Bonding Issues :(

[nickk9]

Hi all.

So me and my girlfriend decided to get a mini lop a while ago. We got him as soon as he was old enough to leave his mum, and has now just celebrated his first birthday. We got him desexed a little while later, and then decided to get him a female play mate for company as we were going to be going on a holiday for a couple of months and he wouldn’t be getting the same level of attention as he was used to.

This initially went very well, and they bonded very easily and were the best of friends, loved grooming each other etc for a few months, living together with no issues. Then all of a sudden they started having fights, and had to be separated, and all of a sudden it became evident that the girl was in fact a boy (the breeder had obvs got this wrong, and he/she was pretty late in developing). The girl/boy has since been desexed, and now that a few months have passed we have been trying to reintroduce them, but have so far been having no luck at all. When one is let out for a play and goes exploring over to the others hutch they dont seem to mind each others company, however when they are both free (we use the bathroom for a neutral meeting place), they watch each other for a bit, but always end up trying to fight. 

Does anyone have any advice? Would the couple of big fights they had early on (back when we werent expecting fights and so werent ready when they occured) be making it more difficult for them to get along, or do bunnies forgive and forget after a while passes and with a bit of effort from us? It is very frustrating for us, as we thought we were getting a lady bunny and they seemed like they were best friends for months until it all changed . We are going to persevere for the time being, but we will have to try find a new home for the newer bunny if they can’t get along, which is sad for us, but we don’t really have the space to keep two bunnies separately for too long. 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I think they can forgive and forget….I would give them some time apart to destress and forgive and forget.

Ponder and reflect on what you are doing for bonding sessions (for example-if your stress bonding is it stressful enough; does the area they go into to play have lots of escape routes so they don’t get cornered and fight; is the bonding area and play area neutral territory or does it belong to one of them etc) and start over from scratch.

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