Hello!

My boyfriend and I have had our first rabbit ever, Wilson, for two years now. We’ve decided to look into adopting another rabbit. We took Wilson back to the shelter he was adopted and had him meet his first bunny ever. 

As I just mentioned, Wilson has never ever seen another rabbit before. We were curious on how he would react. As expected, we got mixed reviews. 

Wilson is: Neutered, Male, Approx. 3 years old

The first rabbit Wilson visited was Bellow, a neutered male who is 3 years and 7 months. 

My bf and I fell in love with Bellow. He was very curious and relaxed, and was interested and curious in Wilson. Wilson was curious. They did some circling “bunny tornado”. Wilson nipped at him a few times, and he was separated right after. We pet Wilson while Bellow was sniffing at him, and Bellow even sort of went to lick at Wilson’s ears. Wilson let him, and even ate some lettuce off of the floor, but went back to his more aggressive stand of nipping and instigating. They appeared that they were going to mount at one point, but did not end up doing so. Overall, we ended up separating them because Bellow boxed at Wilson after Wilson nipped at his face. 

We tried a female, Nibbles, a 1 year old spayed bun. Wilson was more genuinely curious in her, but she did not want anything to do with him. Wilson turned his back on her, and she jumped on top of him and pulled his fur out, kicking him!  We separated them immediately and decided it wasn’t worth trying again. 

Overall, we were very interested in Bellow, and I felt that honestly, it went better with him than Nibbles. I was attracted to his personality and the fact that he is around Wilson’s age. What are your thoughts/opinions? We will be calling the shelter tomorrow and seeing what their policy is on hold/adoptions. The rabbits met in the “rabbit room” in which Bellow’s cage was, so we want to ask the shelter to let us go to a room that is 100% new to both Bellow and Wilson for a neutral setting. We also would like to try (if its okay with the shelter to hold/give us time to try to bond them/give Wilson some more exposure before bringing Wilson home) giving Bellow Wilson’s stuffed rabbit he snuggles with, and leaving Bellow a stuffed animal to snuggle with to give to Wilson. 

Does that plan sound okay? I know I’ve heard of several people adopting a rabbit and dealing with them disliking each other, but bonding them over time that way. I expect us to have to keep them in two hutch set-ups at first, and swap them every single day to give them both the feel of “owning” the territory. We are also already well equipped with a water bottle. 

Thoughts? Opinions? I just very much would like this to end up being a good experience for all of the buns!