Hey everyone. I have a one year old spayed female and a 9 month old neutered male. Our female has never had potty problems or tried to mark things with her chin. However, before our male was neutered he would have accidents and chin EVERYTHING. After he was neutered his bathroom habits were 100% improved, and he would only try to chin the females condo (he left everything else alone). We live in a small one bedroom apartment with an extremely small bathroom and bedroom, but a decent sized living room and kitchen (our bedroom is off limits to the buns). 

Before attempting bonding, our buns would each have the run of the kitchen and living room area at different times. They never showed any issues with this set up, it actually worked pretty well. We decided we wanted to be able to keep them in the same condo and have them out at the same time to make our lives easier, so we decided to try bonding. The only place that would be considered neutral in our apartment is the bathroom, so we started them off in the bath tub. Our male instantly tried to mount the female. She was scarred and my fiance didn’t wipe the tub out before we put them in, so their little feet were wet too that just added to the stress; it just wasn’t a good time! That bonding session lasted about 2 min. 

Next time we tried the car ride. There really isn’t anywhere that’s neutral in our apartment that would work besides the tub, so we took them on a car ride to grandpa and grandmas house. They were absolutely adorable in the car, snuggling together the entire time. We brought them into my parents bathroom and they didn’t seem to even acknowledge each other for the first 10 minutes. After that, the male tried to mount the female. He wasn’t super aggressive about it, but she obviously was not having it! She ran away and he chased her. Eventually he gave it up, and they went back to ignoring each other. When she would run past him though, he would try to chase her again. So we ended that session there, that was about 30 min. 

It is starting to get very cold here, about 35-40 on a good day, so now bonding is back at our apartment. 

We have started just letting them both out in the kitchen/living room area at the same time and supervising. 

Surprisingly, our male hasn’t tried to hump her! He tried to chin her once, but she let him and her tail fluttered like crazy when he did. There haven’t been any potty accidents and no excessive chinning on the males part. Basically what happens 90% of the time is our female will try to creep up on the male out of curiosity, and when he notices her she darts in the other direction. 

Today when they were out, the male hunkered down and the female touched noses with him for a few seconds. 

They have been getting along good, but definitely aren’t bonded and have never fought or been aggressive towards each other. What are everyones thoughts on the way we have been going about bonding? Is this an okay way to try? Any suggestions, tips, whatever is appreciated, thanks guys