Does this sound at all promising? – Potential Bonding

[Dobby]

Dobby had his first interview with a potential new roommate a few days ago and I’m trying to figure out if what I saw was a good first meeting or not.

The bunny in question has been around a lot of other bunnies before and was eager to meet Dobby.  I don’t know if Dobby has ever been in the same pen as a bun before and he was hesitant to interact.  The 30 minutes they spent together consisted of a bunch of chasing, repeated attempts, some of which were successful, to hump Dobby by the other bunny, and some breaks to either retreat to the corners, get pets or to eat the grass.  (Outside was the best neutral space available for this meeting.)  There was no real fighting.  Dobby did thump quite a bit at the start, which I’ve only ever heard him do once or twice before, and he was shaking by the end.

I felt pretty bad for Dobby at the end of it and a little mean for making him do it.  But he was his normal self the next day so I don’ think he was too traumatized. 

The other bunny was a sucker for pets and would pretty much melt away the second anyone started petting him.  He also did the same thing when being held.  He was adorable.  But I don’t want my love of his cuddliness to cloud my judgement too much.

I know it’s hard to judge in person, so it’s probably ten times harder to judge based on my description, but if anyone has any thoughts on whether or not this has the potential for success, I’d appreciate them.

As always, thanks for all your help!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I think any interaction where there is no aggression is promising. 30 minutes is quite a long time for a first meeting, so I would cut down the bonding attempts to smaller sessions to allow Dobby to get used to the idea and not get too stressed out.

Is the other bunny spayed/neutered?

[MoveDiagonally]

Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 08/04/2013 05:40 PM
I think any interaction where there is no aggression is promising. 

Exactly! I agree. 

Are you doing more bunny dates?   I would keep first meetings to 10 minutes or so until you figure out which bunny you’re going to bring home. As LPT said, it will probably reduce the stress on Dobby a bit. 

[Dobby]

OK – I will make sure to keep future interactions shorter for Dobby. I am probably doing more meetings next week through a rabbit rescue, so I’ll have some expert eyes helping me out as well.

The bunny Dobby met was not fixed. He, along with I think 7 others, had been found abandoned in the woods and were taken in by a family. So it was sort of an unusual situation. If I did take him he would be fixed right away before I really attempted any bonding.

Thanks for the help.

[Dobby]

So the bunny we met on Friday is still available. I thought for sure he would be taken over the weekend since they had several people who expressed interest and he was so cute and cuddly. Because of this I figured our meet and great wouldn’t lead to anything. But now…

Do you guys think it would be best to let Dobby meet a few other bunnies before I make a final decision? Or was the lack of fighting enough?

[tanlover14]

Honestly, I think it is going to be completely up in the air.

Bunnies after being neutered/spayed can smell completely different so Dobby may not even actually recognize this as being the same bunny after the procedure. I would stick to the one you were having the most progress with – switch their litters back and forth until the other is neutered and after and then re-introduce as if you are doing it for the first time all over again. The new bunny may also act differently towards another rabbit after being neutered. Typically they are way less aggressive without those hormones. And so if the first date went well without aggression, I would continue to work toward this particular bunny.

[Author]

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