I think the problem is you’re expecting too much. Of course, they had a very positive first date, but that is just the start of the process. Now you have them both home, you should be doing some pre-bonding, so they get used to the smell of each other for at least a month, before you start doing dates. You’re in the girls territory, so it’s always going to take a bit of time for her to come round.

Have you been introducing them on neutral territory?

My girl rabbit also used to be friendly to our new boy when he was in his pen. I genuinely think it was because she liked seeing him locked up in there. If I had him out in another room, even if she was running around the room with their pens in, she would be furious that he wasn’t locked in his pen. It didn’t matter that SHE wasn’t locked in either, she wanted him to be.

I would advise doing the prebonding for longer, there’s no harm in it, although I know it can feel frustrating.

If you look around these forums, you’ll see that it took the majority of people a lot longer than a week. Rescues often seem to do it in a week, but they start off on neutral territory and can often dedicate more time to it than we can. They also have more bunnies to match, so can choose ‘easy’ bonds I suspect. Personally, it took me 3 months of prebonding before I stopped seeing aggression, then about 3-4 weeks of actual bonding. The good thing was, because they were so used to smelling each other I had pretty much no aggression during the bonding process. I think most people find it takes at least a month of bonding sessions before they feel comfortable that the rabbits are bonded.

Perhaps reading some of the diaries in this forum marked *bonded* will help you, I found it really useful to read other people’s journeys. Mine is up here too, as mine have only been bonded for a month!

The good thing is, yours do sound like they want to be friends! Give Ruby a bit longer to come round to the idea of a stranger in her home and I think you’ll have a much smoother time.