And things were going so well…

[Lyassa]

So my two buns Castiel and Cocobuki are trying to kill each other now.

I got Buki two weeks ago and the initial sessions were going great. Buki had been neutered about a month ago and was still a bit humpy so Cas would nip him if he tried it but other than that they seemed to tolerate each other. Thier pens are a few inches apart and they will both sleep as close as they can to each other, which for me had always been a sign my buns were bonding well.

Cas is a bit agressive but until the last few days it was pretty much normal dominance nips… Now it’s full out I’m gonna kill Buki.
Buki never nipped or fought back until Cas started full out attacking him a few days ago. Buki is never the first to bite or attack and EVERY time Cas sees him even if it’s from ten feet away Cas charges Buki and they both try to kill each other…

This is way beyond anything I’ve seen while bonding other bunnies and I need advice…

It’s just luck that only I have been hurt… Stupid human used bare hands to break up fights.

[LBJ10]

Have you tried any stressing techniques?

[Lyassa]

I tried the bathtub. It’s an awful sloped and slippy thing and I thought Cas was going to have a heart attack he was so upset… Then he saw Buki and forgot about being upset. I’m going to try the car but I’m losing hope

[LBJ10]

Maybe they need a break. Sometimes giving them time to regroup before continuing with the bonding sessions helps.

As for stress bonding, car rides have proved successful for a lot of people. You can also try putting them in a box and dragging it around. Shake the box to interrupt any attempts at fighting.

[BubbaBunnies]

I had the same problem in bonding my buns (you can read my day-to-day thread on it here https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/134387/Default.aspx but don’t comment as its a couple months old).
A couples days break form each other should clam them down bit, but of course will not totally eliminate all their feelings. Put their cages in separate rooms for about 2-5 days and just have one on one time with each.
Then try stress bonding like LBJ10 said. I think I did the box on the dryer. If all goes well there then put then in a new small bonding space thats slippery. What ended up working for me was just doing an extended session and I found that every time I would bring them together for a session they would kinda go through the same stages of aggression and we were getting no where. If you are interested in the marathon bonding, I put my whole experience with pictures in the link above. Although it took over 4 days of my life, I don’t think they would have bonded the conventional way so it was worth it.

[Kaydeedemetrious]

I am having the same trouble at the moment! My original bunny Fred (only 4 months older than the new bunny, Ginger) is attacking Ginger in a full out i’m going to murder you way. Ginger is so good about it. She isn’t fighting back what so ever, just lays flat and is completely staying out of the violence. She will stay completely still and tuck herself under him and he will still attack hard. Fred has drawn blood from me multiple times as I am like you, using bare hands to break up the fights. I have tried the car ride and the bathtub, however the same thing sorta happens. Ginger will lay down close to fred and even grooms him, but within seconds Fred is at her throat. I don’t know if because Ginger is still only 4 months old that she just doesn’t fight back or knows how, or if she is ok with fred doing this. I am at a completely loss as to what to do. I am going to try some of the marathon bonding next, I am off next week so I think I just need to suck it up and start it. I have even switched them in their cages to get used to smells and I have no idea why they aren’t remotely close to each other yet. They have lived in the same house for 4 months now.

Please post if you find anything that works!

[lisakya]

Hey! When you do a bonding session are you sitting outside of their bonding area? I ask because when I started bonding I stayed outside of the pen, or bathtub or wherever I was attempting the session but sat just on the outside ready to break up any fighting. There ended up being a couple of bad fights and I became so nervous every time I was about to start a session. So I brought them back into the shelter I had got my second bunny from to see if they could help. And it turned out, with my bunnies, sitting in the area with them made all the difference. If they put their noses close to each others I would start petting both their heads together until one would get bored, or curious about something else. If one started going at the other I would just start to pet them both to keep them calm. It really helped to keep them calm and also calmed me down and made me a lot more confident (which I’ve heard really helps them as well)

My original bunny was the one always initiating the fighting, so I think because of our close bond, having me in the cage with her eased her stress about this new bunny.

My bond took almost 2 months, much of which I ended up sitting inside of a cage for at least an hour a day haha. But it seemed like the only way it would work for my buns.

[swedishbun]

We have two headstrong, stubborn bunnies. They’ve been bonding for six months now.

Our big breakthrough came with buying a pet stroller. It’s large enough they can both stretch (think we got the 30lb limit one), they’re high up, they can see out, and we can shake it. It’s worked wonders for our bonding experience, even if they’re not fully bonded yet. I also take them on errands (live in the city) and so all the noises force them to seek protection with each other.

We also put them in the carrier in the car and go for rides (ie. long drive with a short errand). That’s been a big help too. Bathtub bonding only worked for a few days until both figured out how to jump out.

[Peri and Poe]

I’m currently trying to bond my two rabbits Poe(male) and Peri(female-first bun). As expected, Peri, our original bun, is the agressor. She is very nippy and does a lot of charging from time to time and bullies Poe, when it comes to food/toys/litterbox.

We tried the conventional short bonding sessions. To begin with it was very bad (there was a lot of fighting, fur pulling, humping). We did regular stress bonding which seemed to help for a little while but after a while these short term method didn’t seem to be helping. There was hardly any improvements.

So we decided to just suck it up and put them in an x pen and supervised them. We decided not to split them at all during the process until they were bonded. At first, there was quite a lot of fighting, bullying from Peri but over the last couple of days, there has been a significant improvement. They are starting to eat together, sleep in close proximity to each other and short grooming sessions.

I suggest that if you have the time, a break or holiday to supervise them. It’s a much better investment of your time to do a long-term session. I feel like they’re forced to realise that they’re stuck with each other and it’s just easier to get along than fight each other.

You need to stop Cas before he bites Buki. Here are somethings i found helpful in splitting up my buns fight:

-Spray with water (this might not always work but if it does, it makes them calm down and groom themselves

-Broom/Dustpan-If you can tell that Cas is about to charge just place it in front of him to block his view of Buki or stop them when they’re attacking each other.

-Whistle-I found this particularly helpful in that i didn’t need to be directly/physically stopping the fight. The rabbits hate the sound so they usually stop. I think Peri has now began associating it with nipping so she’s stopped nipping Poe as much

ps I strongly reccomend you invest in oven gloves/other strong material gloves to avoid being hurt stopping their fights.

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