Bonding a male and female

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This topic has 2sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 6 months ago by tobyluv.

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- 08/13/2016 at 2:15 AM
  Didi
  Participant
  17 posts
  Flynn is a 3 and a half year old female (spayed) – I have had Flynn for 3 years and she had bonded with another female who sadly passed away in January so she has been alone now for quite some time.
  Bertie is a 10 month old male (hasn’t been neutered yet) – he was rescued from the streets and had a huge abscess on his back which he had to have an operation on, he will be neutered next month. As far as I know, has never lived with other bunnies.
  Flynn has been in the entire house so neutral territory is very hard to find!
  
  Ok now to the bonding!
  
  Bertie is in a cage and Flynn has been hopping around it and pooping and weeing around it (she’s litter trained though!) and makes funny noises at him, almost like a soft sigh? When I get him out of the cage they ignore each other at first, sniff each other and then Bertie mounts Flynn. A few times he’s tried to mount her face and I pull him off immediately. When he mounts her from behind, he bites her back and she turns around and nips him. I have been pulling him off of her to avoid the biting but I’m not sure if this is something they need to work out themselves.
  Does this sound like the bonding is going well? Am I doing the right thing by pulling Bertie off Flynn and avoiding the nipping?
- 08/13/2016 at 11:48 AM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  You should stop trying to bond them until after he is neutered. Mainly because the mounting will slow down a lot, which will help as he wont be biting her and she wont be nipping him in return. After he is neutered, give him about a month so he can heal and drain his hormones. After that month, you can continue where you left off here. The mounting shouldnt happen as often after the neuter which will make bonding much, much easier
- 08/13/2016 at 11:57 AM
  tobyluv
  Participant
  3311 posts
  The first step in bonding is for both rabbits to be spayed and or neutered, so as Mikey says, you should not try to bond them at all, until Bertie has been neutered and a few weeks have passed. The nipping can escalate into full fledged fighting, with a result of severe injuries. Also be careful when Flynn is hoping around Bertie’s cage. Rabbits can fight through a cage and get severe bites on their noses or other body parts.
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