Bonding help

[Josh]

So I’ve been prebonding cinnamon and peanut for a while now, swapping them between cages everyday. Today I decided to start stressbonding them, and when I did, cinnamon started “attacking” peanut. What should I do? Is that normal for the first time? Should I go back to prebonding for a bit longer?

[Deleted User]

A little bit more information is needed to help us help you. How long have you have both of them? Are both spayed/neutered? How long have the each been spayed/neutered? Why did you immediately opt for stress bonding and not a normal session? How was Cinnamon attacking Peanut? Could you be a little more descriptive?

[Josh]

Sorry. I’ve had peanut for a year and 6 months, and cinnamon for a year. Peanut has been neutered for about a year now, while cinnamon has been spayed for roughly 6 weeks. I went for stress bonding because I was told that it was a good place to start of(Apparently was misinformed though?) And cinnamon was attacking peanut by kinda just lunging at him, some of his fur went flying.

[Josh]

I should also mention that cinnamon is always very interested in peanut (their cages are beside eachothers) Sometimes they’ll mirror eachothers movements, trying to sniff eachother through the bars and running around their cages together

[Sirius&Luna]

Have you done any prebonding? It’s much easier to get rabbits to accept each other if they’ve already got used to the smell of each other – so swap them between cages daily for a month, THEN try introducing them.

Personally, I don’t think stress bonding is the best way to start, as it means they start to associate each other with the negative thing – eg ‘every time I see this bunny I go on a horrible car ride so I don’t like this bunny’. I prefer to get them to associate each other with something good – so I feed them their veggies together and pet them. I think stress bonding should be saved for a few weeks into the bond, if things aren’t progressing, but I’ve always managed to bond my bunnies with no stressing. But that’s just my personal preference, I know others have had success with stressing.

[sarahthegemini]

I agree with Sirius&Luna, I don’t really like the concept of stress bonding. I mean, I think it has its uses but I wouldn’t immediately opt for it. It’s much better that each bun associates the other with yummy treats or being pet etc.

That doesn’t mean you’re misinformed though. There’s lots of conflicting ideas in regards to bunny bonding and you just have to try what you think will work and change up methods if it doesn’t.. Now that you’ve tried stress and saw that Cinnamon attacked Peanut (great name btw), you know to try a different tactic

How long did you pre bond for?

[Author]

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