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You are right in that you don’t want the process to be too stressful on your senior bun. I also have a senior bun and have bonded him twice now. Once to his first mate, then again to another when his first mate passed away. I also tried him in a quad but decided to stop because the two boys were being too aggressive and I didn’t feel comfortable with it. So you will need to trust your gut on whether it’s worth it, whether it’s a good match, and who you are doing the bonding for. He might be just as content to have another rabbit as a neighbor as he would to be completely re-bonded.

So the first thing I notice is that you have only swapped food bowls and toys for pre-bonding. I would completely swap which bunny is on each side if possible, and if not then swap sort of dirty litter boxes. When you say Maggie is very interested in him, what types of behaviors does she show through the fence? My sense is that you should continue side swaps until Maggie doesn’t really seem that interested in Chewy, or she seems very calmly interested (like flopping near him, mirroring behaviors, grooming in his presence). The full side swaps is also important to mingle scents, which is extra important since Chewy is blind.

Aside from his reaction towards aggression, how does Chewy behave after and during the dates? Does he eat and poop normally right after, or does he show any signs of stress?

As long as he is not showing signs of stress due to pre-bonding or the actual bonding sessions, then I think it is OK to continue, but just go at his pace. If he seems like he needs a day or so off, that’s fine.

My last question is, how big is the bonding area and how neutral is it? It should be very neutral, ideally not within smell range of their home areas. I also wouldn’t go for banana just yet. I’ve found that early on when things are tense it can make them a bit confused and kind of over excited (like if one bun is excited about the banana and the other is just worried about the other bun). I would instead focus on building some calm interactions between them. I like to pet a lot in early sessions, you can even smoosh them side by side if they will accept pets and just pet them a ton to swap their scents. Or wait until they approach each other and put their heads down for grooms, then just start petting them.

I also like to use a larger size space, so they have space to move away from each other if needed. I’ve always had things escalate to fights more quickly in small spaces.

So yeah, to sum up I would pause bonding for a bit and do some more pre-bonding. If that all goes well, then I would focus on building some calm and positive associations in bonding sessions and just see how they do. 🙂

That sounds like very good progress! I would keep up what you’ve been doing!

Not every grooming request has to be met (you just don’t want to see it turn into bickering), and settling into cuddling instead is wonderful (that’s often what bonded pairs do).