Hi everyone,

Hoping to get some thoughts/feedback on my bunny bonding experience over the past week and see if anyone has any advice if it sounds like we’re doing something wrong.

We have a female 8 month old mini lop named Bailey who we’ve had with us since around 13 weeks of age. She has been spayed. A few weeks back we decided that we wanted to get her some company so we went down to the RSPCA and rescued an Angora cross named Henderson. Henderson has been neutered and the vet estimates that he is around 1 year old. He has a lovely temperament and loves being fussed over.

Here is what we’ve done so far;

Day 1 – Day 6: We’ve moved Bailey inside for the winter and happen to have 2 generously sized bunny cages which we have set up facing each other so that the bunnies can get used to being around each other. We have swapped out toys, boxes, water bottles and litter trays over the week to help them get acclimatised to each other’s scents. During feeding time, we have put their food bowels right next to each other either side of the bars to get them used to eating next to each other.

Day 7 – (MEETING 1) Bailey & Henderson meet for the for first time. We put them in the kitchen as this is neutral territory. The floor is covered in boxes, toys and leaves as distractions and the rabbits hop around with each other for half an hour. They give each other the odd sniff but nothing much. Henderson shows little to absolutely no interest in Bailey and Bailey has the odd sniff but doesn’t seem phased either. I’ve read a lack of interest is a good sign. Anyway they’ve had half an hour so we separate them again happy with a good first meeting.

Day 8 – (MEETING 2)They spend roughly another half an hour together and it follows a very similar trend to meeting 1, but this time in the living room. The odd sniff, but mostly ignoring. Perhaps two half an hour meetings was too long but I’ve read that if the meeting is going well extend it for as long as possible…perhaps that wasn’t the right thing to do though because after around 30 mins Henderson starts to mount Bailey continuously. At first nothing too intense but then he starts to mount her from the front rather than behind and is being very rough. Bailey clearly does not like it and starts to struggle and run away, they start chasing each other round in circles which I’m told is a bunny tornado so I separate them and that’s it for meeting 2. Henderson at one point did have a grip of Bailey’s skin with his teeth but there is no blood and Bailey shows no sign of injury.

Day 9 – (Meeting 3)We decide to have them meet in the kitchen again as it is more neutral. They hop around for around 10 minutes again, exploring showing little interest but after 10 minutes Henderson starts being rough again, mounting Baileys face. We separate them numerous times but Henderson really wants to Mount her. I assume this needs to happen somewhat for Henderson to assert some sort of dominance but he is very rough so we spray him with water to discourage. They are separated again.

Day 10 (Numerous meetings) – We give them three little meetings in the kitchen again, each for around 10 minutes following a similar pattern with them not showing interest at first. Henderson is mounting Bailey but she is running away a lot less, almost as if she’s accepting her fate that Henderson is the top bunny? Eventually Henderson keeps going to mount her face so we discourage him with separating him and water spray every time he does it. You can see he is starting to associate mounting her face with the water bottle so hesitates a bit more but once he sets Bailey in his sights he really wants to mount.

Today is Day 11. They’ve had 5-6 meetings now. From what I’ve described what do you all think? Are we doing everything right or would you suggest changing it up a bit?

Sorry for the essay, I just want to paint the best picture possible. We really want this to be a successful bonding and having never done this before we are starting to feel a bit frustrated but we are desperate to make this work!

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!