Accidental Bonding!

[HoneysBuns]

So I now have 4 buns of my own and a foster bun, 2 of the buns are bonded, but the rest aren’t, so space has been becoming an issue, especially when two of the un-bonded buns are larger then the other three. I decided that maybe since I was going to be dog sitting at my mom’s house for two weeks, I could begin bonding my pretty passive bun Little Foot to the bonded pair. For awhile it was going fine, but a couple days ago they all three got into a fight, and seeing the bonded buns Ham and Peach fight with each other scared me enough to stop the bonding. It was a bummer since I knew Little Foot would probably love the pretty much free range lifestyle that Ham and Peach enjoy. 

I have been keeping Little Foot (young, probably english angora) in an xpen next to my biggest bun Goose (young french lop) who is also in an xpen, and have been rotating the play time so that one is out at a time. Well I came back from walking my dogs one day and found Goose and Little Foot sitting next to each other, with no sign of a fight, so I watched them, and they just kinda hung out with each other. This keeps happening now, when one is out, the other will houdini his way out, but no fighting occurs. They do go nose to nose, so I was worried that it would be a grooming standstill, but in the last 24 hours I seen them both groom each other, and even flop next to each other. Little Foot is also constantly going into Goose’s xpen, but Goose doesn’t seem to care. There was a little bit of humping, and Little Foot definitely looked scared as a 10 lb bun mounted him, but no circling or biting occurred. 

I have definitely heard of buns “falling in love” at shelters, but had no idea how they did this, is this an example of “falling in love”? Has this happened to anyone else? Both rabbits have been living in the same room, and are neutered, and Goose has been very territorial with the other two males that live here, but not to Little Foot. They have been together unsupervised (When I check up on them first thing in the morning they are usually both out of their xpens) and no fighting has occurred. When I move them back to my apartment, where it is not neutral, should I continue their “dating”, and how long till I know they can live together? (I have bonded buns before, but it was much more straightforward! 

Pics of the little rascals!

Little Foot

t

And Goose!

[angelicvampyre]

Bugz and Anya did that, Bugz just got into her cage and refused to leave. After that they where a pair and have been ever since, even when Anya got desexed it did not break the bond. So it can just happen.

[Sarita]

Oh, they are cute. It has happened to me at least once. I had a little netherland that could escape from her pen and she when into another foster bunnies pen and they pretty much bonded each other with no fights so I kept them together because they wanted to be together.

You know they may be fine together with no actual “bonding” sessions so you just have to play it by ear and see how you feel as far as fighting and safety.

[Author]

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