Accidental first meeting

[Nutmeg]

Hey! So this happend on Monday night… but wanting your bonding expert thoughts on what this may mean for future bonding sessions…

Back story:
Ok so our bunny’s were both spayed and neutered on July 11th (so almost a month ago) and both are fully recovered. 
I did not see any major hormone spikes so far (YAY!) and Rupert (Aka Poopert) has stopped territory marking and is almost fully litter box trained (Double YAY!) 

Anyways, I have started pre-bonding them – which I have been kind of doing all along – but start to do it more seriously as of last week but swapping full cages. 
They share the inside of bunny land as their play area (One at a time obviously) and they have also stopped chinning everything when they come out after the other one has been out. I also make sure to pet one right after the other so that they are used to me smelling like the other one.
There has been ZERO aggression towards each other and – during 100% supervision – I’ve allowed short interaction through the cage bars… Rupert grooms Penny like crazy.. she smushes the side of her face right up to the side of her cage bars and he grooms her through it. She has not groomed him through the bars, she kind of goes up and sniffs him, but then goes about her business.
BUT she grooms the stuffed bunny that smells like him. 

So I have been very hopefully that this will go well. 

**Sorry for the ramble (lol)… I went and put Rupert back in his cage and let Penny out for her play time. The secondary cage door that keeps them 100% separate, so not even through the cage bars, hadn’t clicked shut and I hadn’t noticed… (ugh bad Meaghan) So thinking they were fully separated I went upstairs to grab a drink. when I came back down stairs Penny had gotten through to Ruperts side! 
I instantly was like “No No NOooo No NO.. out out” as I came rushing down the stairs (as this was not the controlled first meeting I had planned) and Penny hearing me come down hopped back out – Rupert instantly followed her out – Penny turned around and put her head down towards him (probably expecting grooming) and instantly proceeded to hump her face! 
So I ran in, picked him up, put in back in his area and Properly closed the door. 
Penny instantly went back over and spent the next hour trying to figure out how to get back to where he is… so she’s obviously not upset by having her face humped LOL. 

So going forward, I’m still waiting for any post neuter hormones to work themselves out… but as I hadn’t been seeing any – he hadn’t even been humping his stuffy anymore – I am now worried he is just going to try and hump her continuously when I do their first meeting in neutral space up stairs, as neither of them have been up there before. 

What should I do if that happens… everything I read says to stop face humping right away and to stop regular humping if it goes on longer than 10 seconds…. but what if he just keeps trying to hump her and nothing else? I don’t want her to start getting peeved off at him lol. I know I would be if I was her LOL

[sarahthegemini]

Ah, the accidental meeting. I wouldn’t be too worried, it happens to the best of us

I really wouldn’t be concerned about humping yet. It will absolutely happen but it doesn’t mean he’s going to be relentless about it…but if he is, we can cross that bridge when it comes to it. My boy bun didn’t hump my female much during bonding (I marathon bonded them) it was maybe 5 times a day at the absolute most. And after 10 days, he stopped. He got the look that he wanted to attenpt but he didn’t bother. Maybe he knew she wouldn’t tolerate. Plus he’s quite easily distracted lol. During those first 10 days tho, he did often try and face hump, in fact he still does occasionally like once every few months (he’s a terror ?) but I think that’s because Buttercup stays still if he does. If he tries it the ‘right way’ she runs off!

If he does face hump, stop him immediately and move him to her back end if you can. If she’s not distressed with him humping her the right way, I wouldn’t intervene. If she does look frustrated, you can stop him and then do the pet and smoosh

[Nutmeg]

Thanks Sarah! I think I was extra worried because he was a relentless humper of his stuffed bunny hahaha

And yes, Penny stayed completely still – it was for maybe 4 or 5 seconds while I was getting down the stairs and in there (felt like longer lol)

Its funny because the ONLy thing I was worried about with bonding them was maybe some food aggression, as they are food pigs.. and  the humping… I would have been floored if there was any regular territory aggression… and the FIRST thing he does his hump her face (*facepalm* haha)

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