Hi everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well and thanks in advance for answering my queries. I have two female rabbits-Cinnabun (Holland dwarf) and Leo (Holland Lop). Cinnabun is Eight months old and Leo is 1.3 years old. Both are spayed female rabbits around 2 months back and are well settled in the house in two different rooms. Cinnabun had a brother Oreo who passed away recently around 2 months ago. And then I decided to get a rabbit for keeping Cinnabun company. Unfortunately, I got a female rabbit thinking it was a male. But Leo is a very calm bunny so I decided to take my chance.

After 2 months of Leo spaying, I started with the gradual pre bonding process with changing their food trays, water bowls and stuffed toys. There was no aggression or disliking seen in two rabbits. So I decided to do another pre bonding for 3 days with fences in between in a neutral space and no aggression seen either.

Then this Sunday evening I decided to start the bonding process. I took them for a car ride for 15 minutes and put them in a 2*2 area with exercise pen/fences.

To my surprise, Leo got relaxed around Cinnabun and started grooming Cinnabun within the first 3 hours into bonding. At the 5 th hour, Cinnabun groomed back Leo. In the night, they even flopped around each other and were even grooming themselves. I left them to be along with each other for the entire night and then the morning next day. They also shared some greens and food in the morning together with no aggression or issues. Also during this 24 hours, I saw Leo grooming Cinnabun only once/twice although from the looks of it she seems to be the shy and skittish rabbit.

Around the 2nd day afternoon, I increased the space to 2*4 and I think that’s where the issue started. Cinnabun started associating one corner of the pen as hers and started grunting if Leo comes near her. Although regular grooming was to be seen from Cinnabun grooming Leo forehead and ears, she still was reluctant and started circling (nose to tail) Leo in the late afternoon. So on the 2nd night , I cut down the space back to 2*2 and then kept them on top of the washing machine for another 15 minutes. In the first two hours no issues seen but Cinnabun again started circling (nose to tail) Leo when she sniffed the side of Leo while when they are head to head, Cinnabun agress to pet Leo when asked for it.

Again, I took a step back, and put them in the exercise pen with fences in between so they can interact and see each other but not get in touch with each other. I let both of them in for 6-7 hours and then swapped both again for another 6 hours with no issues seen. They shared the food too in these times facing each other.

Yesterday in the night, I decided to put them each together in a 2*2 exercise pen and started the bonding process again. As expected, for the first 30 minutes both were not pleased. And right after that, Cinnabun started grooming Leo continuously. Then after few hours into the night, Cinnabun started circling (nose to tail) Leo. Although, occasional grooming was a part of it between those circling cycles.

But I feel like it’s going into a circle and I am not able to go past the circling/chasing even within that small space. Should I let them continue the chasing and figure out three hierarchy or should I take a step back again.