Bonding Help Again – Two Spayed Females

[abbynormal43]

We’ve been trying to bond our two spayed female buns for about two months. They did fine together in the tub, we could get them to groom each other and they would each lay down and seemed comfortable. Then we upgraded to sessions outside the tub, but still in the bathroom. Same thing, they did fine. We’ve also been switching them to each other’s rabitats every other night so they get used to each other’s scent. Now, we’ve upgraded to a bonding pen that they go in for hours at a time. I don’t have a neutral space, because we have a small apartment and Ellie has been all over it, so I set up an X-pen in the living room and covered the floor under it with a tarp and newspapers. I put cardboard up around the outside, so they can’t see the room. I also put in a new, neutral litter box and and water dish, and there is always hay. We put them in there any time we’re in the room, and my husband and I take turns watching them and deterring fights with a squirt bottle. Kevin (yes, she’s a girl) has always been the more dominant bun, but in the pen, she attacks Ellie for seemingly no reason. She nips, boxes, and tries to chase. They haven’t had a real fight because we always get them to stop with squirts and telling them to knock it off. Sometimes she’ll try to just sit on the litter box like she’s claiming it, so I push her off. They’ll both eat the hay, but if one of them gets too close to the other, they go into defensive mode. I don’t know what to do, I just want my girls to get along! Can someone please help me??

P.S. I know two non-related females are not an ideal pair to bond, but Kevin came into our lives unexpectedly, and after what she’s been through, I couldn’t bear to let her go or trust her with another family, so I’m trying to make it work.

[Mikey]

Have you tried putting them in their final free roam area together without the pen? If they have an issue being close to one another, having a bigger space together might help out with bonding once in a while. Make sure there are hiding places big enough for one to hide in, but small enough that you can reach in with a dust pan should a fight break out under/in one of them. If you do this, youll have to be with them the entire time. I just offer this because Blue and Badger bonded better when they had more space to get away from one another. We would do a few hours of close bonding and an hour or two of room bonding

Kevin likely feels like she has no claimed territory, so its a little scary for her. Thats also why shes trying to claim the litter box, to have something thats “hers” to make her feel more comfortable. They will learn to share the territory with time. Offer them both lots and lots of pets while you have them together so they both know thats its ok

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