Bonding Help for New Bunny Owner

[styxlethe]

This is my first time owning and bonding rabbits, so any advice would be appreciated.

I’ve had Bayley since October 2015 (she is now a spayed, 7-month old doe). Last week, I adopted Merlin, a neutered, 1.5 year old buck. The speed date went amazingly! She asked for grooming, he licked her ear. First date at home went decently. He would approach, she would nip, he would back off. Second date was similarly. I was worried that the “neutral territory” wasn’t really neutral, though. The door that made up one side of it leads into my bedroom, where Bayley knows her cage is. So, I decided to try the bath tub. They wanted to fight the entire time, even when sprayed or separated. Since then, they’ve kept wanting to fight. Per the advise from the shelter where we got Merlin, I’ve kept them 2-feet apart during bonding sessions for the last three dates. This morning’s session, I separated them with a sheet of wire bars, but let them go up close. They kept wanting to bite and box with each other, or backed into the corner on each side of the new bonding area.

I’m not sure where to go from here. Bayley’s not afraid of the car, so I can’t take them for a drive. I suppose I could run the vacuum to stress them out, but I’m worried that they would fight instead of come together. I’m just really afraid of them getting into a fight and getting hurt, or hating each other forever. 

[Gina.Jenny]

Mine all hate the bathtub, and I’ve given up on it as a bonding place, as they all just get angry in there.

I’ve just adopted a rescue boy (un-neutered on health grounds) to go with my rescue girl, spayed last summer. Lacking any neutral territory, I created a space that worked, by putting a shower curtain down in the middle of the living room, and old duvet that smells of me but not a bunny on top of the shower curtain, and the pen in the centre of the duvet, with the vacuum, gloves and a squirting water bottle to hand. If they needed to go, or I had to squirt, it wasn’t a problem, thanks to the shower curtain underneath. A fight can also be disrupted by getting hold of the shower curtain and turning the whole set up round and back a few time, as jerkily as possible. Destabilising their floor is very effective at nipping skirmishes in the bud!

[Love4Bunny]

Where is the new bonding area? Where do they each live?

Keeping them separated for now is a good idea.

It’s still early days with the bonding, so I would try not to stress at this point. I know it’s tough, cos it seemed promising. I don’t have extensive experience, but I would continue slow and steady, observing what happens, to get a feel for what’s really going on between them. Hopefully something stands out.

Bayley could still be a tad hormonal, and it sounds like she is the one calling the shots, and it might’ve rubbed Merlin the wrong way. Keep the set up minimal, maybe just some hay. I even cleaned the bars of the cage I was bonding my two in because scent played a big part in my bonding.

[styxlethe]

Hi Gina.Jenny,

I will definitely not be using the bath tub again. Too traumatizing! Destabilizing the floor is a good idea – not something that you find in the typical advise articles!

[styxlethe]

Hi Love4Bunny,

Each has their own cage that we swap them between (Bayley can’t spend the night in the second one, though, because she has managed to get out of it). The new bonding area is a section of hallway that neither has ever seen before. It’s also by the front door, so if someone comes in and goes up the steps, they will stop and listen.

Thankfully, the weekend has actually showed some progress. They’ve downgraded to the occasional boxing (though it feels a lot different from last week; last week seemed vicious, but this week seems more about dominance), but for the most part they ignore each other, groom themselves, and Bayley even flopped once. 

I do think Bayley’s being weary at this point. When Merlin comes up and sniff her backside, she will whirl around and nip some fur off of his backside. Then again, I kind of don’t blame her. Her first experience with being mounted was when she went on mini-dates, and it wasn’t great. One rabbit was put in the space and the first thing he did was mount her face!

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