1) You can pre bond before they are neutered and spayed but you don’t have too. You can wait til afterwards to make it a little easier.

2) You can switch them between their enclosures as well as swapping bowls, toys, blankets etc. If you can’t swap litter boxes, that’s not a problem. Just put a little of their soiled litter in the other’s litterbox (just a tablespoon will do – pee and a few poops) Do this daily.

3) You need to wait at least a month after they’ve been neutered and spayed to allow their hormones to disipate so pre bond for a full month at least.

4) If you are swapping items and they are still being quite aggressive towards the items (i.e if you swap stuffies and they are attacking the stuffy) after the month is up, wait longer and continue to pre bond. The idea of pre bonding is to get them accustomed to each other’s smell but also it allows them to get any aggression out before they physically meet eachother so if they’re still showing aggression after a month, definitely wait longer. Positive signs would be them grooming the stuffies or just showing so interest/not being bothered by the presence of the other’s scent.

5) Prebonding is a crucial part of the whole procedure so really if you can’t pre bond, you shouldn’t do anything, i.e. don’t jump straight to physical sessions. That could be verrry dangerous. Try and find a way to make pre bonding a possibility because it really is so important.

Hi there  

I’ll answer your questions in order (to the best of my knowledge). 

1. Not necessarily, but their smell will change a lot once they are neutered, so personally I don’t see much value in pre-bonding before their hormones are settled. I would opt to wait, rather than have them get worked up over a smelly hormonal bunny in their territory 

2. Swapping who is in what cage every day or two is usually best. Try to time litter box cleaning so the box is actually dirty from the previous bunny for at least a few hours.  Place the cages or pens side by side if possible, but leave a space so they cannot contact each other (no nipping through the bars). 

3. This is variable. Really it comes down to how the buns behave towards each other and how they react when you swap cages. I’ve usually pre-bonded for 1 week, but I know others on this forum recommend several weeks. You might notice when you first start swapping cages, the rabbits will run around a lot, chin everything, mark all over outside the litter box, etc. They might run the fence and try to “get at” the other bunny. Then after a while, they will barely seem to notice they are in a new territory. They will not mark as much, they won’t run the fence, they might even lay near the other rabbit on the opposite side. You also will notice their behaviors start to sync up (they will groom at the same time, eat hay at the same time, etc.). Once you see a clear shift from territorial craziness to relaxed behaviors, you are usually good to start sessions. Never hurts to add in a bit more pre-bonding though if you aren’t sure. 

4. Do you mean during pre-bonding or regular bonding? Aggressive or territorial behaviors during pre-bonding include running the fence, grunting, trying to box through the bars, etc. You will be surprised at how high your buns can jump and climb during pre-bonding, so be very sure they cannot get to each other during this phase. Also don’t be too alarmed if you see these behaviors, they should settle down in time. Positive things I mentioned in the previous answer.  

5. Pre-bonding usually helps, but it isn’t entirely necessary (rescues don’t typically pre-bond when they bond bunnies). If it doesn’t work to swap cages, you can still swap bowls, toys, soiled litter from the boxes. If it really isn’t possible, plan to take it a little more slowly during your initial bonding sessions. Personally with my two, the boys would always be pretty high energy and really trying to mount during speed dating. Then after pre-bonding they were much more chill, because the other bunny wasn’t so new. So just be prepared to take things slowly (you should be prepared to do this anyway though… patience is very important with bonding ). 

PS. You didn’t ask about this, but once you do start sessions, find the most neutral space possible to work with them in. It is probably the most important thing…