Bonding Duke and Dinky! Are they bonded?!

[BellaKezia]

 I will update this regularly / when I start the next stage.

Baby steps:

they have now been in cages side by side for 3 months waiting for Duke to be neutered and heel up. They share treats through the bars and have their meal times together (on either side of the bars) all fine. Duke is taking a lot of interest in Dinks and the first thing he does when he has outside time is go to see dinky. I’m not sure dinky is so keen she seems more indifferent than anything else!

9/11/14 (uk date format!)

I swapped their beds over in their cages, i plan to completely swap their cages in the next day or so to get them used to each others scents. Dinky came over to Dukes bed and has sniffed around, pulled it about a little but left it alone within about 30 seconds and hasn’t really shown any interest at all. Duke on the other hand has been scratching and pulling on Dinky’s bed ever since I put it in 10 minutes ago. He does do this with his own bed though quite a lot but not as much as he is now on Dinky’s! Is this a bad sign?

I’m planning on first proper introduction next week once I’m confident Duke is completely better from his neuter.

[BellaKezia]

Swapped their litter trays over this afternoon with no reaction from either bun! Might swap their cages this evening and see how they react?
.

[Sindri]

I see you have another thread about bonding. I would make sure that your neutral territory is small and move up in size as you see they are doing well. You could swap cages I know some people have tried that.

[BellaKezia]

12/11/14
Day 1 Properly bonding

Session 1
Started in the bath tub with no mat. 10 mins approx
Duke is very cautious and stayed completely still for the majority of the session Dinky approached and they had their heads side by side but hardly moved at all for around 5 minutes. Dinky then started to put her head under Dukes chin I’m assuming to encourage grooming but he didn’t seem interested at all in grooming her! All in all very uneventful and not really anything to report.

Session 2
Again in the bath tub with no mat.

Duke again very cautious, Dinky pretty much her usual self. More contact this time. Not much movement from either bunny but we kept them together for around 15 minutes. Dinky was the first to approach with her head low, seems pretty relaxed. I did rub banana on each of their heads to encourage a little grooming! very optimistically!

This time Dinky rested her head quite forcefully on dukes back between his shoulder blades for around 5 munutes, Duke seemed to be unsure of this so i moved her head off and then duke seemed to climb gently over her head. Both very calm I allowed him to just to see what happened and both stayed calm.

 Overall pretty uneventful but would love to know if these are good signs!

Here are some pictures of the second session:

Dinky with her head over duke…

Duke approaching before he climbed over dinky:

[BellaKezia]

Final Session of the first day

30 minutes this time!

Dinky seems to be more interested in us than Duke! should we shutter off the area more?

They seem to be doing ok, there was a lot more movement from both this time, they both had a few greens while they were in the session with no problems. Not sure who is dominant yet. Duke has a habit of burying himself under Dinkys belly, what does this mean?

I have some photos again. Should we be trying to leave them to get on without being comforted by us throughout the session?

Heres some pictures:

[BubbaBunnies]

From my experience bonding my bunnies and what i’ve read, this sounds like its going very well. As long as they are not fighting its going well. The fact that it is uneventful is far from bad, they are just trying to figure each other out. Yes I would recommend leaving them to do their thing and only intervene if you sense aggression is going to happen or if it does. I would keep going as you are going and I would definitely feel confident with extending the session to 45 mins.

[BellaKezia]

Thank you so much! I think we will try 45 mins today then and see how we go! Should we shill stick to the bath tub or do you think we should move to the bathroom floor? Still neutral but larger area for 45 mins

[BubbaBunnies]

What you could do is start off the first 5 or 10 minutes in the bare tub and then if all is going well add a mat or a towel for 10/15 mins and if they are fine with that then move them to the floor for the remainder of the time.

[BellaKezia]

13/11/14 Bonding day 2

45 minute session this time, we kept them in the bath with no mat for 15 mins and then added the mat for the rest of the session. Pretty uneventful again, still no grooming unfortunately. Lots of cleaning from both buns!

Only one worrying thing, Duke is still burying his head under Dinkys belly and she seems to be getting a bit fed up of it, there was only one very gentle nip from Dinky and I don’t really blame her! is there something we should do to stop him before she gets more annoyed?

 Going to do another session a little later and I’m thinking of moving them to the bathroom floor? good idea/bad idea?

Here are some pictures again!:

Lots of this:

 

Some of this:

 

 A bit of this (and cleaning from both):

 

 And some more of this:

 

 

 

Session 2:

 Again started in the bath for 10 mins, moved to the bathroom floor and GROOMING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BellaKezia]

Day 2 continues!

 We have moved to semi-neutral territory and have been there for 1 hour with no problems or tantrums!

 

 

 

 

 

Am I getting ahead of myself or are things going ok / well?!

[BellaKezia]

Ok so, it was all too good to be true. An hour on and Duke got very over enthusiastic and is humping a lot.
Dinky’s fed up, we did end up on a good ish note but I think it may be a set back. Will start again tomorrow.
Any advice for this?

[BubbaBunnies]

Looks like this is going amazing! As for the humping, don’t stop it all together but limit it to 5 seconds and if he keeps going at it only let him every other time. This is one of the times its ok to get in there and be engaged in the process. Its not a set back just part of the process, just don’t extend their sessions any longer until they have gotten over this stage, so stick to 1 hour in semi neutral.
With the issue of Duke burying under Dinky, I’m not sure if he still does that but if he does, let them do their thing and only stop it if it gets violent, so let Dinky stand up for herself but if they start to get into aggressive mode i.e. ears back and crouched to attack then intervene preferably with a loud noise and only physically if that doesn’t work.

[BubbaBunnies]

PS. they are absolutely adorable, they are going to be the cutest pair! Also its great that they are sharing the same hay dish by choice!

[BellaKezia]

 14/11/14

After making progress into a semi-neutral area yesterday, that ended with Duke ‘humping’ Dinky, we tried to end the bonding process on a good note and then put them away.

Today, we have taken them back to a neutral territory on the bathroom floor. It went well for the first 15/20 minutes. Then the ‘humping’ started again, Duke seemed to chase Dinky. We pulled them apart and reassured them side by side. A few minutes later Duke started again. There weren’t any serious scuffles, however Duke’s relentless persisting had us wondering whether the process has taken a step backwards?

 Would any one be able to offer any advice or suggestions for moving forward with the bonding?

 Thanks

[BubbaBunnies]

I had the same problem in which the only thing Alfie seemed to care about was humping Lily, which would end up in some serious scuffles. No matter what I did he didn’t seem to care that it wasn’t something either Lily or I wanted him to do so I settled for sitting next to them and consistently limiting his time humping her but usually he wouldn’t let him near her bum and after a couple times just pushing him off most of the time. Eventually he got frustrated and moved on to grooming her obsessively instead haha. Just stick with what your doing and let it play out as long as there are no fights. I found that extended sessions worked best for me (in my case I had them together till they bonded at this stage) and after a couple hours he didn’t care for it anymore. When I did the small dates I found that it was like starting again every time, so you might want to try that if he doesn’t seem to be losing any interest after a couple dates. Don’t worry, you have had no fighting which is awesome. My 2 would fight incessantly and they are now happily bonded so don’t let the humping get to you too much.

[BubbaBunnies]

I had the same problem in which the only thing Alfie seemed to care about was humping Lily, which would end up in some serious scuffles. No matter what I did he didn’t seem to care that it wasn’t something either Lily or I wanted him to do so I settled for sitting next to them and consistently limiting his time humping her but usually he wouldn’t let him near her bum and after a couple times just pushing him off most of the time. Eventually he got frustrated and moved on to grooming her obsessively instead haha. Just stick with what your doing and let it play out as long as there are no fights. I found that extended sessions worked best for me (in my case I had them together till they bonded at this stage) and after a couple hours he didn’t care for it anymore. When I did the small dates I found that it was like starting again every time, so you might want to try that if he doesn’t seem to be losing any interest after a couple dates. Don’t worry, you have had no fighting which is awesome. My 2 would fight incessantly and they are now happily bonded so don’t let the humping get to you too much.

[BellaKezia]

So we’re thinking we may have given them too much space too quickly so back to the bath tub. More chasing from Duke and a lot of humping but a little calmer at least. Dinky is being so so patient!

Here are a few pictures of them being good!

 

 

 

 

[BellaKezia]

The mounting and humping has settled, they are now trusted almost completely together in neutral, semi-neutral and each of their cages under only minor supervision. are they ready to share a home? how should we approach this step? HELP!!

[BubbaBunnies]

Sounds like they are ready to me! At this point you want to totally clean out the cage that they will be sharing, get rid of any toys, wash any blankets, wipe down the cage itself with vinegar water mix and just overall make it as neutral as possible by moving around the layout and putting new toys etc in. Then you can put them both in and supervise them for 24 hours (stay with them for he first couple hours but then after that you can just be in earshot and if those 24 hours goes smoothly and you can trust them alone then your job is done!

  

P.S. I would put then in a pen or outside the cage for a bit together and then let them in the cage together/open the doors to the new cage.  Make sure they go in together though.

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