Hello, This is my 1st post to the forum, my story. I have an old mini rex neutered male, who was fully bonded with a young female rabbit (joined the family when she was about 6 mos. old) for approx. 4 years when she most unfortunately passed away last year from “Snuffles” (after an unsuccessful week long antibiotic treatment, changed to a new 1 which seemed to clear her nose finally, but I think the stress of losing a 1lb in a short period of time was too much for her!) Anyway, I digress! That was a year ago when we lost her, and our old guy, Gromit has been alone since then. 4 weeks ago, we acquired an unspayed 1.5 year old female mixed lop. She came to me from a 27 year old girl who LOVED her, but she was young, lived alone, gone all day and wanted her bun to have “friends” and more people around. She had taken wonderful care of her, truly loved her. She told me “Thumper” was an affectionate bunny who liked being held, petted, and “binkyed” a lot in the early evenings, sat on the couch with her so much so that she often fell asleep with her on the couch! Clearly a happy bun! I met the bun at her home before having her join our menagerie. She was not shy, allowed me to hold her, genuinely a nice rabbit. She had been exposed to dogs which I was glad about since she was coming to a household with dogs and cats.
Anyway, the 2 buns met each other on the first day and were OK, no issues until her hormones got in the way, and then became a problem for her. (and him) The mounting from both and fur-flying began and we had her spayed that week. 8 days after the spay, I let them out together. All was great!!! They snuggled together, groomed etc and I was a happy Bun mom. I kept them out together all day and put her in her cage at night. Gromit has had the run of a room for the years and uses his cage for eating and toileting and sometimes just to hang out. This went on for 5 days, until 1 night, I told my night-owl son to go ahead and leave her out overnight. I went to work early in the morning, all was well before I left.. They were together, no fur on the floor etc… During the day my other son texted me to say he put her back i her cage because “the bunnies were scuffling a bit.” I came home later to find fur all over the place! And that is where I am at now. Every time I let them out together they start “going at it”, rolling around fur flying, Gromit usually ending up with a mouthful of fur. They will start nose to nose and then the nose to butt and then the chase and rolling around. I guess I am most concerned about my old rabbit. I worry that this is too much for him at his age, (about 9 to 91/2 year old). I let several days go by before trying again, but the same thing happens. In between, I put Gromit in his cage so she can run around, so we have been taking turns. She will head over to his cage and they will sniff thru the wires. occasionally with a little lunge/grunt, but not always. There is no thumping going on. When he is out, he goes to her cage. He also has been urinating outside her home, and she poops all over the cushion where HE likes to sit. I know these are marking/territory issues. It has now been 4 weeks since she arrived, and I know it is a new and stressful change for her. I have only seen a rare “binky” if any from her, and she no longer likes to be held. I know her priorities have changed from human to her own species, but I hope that she will someday enjoy the humans again!! AND I want them to “love” EACH OTHER again. It has been over 3 weeks now since she was spayed. I was hoping that as each week passed, the hormones would dissipate and this behavior would end so that they could be friends. SO, my question is, What changed after those 5 days of bonding?? I don’t get it!! Any advise to get them to bond again would be great. I am concerned about my very old bun! But I made a promise to care and love this bun and we thought it would be 1 big happy family! Her former owner was sooo happy that they were getting along, and now it has all changed. I had sent her pics of the 2 of them snuggled etc…Then she came to visit her baby last week and was sad to know that things had changed. But I told her that it can take up to 4 weeks for the hormones die down and that hopefully things will improve after that…I won’t give up!! I also want them to be together and someday share 1 home, since her cage is the “Taj Mahal” of cages as my husband says! It’s huge and takes up a lot of my family room!!! BTW, there are no issues with the other animals in the house. She has adjusted well to them. They are used to other buns in the house. SO, Is there hope in this situation? Do I just need to wait out the hormones? Please help! Thanks for taking the time to read my story!