My neutered male house rabbit Oscar is 8/9 months old and I have had him since he was 8 weeks. He is a very sweet and mischievous bunny and we have a very good bond.

Oscar is completely free home he does have his own room in my flat but only uses it for the littler box, and food etc.

I adopted Lola from a local bunny recuse on Monday (31st of July). She is a tiny little bunny and has been housed with both males and females in the past – she is spayed and is 7months old. Lola is a hermaphrodite bunny. I adopted her because both her sisters had long been adopted and nobody wanted her she is a sweet and timid girl. Unfortunately the rescue could provide a bunny dating service due to lack of room at the time. She did offer a binding service which I have since asked about as I am completely new to rabbit bonding.

I have an xpen and so Lola was set up there in the kitchen initially. They sniffed eachother through the bars and seemed curious. I then tried a bonding session in the bathtub which did not go well at all. Oscar mounted Lola which she let happen initially then he tried the second time and she hopped away, he attempted again and she nipped this resulted in a fight with fur flying everywhere. I separated them and oscar jumped out. Having read that a session should never end on a bad not I attempted again placing oscar in and they fought again and he jumped out. When Lola was back in the pen they tried to fight through and so I had to put carboard around the bottom.

I decided to go stay with my parents over summer as I have time off being a teacher and the house is a lot more neutral. On the attemp in the pen together Oscar hopped over and Lola lashed out again so they were separated.

We went on a car ride yesterday and both took a while to settle so the ride lasted 45minutes to give them time to settle come together. That was all I did yesterday. Since Wednesday I have swapped their living environments every day only emptying litter trays. Marking with poo has calmed down a lot since then.

Today we went on a 40 minute car ride and their comforting eachother improved massively. I then put them in a pen together in the kitchen (neutral) they lasted an hour. There were several occasions where oscar went over to Lola and nipped her which she that ran away from and he chased her – I squirted him with water each time and he each time and he stopped he often stopped with a “no” Towards the end he did calm down and would go over to sniff her which she allowed but this would often turn to a little nip and a chase. Lola would occasionally nip back. During the house they both groomed themselves (Oscar on many occasions) Oscar also lay down conpkeyely relaxed and both ate some hay (from different piles) we then put them back in their respective rooms for the evening.

I am just wondering whether this is going in the right direction – Lola is very timid, of people and a little apprehensive of oscar too but is such a sweetie.

Providing it goes well tomorrow I wanted to try a longer session. I realise that they may need to establish a dominant bunny in the pair.

Do you think this is going well so far? Should I carry on myself or should I take them to the rescue to be bonded? I have relaxed a lot more with since yesterday’s car journey but am concerned they may not like eachother?

Any advice and feedback would be much appreciated. I have read many posts on here already as well as how to bond. I’m just a nervous momma.