Bonding baby Male to neutered Female

[Munch&Max]

Hi all,
I joined this forum to gain some advice on bonding my rabbits.
I have a female rabbit who is neutered and 8 months old , I also have recently got a young male rabbit who is around 9 weeks old.

I have been bonding them and not sure what are good behaviours and what are bad behaviours. So far there has been no fighting at all. However my female rabbit has been mounting the male whilst making strange humming sounds almost like a bee. The male has been fairly submissive to this and just lies down flat however he has recently started running away. Should you allow humping to happen or stop it as I have found mixed answers to this online . When she is not trying to mount the male I have noticed the male does groom her face slightly and they do touch noses briefly. They have also been eating hay together and flopped out fairly near to eachother.

Any further advice on whether is is going well or I need to be doing something different will be really appreciated.

Thank you!

[Mikey]

Baby bunnies cannot bond. They can make friends, but they cannot create bonds. When he becomes hormonal, fighting will occur. They need to be separated until a month or two after he is neutered

[tobyluv]

I agree that they should be separated now. In a very short time, when the bunny reaches puberty, you can have trouble. There can be fighting and serious injuries, plus a rabbit that has been in a fight can hold a grudge, making future bonding very difficult.

You can keep them in the same room, but in different pens. They shouldn’t be allowed contact through cage bars either, since noses and other body parts can be bitten. They will need to have separate play and exercise time.

After the male has been neutered, wait at least one month for the hormones to die down. Some articles may say 2 weeks, but that might not be safe.

Here are 2 good articles on bonding:

http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/9/PID/940/Default.aspx

[Munch&Max]

Thank you for your advice, does it make any difference that I have tried to bond them already will this affect them when I bond them after he has been neutered?

[Mikey]

Since they havent really fought, you should be fine bonding them later Your girl will be a little more calm since shes not smelling hormones from him and his personality shouldnt change very much after hes neutered. Future bonding should go well once hormones are completely out of the picture

[Munch&Max]

I have separated them now but my girl keeps making strange humming/buzzing noises. Any idea what this means?

[Mikey]

Buzzing sounds are often made during mating dances. Generally, humming just means happiness.

[Author]

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