Beginning bonding

[Beatrices mum]

Hi all,

This is my first time bonding rabbits! Beatrice is a 1 and a half year old Holland lop female who is free roam and Bernard is a 6 month old Holland lop male who is in a large pen in my living room. We have had Bernard for 4 months now and his pen has been in different spots of the living room where Beatrice has full access to. So far they’ve never had any issues, Beatrice is always flopped by his pen, they are often flopped beside each other, Beatrice is always bowing her head to Bernard and he has groomed her a few times. They eat breakfast and dinner and treats together each day. I let Bernard out usually in the afternoon and allow him to free roam in the living room.  They were both spayed/neutered a month ago. I read many articles, posts, watched Instagram stories on other peoples bonding experience and began ours on Sunday. The first meeting was in a neutral area (the kitchen where neither bun has been) on a clean beach towel. It went well, they were indifferent to each other, they did a lot of nose to nose and individual grooming, even some loafs. There was no fighting or aggression which is a good sign, I kept this meeting short, only 15 minutes and then put Bernard (M) back in his pen and let Beatrice (F) back into her space. Our next session (Monday) I decided to double the time to half an hour, in the same neutral space and same thing happened. Indifferent, no grooming of each other and no mounting. Although Beatrice (F) does often bow her head to Bernard (M) and gave him a few nips but that was the extent of it all. Today I did another half hour session, this time Bernard (M) mounted Beatrice (F), she fell asleep while he was mounting her. Again no real action other than that, there was nose to nose contact and each bun groomed themselves. I’m thinking these are good signs but this is my first time bonding rabbits so I’m unsure. I’m wondering how I should proceed from here? I would like to try the 24/7 approach but unfortunately I don’t have the time right now between school and work. Should I continue doubling the increments of time and see how things go?

[DanaNM]

That sounds like a wonderful start!

When something goes well, I like to repeat it a couple times before making any big changes. So you could do a couple more 30 min sessions, and then if those go well bump up to an hour, then may 2 hours, etc. If you are busy on certain days and can’t do a long session, that’s OK, a short session is better than no session, and some people will also do multiple short sessions in a day if it works better for their schedule.

When you get to the point where they are doing well in 2-hour-ish sessions, you could try some longer ones on the weekend, like 4-6 hours. If those go well, you could try for an overnight on the weekend (supervised of course!). My first pair I just did a few supervised overnights in a row, rather than 24/7 marathoning, because it just worked better with my schedule. Trouble usually happens at night, so those overnight sessions tend to give you a good picture of where they are at.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Beatrices mum]

Thank you very much!! Those are some helpful next steps! We’re going away this weekend so I’m hoping we can get some longer bonding sessions in since it’s a neutral space they’ve never been before! Do you have any advice on how I should proceed with the area? Eventually I want them both to be free roam of the entire apartment but I know Beatrice will be territorial over the living room and bedroom specifically.

[DanaNM]

I like to keep them in neutral territory until they basically seem bonded, and can spend long periods of time together happily. A good rule of thumb is to have them spend at least 48 hours in neutral territory without any aggression (this is called “cementing”) and with lots of positive behaviors before moving them to semi-neutral. If you don’t have a great semi-neutral area, you can spend extra time in neutral. In general, if you suspect a certain area could be troublesome, spend extra time cementing before moving to that new area.

When you get to the point where you are ready to move them to their final home, I like to clean, rearrange, and deodorize their area as much as possible. Often I will flip the set up to be a mirror image of how it was before, so it’s less familiar. After cementing I’ll usually move them to this newly cleaned and reorganized pen, and then have them spend at least a day or two there before giving them roam time in the room. Some people also like to slowly expand the space, because they find too much space too quickly can cause some disputes.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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