All Was Well But Now…

[hummerbee]

I had asked some advice before because my two buns were circling each other and my resident male would nip at the new female as she passed by. Well it was suggested to let them work it out and/or wait for another couple of weeks as she had been spayed two weeks prior.

 Well, I tried a few more sessions monitoring them and she groomed him back! I almost squealed I was so excited, but that would’ve ruined it. They did this for a few days and I waited at least a week before I moved them out of neutral territory and back into the living room where my male was settled into before. Things were going fine for yet another week in this territory, but since yesterday morning…they’ve gotten into more vicious circling than they had before. It’s happened three times since yesterday when it first happened. Once in her cage where they both were, once on the living room rug that night, and a short while ago in his cage today. They’re cages are right next to each other, they groom each other several times a day, they’ve swapped cages for the night several times, she’s not afraid of him as she doesn’t run or hide from him at all, they’ve stayed in the same cage for hours (supervised during the day) and have done fine…sleeping next to each other/grooming.

 I’m assuming this is a territorial problem. He still tries to mount her on a daily basis but it’s usually on her head and she hops out underneath him, she bolts if he tries mounting her properly. If this continues, would it be best to try putting them into new neutral territory? Possibly some stressing?

 I was pretty thrilled they were doing so well, and hopefully I didn’t screw it up by moving them so soon. We just got a piece of furniture off craigslist that we’re going to turn into an indoor hutch for them both to stay in, so I hope they can work it out

[MoveDiagonally]

It sounds like you’re trying to get them to live together in one or both of their existing homes. I think this is causing a lot of the territorial issues. The most successful bondings I’ve done or seen follows the same basic progression.

1. Neutral – somewhere neither bunny goes or can consider their territory. Once they get along you move on to semi-neutral.
2. Semi neutral – somewhere both bunnies have been but neither live or have claimed as territory.
3. Cementing – You clean/neutralize the area that will be their new home. Supervision until they have not fought for 24-48 hours (usually over a weekend, sleeping next to them, ect).

[Author]

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