Cue long chonky post with plenty of back story :
My partner and i adopted our first ever pet rabbit about 10 weeks ago. He’s around 3 years old, a rescue named Titan and he’d been in foster care for quite some time.
When we brought Titan home, we had a gorgeous sweet old (18yrs) ragdoll cat named Monty who had been with my partner since he was a kitten…a long friendship. At 18, Monty was slow and rickety with several health complications and unfortunately died a few weeks after Titan came to live with us. It was pretty devastating and we grieved the loss of that sweet cat real hard.
Fast forward a little bit and Titan is well settled in. He came to us litter trained, desexed and overall is a great house rabbit with good habits and what I would deem a healthy amount of rabbit cheek and naughtiness. He’s had a couple of moments of power play with us by peeing on our bed and armchair (definitely not accidents) which we dealt with and we gave him some time out in his room, vinegared everything to discourage more marking etc..and he’s been pretty good since. He still chews the odd thing he’s not meant to, but he’s a rabbit right…he gonna chew and i always just redirect him to one of his many different toys, try to remove or block the thing and move on.
He and I have formed a really cool bond. He actively runs to me for pats and if I sit on the floor, smooshes himself under me and snuggles. He grooms me a lot and will sometimes jump up next to me in bed in the morning for a pat. I think perhaps because I’m the most invested in his routine and will more often be the one to feed him his herbs in the morning, top his hay and do most of his housekeeping.
Problem is…
My partner doesn’t always seem sold on the rabbit and it’s almost as though he knows it too. Titan doesn’t show her the same heavy affection as he does with me and she gets so caught up on the naughty things he does and can’t let them go easily. It almost seems like he messes with her more because of it. It makes me feel quite anxious because I want her to love him and whenever he does naughty bun stuff I worry that it will fuel her disdain.
I often think that perhaps the loss of her cat has contributed to her feelings about Titan…like maybe she wants him to behave more like a cat or maybe it’s hard for her to love him because his arrival was around the same time as Monty’s death. Maybe I’m just overthinking it all.
Does anyone have any experience with their buns playing favourites with the hoomans? Any one had issues with partners not quite loving naughty bun behaviour? Any thoughts on how I could help with their relationship?
by giantseabird
