Thanks – i’m hoping they are as easy a bond as that! I don’t have a cage so when they do bond, she’ll get to be a house bunny like he is … though I think i’ll need to do a little more bunny proofing, she’s a tad bit more destructive than he is.

I could restrict him, but I don’t think it is needed – I have a pen I can use as neutral territory and Powder is not territorial, at all. He actually has broken her out of her baby gate blockade (she has two rooms to herself, with a baby gate separating them) by knocking the gate over and they ran into his room where his litterbox is together. I walked in there and he was sitting watching her eat his pellets out of his plate. If he’s not going to pick on her for being by his litter box and his food, I can’t imagine what would set him off in a little x-pen set up.

Would be a lot of stress for him to be restricted, he has free run because he gets so stressed out if caged I just dismantled his cage and let him have run of the place. He is from an unknown background and was in a tiny metal cage in the humane society for 6 months with practically no time out of that to run, he could take like 2 hops at most in it. He is a REW and kids found him scary, so he didn’t qualify for their bunny education program at schools, so he didn’t get socialized in the shelter, they didn’t know a thing about his personality because “we haven’t had time to do much with him”. If I cage him, he throws himself against the bars, jumps into the roof and hits his head, starts tearing at the bars with his teeth and generally has a panic attack. If it’s an open x-pen he does nothing but try to escape, including climbing it so it’s impossible to keep him in one. When I tried an x-pen which took up an entire room (the master bedroom no less, which is the animal room) I came in about an hour later to a weird noise, found him on top of the x-pen balancing on the wires where he’d climbed up it and couldn’t jump down because it was too high. With her there, I hope he doesn’t panic about being locked in to a pen, but is more interested in the cute girl.

Well, it’s a month tomorrow since his neuter. The other day he broke Stickers out of her area by knocking over the baby gate and they ended up laying together for a nap (free roam with me supervising since they were getting along). I tried the neutral x-pen together and all Powder would do is mount her, hold her down and if she tried to move he would start uh… “moving” until she stopped wiggling. I am guessing it was dominance, but he held her down for about 10 minutes and she got so stressed out she started making a whiny crying noise and I made him stop, petted them both (though he wanted nothing but to get back on her) and tried to get it to a positive point and then took her out.

Should I let him do that, even though it stresses her out? I don’t know if I could stand that noise she makes, it sounds so pitiful. There was no aggression beyond the holding down, no biting, no trying to fight.

So, after reading BBs thread (thanks jersey for pointing me there) I tried another bonding session.

I put them into the carrier and did a stress bond for about 10 minutes. They didn’t comfort each other, Powder went to the back and Stickers tried to claw out the front. I did it at the time when Powders energy level is the lowest.
Then into the pen they went and Powder wanted nothing but to mount her, as usual. She started immediately crying so I stopped him, petted her and held him a bit so he wouldn’t remount her.
He chased her for about 5 minutes and she ran, chase, run, chase, run. When he cornered her I stopped him since she tries to wiggle away/starts crying and there is no comforting her at all, she hates it and it is making her want nothing but to be away from him. They won’t even cuddle through the gate anymore because she runs from him.
After that he started BITING her for me stopping him. Argh. Just nips, no injury and he got spray bottled for it. I pushed them a little apart at the head and their bodies were near each other and petted them both to try to calm them down, they laid nearish each other for a minute and I ended it on that note to keep it positive.

Argh. He is so mean to her. She submits totally to him, he should be happy! She’ll even let him mount her a few times a day, but it isn’t enough for him, he just wants it again 2 seconds later. Sometimes I just wish she’d turn around and box him one on the nose to make him stop.

OK so it’s day #5 on their bonding tour (6 if you count Thursday when he broke open the pen). It’s 6:26am and he broke down the baby gate again despite my efforts of anchoring it. Must strengthen it again when I put her away. They seem to do better just letting them roam than trying to put them together in a smaller area, she has room to run away from him, so she doesn’t get so stressed.

So day 1 was: X-pen, humping for 26 minutes with a few breaks for poor Stickers. Powder didn’t want any breaks. Who needs viagra, just study bunny hormones! Sheesh.

Day 2: Stickers refuses to allow him to hump on her – she cries if he tries so I try to keep him from doing it, but he wants nothing else. Such a RUDE rabbit. Only make her put up with him for about 10 minutes, he won’t stop so I took her out.

Day 3: Much like day 2.

Day 4: Summary above.

Day 5: Stickers and Powder both work together to break open her baby gate (I guess that’s a good sign?) so she can come out. They aren’t fighting and I am here to supervise, so they’re running around. So far.. Powder has spent 20 minutes trying to get at her. He’s tried approach slowly and sniff noses, then mount. Sprint at her and try to catch her to mount, which fails miserably since she’s about 2x as fast as he is. Circle the room pretending he’s not interested, then try to sneak mount. Playing with her paper tunnel in her room to get her interested in him, then when she comes to see what he’s up to try to ambush mount. Fake offer grooming so he can pretend he’s doing nothing, then try to mount.

She WANTS to sniff, cuddle and groom him. He won’t let her. She’s asked for grooming, he won’t groom her, he just wants to mount. She’s tried to snuggle, he lets her lay down for a second then he can’t take it anymore and goes for a mount.

It’s different from his pre-neuter behavior, he’s not excreting that awful stench and literally shaking from the hormones telling him to mate with her (like when I brought her in the house, she was in her cage). But sheeeeesh. Rude much? I told him if he wants to have her he needs to try some grooming and cuddling first, but noooo, he doesn’t listen. I have a feeling after reading BBs thread on Jack this is going to be a LONG bonding procedure.

The vet said it could be a learned behavior since he’s older and we don’t know his history, it’s possible he was bred before I got him. At least he’s stopped honking.

I didn’t get to bond them yesterday, I had an awful headache, but today they are together and still the chase and try to hump game. Powder isn’t getting any better, even when she lets him do it instead of running. Before I put them up on Day 5 Stickers tried to groom him when he flopped out of exhaustion from chasing and it made him so excited he got up to try to hump her and the chase resumed. *sigh*

So, day 6, still having humpathon with Powder.

Stickers wasn’t stressed out too bad yesterday, so I let them stay out together until bed time. I think we had a little bit of a breakthrough, they ate hay together, Powder laid down and Stickers groomed herself near him without being harassed. Still no mutual grooming though. Not sure if Powder knows HOW to do that, he’s never groomed anything since we’ve had him.

Day 7: They’re out together, well, they both are out. Powder is exploring Stickers room and Stickers is sitting in Powders litter box/hay room. He’s NOT being a hump monster. Has he finally given it up and is willing to actually enjoy her company? We shall see. The poop wars are nearly over, only a couple of stray pellets in the last few hours of yesterdays bonding session and none so far today.

So, when do you know they are bonded and ready to be together?