House Rabbit Community and Store
What are we about? Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules.
The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
- This topic has 1sd reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
-
Hi!
It’s great that you’re doing research before bonding. Bunnies can be happy alone if they get lots of human attention, but most bunnies do do better with a bunny friend, so it’s fair to assume that he would most likely not be a ‘solitary’ bunny. The main reason I ended up getting more than one (I now have three, oops) was the thought that once I’d been to work, and factored in sleeping, even if I spent ALL of my spare time with him, he’d still be alone for 16 hours a day. In my opinion, that was too much.
You’re right that some of his destructive behaviour could come from boredom.
The most important thing for bonding is that both bunnies are neutered, which these two are, so that’s a good start! Then it’s important to take it slow. Let the new bunny settle in in a separate room for two weeks, then start swapping them between spaces so they get used to the smell of each other. After a month of that, you can try introducing them face to face in neutral territory, gradually increasing the sessions over a month.
The other important thing is that there’s no guarantee that any two given rabbits will bond. In my opinion, almost all bunnies will bond if you take it slow and pay attention to the steps, but some rabbits do just hate each other. You would need to make sure you had a plan for if they didn’t bond, if you weren’t happy to keep them separate forever.
Some people will tell you that two boys are harder to bond – in theory girl/boy pairs are easiest, followed by boy/boy then girl/girl. But, my female is really difficult and it took months for her to accept the boys, while the boys both loved each other immediately. So personality is really more important than gender
Their age also works in their favour – rabbits who have spent many years alone can be harder to bond, as can rabbits who have had previous bad experiences with other buns.I would really recommend looking through the bonding forum for some threads where people have documented their bonding journey. It gives you a good idea of how stressful the process actually is, but it’s also reassuring to read the success stories
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.