help – bonding buns

[evilmomthra]

I need advice. 7 years ago we adopted a very abused and damaged (mentally) bunny we called her Ninja. She was a netherland dwarf. She had snuffles. She bonded immediately with our bun Wolf. He was a Japanese Harlequin. He had e-cuniculi. He was also a rescue. We fought his disease for 14 years but finally lost the battle to old age and the spread of the parasite. Ninja broke. She was never the same and her illness became progressively worse. After Wolf’s passing we tried to adopt a companion for her. We adopted what we thought was a docile older bunny named Daisy. Total failure. Daisy was just fat and not old. She is a very aggressive, young bunicidal maniac. She is the most loving, sweet, beautiful full sized lionhead in the world until she sees another bun. She is also a rescue, but unlike Ninja or Wolf, she has never been abused. Turned out she was only 4 months old when we adopted her. So, we adopted another rescue named Eli. He was also abused. He is a mini Rex, guesstimate 3?years old. He bonded with Ninja, she tolerated him. But he gave her the company she needed. We kept our house divided with baby gates. Our bunnys have no cages. They are free roaming in their separate domains. We just lost Ninja. Her illness progressed greatly in the past month and despite extremely aggressive medical care we lost. Her body started to shut down on Wednesday and we had to put her down. Excuse my spelling, I am still crying. Eli had been seperated from Ninja for three weeks now – her treatment would not allow them to be together. We tried to put Eli with Daisy. She tried to eat him. How can we bond these two without bloodshed and live in a home not divided? He is very docile and acts frightened and lonely. Any advice is appreciated.

[LittlePuffyTail]

First I want to say that I’m very sorry for your loss.

I, unfortunately, don’t have much advice for you as I had 2 bunnies for 8 years that I was unable to bond due to my girl being aggressive and territorial. She passed away a month ago, sadly.

One option that can sometimes be used to help with aggression is stress bonding. Have you tried this? I opted not to do stress bonding in my situation as my girl was extremely high-stress and I just didn’t think it was worth the damage to her health. My buns lived side by side in condos and came out for run time separately.

Hopefully, a more experienced bonder will be by with some advice.

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