Bonding 2 females

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

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- 08/14/2016 at 12:22 PM
  Emily
  Participant
  1 posts
  Hi everyone, I wanted to get some help with bonding my 2 female rabbits. I know that this is the hardest pairing, so I wanted to make sure I am extremely prepared.
  
  Here is a little background on the bunnies.
  
  Petrie is a 5 year old dutch who has been spayed for a long time and is a free range bunny in my bedroom. She is very sweet and has gotten along well with my cats.
  
  Belle is an 8 year old rex who came to me as a rescue. I had not previously planned on getting another bunny, but she needed a home ASAP. She is a little skittish from experiences at her previous home, but she is very sweet, and has been spayed and recovering for 2 weeks now. She is also free range, but is in my guest room.
  
  Since Belle is healed, I would like to begin bonding. I went ahead and ordered two large puppy pens and began putting the girls in separate pens that are next to each other for about a half hour each day in order to smell each other and get to know each other. My only issue is that they seem to not be interested in each other at all. They will sniff between the bars, but then they hop off back to whatever they were doing. Neither bunny nips or is mean to the other, but they seem really uninterested. I am not sure if it is safe to move onto removing the separator that is between them and combine the pens into one large one, or if they need more time together. Should I try putting them in each others space to try and get them more interested? I am not sure where to go from here.
  
  Thanks in advanced!
  
  Emily
- 08/14/2016 at 2:49 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  I would wait a little longer, as the minimum wait time after a spay/neuter is about a month and you said youve only been waiting for 2 weeks. Girls can also take up to six months to lose all of their hormones, but thats during rare cases. I would move the separator in two months and see how that goes. If its too bad (wont stop nipping, mounting, chasing, ect), i would add the separator back in and try again the week or two after
- 08/14/2016 at 8:03 PM
  caudex
  Participant
  104 posts
  Disinterest is a great start for rabbits.
  
  I think that if it were me, I would try bringing new bunny to live in a pen in the bedroom with Petrie. If there isn’t an immediate territorial meltdown, then just let them coexist while Belle heals and hormones die down. I assume you spend a fair bit of time in your room, so you can watch them interact and get a feel for what they’re thinking. Still introduce them loose in neutral territory, though.
  
  I know bonding stories here run the gamut from very easy to very hard. A lot of them have the midway step of being very friendly next door neighbors, who flop side by side or groom through the bars For what it’s worth, I bonded a third to an established pair, and it was extremely anticlimactic. Once he was healed, it was a two day process. I wish you an equally boring bonding story.
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