Yep – both fixed. I know Ollie is around 2 and he was just fixed in September before we got him. Snuffy was done early summer, but I’m not sure how old she is.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Great thread markusdark! We are definitely having a similar situation. I’ve noticed you are getting a better response from Maryann than we are from Snuffy, though. She doesn’t like to be handled or picked up. We don’t really know much about her situation other than she was found in an ATM foyer at a bank and then taken to the shelter. She was there for a couple of months as a ‘he’ and when we rescued the poor dear she had untreated infections in both ears and a respiratory infection (hence the name!), as well as an abscess on her genitals. So her introduction to our home was a trip to the vets followed by twice daily towelling for medications. Needless to say she’s not a cuddler.

Ollie was taken to the shelter because his owners were moving to a condo and couldn’t take him. So I think he’s had a much happier upbringing than Snuffy.

We’ve swapped cages with them and put them in the car a couple of time, where they basically ignored each other. We’ve tried extra treats at date time, but Snuffy tends to get possessive and lunges over the good stuff.

We tried petting Snuffy firmly last night to push her head down and she tenses up like a little rock with her ears forward and there is no give from her. Usually during dates she hides out in the litterbox while Ollie hops around. Last night she took over the hay pile and Ollie hid behind us and would not go near her. So I think we’ll take a bit of a break and try to restrategize. He’s still interested in her and lays at the door of her cage and that doesn’t always meet with her teeth. With the bars between them she’s quite curious about him. As I type, however she’s biting at the bars. Sure, Snuffy, prove me wrong!

I remain hopeful. She’s going to take a little longer than the ideal match, but I think we can bring her around. A car ride to a friend’s house might help to wear them out and test out neutral territory. Unfortunately everywhere in our tiny apartment Snuffy has claimed as her own. The shopping cart date sounds like a challenge. We may try that one!

Well we decided to take a bit of a break over Christmas and with all the visiting family and busyness of the season. We ended up spending a weekend at each of our parents’ places and split up the buns to give them a break from each other. Ollie had an opportunity to be top bun with me and ever since he’s been a totally different little guy. Happy-go-lucky and affectionate. What a relief because we were both pretty worried about him.

After reading about markusdark’s success with Maryanne and Dono (congrats!! that is amazing and you must feel great to see them getting along) I got inspired to try again. We shifted to a new location and blocked off part of the kitchen. Neither one of them go in there very much, unless the fridge door is open, and the tile floor prevents traction for those nasty attacks. We have been having very good dates and we’ve been trying to do a few minutes every night and just get Snuffy used to being around Ollie without attacking him. First thing we noticed is that she is very nervous being around him. She hides behind us and her breathing increases and she is very tense. It’s almost like she’s afraid of him. We get the most success when we keep petting her. She sort of gets distracted into allowing him to get closer to her. There’s still lunges and attacks, but Ollie keeps coming back for more. He even lays at her cage door afterwards.

I’ll note that Snuffy HATES being handled and is very strong-willed. The exercise of trying to catch her and put her in the carrier cage with Ollie, the first time we tried for a car ride, was sufficiently stressful enough for all of us that we decided to just go straight to the date.

So we’ll keep trying. Small steps… She’ll come around some day and realize what a great prize he is. He still seems pretty happy otherwise, and that’s the main thing. So does she when he’s in the cage and she’s out.

Any other tips are more than welcome!

Those are great ideas!  I’ll have to try the vacuum cleaner out and see what happens.  They’re both pretty terrified of it.  The problem with putting them together in a box or carrier is getting Snuffy in the box or carrier.  She’s not the easiest bun to control and she’s figured out when we want her in a box or carrier.  She’s too smart for us, unfortunately…  But we’ve been doing the super pets during their dates and she even lay down last night and relaxed enough to let me put Ollie near her feet so he could sniff her.  It was a great date and Ollie hardly got nipped at at all.  We’re trying to make her relax in his presence so that hopefully over time she’ll stop hating him so much.  It’s quite cute to see him laying in front of her cage door or beside her on the other side of the cage.  Now we just need to have them doing that without the cage in between.  Little steps… 

I have noticed sometimes when they go face to face she will bump his nose under hers, but he’s too afraid of her teeth to groom.  I’ve been thinking of smearing her up with banana or baby food to trick him, but she may just lick it all off herself.  She gets very possessive over food so we’ve stopped trying to get them to eat together.  She’s quite the little madam!

I’ll keep you all posted on the progress and thanks for all the tips.

Here are some early pics of Snuffy:
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m182/ecogrrl/Snuffy/
Pardon the poo – she wasn’t trained at all when we rescued her

There’s a pic of Oliver under my profile, but I haven’t updated photobucket yet

Progress!!! 
We tried the vacuum 2 nights ago and managed to get a ‘snuggle’ out of them by petting them to the point of distraction and shoving the two of them together.  Tonight – no vacuum, but we did get another snuggle!  Snuffy came to me to get away from the situation and I started the super pets and my husband pushed Oliver against her and they stayed there for quite a while (with my hand over her haunches behind her ears the whole time and with nose rubs to distract her) but she even settled into the pets and didn’t try to turn and bite him.  There was another lunge attempt when they went face to face, but I held her back and she settled back down for pets.  A huge success compared to what we’ve been through in the past.  They even stayed long enough for us to get a pic. 

Yay!!!

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The stunt double may work, actually. I’d forgotten about that tip. The territory is as neutral as we can get it – the kitchen – since neither of them go in there very much and we wipe down the floor before the date to remove the smell of each other in case they do wander in when the fridge door is open (my bunnies are very focussed on their tummies!).

We did another arranged snuggle session last night and Snuffy is still aggressive, but while I’m holding her she doesn’t lunge or bite. Ollie just snuggles in and puts his face under hers and is as comfy as can be. He can’t seem to get enough of her. I think he’s still too nervous to try to lick her, though, so we may have to try smearing her up with baby food to induce grooming. It’s definitely progress though!

LittlePuffyTail, Snuffy is aggressive and strong-willed, but when Ollie isn’t around she seems lonely. It’s like she likes having a pet bunny in another cage to keep her company. Just keep him in that cage! But we’re willing to keep at it so hopefully we’ll get a real snuggle soon and not one that’s arranged. If you’re concerned about her not taking to another bun, try taking her to a shelter and letting her pick a friend out. We didn’t do that with Snuffy, but I wish we had. Although if this doesn’t work out we are very happy to keep Oliver and Snuffy as unbonded bunnies. He’s just too sweet and so happy to have a home. He binkied all night the first night we got him here, he was so happy to be out of the shelter. Check out markusdark’s thread in the lounge. He has some great tips and it inspired me to keep trying.

so we tried the stunt double. My husband tried to make it act like Ollie by sniffing her and ‘licking’ her. Snuffy looked at it, looked at us with the”C’mon! What do you think I am?” look and promptly shoved it out of her way. BUT we’re still dating them and Ollie will now groom her head and back and ears as long as I hold her down first. Once he’s grooming she’s fine and I can even let her go, but if he stops he’s getting the nips. He even PRESUMED to ask her for a groom and you can bet how that went over. I think with time she’ll give in so we’re staying patient and persistent. We’re having really great dates this way so we’ll just keep going and gradually let them be on their own without the holding and see how she reacts. They do have to work things out for themselves and she will have to come around and accept that he loves her and isn’t going to attack her or steal her stuff.

There’s plenty of greens in the fridge for everyone, Snuffy!

Does anyone have any tips on the next step?

THEY BONDED!!! 

Yes my darlings finally gave in and are now the best of friends.  We took them away with us for the weekend and after the trip in the car they were a little more amenable to play time so my husband gave them supervised playtime every day that next week.  After only 1 serious tussle they chased each other around and finally settled down to a grooming session.  After a week Snuffles was even grooming Oliver back.  Now they spend all their time together snuggling and sleeping and grooming.  It’s very cute and well worth all the effort of the last 8 months.  There were times I didn’t think they’d bond, but we kept at it and now they’re inseparable. 

So for everyone else out there, struggling, here’s another success story!