Nipping/aggressive grooming stage of bonding?

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This topic has 4sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 7 months ago by vanessa.

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- 07/22/2015 at 12:04 AM
  Deleted User
  Participant
  22064 posts
  So a lot of bonding process has been made between my two bunnies! They seem very comfortable around each other as my bun Scamper will flop right on top of my bunny Millie!
  
  But the thing is Millie still really wants to be groomed much more than what Scamper is doing, although I’ll admit he is grooming more now even though it is that kind of chewing-but-also-grooming kind of thing.
  
  What will happen is during a session Scamper will sniff Millie for a bit, sometimes try to mount, but eventually end up bite/licking the fur on her back or neck/cheek area. She’ll bow her head and wait patiently but usually he only does a bit of this chew grooming then lays next to her. The thing she will get frustrated at his lack of grooming and nip him, hard enough to make him jump pretty high! Poor guy will just lay next to her again.
  
  But also sometimes Scamper will be sniffing her underside, like her belly, and will sometimes nip? So basically a lot of nipping has been going on, so I’m wondering if anyone else has witnessed a similar stage in their bonding of rabbits and if so how they went about bonding from here. (For reference, we’ve been doing a lot of stressful session —> then more regular session just in a fenced off neutral area.)
- 07/22/2015 at 8:03 PM
  LBJ10
  Moderator
  16897 posts
  Nipping is normal. It is usually best to just let them work things out on their own. If you interfere too much, then it will set them back. As long as they aren’t fighting, a little nip here and there is fine. If you want to mix things up a bit to see if that helps, you could try a different “neutral” space.
- 07/23/2015 at 3:33 PM
  Sindri
  Participant
  1515 posts
  Switching things up usually helps. I also agree with LBJ nipping is normal wouldn’t interfere uness it turns into a fight. Mine still nip at each other at times. Its usually to get the attention of the other to groom them or to get them to move out of the way.
- 07/23/2015 at 4:31 PM
  Maddie Rae
  Participant
  40 posts
  Thank you both for the advice! This weekend for sure I’ll try a new neutral space and see how it goes. (this is from my original account, accidentally posted this topic to that account and trying to get it deleted )
- 08/30/2015 at 9:48 PM
  vanessa
  Participant
  2212 posts
  I know this is a month later, but how is it going? Mine are in the same stage. I don’t want to hurt their progress.
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