it sounds like youre not bonded yet, so i dont think separating them is detrimental to your progress so far.

when i was bonding my rabbits, Annie and Tibbers, i worked 50 hours a week. Annie was very aggressive towards Tibbers for a long time–i had pretty much given up on them bonding, and gave them separate cages with a space they shared in shifts. one day i saw Annie grooming Tibbers through the bars of the cage and i realized something had changed because there was no aggression whatsoever. after that, the bonding process went really quickly. their next dates were significantly longer (7 minutes then 30 minutes then 2.5 hours then 6 hours then 8 hours) until they were together whenever i was home and awake. then i started letting them stay together while i slept. i still separated them when i was at work for at least a week before i took the plunge and let them stay together after i left the house. soon after, i was greeted by two very snuggly bunnies every time i came home.

the whole process, from their very first meeting until they were together 24/7, took about 8 months. it sounds like youre making progress. how long are your dates now?

i think when they’re pushing their noses together, they’re requesting that the other bun groom them. do you see them kind of hunker down when their noses are together? ive seen buns get into a stand-off when they’re both requesting grooming and both being stubborn, and that sometimes causes aggression. sometimes you can trick the bun into thinking it’s being groomed by petting it, which eases the tension

bonding can be really tricky! its important not to get too stressed about it because of course, the buns can sense it. two hours is good! keep at it!

It sounds like you’re rushing quite a lot. Once you bring a new bunny home it’s important to give them time to settle in (at least two weeks) before you start prebonding. This is because often when a bunny is in a new environment, it acts differently to how it will act in an environment its comfortable in. So you might introduce a pair, they get on well, then a month down the line they have a huge fight when the new bunny feels comfortable enough to challenge the old bun.

So, let the new one settle in for a couple of weeks, then start swapping them between each others hutches every day for a month. This is so they become used to the smell of each other.

After that, you can start doing short bonding sessions in neutral territory. Some people do a ‘marathon’ bond, where you literally leave them together and monitor them non-stop for at least a week until you’re comfortable that they’re bonded. But obviously, that isn’t practical for most people, so most people just work up to an hour a day, then increase it slowly from there. There’s nothing wrong with separating them, but it is important to try and do a session every day.

You also shouldn’t let them ‘just get on’ with fighting. I know some people advocate leaving them to sort it out, but that’s dangerous and counterproductive. You should separate them before fights occur, and need to be watching their body language closely. Biting and fur pulling must be stopped immediately, or they learn that the other bun is aggressive and can’t be trusted.

Grooming and lying next to each other is good.

You shouldn’t be leaving them unattended ever, until they’re bonded. It only takes a tiny misunderstanding for an all out fight to break out.

You should also be intervening to stop circling as that often turns into a ‘bunny tornado’ of fighting.

You haven’t said how long you’ve had the newest bun? But my opinion is that it’s still going too quickly.

Lots of bunnies don’t like being mounted, as it’s about signifying dominance when you’re bonding. If she runs, and Indie chases, you need to intervene.

It’s good that you did prebonding, but you seem to be going straight into very long sessions. I’ve been bonding my bunnies for over a month now, and I’ve only just got to doing 6 hours at a time. This is because if you let them slowly build up the time they spend together, they can build trust over time. If you leave them together for 12 hours, they haven’t really got comfortable together, unless you’re just going to marathon bond for a week or so.