It sounds like you have the right idea! I would leave Boo to heal for a week, then I would recommend starting to swap them between cages. I know they’re used to living next to each other, but it’s good for them to lose a sense of what is ‘their’ territory, and it also helps them get used to each others scents, as Boo’s scent will change after his neuter. So leave Boo to heal for a week (neuters are generally much easier than spays), then spend the 4-5 weeks you were planning on swapping them between cages. Since you were planning on keeping them separate for this time anyway, there’s no harm in it even if you think they already know each other’s scents.

Then, you can introduce them in a neutral space. Are there any areas in your house that they haven’t been? The bathtub or a table top is often a good option. Your best bet is to start off with very short sessions, and if they go well, increase the time. It sounds like your two are pretty used to each other already, so hopefully you’ll be able to increase the time pretty quickly. When I say short, I mean 5 minutes 3 times on the first day – if that all goes well then do 10 minutes 3 times the second day, then stretch it to to two twenty minute sessions, until you can do an hour at a go. Just keep gradually increasing the time. You want to get to a point where they can happily spend 6-8 hours together a few days in a row, then you can test them overnight.

As for how long this takes – I just bonded a trio and it took 6 weeks from first session to bonded. It can take anywhere from 3 weeks to a few months, but I think around a month is usual.

As for when they’re bonded – you kind of see something click between them. Hopefully you’ll see mutual grooming, snuggling together, and moving round as a pack. If you see no negative interactions between them, and lots of positive interactions during 48 hours in their permanent home, you can call them bonded.

And a quick overview:

Positive interactions – grooming, mirroring actions, flopping, snuggling, eating together

Neutral – nipping, humping, ignoring each other, face to face stand offs,

Negative – chasing, biting, boxing, humping that goes on too long or is distressing the other rabbit, face humping.

Negative actions should be stopped immediately, the others should be allowed to continue  

I would also recommend reading through a few people’s journals on here, so you can see how bonding progresses, what to do if something isn’t working, etc. It’s really useful and helps to be prepared! Bonding can be really stressful and demoralising at times, so reading journals of people who have successfully bonded helps you to get an idea of what works, and see that it’s not all terrible when something goes wrong! I think it was about 10 days ago I posted about a bonding session that turned into a nightmare after one bun started spraying pee and humping anothers face  but now they’re all happy!

How far apart the bonding sessions are doesn’t really matter – the goal is to just get them used to the idea that they can spend time with the other rabbit, and it’s not terrible! So whenever suits you really. Once you’ve started bonding, it’s good to try and do sessions every day though, so that they dont lose progress. Of course occasionally you’ll have to miss a day, but it would be difficult to make progress if you only put them together once a week.

Nipping is how rabbits communicate, so it’s fine It’s different to biting – biting breaks the skin, or pulls fur. My female would sometimes nip the boys on the bum to tell them to move out of her way during bonding, but as long as they don’t escalate beyond a quick nip, that’s fine. You may have noticed your bunnies occasionally nip you to say feed or pet me, or move out of my way!

Outside space is generally quite neutral, as it doesn’t hold smells so well. It’s worth trying a variety of places – what works for some bunnies won’t work for others, so there’s certainly no harm in trying once you’ve got past the first hurdle of just getting them to be nice for a reasonable amount of time! My bunnies HATE the bathtub, and also immediately descended into lunging on the bathroom floor, but the less neutral living room worked really well for them, so it is worth experimenting if the bathtub seems to be putting them on edge!