Also Sherlock keeps peeing everywhere, excessively. He drinks so much water I have to replace his two bowls almost twice a day. I’ve lined his cage with newspaper so he doesn’t get soaked in his own urine when I’m out of the house but is this an overly aggressive thing for him to do or will it die down?

The fighting is normal? I was worried that him wanting to bite her was abnormal because a lot of the first encounters I’ve read about just deal with territorial behaviors, not aggressive ones.

So I tried unsuccessfully for 3 days to get my bunnies to get along in the bathtub. Sherlock would just immediately start growling and ripping chunks of Simba’s fur out and I would get nervous and separate them, frustrated by the lack of progress. Tonight I decided to take them completely out of the apartment and try to bond them, I worried that the mere scent of the apartment was making Sherlock territorial. Well I took them out into the parking lot in a pen made up of two halves that I could maneuver to make as big as 4’x4′ or as little as possible. They chased each other a little bit and nipped at each other but nothing even close to the bites Sherlock was taking out of Simba the days before. We stayed out there for about an hour, slowly decreasing the size of the pen until they were forced to be touching each other. They stopped nipping and started laying nose to nose, fighting for grooming. When they completely stopped fighting we went inside to the bathtub for 30 mins and they still didn’t nip or show any signs of aggression. My roommate and I made a pen in the corner of the room where we had furniture sitting and the bunnies had never been and put them in there, blocking the living room from their view with cardboard and after an hour we took the cardboard down. There have been no fights, only competing for grooms. It’s been an unbelievable improvement that I can hardly fathom. I have fresh bites on my hands from Sherlock simply smelling Simba only 3 days ago. We plan on keeping them in the pen for another 24 hours and if they are cuddly by then moving them closer to where the cages are.

This is the pen in the parking lot

I will note that Sherlock actually seems quite dejected though. He has stopped following Simba around and has taken to loafing on the edge of the pen. Simba has been hopping around and over him and demanding grooms and he hasn’t responded. He actually looks like he’s asleep. But no aggression still so I’m hopeful!

It has been 12 hours, about an hour ago Simba started jumping over Sherlock and trying to kick his back. We stress bonded them in the carrier for 15 and cleaned out the pen of scent. We fed them their pellets and now Simba is laying pretty close to Sherlock while he eats.

What is the kicking on the back maneuver?

18 hours, Simba and Buns avoid each other. They sleep on opposite sides of the Pen and alternate litter box use. I’m going to take them outside again. Hopefully they’ll be a little stressed but maybe they will relax and have fun in the grass as well. I’m wondering if a more positive environment will perk Buns up or will make them more aggressive.

Yesterday I drove around for an hour with the bunnies who cuddled wonderfully. I let them hang out in the pen before I stress bonded them again and took a 20 minute walk with their carrier.

We are going on 40 hours of the bunnies being together. I reduced the size of the pen to the size of a litter box in order to force them to be together. During the last 12 hours there were two scuffles which were a result of Simba getting testy when Sherlock gets close to her and then he would run away and she would chase him. I sprayed Simba just because they were in tight quarters and Sherlock does not scare easily so if he was worried I was worried.

That happened over 7 hours ago though and since then they’ve been neutral. My roommate and I have been alternating sleeping and when I woke up they were hungry so I had to expand the pen and feed them their daily pellets. I’ve decided to leave the pen expanded and see if they will try to hang out together.

My Sherlock Buns has turned into the biggest baby. He just hops on over to Simba and loafs next to her. He looks like a rice-ball its so cute. Simba is being very aloof about spending time with him but she is actually showing small improvements. Instead of hopping away from him she settled down about an inch away. She’s still fidgety though, Sherlock just sits there as still as possible. I like to think he’s trying to be a statue so she won’t run away from him.

Sherlock has truly surprised me. I got him neutered over a month ago and since then he has been really spunky. When I brought Simba home he showed the first real signs of aggression. He attacked my hand after I worked a pee-mat out of Simba’s rump one night even after I had washed my hands. He refused to hang out with her in the tub and was just trying to take bites of her. After stressing them out in the parking lot though, he has reverted back to the baby bunny I first met. He literally only wants to cuddle with Simba. It’s actually really funny to see him inch his way over to her with his eyes kinda closed hoping she won’t notice him.

Another plus that has come out of this, I got Simba about 2 weeks ago and she came to me very unhealthy. She was grey and brown instead of red in coloration, she was losing fur around her eyes because of crust, she had a huge pee-mat and poopy butt. Her poos were so small it made me laugh because Sherlock is half her size with poop more than twice the size of what she manufactures. Her pee was literally drops, I would see drops of it hanging onto hay because there wouldn’t be enough to go all the way down to the litter. And it seemed thick in consistency. She’s also way overweight from endless pellets, I can’t even feel her skeleton.

So I put her on a diet immediately, but it was apparent she barely had an appetite so the cut down on pellets didn’t really affect her but I worried because she was so big. I began trying to feed her vegetables, but the only thing I found that doesn’t upset her stomach is cilantro and she isn’t quick to eat it so it starts to dry out and wilt. I noticed her poos were becoming darker and a little bigger. Since I started bonding them (about 40 hours ago) he hay intake has increased, though her appetite for pellets or veggies hasn’t. Also she has been drinking a lot of water and peeing pretty frequently. Her poos are getting larger and darker too which I’m happy about.

I’m guessing the stress bonding makes her hungry and thirsty. She has also been cleaning herself excessively and looks red now which is great. Sherlock also looks great because he’s lost a lot of aggression and his hears hang around his face nicely again. I missed him like this.

Bonding has been thus far stressful and tiring, I haven’t gotten much sleep, but it seems the bunnies have accepted they’re together, they aren’t picking fights, they are just struggling to learn to cuddle. I’ve read a lot of opinions on short and frequent bonding vs. marathon bonding and I think both have their pros and cons. I can tell my bunnies are getting pretty tired, Sherlock sleeps a lot and seems pretty down-trodden when Simba rejects him, but at the same time I think I have also seen a lot of improvement. Even if it isn’t necessarily them cuddling with each other just seeing them eating more and pooping more is always a good thing.

I deconstructed Sherlock’s cc pen last night and cleaned out Simba’s pen (she has the bigger one). My roommate and I have 2 more days when someone will be home at all the hours of the day so I’m hoping that within the next 56 hours the bunnies can figure out how to love each other and I also hope there are no more scuffles because it actually is starting to break my heart to see Sherlock rejected.

I plan on stressing them later tonight if there are any scuffles or they just plain avoid each other. Otherwise if all is going smoothly I’d rather they take their own pace.

This is from when I had reduced the pen size to the size of the litter box, Buns flopped in it and Simba couldn’t hop away from him.

This was in the bathroom after the 1 hour car ride. Buns was hungry and Simba was tired.

I have tricked Sherlock into grooming Simba 3 times now, but I’m going to try the banana trick as soon as I get some bananas.

Sweet Sherlock Buns on his back. 

50 hours in and we have moved into the old bunny room. We have avoided this room because this was the room where they were both housed. Sherlock was particularly territorial of this room only days ago and now doesn’t seem to care. He keeps hopping in the litter box and smooching his body against Simba’s. Simba is pretty chilly towards him though. She thumped at him once but after a squirt of the water bottle she’s calmed down. I plan on being up all night monitoring them just in case, but all seems quite well. My cat has been particularly interested in my bedroom since the bunnies moved out and has actually spent a good amount of time hanging out in the freshly cleaned bunny cage that will be their permanent home after the successful bonding (not if, when, it will happen!). I’m hoping the cat scent has helped get rid of any left over remnants of bunny scent.

Today the bunnies spent a good amount of time sharing the same space. Buns has been making quite the effort to touch Simba in any sort of way and Simba has simply been turning her face away from him in a very cool fashion. But Buns doesn’t seem fazed by it, if anything he just flops out and takes up more space while she presses herself into the corner of the litter box. I think it’s funny.

66 hours in. I put them in a pen in the final room. Last night Simba and Buns were chasing each other. There was plenty of fur pulling and it took me a while to break it up. Almost immediately afterwards Simba starting thumping at him again so I took them out of the pen and shoved them in a NIC cube for the rest of the night. She stared out the corner as far as she could stay away from him and he cuddled with her butt. This morning after feeding I took them with me to get breakfast tacos (it was a nice day) and after that put them in a cardboard box with hay. The box is small enough that they basically have to touch. Sherlock seems to trust Simba fully. He’s not scared of her, he hops over to her to sit next to her and likes to cuddle with her rump (the only part of her body she can’t hide from him when she’s hiding her face). Simba however is having trust issues. She tenses up every time he hops over to her so I’m just going to have to continue stress bonding them. I’m thinking about leaving them next to a running dishwasher for a couple hours since that seems to put them on edge. I feel like I’m on the home stretch. Simba needs to chill out and trust Sherlock though and after everything they’ve been through I’m wondering what else I could possibly try. Just gotta keep stress bonding I guess.

76 hours in. We put banana on Simba’s head and Sherlock cleaned it very well, hopefully tricking Simba into believing she was being groomed. She is still aloof toward him. She sits in the litter box facing the corner.

120 hours in, Simba has kinda stopped avoiding buns. I had a family emergency and left them for the past 24 hours with my roommate. When I came back tonight they were sitting together on top of a chest in their play area. It is so cute to see them just sitting next to each other and cuddling. I’m thinking they will spend the night here, if there is no chasing tonight then I will probably move them into their permanent home (literally 4 feet away) and considered them bonded. I’ll try to get some pictures of them being wonderful.

140 hours in and I am considering them bonded. I have moved them into their permanent home and although they have been more preoccupied with exploring the cage, they have touched bases a couple times and there was not a hint of hostility. It feels nice to have the bunnies back in their cage, I can finally clean up around the house and relax. Seeing the bunnies finally getting along is extremely rewarding and makes me want to get a third bunny to add to the warren.

Sherlock has way more energy than Simba. I think he actually wears her out.

Simba is not a fan of the slippery floor but until they get better with the litter box I don’t want to put carpet in there so she has resorted to sleeping in the basket which is super cute so win win.

You can barely see Simba but she is directly above Sherlock in the basket still. Sherlock looks like a rice ball.

This is the entire cage. It used to just be Simba’s but I cleaned it out and now it belongs to both of them. Sherlock actually never played with toys before meeting Simba. I think Simba taught him how to play with them. He’s been naughtily chewing on the basket she is resting in right behind the willow tunnel.

Lastly is my two bunnies hanging out in the basket together. It makes me happy to see them together because I cannot offer them everything they can offer each other. I think Simba has really grown to like Sherlock. This morning he actually escaped their shared pen and she was really worried when I brought him back. If I get any other cute pictures and I’m feeling bored I’ll probably post them here but otherwise I encourage anyone having trouble bonding their bunnies to be patient because the end result is so lovely.

Thank you! It was hard work but so worth it

Actually the tub totally didn’t work for me. I took them to the parking lot, then the semi-neutral living room, then the same room as the cage, then the cage. Sherlock was more scared of the outside so if he was being aggressive, I’d take them outside for a couple minutes. If it was Simba being aggressive I would go for a car ride because that stressed her out more. The stressing helped them rely on each other more than feeling autonomous and aggressive. I tried to be flexible with how they were acting, any slight aggression, even just avoiding each other and I would stress them. 

You should feel encouraged! Be confident, observant, and one step ahead of the bunnies and you’ll succeed!

Good luck