Bonding – Need help!

[bonilla&BUB]

My buns are on their second day of bonding. Male and female (Chuck and Bonilla, respectively). Both spayed 3+ weeks ago and well healed. They have had a lot of pre-bonding (swapped cages) and have had their cages beside each other for 2+ weeks.

First day: Placed both simultaneously in a small box and they faced opposite directions for over an hour until I tossed in some of their favourite parsley which asked for trouble. I thought a treat would get them to loosen up but the male did some nipping (gentle) at my doe when she went to eat some. I let the nipping continue but it turned into a circling behaviour that I immediately stopped by banging on a pot with a wooden spoon. After some thumping from both of them, the male relaxed and sprawled out. They both ate some hay that was in the box, touched noses, and my female continuously tried shoving her face under him. He was having no part of grooming her. I let this continue for another hour. (2 hours on the first date – ended on a positive note). 

Second day: Currently in the box. Chuck thumped for about 5 minutes and laid down.  I am worried to let them into a larger space in case of chasing and also I feel it will give them more room to ignore each other. I have read about power bonding where you can leave them for hours and hours and overnight together and wait until they have sorted it out, in this small space. Is this something I should try? They just had their first hair pulling fight – my male, Chuck, lost quite a bit of fur. They wouldn’t stop with the loud banging of the pot and wooden spoon. I intervened myself (next time I will use a broom) by removing the male and he peed himself. I checked them over for cuts/bleeding and placed them both immediately back in the box and the thumping has started again. Chuck has been trying to jump out. I have the vacuum set up next to me to turn on if it happens again.

I jostled the box a ton and rattled their play pen cage hoping this will initiate some reliance on one another for safety. 

Ps. No humping has occurred! I know dominance is something that must still be established. 

Suggestions? Thanks! 

[Mikey]

Ignoring one another is a good sign, so dont fear that Dont move to a bigger space until they are both very calm and seemingly happy around one another in the box. Definitely dont increase space while they are still circling, and dont move to a bigger space until you can find another effective way to get them to stop since the banging sounds stopped working for them

Power bonding can only work if you are there too. You will need to be awake, alert, and ready to step in at every fight. Note that this can also back fire if they dont like one another very much yet. If they dont like one another, marathon bonding with constant fights will only cause them to fear one another by the end of it. If you add stress bonding with it, you can easily overly stress them out. I would only try to marathon bond them if you are off of work/school for several days in a row to be right there with them, and only once they stopped their circling/aggression

[bonilla&BUB]

Hey Mikey,

Thanks a lot for your post. Your information helps a lot.

[Author]

Messages