Addy, Bella, and Annie

[Addy]

Hello!

I recently (last night) got a new bunny and she already seems to fit into my pair perfectly.  She doesn’t fight back when Addy does his manly thing, and Bella pretty much ignores her.  Occasionally, there is a chase when she doesn’t want to deal with Addy.

What worries me is that she seems confined in the litterboxes in the back of the pen.  Should I instead seperate them and just limit it to bunny dates, or will she be fine?

[Otti]

I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to just leave a new bunny in your current bunny/bunnies’ cage until you’ve done at least a few days/weeks of having them separate and doing bonding sessions. You can’t monitor their behavior at night or when you’re not around, so though things might initially look good, you won’t really know until you see their behavior over time and a serious fight could still happen.

The new bunny needs to be housed separately and you need to go through the bonding process. It could be really quick but you still need to go through the process and then do the cementing phase so that you don’t put your bunnies in possible danger.

Someone else who has direct bonding experience might be better able to help you though.

[Otti]

Also, how old is your new bunny? Sometimes, adult bunnies will accept ‘baby’ bunnies just fine but things rapidly change once the baby bunny hits puberty and his hormones start going crazy. That’s another thing to be really careful about.

It’s also important to know if your bunnies are altered (neutered/spayed), so let us know about that too so we can better answer your questions.

[Addy]

Thank you for replying! I think I was worried about the speed it was happening, but the house rabbit society’s website does say it’s possible on their bonding page. They’ve been together overnight twice now, and I haven’t seen any ill effects.

The lady I got her from said she’s around 6 months and was spayed at an exotic vet. My older rabbits are altered and *sniff* going on four years. (My little babies are growing up.) I feel like they’re doing awesome. This morning, Annie’s really able to move about the pen, and there have been no fights. I think Addy is a lady’s bun because he pretty much instantly bond with Bella too when I got her back in 2008…he was just a tad bit more Don Juan in his younger days. I have already watched him groom Annie and they’ve cuddled a lot and she hasn’t exhibited any aggressive tendencies. Obviously, I’m keeping a very close eye on it, but I felt after their initial bunny date in my bathroom that they would do fine together in one cage. I’ve seen Addy not accept a bunny, which was my Remy, and this is not the same behavior at all.

[Otti]

I don’t know, obviously it’s your prerogative and I’m glad it’s going so well, but I personally don’t think I’d feel safe housing them together unsupervised so soon after they’ve been introduced, regardless of how well their interaction is going.

I’d want to see them act safely and happily together under my supervision over a few more day’s time before housing them together at night when I’m not there to prevent potential problems.

[Elrohwen]

I would stick to bonding dates for now and take it slowly. Once you feel confident about moving them into the same cage make sure you completely clean the cage (even better if you can move it, rebuild it, etc) so that it feels neutral. Bunnies can get along at first and then start a big fight – I would rather go slowly and know how they’re going to interact before leaving them in the same cage together.

[Author]

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