More rabbit antics

So, we took a look at Bennett's main wound, where we think Mallory scratched him and decided to play it safe and schedule a vet visit. We weren't able to get an appointment for him today, his vet has surgeries all day today, so he's going in to be checked out tomorrow. Mahala is going to tag along too, we figured it wouldn't hurt to have her see the vet and she's had a little bit of nasal discharge the last two days and with her history of sinus/upper respiratory issues, we want to be safe rather than sorry. Anyways, because of Bennett's wound and the fact that Mahala is very dominant, we've decided to take their bonding really, really slowly. We want Bennett to be fully healed (and hopefully fatter) before we put them face to face again. Now this is not saying that we're doing nothing towards the bonding experience, we're letting them live side by side in the rabbit room, with a baby gate between them, so they can smell and see each other. Also, we are switching up their spaces every night. So, last night Bennett was on the north side of the room and Mahala on the south, so tonight they'll be switching. This helps with territorial issues, gets them used to each other's smells and such, without the dangers of face to face bonding right now. I've read in a couple of places that you should do this for about two weeks before even giving the rabbits face to face time. It'll help them get to know each other slowly, and hopefully when we do get them face to face, things will go really well.

Anyhow, I just filled you in on all of this for a funny bunny story. So far Bennett's been living almost exclusively on the south side of the room, but like I said, we switched them last night so he was on the north side for the first time. I came in this morning to feed them and change the litter box and expected Bennett to be right at the door when I came in (the door is on the north side) and he wasn't, which was weird because a lot of times, he'll sleep there, right in front of the door waiting for us. And when he doesn't do that, he can usually hear my scooter coming and parking outside the door and is always at the door to greet me. I opened the door slowly, no Bennett... Checked the carrier, the nest box, etc on a visual scope of his pen, no Bennett. So, I'm beginning to panic a little here, what if he somehow got out into the house, or worse, into Mahala's pen, when I see him hop around the big box of bluegrass that we just got that is sitting on the outside of the pen. I have deduced that he used a towel that was hanging on the side of the pen leading to the couch and the part of the room that we don't want him to be in (read: lots of wires not covered), climbing it and thereby escaping the confines of the pen. There was a little bit of Bennett fur on the pen right by that towel that leads me to believe that he scaled the towel to make a desperate bid for freedom. Silly bunny! I thank God that he didn't not get into Mahala's pen. That could have been very bad for both of them. It was a narrowly averted disaster, but it was also rather amusing.

We think that he's gotten longer in the past few weeks, but he doesn't seem to have gained much weight. After all the rabbit rescue people commented on how skinny he was, we did some research and decided to up his pellet intake and change pellets for awhile. We had been feeding him timothy hay pellets (Oxbow Bunny Basics/ T), but we decided to change to an alfalfa based pellet, as those are usually used for growing bunnies. They have more calories and fat in them that the timothy hay based ones. We're really hoping that he's going to gain some weight. It will be interesting to see how much he weights at the vet's tomorrow.

Mahala's been a very good rabbit so far. She's very playful and today I watched her play with some of the bunny toys we got Bennett that he never ever paid attention to. She's so cute to watch run around, she is definitely a frolicker! I really need to pluck her this week, she's been pooping a bunch of hair, and when you pet her, it just lifts of her body, flying everywhere. I think she might be part satin angora, her hair feels much more like Bennett's that Mallory/Pearl's. Well, off for some bunny playtime. I want to keep working with Mahala to get her really socialized with people :). And I need to give Bennett some loving, too!