Bonding an adult male with a female baby

[HouseMiniLops]

I feel like I messed up, and I’m interested in any advice anyone has on how to make this better. 

We just got a six week old female baby.  When we first brought her home in a neutral territory, at first it seemed to go well, and then it rapidly turned south.  Specifically, the baby lunged at our mellow adult male pulling out tufts of fur.  Seeing how upset both of them were, we immediately scrapped plan A (baby in cage in seldom used room with adult free reign of the house as normal), and made the seldom used room the baby room.  This morning several times my kids have come out from petting the baby, and our wonderful adult has growled and nipped at them until realizing they are not in fact the baby bunny and slunk to the floor with his tail plastered down.

I’m thinking there are several options here:

A) return the baby.  I’m sure she would be adopted quickly.  Probably just put in an outdoor hutch, and my kids would be heartbroken, but it might be the best thing for our adult bunny.

B) keep baby confined to the room, and give it a few weeks or months before even trying an introduction again (maybe having more female hormones or waiting until she is spayed would help with the acceptance process?).  Shower adult with love and affection and hope he gets used to it as a new norm.

C) Take them both on a car ride for 20 minutes a day everyday for at least a week to try to get them both over their animosity and then cage them near to each other in neutral territory.

I wish the baby was older, because 6 weeks just seems way too little for all this.  But there is really nothing I can do about that – she was not going to stay with her mother regardless of whether or not we adopted her. 

[MoveDiagonally]

Bonding baby rabbits to adult rabbits is not recommended so I wouldn’t try to bond them again until she is spayed + 4 weeks. Even if you could get them bonded now the bond would likely not survive her going through puberty. On top of that too many bad experiences now could make bonding take even longer or be harder once she’s altered.

[Beka27]

Is your adult male neutered already? If so, for how long?

They can definitely bond but not right now. She will need to be kept separate for the next several months. The majority of vets don’t spay until 6 months old, and then she’ll need a month (possibly two) to heal and for her hormones to dissipate.

But as long as you can keep them entirely separate (different rooms, maybe different floors of the house?) and enforce handwashing before going from one to another to minimize scent transfer, there is no reason to give her up.

Please keep us posted on what you decide!

[HouseMiniLops]

Our male has been neutered for about 8 months.

We’re still in the watch and wait mode. She seems to be doing really well, and she is certainly sweet. I’ve found several successful accounts of bonding babies and adult neutered males, but I don’t think we had the best start. I attempted this because the two house rabbit books we own say that two neutered adults is best, but a neutered male + a female baby can also work. I could not find any adult neutered or spayed rabbits where I live. House rabbits are very uncommon around here, and while our local shelter has rabbits, they are not fixed.

Our current plan is just to keep them separate and give them a while to settle down. They each have a stuffed animal, and we’ll trade them in a bit so they can get used to each others smell. We’ll see after that. It may be that we just have to keep them separate. I’m hoping that eventually we can make it work.

[HouseMiniLops]

Ugh, I don’t know. I am willing to wait as long as it takes BUT I cannot handle the constant level of tension right now. Both of them will attack any person who smells strongly of the other bunny. We can’t very well change all our clothes and take a shower every time we give one of them any affection. My sweet one year old just seems mortified and miserable after he snaps out of an aggressive spree.

I think we are going to try a car ride today – we have to do something. If it doesn’t go well, it will probably end in the baby going back to be readopted.

Edited to add – if anyone has a positive story about a bonding that started out like this, and then worked out either before or after spaying I would love to hear it. 

[HouseMiniLops]

Progress!  The baby (we called to verify her birthday and she is actually almost 9 weeks old, not 6!) spent 20 minutes in the car with her face buried in our adult male’s bottom.  He didn’t seem to care, probably because he was too freaked out or regarded it as a sign of submission.  Even after the car stopped, they huddled together for a while, then the baby started eating some of the carrot tops.  He sniffed her, but didn’t act aggressive at all.  Neither of them has shown aggression towards anyone since.  I don’t mind keeping them separate until after she is spayed if they can just stop attacking us.  Fingers crossed.

I’m sorry this seems to be turning into a mini-journal of adventures into a difficult bond.  Please let me know if it does not belong here or is inappropriate.

[Roberta]

Maybe they just needed to meet face to face to cut the tension… Mine had the horrors when Pandora arrived but she jumped her Xpen and went to say hello since then there has been no tension.

[HouseMiniLops]

Well, one of the kids accidentally left the door open. I found Sweetie (adult white male) sitting there, and picked him up. He was completely calm in my arms and went back and laid down in the living room. We found Molly in a corner. Both of them seem unharmed and calm, but there were tufts of fur (mostly white) on the floor. I’m not sure what to think.

[HouseMiniLops]

I think I am taking the baby back. I set up a secure pen inside the room where we have the baby, but they try to fight though it, and my adult male immediately started trying to dig up the carpet to get to her. It is scary seeing my extremely mellow rabbit growl and trying to bite her and searching for anyway to get to her. I would not forgive myself if he did get to her and a major injury occurred. Mostly though, it is difficult for me to see this ever working out, even after spaying. Especially if she actually turns out to be a he. Although she does not spray her urine like my male did prior to neutering, she leaves a nice set of quarter sized pee marks strategically placed about a foot apart around the edges of whatever area she is confined to. And she is so aggressive for a baby.

I’m sad there is no good way to find adult rabbits around here, let alone spayed rabbits. I would take him bunny dating, but his options would be 1 or none. I’m sad he may always have to be single, and sad to have to return a pet.

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