No idea what to do here. Please help!

[Arlo86]

I have two rabbits, one of them I have had since she was about 7 weeks old, that I rescued from a place where all her siblings and parents had died and she had been basically abandoned in the cage with them still in there. She has been in my house for about 3 and half months now, and other than the cats (who she gets along great with) has had free run of the majority of the house. She has been happy and active and I had her spayed a little less than a month ago. The issue I am having is, I have had another rabbit dropped into my lap as of yesterday. He is 8 months old and is not fixed. He is smaller than my original bunny, but he is a lot more dominant. They haven’t fought, or anything close to that. I don’t have a neutral space to try to bond them in and right now I have them in a makeshift area where they are separated but can see each other. They have had limited, supervised interactions and the only thing that happens is my original bunny runs away or hides in her hutch and the new guy will try to mount her if he catches her. Her reaction to this is to try to melt in to the floor and starts to breathe like she is scared. Today my original bunny has seemed incredibly depressed and has eaten about half of her normal food, including fresh greens and hay. I am not sure if this is because she is stressed with the new bunny being here, or if it is depression with not having full reign on the house since I didn’t think it was good for her to run around while the new guy was locked up. She still has plenty of room to run in her area, but not near what she is used to. I just don’t know what to do. Both of the bunnies seem indifferent to each other for the most part and will even both lay down near each other and have snuggled once. But with the mood change in my original bunny I am just worried that she isn’t going to do too well having this rabbit forced on her. Especially since she hasn’t had any interaction with other bunnies aside from the first few weeks of her life, and has been the only bunny in the home. I also don’t want to give the new guy away if I don’t have to. I do have a back up plan for him, as there is an awesome rabbit rescue here locally that already said they would take him in if needed. I also don’t have the ability to house them separately long term, and I am just a bit stressed as to what to do here. The new little guy was basically handed to me filthy, matted and I was told to either re-home him or they would “dispose” of him. It breaks my heart. Ok, sorry for the novel. I just honestly do not know what to do here. Thank you for any help you may have.

[Mikey]

If its only mounting, itll likely slow down to a stop after hes neutered. Get him neutered first, wait for him to heal, then try bonding them together. This wait will also give your girly time to adjust to her new house mate

[Sammy]

I would try cage them very close to each other so they can smell each other and get use to each other’s sent, this helped with my two my rabbits one was about 12 weeks and my other about 10months one spayed and one isn’t but you need to definitely get the male neutered to get him to ease on the mounting but keep them next to each other for a while and let one out at a time for now then slowly get them to start bonding sessions I done mine outside in the garden in BIG pen ,I know some people do it in a small one but I found this helped A LOT BETTER and then start letting them out together it does take time mine took about 2 months and she might feel threatened but I think she should be fine after a couple days.

[tobyluv]

Before you attempt any further bonding, the male needs to be neutered. Then between 2 and 4 weeks afterwards, you can start the bonding. Right now, your female sounds like she is being intimidated. That could change to fighting if she gets fed up with all the humping. Rabbits can severely injure each other if they fight.

I have had great success using an x-pen to bond rabbits. Even if the room itself isn’t neutral to them, the x-pen is new and neutral to them. It also allows you to be in there with them during their bonding sessions, so that you can break up any fighting or pull the male off if he is humping in excess of the normal bonding humping.

You can keep them in the same room, housed separately, but they shouldn’t be together until after he has had surgery and a few weeks have passed.

[Arlo86]

Sorry for the delayed response here. I couldn’t figure out how to get back to this post! I have an appointment set up for Monday to get the new guy fixed. I was keeping them apart but close enough they could see and smell each other. After a day of this Sammy (my girl) wouldn’t leave his side next to the pen. So I tried letting them together again. He tried mounting once and she nipped him so he quit. He hasn’t tried since and they are completely inseparable. I pen them separately at night, but they both sleep next to the pen so they are still touching though. I just don’t trust them at night when I can’t hear or see them. The only problem I am having now is that Scout (the new guy) is spraying ON Sammy. She is not too fond of that and comes straight away to me to wipe her off. I tried putting them apart again when that started but they both just laid next to each other and even ignored treats until I let them back together. Once I did they both ate their treats, groomed each other and then laid down to nap all snuggled up. I am just crossing my fingers the spraying stops once Scout is fixed. Thank you all for the help here. I seriously was in a panic and a bit stressed from the whole situation.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sounds like things are going really well. Except the spraying. I suspect neutering will fix or at least diminish that. Most boys take a couple of weeks for their hormones to die down after a neuter.

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