Training Mi-yeon for treats

I was told by Mi-yeon's foster parents that she does not beg for food and has an attitude. To retrain her proudness or Taming of the Shrew, can be a challenging task for me.

Training Mi-yeon to get her treats from hands is not easy due to her attitude. Previously, she took treats from our hands for a very short while. After a week of training, she responded better - she took treats from us longer and more. (see video).

However, we do not want to disrupt Cotton's exercise progress so recently, we do not give treats to both of them in the pen. Uncle Hubby will exercise with Cotton with his treats whilst I am training Mi-yeon to take her treats from my hands by standing up on her back legs. By taking treats from my hands by standing up on her back legs is begging for food. :p So far, she is doing well with her 1-1 training with me. Hope she can one day hopping with Cotton for their exercise treats together.

Mi-yeon's Jumping Talent

Lately, we discovered that Mi-yeon has a special talent in jumping. She can really jump very high despite of her smaller size. She could even jump on our 50cm height of bed and instead of being joyous about her recently discovered talent, we are worried what can we do to protect those wires and forbidden areas.....

Here is a video capturing her jumping talent onto our sofa. Cotton did not jump because he doesn't always able to jump to our sofa smoothly....maybe due to his senior age. Until we figure out how to handle her jumping talent and trust between her and us, for night free roaming is only opened to Cotton for now.

Cotton and Mi-yeon sharing the same bowl

It's funny that they prefer to eat from the same bowl despite there are 2 bowls of fresh vegetables for them.

What a lovely newlywed bunnies. :p

Volunteer @ BW!

And the blond lop gave me this scratch as souvenir....ouch! 

Cotton and Mi-yeon always together

Cotton and Mi-yeon now always stick together.

Fresh Vegetables for their upcoming week!

Fresh vegetables bought:

1. Blueberries

2. Endives

3. Water cress

4. Romaine lettuces

5. Lemon Balm

6. Dills

New taste: Water Cress and Lemon Balm herbs

Playing Treats with Mi-yeon

We are still in the midst to train Mi-yeon to respond to her name with treats.

We started off at Mi-yeon's pen before the barrier fence was removed. Things seems positive until the barrier fence was removed.

It's tough to do treats with 2 bunnies so our routine treats and exercise with Cotton has to be disrupted.

Twice the Troubles, Double the Joys!

Cotton loves Mi-yeon very much and it is obvious that he is chasing after Mi-yeon.

Cotton was always caught cleaning Mi-yeon.....at the neutral ground...

At Mi-yeon's pen before barrier fence was removed......

 

 

On their 8th day (which is 2nd day after the barrier fence was removed), Mi-yeon was caught cleaning Cotton. Yay!!!!! Mi-yeon reciprocates!

 

 

It is always an interesting sight that when they are allowed to free roam, Cotton will always be the one following Mi-yeon. It is so obvious who is the pack leader here. hahahaha

 



 

What does Bonded Rabbits mean to us? It means twice the trouble...but double the joys as well. Mi-yeon is really a human bunny because she is really able to tolerate very well when handling. I love Cotton....I love Mi-yeon. Hope they love me too. :D

Grooming his front paws

Grooming Cotton's front paws is not easy task but outcome is very satisfying!

Before:

After:

Much of his matted furs is removed. Thumb up! 

Did I share that grooming Mi-yeon is such a breeze? Awwww....she is such a human rabbit. I love her so much.

They are bonded!

On their 7th day, 24-May-2014, their barrier fence between their pens is removed!

Immediately after removed, they went to each other litter box to eat. Look!!! 

After eating, they rested next to each other. 

After 1hr of removing the fence, they snuggled together!!! Woot! Success! 

Cotton went to drink her water bowl with Mi-yeon resting at ease. 

Omg! I cannot help but to give myself a good pat on my own shoulder. Hahahahha I personally think my role on bonding them together is very important. What I think I did right to help them to bond:

When humping gets too aggressive, stop them and humped on both. Eventually, they will know that if humping gets too violent, they both be humped by their human. 

During humping them both, I'll stroke them, kiss them, caress them incessively. They really dislike what I did and they will seek comfort and solace together better. Of course, they might even clean each other since their human just 'contaminated' them. 

Be attentive to the new bunny and try to find out as much info about it if you can. I know Mi-yeon is an attention seeker and I am an attention giver so I give her most of my attention and she seems to settle fast in the meantime. She gets to know me from all those touches and kisses I gave her since bunnies 'talk' by body language.

Her poop size incident indicates to me that Mi-yeon has settled down living with us. I also their poops into each other litter box to increase tolerance in each other scent. 

Whenever possible, I treat both equally in terms of hugs and kisses. I also try to keep my routine with Cotton and slowly introduce my routine with Cotton to Mi-yeon like the exercise treats routine. Mi-yeon is very intelligent doe and able to comprehend her surrounding and custom fast. 

Last but not least, I discipline them both with spanking if anyone misbehave like tearing the pee pad, nipping at the fence, random pooping outside their litter box. It is because in the rabbits' world, they live in hierarchy system so both Cotton and Mi-yeon are aware of me (they don't really afraid of Uncle Hubby) as their warlord. Hahahhaa yes, they are afraid and respectful (not fearful) of me but they still willl come near me as normal. They do lick me when I snuggle with them at my bed. 

Now I need to get a larger litter box for them to share so I do not need to change 2 litter boxes at a time. It's tiring but satisfying. 

Love is in the air

There are many signs displayed by Cotton and Mi-yeon that love is in the air. 

First 4 hours of their first meet-up

After 8 hours from their first meet up

Placing Mi-yeon at Cotton's pen after 24hrs. 

In-sync habits like meal time, resting time and resting position and direction in their own pens. That's on their 2nd day. 

And they will rest close together at the barrier fence.....in the following days to come. 

On their 4th day, I placed Cotton at Mi-yeon's pen instead. Some friendly chasing was observed but no humping. Then after a while, they rested. 

Their next 5-6th day, they still rest close to each other at the barrier fence. 

Something noteworthy is Cotton being free roam and unsupervised during night acted strangely while we were asleep. I notice urine at Mi-yeon's litter box anti-slip mat. And I realized after some investigation, it's Cotton's doing. So I placed a dustbin next to her litter box to block Cotton and guess what? He pees at the pee pad which her water bowl is and is next to the barrier fence. It's a sign that Cotton wants so much to mark her pen.

With so many encouraging and positive signs, I know it's time to remove the barrier fence for their interaction. So on the 7th day, the barrier fence is removed! 

This marks an important day - 24 May 2014, for Cotton, Mi-yeon, Uncle Hubby and myself.

Fresh Vegetables for the upcoming week

New taste: Strawberry

Mi-yeon loves berries and wheatgrass. She finishes all her berries and wheatgrass within minutes. 

Cotton loves all his food as usual. 

Settling Mi-yeon down

When Mi-yeon first arrived to stay with us, I noticed her poop size was particularly smaller than Cotton's. Concerned, I texted through Betty to find out from her foster parents if that's 'normal' for her. And their reply was, it was not normal. I took a picture of her poop with Cotton's for their reference too. 

Mi-yeon's poop (Top) versus Cotton's (Bottom). This was the observation for first 3 days for Mi-yeon. I fed her with APD Gold and Oxbow Timothy in 1:1 proportion and it was suspected maybe she's not used to eating Oxbow hay. However my gut feeling tells me maybe she just have not adjusted to her new environment but at least she is still eating so I continued monitoring her poop. 

Then on her 4th day, I saw larger poop in her litter box and playpen in the morning. Mi-yeon's poop litter habit is not as good as Cotton's. There will always be about 10 or so poops on her pen after a clean up. Based on these new poops, I'm happy to say it's now comparable to Cotton's. I did not give her more APD Gold and in fact, I give her more Oxbow hay instead. For her case, the root cause is likely be due to psychological stress. 

Let me put the 2 pictures side-by-side for better comparison.

Can you see the differences now? Left picture was taken on her 2nd day and right picture was taken on her 4th. Top: Mi-yeon's; Bottom: Cotton's

Preparing to welcome Myeon

To welcome the foster parents and Betty, we bought them a few snacks since the bonding time took place at near lunch time. 

I also bought some metal fences to build a neutral ground for bonding use. Total cost $16. 

The kitchen is cordoned off with a section for the bonding use. :)

We are ready for Mi-yeon!