[Petbunny] Bonding: Muffin and Scout - LONG

[Jenny Riley]

So -- I could use some advice.

We've been giving Muffin and Scout lots of dates lately, and they've been
going well. We do it on the landing at the top of the stairs in our house,
will all bedroom doors shut. Good news is, I can't hardly remember the last
time they fought (and oh boy have they fought). Generally the dates consist
of the two of them eyeing eachother, Muffin will hop around, Scout follows
her two hops behind. If he gets close and bonks her in the butt she scurries
away. At some point (usually several times) Muffin will lay down (sphinx
style, little paws out front) and watch Scout run around like a little
energetic fool. He might tip-toe towards her, ears and nose forward; she
watches, and when he gets close enough to touch her she'll lay her ears back
(*what does that mean?*) and get up. They sniff eachother nose to nose, then
one loses courage and hops away.

Last night we put tons of toys out and they had a mutual play time on the
landing for about 2 hours. Same kind of scenario. Scout binkies like crazy
(he even binkies over Muffin sometimes). And Muffin appeared to be playing
back some times. He would be playing in a makeshift bunny tunnel and she
would follow him -- she would hop at a normal pace, then get close to him
and kind of run and he would follow her (chase, but not mean chase).

It was going so well last night, we decided to leave them out together all
night. We didn't want to have territory issues in the master bedroom (Where
they both like to sleep), so we took apart the guest bed, put the mattress
on the floor and slept in there. So they had the landing, and the guest
bedroom (and Scout has the downstairs, Muffin won't use the stairs).

They did very well, there was no fighting. They ran around exploring the
guest room for a while (while we were taking apart the bed they would run in
and out to see what was up, together). I put out two bowls of food, two
litter boxes, and a water dish (we tried one bowl of food, but Muffin was
hogging it, so Scout nipped her in the butt to get her to make space, and
she grunted at him -- I didn't want him to start a fight or go hungry).
There were no signs of struggle this morning.

During the night the did what most bunnies do and spent most of it
exploring. Muffin hopped up on the bed and slept on Michael's chest a couple
times. Scout would periodically "check on" me while I was sleeping. I knew
it was him because I could feel his whiskers on my face (Muffin doesn't have
any whiskers, Scout has plucked them). He slept next to me on the floor a
little too. They both used both litter boxes, ate from both food bowls, and
drank the water.

This morning at about 8:30ish, they started to get antsy. Scout is a lot
like an annoying little brother, in that he follows Muffin around, wants to
know what shes doing, and wants her to play with him. Muffin pretty much
wants to eat, sleep and lay around. He was following her around, they were
nose to nose with eachother (Michael was petting them both) and Scout
started to get a little nippy, and they started chasing a little. He pulled
a little bit of fur out of her butt, but not very much at all (this was
during a chase). So we let them both take a break from eachother and they
were both thrilled to see their cages.

They spent the next couple hours laying near eachother on the top layers of
their condos, and Scout is now sleeping under the master bed.

So, its not love at first sight, but they can stand eachother (sort of).

How should I precede from here. And what should we do about a condo? We have
no problem letting them be 24/7 free range, and the idea of having no cage
and just a designated food bowl area with a huge litter box. Does this work?
Will they miss their condos too much?

Feedback, advice, etc would be *very *much appreciated. Sorry this was so
long

-- Jenny, Muffin and Scout (we're tired, we had a loooooong night-- but we
did play chase over the top of momma, that was fun!)