Bonding male and female buns!

[Pippa]

Hi all! I am after a bit of advice! I have had my male rabbit for 5 years now, I rescued him and I am not sure of his age beforehand but I would say he’s no older than 7, when I got him I also got a Female who was 1 years old. Last winter we lost my female and he was so upset, he became very quiet, i thought now a year later was a good time to introduce him to a new rabbit as I couldn’t bear him being on his own. He is very laid back and was always the submissive one with my other female rabbit. I decided to go for a young female and was aware of how to bond them etc. Once new bun was settled and had a day of quiet I let him come in while she was in her hutch, then when they both seemed calm I let her out, they had a few sniffs here and there and we ent overly excited but content with one another, they played together from 5pm-11pm with no fighting, minimum humping and lay together a lot and also ate together. I put him back in his hutch at 11pm and now today they have been playing together from 8am-1pm while I went out and had no humping or fighting.. lots of laying together and grooming. I expected it to take a lot longer than this for them to be getting on so well. My question is when do you think it would be ok for them to share A hutch? Thanks all x

[Mikey]

To be fair, you didnt bond them. You put them together and yolo’d it. You got lucky that they didnt instantly fight. I highly recommend you never do that again in the future. It more often than not ends with a vet visit and several stitches.

I would start by keeping their cages next to one another for a few days. Get them used to sharing a close space, even through the night. Only allow them to share a cage when all aggression and humping as stopped.

[sarahthegemini]

You put them together from 8am til 1pm and left them? That is so, so dangerous.

How long have you had new bun? How long did you let her settle? Did you do any pre bonding?

[Author]

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