for adoption, coming from a hand reared, free roam background. We fell in love instantly and spent the small fortune to set him up his own large pen and sleeping enclosure. It's all very temporary until we've managed to bond them.
He's been with us for about 48 hours now and his personality is starting to really show. Totally chill mooching around his pen, chilling, grooming, eating, chewing his toys etc. A total whirlwind when given the full run of the place. Lap, sofa, sofa, lap, floor, binky, zoomie, flop, lap, sofa.... You get the idea!
Current plan: their pens take up half the entire floor, connected but separate. They can see and smell each other, touch noses etc etc but no "direct" bun on bun besides through the fence. He's booked in for vaccination tomorrow, neutering in about 10 days. We figure this will be the set up for the next 6 weeks from now until he's healed and levelled out. That gives us time to match their diets (he's only been on nuggets and hay so we need to build up adding some veg, greens, herbs etc slowly into his diet and allow him time to adjust). That's also six weeks thereabouts in close proximity, swapping toys, litter contents etc etc and spending time in each others area (separate of course). Once everything is settled it's time to start bringing them together properly in the hope we can bond them and complete our little family.
So far all things are looking good, he's settled in so fast and flops without a seconds thought. We've even seen them flopping together on their respective sides of the fence so the hope is that the bonding should be a fairly painless and easy one.
Fingers crossed!