Bonding 101 Help

[Isabelle]

Recently I looked over a local bunny foster care association near me out of fun to see the bunnies there, which isn’t abnormal for me. I spotted a Dutch bunny that is light brown and white with big ears, she appears to be a Dutch mix, and I thought oh, how cute! Her name is Hana, and I told about her to my parents who wanted to see her picture and started asking questions about her. Now ever since I dubbed this bunny Hannah Louise, so everyone is walking around saying Hannah Louise and Dutchess Marie!

So that got me thinking about a second bunny. I’m not really sure at this point if I would adopt a second bunny living with my parents because I’ve seen here how the bonding process can be frightening/tedious and that they might really dislike that. However, I would be doing all of the bonding and taking care of everything, which I could do out of their view, since now I am working part time, 10 hours a week. Long story short (too late, I know!) my parents are walking around saying that Hana could be Dutchess’ Christmas present.

Was about my reaction to THAT little bit. First and foremost out of everything I realize fully that bunnies really should pick their own friend, and none of us has ever met Hana yet. Soooo the big questions for me now are that I just need all the info I can get about the good and bad sides of bonding, how long it usually takes (I know all bonds are different, but a general idea 3 weeks or 6 months?), all of the recommendations for space, ways to bond, pretty much everything. I will be looking around at the bonding info as well, but I’d really like personal experiences and where people steered wrong so I can kind of troubleshoot a bit. Even if we never go to see Hana and nothing is said again about it, this information would all be really good for me, since I do want to get another bun someday.

Dutchess has had experience with other rabbits at hoppy hour and rabbit agility, and we took her on three bunny dates last year. In all of these situations she had never attacked, chased, humped or bit another bun (yay!), but I do know that she is pretty dominant/stubborn. She seems to get along with other bunnies to the point of, “Oh, you’re there. I’m here. Cool.” She sniffs a lot of bunnies and once or twice let another bunny start to groom her for a few seconds, so I feel that she has had good socialization to this point. I don’t know how she would do to have another bunny in our house/her territory yet (she is at this moment doing the bunny 500 and binkying at my feet! maybe she wants Hana to come and play  . When she came to our house we had just had a non-neutered male rabbit in our house for two weeks, so no doubt she knew he had been here and maybe even watched out for him, since he did spray me and left his marks in different areas. During rabbit agility there were two bonded bunnies that came, and she seemed to get to know them and hang around more and more, like she wanted to be friends with them.

Is this type of behavior different when a bunny would come to her territory, or would she have similar behaviors?

How long would general bonding last, like 3 weeks or as long as 6 months? I know this is a gray area, but approximate would be nice.

Would I have to sort of separate my house between Dutchessville and Hannahville, like top and bottom, then maybe switch them after two weeks or something to smell each other?

Dutchess has a habitat in my room and a condo downstairs. Could I use one for the new bunny and put Dutchess in the other, then switch it every few weeks or something?

What are the extents bunnies can hurt each other during this, please don’t sugar coat it, I need to know what I potentially maybe be dealing with if I have to break up any fights. Do fights always have to happen, or is it ever possible to take it slow enough where they won’t happen if I’m really careful, or is it inevitable?

Thanks so much for even reading through this!! I know it’s a lot, but I want to be as informed as possible on this subject when the time comes for me to bond Dutchess.

[Sarita]

Bonding 2 females is not impossible by any means – Monkeybun bonded 2 females successfully.

I’ve never bonded 2 females but I’ve bonded many rabbits and I’ve had a pair of bonded females that came to me from a shelter. Luckily Dutchess has been around other rabbits and she may very well be open to having a friend and might be easy to bond – it’s hard to know what Hannah might be like – do you know how old she is? I do think that adults are much easier to bond than youngsters.

I think that if you are considering bonding that the more time each day you can devote to bonding the faster the bonding can go.

Fights do not always happen but they can be pretty severe so it’s nothing to shirk about – I think that happens when an experienced person doesn’t really take the time to bond their rabbits properly and watch them closely enough. But I know that would not be the case with you.

I think that switching them out in their condo’s is a great idea.

I think too many times people think that just if rabbits are constantly grooming each other, they are not happy and will not bond – that’s not true. Ignoring is fine and it’s really not ignoring, that is usually acknowledgement that they are comfortable and trust the other rabbit.

I think if you feel this attachment to Hannah you should definitely try a play date with her and the Dutchess and just see how they react and how you feel they are together. I imagine you have very good instinct.

[Isabelle]

I was trying to look into the new rabbit a bit more, she is an adult, but I’m not sure of her age or weight, Dutchess is about 4.5 pounds, and I know the new rabbit is a mix-breed, so she could be a bit larger. There is a problem with the website’s e-mail addresses, my e-mails aren’t going through, so I may try to call if there is a number. I do know Dutchess’ moods and reactions quite well, so I can tell what she thinks of things pretty much all the time. Thanks for the info Sarita, I will see what else I can find out about the new bun and see if people in the house are actually really interested in a second bun or not.

[Monkeybun]

Smudge and Monkey didn’t pick each other out as friends, I kind of just made them do it So its totally possible to not do dating first, although it is recommended.

Definitely do the condo swap, or at the very least litter box swapping. It gets them used to having the other rabbit’s scent in their area, and they slowly adjust to it. Bonding can vary in the time it takes though… could be anywhere from a few days to months. It’s really hard to give a good estimate, as it does depend greatly on the rabbits themselves.

[Isabelle]

The site where the new bunny is recommends like three bunny dates, two in the home of the adoption bunny then one in the home of house bunny, I’m not sure how they want to do all that necessarily, though. My dad has been looking up this adoptable bunny on his own a few times, he might have taken a liking to her picture =p I’ve been reading up on all the bonding logs and watching the vids here too.

[Sarita]

Well, I think if they are willing to do that as far as dates, it’s not a bad thing – it may seem a bit excessive compared to what most rescues do, but they sound like they know what they are doing and are committed to doing whatever it takes. Keep us updated on what you decide.

[tanlover14]

Definitely keep us all updated — new buns are always exciting!

[Author]

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