Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BONDING Questions about bonding two neutered males

Viewing 8 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • LBJ10
      Moderator
      17027 posts Send Private Message

        My boys love each other, but up to this point they have had separate cages and they are only together during supervised playtime. Now that they are both neutered, my husband was thinking we should try to keep them in one cage. Of course we will wait until my little Woolikins is healed and no longer feeling “manly”, I’m just thinking ahead on how we should handle things. Do you think it would be possible? Leopold is over twice the size of Wooly, so I’m worried about that. I was thinking we could see how they get along during extended playtime and then taking it from there. If all seems well, what would you recommend going about the whole sharing a cage thing. My husband was wanting to build them a new habitat. Would it be better to build the new one first and then stick them both in there? That way no one would be intruding inside the other’s cage.


      • Laura
        Participant
        182 posts Send Private Message

          Yes it would be possible. I have 2 bonded males. Sounds like you are off to a good start with supervised play time. And it would be great to build a new habitat for them both. Have you read the “bonding” page here? I’m sure others will reply with some detailed answers.


        • LBJ10
          Moderator
          17027 posts Send Private Message

            Yes, but it doesn’t really talk about putting them together inside a cage previously inhabited by one bunny. It just talks about creating a permanent exercise pen for them to share. I guess our situation is a little different. We have a “rabbit room”, which is a spare bedroom. Both of their cages are located in this room. We put a baby gate up in the doorway and the rabbits are allowed to run about the entire room. They have alone playtime, one at a time, minimal supervision (the door is open so we can hear if they are being naughty). Every so often though, we would let them come out together. This was mostly because when one was out, they would be desperately trying to see the other inside their cage. So we figured it would be alright for them to come out for short play sessions together if someone was there in the room with them. I would like them to be able to come out together for extended periods with minimal supervision. And, my husband hopes, they can eventually share the same cage. He wants to build them a new one though, so that it why I was thinking maybe it would be better to get them used to being together in the new cage rather than putting them together inside one of the existing cages.


          • LBJ10
            Moderator
            17027 posts Send Private Message

              I had another thought. What if the new cage had two sections that could be closed off from one another (like with a door in between)? So if they needed to be separated, we could just close it off.


            • Laura
              Participant
              182 posts Send Private Message

                I hope others respond here. But I think they will both be fine in a new cage, since it will be new territory to both. I don’t think you would need something to separate them.


              • LBJ10
                Moderator
                17027 posts Send Private Message

                  Yeah, not much of a response yet. I guess my husband is just afraid of building this huge new habitat and then we end up still needing two cages because they don’t get along for one reason or another. It’s funny though because Leopold was desperately trying to see Wooly today. The vet recommended they stay separated while he heals, but that didn’t stop Leopold from trying to climb up to his height (the cage is up off the floor).


                • Beth K
                  Participant
                  25 posts Send Private Message

                    If you don’t want to build a new cage, you can try cleaning an existing cage with vinegar to get rid of existing smells. That’s what we did after our rabbits were bonded and we didn’t have any problems. We rinsed the cage with hot water and Dawn, and then rubbed it down with white vinegar, then rinsed it with hot water again.
                    Good luck!


                  • Wembley
                    Participant
                    18 posts Send Private Message

                      Hello there.  I have just bonded two bunnies, a neutered Flemish Giant and a spayed lop.  These bunnies had lived together side by side in their own cages for about a year.  I figured because they already knew each other’s scent and were familiar, the bonding process should go faster and it has.  This is the process I followed. 

                      Sat Jan 15th – bunnies arrived. They were housed in side by side fence pens,  joined with strong clips like those found at the end of a dog leash.  Doorways were located at the front of each pen and each pen had hay, litter box, kibble, water and branches and wood blocks to chew. Each was let out to run around in turn throughout the day.  Because they had already attempted grooming through their cages, their pens were tied together with clips to make it easy for them to continue.  Wed Jan 19th they were let out together, in a very small confined space outside their pens, for the purpose of sharing greens.  A bath towel in hand, just in case.  On Sun Jan 23, we attempted another joint outing.  It is important when letting the rabbits out together that you make sure there are no places where a bunny could get trapped by the other. You have to be able to separate them quickly if there is a problem.  Our second joint outing was fine.  Later this day I confined them both to one pen for about 15 minutes.  Starting on Monday, Jan 24 they were out together at each exercise time and were confined on and off during the day together in one pen.  On Wed Jan 26 they spent the night in the one pen for the first time.  Before they were confined to one pen for the night, I took down the other one and changed the shape of the remaining one, changed the water and kibble dishes and the fleeces they slept on.   I stayed up later than usual just to keep an eye.  There were no incidents overnight. Since then they have had all outings together, spent their nights together and for the first time yesterday, Sat Jan 29 the Flemmie has finally begun grooming the little female. (up to this point, the grooming was all one sided)

                      This process of letting all rabbits get a chance to mark everywhere and the passage of time  -  14 days – has never failed me.  If your guys have recently been neutered, you will need to wait until most if not all hormones are gone from their systems – 3 to 4 weeks .  I hope I have been able to help you even a little bit.

                      w


                    • LBJ10
                      Moderator
                      17027 posts Send Private Message

                        I think we want to make a bigger cage since the one our larger rabbit is in right now doesn’t seem big enough for two. I’m just worried about making this bigger cage and then the rabbits not getting along for some reason and then we end up with two cages again, but I guess I said that already. I did tell my husband that we could try the whole extended playtime thing first to see how things are going and then introduce the new cage into the room while they are still staying in separate cages so they can get used to it.

                    Viewing 8 reply threads
                    • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                    Forum BONDING Questions about bonding two neutered males