Advice on Bonding

[SiriusSybilG]

So, I’ve been bonding Sybil and Sirius for quite some time now. In the beginning, he groomed her and all was great. When they moved to the shared space, she was still territorial. So I took a break and restarted. Their cages are next to each other and there is no nipping through the bars but there is grooming. Now, she grooms him but he won’t groom back. I put them in a pen for their bonding sessions and they start off sharing a plate of veggies and then she grooms him. He groomed her back once, when he thought I wasn’t looking. But whenever I’m in there, he will let her groom him for a few seconds then run away. She doesn’t chase him or anything. This continues the whole bonding session. I don’t know if I should move them to the shared play area again. Today she did a binky while they were in there so I’m confused. 

In my opinion, I think he is scared of her or just indifferent to her. 

[MoveDiagonally]

When you moved them in to there shared area did you deep clean and re-arrange it? A lot of rabbits after being bonded need to cement in a “new” neutral area. This can be accomplished by the cleaning/re-arranging. How did you go about bonding them originally?

Since you took a break from bonding you might need to take steps backward to move forward. I might even start completely over and see how things go. Try some sessions in a neutral area and see how they get along. If they are having the same problems work on them there before moving forward to semi neutral and so on. Going back to the beginning will show you what stage their relationship is at in the process and where they need work.

[SiriusSybilG]

They were never fully bonded. I tried over the summer to bond them the first time. First using the bathroom and when they got comfortable using a larger space. Eventually they got up to having a shared play time and they would go in and out of each others cages, spending most of their time in his. She would get upset if he touched things in her cage, she would let him come in just not touch anything.

I moved at the beginning of August, so everything is pretty neutral. I started again in the bathroom and then worked up to a x-pen in the kitchen keeping them on tile and that is where they are now.

[MoveDiagonally]

I understand a bit better. I think the shared play time involving their cages is/was the issue. You really can’t just combine current cages/space while bonding rabbits. As you saw, it leads to territorial problems.

I would continue doing sessions until they get along in semi neutral space. After that I would move on to cementing. Cementing is the last stage of bonding . You start by preparing an area that will be their shared home by deep cleaning and moving stuff around to make it as “new” as possible. You then put the rabbits in the area and supervise them until they get along for 24-48 hours. After that they’re considered bonded. This time needs to be 100% supervised and the rabbits should not be separated unless you are worried about serious injuries. Instead of separating when/if a fights arise it’s better to stress bond them and return them to the cementing session. Anytime you have to intervene the 24-48 hours “resets”.

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