Bonding my girl with a new boy

[Liam_f]

My 3 year old girl, Willow recently lost her best friend, Violet after a short illness. After a month or so we decided to adopt a boy and have managed to get ourselves a beautiful 2 1/2 year old boy from a local adoption centre. Both are neutered/spayed.

Willow was fairly dominant in her last bunny bonding and we don’t know much about the boy, Ginger.

We slowly bonded the first group a few years ago and it seemed so easy. No fighting and no issues.

Fast forward to The first meet today and they fight instantly and we spot LOTS of fur and little bit of skin attached which we hope will be fine. They have seperate houses and are able to have their own space but I’m anxious the fighting will mean they can never be bonded.

Any advice would be so helpful.

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi Liam!

How long is it since you adopted the boy? It’s important to pre-bond before you introduce, so spend a month introducing them to the IDEA and scents of another bunny by swapping their litter trays, toys and eventually entire hutches. You can also give each one a teddy and swap those. You should also give your new boy a couple of weeks to settle in before you start even pre-bonding.

The fight must have been scary, but it doesn’t sound like it was too severe. Fur often flies and looks worse than it is, but as long as no skin was broken, they shouldn’t hold too much of a grudge. I assume you have checked them both thoroughly for wounds?

After a month of prebonding, start introducing for short periods in neutral space (eg. 5 minutes in the bathtub) and be ready to intervene before they start fighting. It’s good to be wearing thick leather gloves/oven mitts so you don’t get bitten. Once they can do 5 minutes with no signs of aggression, increase the time.

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