Introduction to rabbits

Hi all,
As some of you may know, we have 10 week old Amie now since last Thursday. She is going great, very effectionate....extremely playful and a look that would melt a stone heart!
Anyway, we also have 2 house rabbits which are 1.5 years old and we will be hoping to have them on friendly terms with Amie over the course of the next few months. We have always let the rabbits out in the evening to run around our living room and dining room when we are there, and they really enjoy it. Since little Amie arrived we have had to wait until she is asleep to let them out, but we have also started to introduce them.

We started off just holding Amie near to there hutch, and she would stare intently at them, while the rabbits thumped the ground with their feet as a kind of warning.

After a couple of days of this we let Amie walk herself up to their hutch and smell them. The rabbits would run over to her and grunt/growl at her as a warning "This is our hutch, back off or face the consequences!!"
Amie would take no notice and try and paw at them through the cage and lick them!

Yesterday the rabbits were out and Amie was on my lap watching them. I decided to let her down and she walked over to the more dominant rabbit and smelled her. The rabbit smelled her back and then grunted at her, Amie backed off. Amie then went over to the more relaxed, submissive rabbit and smelled her, the rabbit just closed her eyes and ignored her.

Then she got more brazen, she ran at the dominant rabbit and pawed her behind! The rabbit ran away so Amie ran after her, at which point the rabbit turned around and ran back at her, jumped over her and in the process knocked her off her feet. She let out a little yelp and mommy and daddy picked her up and comforted her. We were worried she was hurt, but she is fine. She did learn a lesson though, and just sat on the ground watching the rabbits play for a bit, before slowly approaching them again to smell/lick them.

Anyway, we will realized that she is just a bit too hyper at the moment for the more relaxed rabbits and to not allow her to run at them, for fear that they will learn to not like her and she might be injured by them (she is very small, and the rabbits are about 3 times her size/weight).
Our goal is to have them become accustomed to each other, in the hope that when Amie gets a little bigger, and maybe has a bit more common sense they can interact in a way that they all don't find stressful.

So, thats the story up to now, sorry for the bore! If anyone else has any experiences similar to this, or advice I would love to hear about it!

PS: We had a jack Russell and rabbit become great friends before, they used to sun bathe in the garden together! We are hoping that Amie and our two rabbits become just as friendly.

I have absolutely no experience with rabbits but from what you've written, it looks like you're going about it the right way. If it was me; I'd continue to allow Amie socialise with them for a brief period every evening. I'm sure she'll find out soon enough what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. Just so long as you are there to supervise.............and enjoy of course

Hi
I have 2 rabbits,1 cat and my cav Lucie who is 2....and getting another cav in 3 weeks time.

I had the bunnies before I had Lucie so i introduced them as soon as i could.
My bunnies were house rabbits at that point so i just supervised Lucie round them.
I am able to have the bunnies out in the garden and other than Lucie trying to eat rabbit poop :grnyuk: or steal there food i dnt really have any problem being together.

Sounds like you are going about socialising them together the correct way.I just put aside 10 mins a few times a day to have both the bunnies and dog about,starting with them being seperated by the hutch wire window then eventually us all (including myself) in the rabbits run...totally supervised of course!It has totally paid off!
My bunnies escaped out their hutch not long ago.The only reason i knew was Lucie started making strange noises while in the garden....i looked out the window to find her tryin to heard them towards the hutch, she was circling round them as if "get back in!",i was so pleased that she didnt even try to play with them!....i thought i was seeing things!

Its just a matter of them getting used to one another.....with supervision!

Great Advice, Thanks!

My bunnies escaped out their hutch not long ago.The only reason i knew was Lucie started making strange noises while in the garden....i looked out the window to find her tryin to heard them towards the hutch, she was circling round them as if "get back in!",i was so pleased that she didnt even try to play with them!....i thought i was seeing things! :razz:

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:rotfl: :rotfl:

We had a German Shepherd and a rabbit who got along just great. They would curl up together and either just hang out or sleep. Our first Cavalier (Oliver - male) also got along with the rabbit but they mostly ignored each other. Our 2nd Cavalier (Riley - female) absolutely terrorized the rabbit. Riley is the sweetest, most docile dog ever - everything she does is done to please us, plus she has some neurological deficits from her SM which slow her down and make her unsteady, but she absolutely went after that rabbit. Murphy (the rabbit) started spending more and more time in his hutch. I felt so badly for him. My cousin's daughter ended up taking him when she graduated from college and he lived a long and happy rest of his life with her and her one dog. Riley was just a monster with him! Hopefully Amie won't be. Good luck!
Bev

In the library section (I think in Caring for your Cavalier) there's a post on 'Cats and cavaliers' and all the same techniques would apply -- basically what you are doing.

Good advice Holly, thanks! It is hard to not comfort them though!!
Thanks everyone for the info.

daveoirl said:

Good advice Holly, thanks! It is hard to not comfort them though!!
Thanks everyone for the info.

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Trust me, I know.... those sweet brown eyes staring up at you... it is very hard not to comfort them!!!

We did obedience when Oliver was a pup. There was a supervised playtime before and some of the other pups were much bigger and rougher. Oliver has always had a "soft"personality. When the pups would try to play and wrestle around with him, he would run straight to me and try to get in my lap. I would pick him up, snuggle, him, tell him it's alright... you get the idea. When the trainer saw me do that, she very nicely told me that I was just reinforcing his fears and would end up with "neurotic" pup if I didnt stop. So, although it was hard, I would ignore him or re-direct his attention to something fun!

Great stuff, thanks Holly! Although I don't think Amie has a soft personality at all.....I can imagine her playing with a Great Dane and not being in anyway afraid!

Just a little update. Amie and the rabbits are definitely getting used to each other. The rabbits are not afraid of her, and Amie is learning to respect their space more. She usually just sits and watches them as they run around her!







If you can't beat 'em..join 'em

Fab photos. I moved my rabbits outside before I got my dog ...now dogs. Could never let dogs near thenm now. You've made loads of progress Well done. Keep us updated.

Those pictures are so cute! It's funny how they are so much bigger than her. I think that helps a lot. She probably sees them as potential friends more than prey at this point.

I know for a fact that Daisy would chase them down and try to kill them, so it's great that Annie is still a puppy. Daisy has killed 3 rabbits (all babies, though) in our backyard and she goes absolutely bonkers whenever she sees one. The weird thing is that she has absolutely no interest in squirrels. They can run around the backyard and she just watches them, doesn't even bark.

Those are adorable pics---so glad things are working out so well for you!

Oh my gosh--what great pictures of them together. It looks like they get along very well. :rah: