bonding before spaying

[rubyandnutella]

Hi, I am having my female rabbit spayed when she is 5 months, she is now 3 months, and I am trying to bond her with my two almost year old male rabbit. I tried to do non-contact playdates with them but in the end he lunged at the divider trying to attack her, and before that he kept nipping at her nose through the bars. I had tried normal playdates before but he kept chasing and nipping, trying to attack her but then I took someones advice with doing non-contact playdates. What should I do now?

[BunnyFriends]

You should not be bonding before both are spayed. Most you can do is prebonding – swapping litter boxes

and toys, cages next to each other but not close enough to bite through.

[rubyandnutella]

I have just now learnt that they are to be spayed before bonding and that is why i am getting her spayed. I have the cages next to each other now and they don’t have litter boxes and rarely use toys. so should I just leave everything as it is?

[rubyandnutella]

[rubyandnutella]

[rubyandnutella]

[sarahthegemini]

Why don’t they have litter boxes?

[rubyandnutella]

Because there are parts in their hutches that they always poo and pee in so that’s basically their litter box but made into the hutches.

[BunnyFriends]

Food bowls? Really anything works I guess , those are just easiest.

[Gina.Jenny]

you could try swapping who is in which hutch!

[tobyluv]

Do you use fleece blankets in the hutches? You could swap those. Or you could place some grass mats (the safe edible kind) in their hutches and swap those. There are cardboard boxes or cardboard paper towel tubes that could be swapped. If there is nothing that you can find to swap, then just keep them near each other, but don’t allow any contact, even through cage bars. Noses and other body parts can be severely injured. After she is spayed, allow about a month to pass for her hormones to die down, then start the bonding process.

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

[sarahthegemini]

Food bowls, water bowls, blankets can all be swapped.

[rubyandnutella]

Thank you all I’ll try swap water and food bowls, I would like to swap hutches but because she is very small she can escape from the hutch that he is in so I can’t swap them. I don’t use fleece blankets, and I have them near each other.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By rubyandnutella on 5/06/2017 2:46 PM

Thank you all I’ll try swap water and food bowls, I would like to swap hutches but because she is very small she can escape from the hutch that he is in so I can’t swap them. I don’t use fleece blankets, and I have them near each other.

Are they kept outside? If so, that sounds a bit dangerous – if a small bunny can get out, a small animal can get in.

[rubyandnutella]

They do live outside and I will thoroughly check if any small animals have gotten in. I have a question do you know anything about pre-bonding?

[Mikey]

Your risking death if animals can reach into the hutch outdoors. Your first priority needs to be researching proper hutch care and proper outdoor bunny care

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By rubyandnutella on 5/06/2017 8:50 PM

They do live outside and I will thoroughly check if any small animals have gotten in. I have a question do you know anything about pre-bonding?

You need to stop any animals from getting in, not just check that they haven’t – you need to prevent it. Otherwise your rabbits could be killed.

[rubyandnutella]

I have put small wiring around the areas of the hutch where small animals can get in.

[Mikey]

Small animals also bring diseases. They can also fight. A simple bite from a cat or kitten can kill a rabbit. A small bit from a mouse or rat can leave deadly infection. You need to research proper outdoor care.

[rubyandnutella]

I will thank you and back to my other question do any of you know about pre-bonding or where i can find out about it.

[sarahthegemini]

You can read about pre bonding on one of the tabs on here. Or just Google ‘rabbit pre bonding’ But please sort the hutch out first, it’s urgent.

[Mikey]

You shouldnt think about prebonding until you get hutches fixed. The best prebonding technique Ive used is swapping the rabbits between cages, but as you said, youre smaller one can get out. You need to fixed and make sure both hutches are SAFE before prebonding.

[Author]

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