Hi, this is my first time posting, although I’ve been lurking for months and love this site! I have two bunnies- a 1.5 yr old mini lop, Ember, and a 4 month old  lionhead, Teddy. They’re both fixed- Teddy recently, just 2-3 wks ago and I just introduced them a few days ago (early I know, see below for explanation!).

This is going to be really long… sorry!

I’ve read literally everything on bonding on this site (including all the posts on bonding) and on rabbit.org and thought I was prepared for anything that might happen! My bonding technique has been slightly unconventional so far due to my living circumstances… I kept both Teddy and Ember in my bedroom for the last month (I got Teddy a month ago) and just a few days ago I moved from Massachusetts to Kansas- a 24 hour drive (I considered waiting until I got here to get a second bunny, but for reasons that would be take too long to explain I decided not to). I started off with both buns in separate carriers in the car, but Ember is so freaked out by driving in the car that I ended up putting Teddy in the same carrier as her hoping that he would help calm her since he’s ok with the car (he had also shown signs of being completely in love with her so I wasn’t too worried about him being aggressive) I don’t know if it would work with all buns, but after 12 hours a day in the car for 2 days (with lots of breaks of course to feed and water them) they were cuddling and grooming and seemed totally in love!

When I got to the my new apt I set up a big NIC bunny condo and fenced in a corner of my apt so that they would have plenty of room when I didn’t have them out in the apt with me. I decided to see how they would do together outside of the car since I had a nice big neutral apt!- and this is the part that I don’t understand and I’m hoping someone can help me with! They still seem to love being together- they groom each other, they eat together, they play together (they really like hopping around the apt exploring all the different corners), they flop around and rest together. Which I thought were all signs that they were bonded and could be left alone together? But occasionally- only once a day- Teddy will go up to Ember- it seems like he’s trying to mount her which he doesn’t normally do (Em is very much the dominant one- the grooming is rather one-sided with Teddy doing 90% of the grooming and following her all around wherever she goes) and they’ll start circling (and lunging?) at each other- neither one is grunting, and I don’t see either one actually biting the other, but they’re moving so fast it’s hard to tell! The last time they did this they were actually hopping up in the air- either straight up or kinda hopping up and then over the other. I don’t know if they’re normal happy binkies, or if they’re so mad at each other they just have to jump up in the air! I normally get freaked out and separate them at this point- Teddy has a big "cage" with multiple levels that I can enclose him in separately. I’ve also been putting him in there at night when I go to bed. But  I’m not completely sure whether they’re "fighting" or whether they’re playing- I just assumed that it would be obvious and I would be able to tell the difference!

My theory on if it does turn out to be aggression and not playing, is that since it’s still somewhat close to Teddy being neutered- I wouldn’t have introduced them yet if it hadn’t have been for the car ride and if putting them together in the car hadn’t worked so well- that maybe his hormones kick in sometimes and he gets a little too frisky for Ember and she gets mad and that starts a fight.

I have noticed that sometimes during the day when Ember is napping Teddy will come up and groom her and she’ll do a little half-lunge at him to let him know that she just wants to rest and then he’ll go on about his own business hopping and exploring and it doesn’t seem like a big deal- just Ember letting him know that she’s not in the mood! It seems completely different from the circling episodes and doesn’t worry me like they do.

So I guess what my main question is, does anyone have any insight as to whether these episodes are play or aggression? And if it’s aggression, is it likely that it will taper out once Teddy loses the rest of his hormones? I don’t start my new job for another week so I’ll be at home to supervise them when they are together. I’m just not sure if maybe I should just keep them together all the time since they don’t seem to be actually be hurting each other?? They actually try to groom each other through the bars of Teddy’s cage which makes me feel bad for separarting them. I can’t decide if I’m being paranoid or not! Help!

Thanks for reading if you got this far

Veronica

(my screen name is in memory of my first pet rabbit, an amazingly cuddly Holland Lop)