Hello,

I got some great advice from this forum a few months ago when we got our new bun, Coconut, and hoping you can help me out again. Coconut is now about 7 months old and was neutered about 6 weeks ago. We recently bought a 7 month old female, Butterscotch, with the plan to spay her and then bond the two together to give Coconut some company. Butterscotch was very skittish when we got her about a week or so ago but was slowly starting to warm up to us. I kept her in a separate exercise pen near Coconut’s exercise pen (they could see and small each other, but not touch). Butterscotch kept escaping out of her exercise pen (it was only 2 feet instead of 3 feet like Coconut’s and I think she was just jumping out) and would go right up to Coconut’s pen and they would sniff/greet each other across the gate. Well, yesterday morning, one of my kids left Coconut’s gate open and Butterscotch went into Coconut’s pen. They seemed to take to each other very quickly and by the time we found her in his area, they were snuggled up in his house. So we’ve let them stay together since then. Since then, they don’t seem to fight and can often be found lounging next to each other, but we notice that Coconut is *constantly* trying to mount her, will paw at her a lot, sniffs her backside, nips/pulls her fur quite a bit. She doesn’t really retaliate, but does run away (with him chasing) when it bothers her. Is this normal behavior, or should I be worried and separate them again? Also, she is not yet spayed, although we have an appointment to do that in the next month. I have read quite a bit how important it is for both animals to be neutered/spayed before bonding and that the bond may be broken when Butterscotch goes to get spayed. Should I plan to keep them separate after she gets spayed and try to reintroduce them again after she has healed?

Thanks in advance for the advice!