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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum BONDING Bonding Neutered Male with Spayed Female–limited space

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    • Amanda
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        I’ve read the forums for quite a while, but this is my first time actually posting. Hello, everyone! 

        I have a 2 year old neutered male bun that I got when he was just a baby (6 weeks) from a bunny farm. He is so sweet and well-behaved! I also have a husband and about a million (okay, 4) young children, and my mom lives in the house with us. Oh, and we have two cats and a dog. My mom is not a fan of indoor pets. If she had her way, all the pets would live outside, or we just wouldn’t have any pets. Or course, it’s our house and therefore we have pets and they live inside with us. Our house is pretty big, but it seems like just about every square inch of it is already consumed by people and their stuff. Seven people in a house is a lot! But I digress. 

        Mom HATES the bunny being anywhere she can see or smell it. That means that poor BunBun has been sequestered in my bedroom for most of his life. He has a lovely 3-tier condo with a playard attached, and I let him out most nights when I sleep. He likes to sleep in bed with me, and my husband sleeps in bed with my two big girls (6 and 4). It’s a good trade-off  I was feeling badly about BunBun being so stashed away from the rest of the family and getting no stimulation during the day, so I wanted to try getting a spayed female as a companion. I decided I wanted an adult, and I wanted to get a bunny from a shelter. The crazy thing is that there were essentially NO bunnies in shelters nearby! I kept an eye on Petfinder for months and called the local shelters. Nothing in my city or surrounding area. A shelter about an hour and a half away finally had an influx of rabbits (several had been surrendered at one time), so I went there and met with them. There was a bonded pair and a 1-year-old unspayed female. I brought home the female because she was so stinking adorable and so kind with my 15-month-old twins. Her name is Sweet Pea, and she is just as sweet as her name applies. Well, just as sweet to PEOPLE.

        I brought her home and put her in a pen next to BunBun. She spent the whole first day thumping, digging, and peeing everywhere. I kept them in cages next to each other for a few days, and things seemed to be going pretty well. They would flop down next to each other and sleep. I got Sweet Pea spayed after those few days, and she had a rough recovery. She didn’t eat for several days, and then finally sprung back to life. It was stressful for all of us. Anyway, I probably tried to start the bonding process too early, and the first exposure was by accident. I accidentally left her cage door open while BunBun was out, and she got out. They fought pretty badly. No injuries, but lots of fur. I waited another week or so and started trying to bond in earnest. It has been horrible! They start fighting the minute they see each other. I have been putting them in totally neutral spaces (guest bathroom, an outside playard, the deck), and they tear into each other. They don’t even care about being sprayed with water or using a pasta strainer as a separator. The last time I put them together, BunBun’s ear got bitten or scratched, and he was super upset about it. I’ve done car bonding, which was fine but didn’t improve the situation outside of the car. When they are on the deck, I can put the dog out with them and it keeps Sweet Pea from attacking BunBun. 

        At least I *think* Sweet Pea is the one attacking. It turns out that I’m not great at reading bunny body language. I really thought Sweet Pea was attacking BunBun, but I think now that she marks her territory near BunBun and he gets defensive. Her litterbox habits are TERRIBLE, but I think it’s mostly marking territory. I just now let her out of her cage while BunBun was locked up, and she immediately hopped around his cage leaving little pellets. Then she flopped down beside his cage wall and took a nap. He stayed as far away from her as possible, but seemed semi-relaxed.

        Needless to say, I’m kinda confused by all their behavior. I don’t know what to do next. Because of my mom being in the picture, I don’t see a way to put them in totally separate rooms so they can forget about each other. I separated their cages so they are in opposite corners of my room. Can you guys give me some advice? I don’t know where to go from here! Thanks!

        (Sorry this was such an epic first post. My husband was teasing me about it the whole time )


      • manic_muncher
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          I know their area is limited, I have the same problem here. I was extremely lucky with accidentally leaving a cage door open and because they had been in the same room and seeing each other for a very long time.. like 8 months total, they were already sorta bonded. So they bonded on their own. BUT. MY First rabbit and the male that is bonded to my female do NOT get along. They used to be ok with each other running around during their floor time, but not now that Bonnie and Clyde are bonded. They fight thru the bars and it is horrible. I do not know if those two will ever be bonded, I’m not sure I even want to try at this point, given how much Bonnie and Clyde have changed towards people. We’ll see.

          I said all that to say, I think the only thing you can do right now is when one is out for floor time, have the other blocked completely so they can not see the other one running around. Cardboard, or sign board, a sheet.. anything to block them seeing each other. Since they got in a fight, I think you will have to give them a much longer time apart.

          During this time, try using surrogate-stuffed animals. Leave them in each other’s pens for a few days and switch them up, so they get used to each other’s scent being very close and without it attacking. Swap litter boxes back and forth too. All will help. My two males were actually pretty good around each other UNTIL Bonnie and Clyde were bonded, now Clyde just wants to keep his woman to himself. And to be fair to Clyde, Bumpy attacked him the first day he was here, grabbed the end of his nose and did a gator roll trying to rip it off, so he has reason to hate Bumpy.

          Your post wasn’t too long, I’m famous for novels too! Welcome to BB, I hope you like it here and that we can help you get your situation sorted out!


        • Little Lion Head
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            I’m not surprised that BunBun would get so defensive since Sweet Pea was brought into his area. So it sounds like they are both staying in your room but separated, right?

            This might be a long shot, but what if you completely deep clean your room and the condo/playyard, try to get rid of as much bunny scent as possible. Then bring them back in. You’ll still want to bond in completely neutral territory, but maybe this will help in the long haul?


          • Amanda
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              Thank you both for your replies! Manic_muncher, you’re sorta kinda near me! I live southwest of Richmond in Midlothian. We’re practically neighbors!

              Blocking their view of each other during floor time is a good idea. I have some tri-fold cardboard things that would work well for that purpose. Also, I’ve switched their litter boxes quite a bit, but not for the explicit purpose of getting them used to each other’s scent. I’ve been trying to figure out the best litterbox/cage configuration since Sweet Pea is a PIG and seems to require a larger litterbox that can’t be pushed around. I keep meaning to gather some of their fur and do the stuffie trick of tucking fur into the toy, but I l don’t think either of them will take kindly to being brushed. They are shedding a bit, though, so maybe I can gather enough just through petting.

              Little Lion Head–the thought of deep cleaning their cages, pens, and my room makes my head spin! My kids have me at my wits end lately, so I’ve become way lazier with cleaning than I used to be. I’m really trying to think of another area in my house that would work well, but I’m drawing a blank. I thought about my husband’s office, but there are soooo many cords up there. I have cord tubing, but there’s just too much. I get pulled away by kids every two seconds, so there’s a chance I would walk away for a few minutes during floor time and return to a destroyed, expensive cord and an injured bunny.

              I get the feeling that BunBun is really mad at me, which makes me sad. I really thought he would at least be interested in having a companion, but now it seems like it causes him so much stress to have her around at all. I keep trying to remind myself that bonding can take a loooong time and that the bunnies are surely grateful after it’s all said and done.

              The more time I spend thinking about it, I think one of the best things I can do is take a weekend and deep clean the bedroom. Ugh. I’m sure it needs it anyway. That’ll have to be a few weeks in the future, though. Birthday party this weekend and something else I can’t quite remember the next weekend.

              Thanks again for your suggestions! I’ll let you know how everything goes ?


            • Amanda
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                Thank you both for your replies! Manic_muncher, you’re sorta kinda near me! I live southwest of Richmond in Midlothian. We’re practically neighbors!

                Blocking their view of each other during floor time is a good idea. I have some tri-fold cardboard things that would work well for that purpose. Also, I’ve switched their litter boxes quite a bit, but not for the explicit purpose of getting them used to each other’s scent. I’ve been trying to figure out the best litterbox/cage configuration since Sweet Pea is a PIG and seems to require a larger litterbox that can’t be pushed around. I keep meaning to gather some of their fur and do the stuffie trick of tucking fur into the toy, but I l don’t think either of them will take kindly to being brushed. They are shedding a bit, though, so maybe I can gather enough just through petting.

                Little Lion Head–the thought of deep cleaning their cages, pens, and my room makes my head spin! My kids have me at my wits end lately, so I’ve become way lazier with cleaning than I used to be. I’m really trying to think of another area in my house that would work well, but I’m drawing a blank. I thought about my husband’s office, but there are soooo many cords up there. I have cord tubing, but there’s just too much. I get pulled away by kids every two seconds, so there’s a chance I would walk away for a few minutes during floor time and return to a destroyed, expensive cord and an injured bunny.

                I get the feeling that BunBun is really mad at me, which makes me sad. I really thought he would at least be interested in having a companion, but now it seems like it causes him so much stress to have her around at all. I keep trying to remind myself that bonding can take a loooong time and that the bunnies are surely grateful after it’s all said and done.

                The more time I spend thinking about it, I think one of the best things I can do is take a weekend and deep clean the bedroom. Ugh. I’m sure it needs it anyway. That’ll have to be a few weeks in the future, though. Birthday party this weekend and something else I can’t quite remember the next weekend.

                Thanks again for your suggestions! I’ll let you know how everything goes ?


              • Little Lion Head
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                  You sound super busy!!! There might be other ways to block cords in hubby’s office (maybe using ply wood to block the cords from view altogether?).

                  I think the deep cleaning will really help. When you get rid of every bun’s scents they won’t have as much to be territorial over! Good luck!!


                • manic_muncher
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                    I’m from Richmond originally, East End- Fulton Hill, so we’re more neighbors than you thought! I didn’t even think about the deep clean idea, that will probably help a lot!

                    Don’t worry about it taking awhile to get it done, once they are eventually bonded, they will be so much in love you will forget all about how unhappy BunBun seemed at the beginning. Try not to stress over it, do what you need to do otherwise and continue with the bonding exercises as you can. It will go much easier when you aren’t stressed and worried.


                  • JackRabbit
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                      Hi Amanda! I’m about an hour and a half west of you, and my mother lives with us as well — our big difference is my mother doesn’t say a word about my bunnies except to complain that I love them more than my people!

                      Is there any way, at least until the new bun’s hormones have completely died down (4 to 6 weeks), that she could be moved elsewhere in the house? This would also give them a chance to “forget” about each other andvthe fight and you could have more of a fresh start on bonding. Just let your mom know its only temporary!

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                  Forum BONDING Bonding Neutered Male with Spayed Female–limited space