# Introducing Chi to Bunny



## ellesy (Apr 10, 2011)

Hello! This is my first post so please bear with me. I am adding a beautiful chihuahua girl to my family in two weeks (we haven't decided on a name yet). I currently live with DH and our super sweet Netherland Dwarf bunny - his name is Truffle.

Our chi pup will be 10 weeks old when we bring her home. Our breeder is pretty confident that she and Truffle will get along but I've read some not-so-successful stories so I am a little worried.

Truffle is around 7.5 months old and has a pretty calm disposition. He doesn't binky or dart around as much since he's been neutered and he has never bitten us. He loves to be pet and groomed. He's around 3 pounds now (close to his adult weight) and the breeder mentioned that our chi is tracking to be around 3.5 to 4 pounds fully grown.

Truffle prefers to sleep all day in his cage and we take him out at around 6-7 p.m. every night and he gets run of our living room until we go to bed (usually around 1 a.m.) - he has a playpen in the living room but the door is left open when we are home. We are thinking of putting the puppy crate beside the playpen. After coming home from the breeder, we allowed Truffle to sniff us and he was definitely curious about the new scent so I am hopeful that he will not be afraid of or aggressive towards our pup.

My question is, how should we go about introducing our new puppy to Truffle to allow for the best possible experience for both of them? Does anyone here have both chihuahuas and rabbits... if so, do they eventually become friends?

I've researched this on the Internet already (House Rabbit Society, Bunny Lovers United forum on Flickr, etc.) but I haven't found too much information specific to chihuahuas. Any help would be very much appreciated! 

Pics of our babies below!


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## Yoshismom (Jul 6, 2005)

Welcome to the board! 

First I just have to tell you that I am in love with your new puppy....what a doll! 

As for the Truffles (a real cutie too) I would say that you need to introduce them slowly. Make sure only supervised visits for right now. Make sure you are holding the new pup and let Truffle's sniff the pup and the pup sniff Truffles. If you put the crate next to the pen then they should kind of get used to each other's scent etc... When you do let them down free together, do so where you can jump in if anything would happen, I cant really see much happening as your puppy is a baby. I would do supervised visits for a few weeks just to be on the safe side, Truffles could accidentally hurt the puppy or vice versa. Good Luck and I hope to see more pics of both


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## ellesy (Apr 10, 2011)

Thank you so much, Yoshismom!! 

We will definitely introduce them slowly with supervised visits. I'll probably have DH probably hold our puppy while we allow Truffle to sniff her - that is a great tip as I didn't have a clear picture in my mind of how we were going to introduce them.

Should we have them meet the very first day that our puppy comes home or do you think that would be too soon?

I'll definitely provide updates and more pics as this adventure unfolds...


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## sugarbaby (Dec 21, 2009)

They should be fine together  as Michelle supervised and slowly .
i have a rabbit who gets along fine with my chi's although they do try and play with her sometimes which the bunny doesnt like but other than that they are fine together , you just need to teach the puppy from day 1 what is acceptable behavior around the rabbit


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## Yoshismom (Jul 6, 2005)

I think introducing them the first day would be fine. Just make sure and make it a quick visit and let the puppy adjust for the rest of the day


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## ellesy (Apr 10, 2011)

Hi Bella! It's definitely reassuring to know that your bunny and chis get along fine together. We'll take our time with introductions and hopefully things will also work out for our little ones.

Thanks for your advice, Michelle! I'll provide an update when we bring our pup home...


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## LadyJ (Aug 20, 2010)

Oh, I would love to have a dwarf bunny! My dogs, Chis and Bichons, have always gotten along fine with other animals. We've had guinea pigs, a chinchilla, a ferret, hamsters, even a mouse, and they got along with all of them with careful supervision. Both of your babies are still young, so I think with slow introduction they will get along just fine. Looking forward to pictures of the two of them becoming friends!

Jeanette


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## ellesy (Apr 10, 2011)

Thanks Jeanette! I'm really hopeful now that our chi and bun will be ok together... getting all this first hand advice and experience is really helping us. 

I can't believe we're getting our pup next weekend! I'm really excited and will post more pics soon. Thanks again everyone!


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## LadyJ (Aug 20, 2010)

ellesy said:


> Thanks Jeanette! I'm really hopeful now that our chi and bun will be ok together... getting all this first hand advice and experience is really helping us.
> 
> I can't believe we're getting our pup next weekend! I'm really excited and will post more pics soon. Thanks again everyone!


Let us know how it goes. I hope they will be great friends.

Jeanette


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## ellesy (Apr 10, 2011)

UPDATE #1:

DH and I brought our puppy home today!!! We named her Lulu and she's been home with us for around 2 hours now...

When first we got home, Truffle was inside his playpen with the door closed. We put Lulu on her pee pad and just let her explore her new surroundings a little. Truffle was watching her. She started moving towards his playpen and was not close at all but Truffle got startled, thumped, and darted to the other side of his playpen. Lulu got scared by that, let out a few little whimpers, and bounced back to us - I don't think she realized he was there. I thought to myself, "oh no, we totally screwed that up..." It just happened so fast and Lulu was not even close to him. 

We waited a little while and decided to go ahead with introductions as planned. As recommended by Michelle, DH picked up Lulu and held her while we opened the door to Truffle's playpen. He came out and explored a little. He was nervous but curious about the new scent. Lulu growled a little and DH corrected her. Then we distracted her with a toy, which worked! She ignored Truffle and Truffle ignored her.

A little while later, they were both doing their own thing, within viewing distance of each other. Truffle has a corner of the room he likes to dig in right now. I played with Lulu and gave her kibble when she came to her name (really, she just likes to follow the food!). DH sat with Truffle. We alternated a few times. At one point, Truffle was digging away and Lulu walked right up to him and sniffed his belly. He didn't realize she was there. When he finally noticed, he thumped and ran away.

DH picked up Lulu and she started closing her eyes so we led her to her crate and left her a toy with some kibble tucked into it. As she worked on getting the kibble out, we closed the door. She did whimper a little to come out once she finished the kibble but we corrected her, then ignored her, and soon afterward, she fell asleep. She's there now, still sleeping. Truffle approached her crate VERY cautiously a few times and now he's returning back to normal, although he's still a bit jumpy and is not too happy with us at the moment. He has returned to his playpen and he's sleeping now too - all stretched out so I think that's a good sign.

I think at this point, Lulu wouldn't mind being friends. Truffle, on the other hand, is a lot more timid than we expected him to be as he's not usually scared of anything. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll warm up to her as he's such a loving, playful, and curious bunny. 

Anyway, that's it for now - if anyone has any more tips or advice, we'd really appreciate it. This is our first puppy so we are trying to learn as much as we can. Here are some photos of Truffle approaching the crate and of our little darling Lulu sleeping away inside. Thanks for reading!!!


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## chideb (Jan 29, 2008)

Oh my, how truly precious.. I am in love with Truffles and with Lulu..:coolwink: You are going to have some adorable photos to show us over the next few days as these babies become wonderful friends, and I can't wait to see them! Welcome to the group. Blessings, Deb


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