Bonding Mia and Taylor (2 females)

[Incendiary]

 So I recently posted in the behavior forum on how mia forgot her litter training upon the arrival of taylor. After moving the cages to another common area the problem has drastically reduced. So my wife and i decided to start the bonding. We used the landing at the front door since it was small and the rabbits wont go down the stairs there so it was completely neutral. First time they were nervous but there was no fights and all seemed well. Tried later that night and we say there for a hour watching them snuggle in the litter box! Gave it another go this morning and they probably had about 2 hours together, didn’t need the squirt bottle once, and there was some grooming. Not sure why but they kept sticking their head under the others behind, and the other one would just wriggle away a little bit. So there was no advances of any kind so far. 

A few hours later I tried them in the semi neutral space. I went ok. Mia made some lunges at taylor, and there was some nips at each other here and there. but as soon as i squirted them it would stop and they would both lay there for a min. The start to the nipping was the cat tunnel, Taylor would go in and mia would follow, nip taylor and chase her out so i’d squirt them and then it would stop.  I took the tunnel away, and there was a few more tiffs and then they stopped and explored for a little while.  Mia then ran towards taylor so i got the squirt bottle ready, but then to my surprise taylor lifted up her front paws when mia came up and planted them down on her head and then they stopped and stared at me. (I think they’ve figured out that nipping = a good squirt) this happened a couple times so each time i had the squirt bottle ready but again taylor would “pounce” on mia’s head and then the stare at the squirt bottle. They nuzzeled a little bit so i figured that was a “good note” to end it. Taylor went back in her cage and mia did laps around the living room. I’d consider this one a partial success because at other times when they would nip there would be chunks of fur pulled out. Next session will be back at the landing since it went so well last time.

I put them back on the landing, and there was no fighting or nipping but also no snuggling, they just did their own thing. I got some photo’s up from their cuddle session. I’ll have to figure out posting photos, so here is the flickr address http://www.flickr.com/photos/484639…511606979/

 

 

[Incendiary]

After reading around on the forum and realizing my long winded post is alot to read I’ll give out a simple question. Should I be letting the nipping and chasing carry out for a bit or should I carry on stopping it as soon as I see something that appears aggresive? They’re obviously trying to sort out who’s the boss, but am I hindering this?

[Monkeybun]

My Moose has taken to nipping Monkey during sessions.. Petzy suggested that I play Monkey’s Guardian and not let Moose do anything bad. So this week it’s gonna be all about showing Moose who the boss is… me

So I think the same would apply.. don’t let them nip, as it can be a bad habit for them to form.

[Incendiary]

So I’ve been away for a week (gota love work) but my wife has continued the sessions on the landing. She said the were grooming each other and getting along great. So I decided to try a bigger space. I used the kitchen with blankets down. I added two log cabin house things. I seems that any sort of coverd space starts nipping wars. One will be in the hut and the other will come up sniff and then nip the other one. This seems to b going both ways. Any ideas why a shelter space would do that?

I took the log huts away away and the nipping stopped… For a while. Then a fight broke out, not sure what started it because I was reading the paper. It looked like Taylor had the upper hand on it as she managed to get Mia on her back and “clawed” at mia’s tummy. A couple squirts and they instantly stopped. I checked them both out and they only lots som fur so I set them side by side and petted them both until they seemed calm. 5 min later their sniffing eachother and sittng calmly side by side. Is this a standard thing to see with bonding? Little fights and then getting along? Just doesn’t make sense

[Deleted User]

Rabbits that are new to each other are in a state of undecided hierarchy. They must establish a boss bunny; while this is being sorted out you will see hostile behaviors. You want to try to limit these to posturing and fur flying like you did using the spray bottle.
Don’t let your rabbits have things, such as the sheltered hidey thing, that they may claim; leave those out until they are very well bonded. I would offer two litterboxes and nothing else. Even the feed I would just put on the floor. It minimizes territorial outlashes.

[Incendiary]

sigh, this is getting weird. put them in the kitchen again today, and there was alot of nipping, but that calmed down after a bit and we had two wet bunnies. then everything was going great for something like 20 min, so i was thinking sweet! they’re sorting it out finally. Left my wife with the rabbits had a shower and when i came back she had just broken up a fight, fur everywhere. no blood drawn luckly but this is just confusing. one minute their happy the next it’s a fight

I’m going to go back to putting them in the smaller space on the landing, they were grooming there. and i’ll trim their nails

[TARM]

Ugh. I feel your pain. I hope things go better tomorrow!

[Incendiary]

AHH! So I just watched taylor sitting next to the cage wall that seperates her and mia, and mia came up and took a chunk of fur out of taylors tail! ARG they make me mad. Am I fighting a loosing battle here??

[Deleted User]

You are dealing with cage aggression. Female rabbits that are already in a tiff about who is going to be in charge will not tolerate the other bunny near their personal space (their cage). Put a cardboard barrier between the cage walls. You don’t want their tempers to flare.

[Incendiary]

Good news. They’re playing nice with each other back in the small neutral space (entrance landing). They shared some kale today (picture lady and the tramp with the spaggetti) and then finished off by sitting in the litter box together. It’s so weird, they have lots of space, and they decide to sit in the litter box for 10 min (i got tired of supervising so i considered that a good note to end on). Hopefully this will work out and move along better than last time

[TARM]

I don’t know what it is about litter boxes but I frequently find that the bunnies will share the litter box even when they have a large penned area to hang out in.

One of the things Zinnia had issues with when I attempted to bond her to Trouble was that she would guard the litter box. There wasn’t any hay in it, just litter, but she did not want him anywhere near it. I had to remove the litter box from the bonding sessions. Lucky for me both of them had such good litter habits that neither of them went potty until they were back in their cages.

[Incendiary]

so now they’re being really weird. I’ve been away for a week and a half so my wife has been doing the sessions with them. They had another fight, this time it was started over them both wanting the same toy. funny how they can’t share. It’s weird because they’ll groom through the cage (their cages are side by side and they can poke their nose into eachother’s cages. So there’s no problems there but then you put them together in the same space and they fight.

[Deleted User]

I would not offer any toys or things that may be claimed by either rabbit. It is too early for sharing. Focus on just the getting-along for now.

[Author]

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