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[toodianic]

At least that’s what it seems like.  My spayed female (13 months) and recently adopted neutered male (8 months) seemed do be doing well in their bonding sessions.  Now he does not seem to be willing to groom her and it seems to be the beginning of fights.  He seems very intimidated by her (she is clearly dominant) and won’t groom her when asked.  He did once or twice several days ago.  There have been several scuffles, followed by stress bonding but I have put them back in their individual pens after that.  Today their bonding session lasted about 5 minutes before they did nose to nose, no one groomed and they circled.  I tried to stop them before they fought but….  I ended up having to pull one away.  No wounds that I could see.  This is day 17.  Advice appreciated.  I am getting advice from the woman who runs the rabbit adoption group but I needed to vent. I’m afraid they are going to end up hating each other.   

[Sialia]

Sorry, I don’t have any advice but can fully sympathize.  I’m at a similar impasse with my two bonding males.  One seems to be the dominant one, but he does all the grooming.  They suddenly started fighting today and I think it’s because the dominant one is getting frustrated.

I’ll look forward to any replies you get.

[MoveDiagonally]

Have you tried the “banana trick”? This is where you smear some banana on their heads so the other one will lick it off simulating grooming.

[toodianic]

I did the banana rick initially.  It took forever (poor Panda had banana head for days) but it finally worked or at least he started grooming her.  I have not done it since.  Will do it again 🙂  Thanks.

[MoveDiagonally]

Hope it goes well! Keep us posted.

[tanlover14]

I’m curious as to your reactions when they scuffle or bicker? I know you said they’ve been having arguments since you’ve been bonding but I noticed the last sentence where you said you tried to stop them? Do you normally try to stop them?

At some point you have to let them do their thing. If you constantly interfere in their bickerments (as long as they’re not getting to a point where someone can get injured) they will never get past that point. What exactly is going on in their typical bickerment and how do you react?

I’m wondering if you’re just not giving them enough space to work out their issues. =) Sorry for all the questions. It’s just something I see happen a lot and when reading through sounded like it could be causing the hang-up between your two!

[toodianic]

@Tanlover14.  Sorry to be so long in answering.  I intervened at the point of large clumps of fur flying and obvious fighting.  I took them to the one of the adoption events to have to director work with them and she said she believes they can be bonded but have built up some bad history.  She will take then for a week (has not been free do so so yet). 

My feeling is that the new male bun is a bit clueless about bunny rules.  He will not groom her (although he did the day they “dated” ) and she gets frustrated with him.  He is also very skittish and she is very assertive.  I am so looking forward to them being friends.  I suppose it is possible that they may never bond but whatever happens he is certainly not going back to the shelter. Barbara

[Zombie-Sue]

Have you tried a squirt bottle? If so, has it worked, or does she just keep going after him every time?

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