This is my first post on the forum!

I am bonding my two male, neutered rabbits Dayglow and Hagrid. Dayglow was my first rabbit and I got Hagrid about a year later. Dayglow has free range of a room during the day and is in an ex-pen at night. There is a futon in that room that Dayglow loves to go under. It also has a carpet underneath it. Hagrid lives in an ex-pen inside Dayglow’s room.

We first started bonding them in the bathtub (dry, obviously) where neither of them had been before. There were a few squabbles, but then they stopped focusing on each other and more on trying to escape So we then moved them into the semi-neutral space, the hallway outside the bunny room. Dayglow had sometimes been allowed to play out there and we had let Hagrid there a few times too. They fought sometimes in there too, but soon they just started to ignore each other.

We also let Hagrid loose in Dayglow’s room while Dayglow was secure in his ex-pen. Dayglow would sometimes nip him through the bars, but we will probably take down the cages and let them be free range together all the time when they are bonded, so I’m not worried about that.

What I am worried about is that when we let them both in the room together (when Dayglow’s cage is locked) they fight underneath the futon. I am pretty sure that Dayglow is being territorial. Should we take away the carpet underneath the futon so it won’t smell so much like Dayglow anymore? Or will we have to take away the futon altogether?

Thanks so much