Bonding females

[bunnyhop166]

I currently have a 6 month old female bunny and am thinking of getting her a companion. I was originally thinking of getting a male but have decided to adopt a young female. Does anyone have any positive experiences bonding 2 female rabbits? Once my current bunny is a few months older I will go ahead and get her spayed, and the baby once she is old enough. My current bunny doesn’t seem to be territorial/hormonal at the moment so I’m hoping it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for now.

[sarahthegemini]

Really it all comes down to personality. But both need to be kept separate, spayed, given time for hormones to disipate and then you can start bonding

[Deleted User]

You can certainly try, although they say male/female is easiest- female/female isn’t impossible. But, you can’t start bonding until both are already spayed and have recovered. So if you get this baby bunny and you wait until she’s 6 months to spay, plus 1 month to heal, you’re looking at keeping separate buns for at least 4-5 months. I know because I am currently going through it because I decided to get an 8 week old mini lop and I already had a 6 month dutch girl. She showed no aggression whatsoever before he entered the house… but after he did, even smelling like him made her lunge/grunt/nip at me, and she was already spayed. So, it’s something to take into consideration. If you can handle the separation for several months, why not. But you will probably see a different side of your current girl that you’ve never seen, including some aggression toward you.

[Bianca]

Females are possible to bond, it all comes down to how you go about it and their personalities.

As others have said, you have to wait until both buns are spayed before it is worth risking.

But once they have been spayed you can start pre-bonding and then once they have been spayed at least 1 month you can try bonding.

I am currently bonding a trio which will also soon be a group of 4. I have a thread about it (Greebo and Lily bonding journal) if you are interested – my current focus is on my two females, Lily and Maggie.

[bunnyhop166]

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[Deleted User]

Please do not put your rabbits together at all until both are spayed. You need to have patience. Putting them together like that… a fight can break out in an instant.  

It may seem like they are getting along. They are not. When your baby reaches maturity, it is highly likely that they will fight. You probably won’t notice when she first reaches maturity, and it will seem to just happen spontaneously. What you are doing is irresponsible. Just let them be!! There is no reason to put them together if you “know they can’t really bond”. The will fight given ANY opportunity, not just being housed together. You cannot even allow play time together. You’re making excuses for your impatience. It’s not fair to your rabbits. You need to keep them completely separated.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By bunnyhop166 on 8/14/2017 9:20 AM

UPDATE:

Thanks for your responses. I decided to go ahead and get the little bunny (Boo) and am keeping her in a separate cage next to the other one. I know you can’t really bond properly before getting them spayed but I decided to try a couple of sessions just to see how things go. There were a few growls from the older bunny but this was usually when the little one tried to be a little too inquisitive or nuzzle underneath her – obviously not something she is used to! I did manage to get them to snuggle up a few times though and there were even a few licks from the older one at the end of the last session, so fingers crossed that’s a good sign of things to come! I won’t be housing them together until after the older one gets spayed at least, but hopefully for now I can get them used to one another.

That’s very irresponsible. Please stop putting them together, if they have a fight they can hold a grudge and make bonding properly in the future impossible not to mention they can really hurt one another. 

[bunnyhop166]

Just wanted to confirm – I’m not putting them together as a regular or ongoing thing and I have NOT put them together without being hold of at least the older rabbit! I’m not doing this because I’m being impatient or irresponsible and am well aware of the risks of putting unspayed females together. The only reason I’ve tried a few sessions with them is to make sure my older rabbit isn’t completely intolerant of being with another rabbit, and because they had already spent time together before bringing the younger one home. I will continue to house them in separate cages next to one another, and once they have been spayed I will start the proper bonding process. Sorry for any confusion – I do appreciate the concern and didn’t mean for it to come across that I was being careless!

[sarahthegemini]

Thank you for clearing up the confusion Your older rabbit may actually be more likely to tolerate another bun after lots of pre bonding so I would focus on that until you can start proper bonding

[bunnyhop166]

No problem, I didn’t really explain properly before. Now that I’m more confident the bonding will be possible I’m going to just continue with the pre-bonding for the next couple of months. I just didn’t want to commit to keeping the little one if it definitely wasn’t going to work out!

[Bianca]

You can’t really tell from putting your older bun with a younger bun whether your older one will be okay with another rabbit – there are too many variables.

For example..

-Many rabbits are okay with young, unspayed rabbits before their hormones kick in, but won’t be okay with that same rabbit as the hormones do kick in
-Your older bun may not like your rabbit, but may like others
-Your older bun may like your rabbit but hate others
-Your older bun may hate your younger bun now, but could still be bonded later when young one is older and spayed.

Also even if you are holding one bun, that doesn’t make it much better. If they go to fight you are directly in the firing line, and rabbits will accidentally bite their handler as you try to separate them. And trust me, it hurts.

If they fight now they will be much harder to bond later. It is easier and safer to focus on pre bonding for now, and wait until younger bun is spayed to bond properly. Trust me, it will be worth it.

[bunnyhop166]

Yeah I definitely don’t want them to be in a situation where they could fight as I don’t want to risk them holding a grudge! I never would have put them together at home if they hadn’t met a couple of times before. As I mentioned above, now I’m feeling a bit more confident it could work out I’m going to focus on the pre-bonding and hopefully when the time comes they will end up becoming friends 

[Deleted User]

Ok thanks for clarifying that. It seemed like you were attempting actual bonding sessions, which is just a terrible idea. I understand your logic, but as Bianca pointed out, it’s often not really a good indication of their true feelings of one another. (If that were the case, you could argue that my female just hates my male, because when she got in the room once they did fight) I’ve even heard of cases where rabbits introduced in neutral territory at a shelter seemingly have a great “first date” and really hit it off…then when they come home they fight like crazy. In my opinion, bunnies are complex social creatures, much like humans. Because they need to form a relationship and learn to trust and depend on the other, it’s good to go at a slow and steady pace. Rushing things just makes it more difficult for them and for you.

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