Bonding Problems

[duckyboy888]

Hi everyone,

Okay, this is the dilemma:

A year ago, we had two bunnies: a 5 year old neutered male bunny (named Thumper) and a 5 year old non-sprayed female bunny (named Joy). Despite Joy not being sprayed, they got on very well together. She was slightly dominant to him, but never aggressive. 

A few months ago, Thumper passed away very suddenly. It was a great shock, since he was always very healthy. We miss him very much. Joy started to become very lonely in the the next two months, and would often seek comfort from everyone. We knew we had to find a new partner for her, so we started looking online at rabbits in animal rescue shelters (we had gotten Joy from an animal rescue shelter, too). 

We found a rabbit, who we call George, who was described as a friendly, calm, and well tempered, neutered Male. He is around three years old, although that isn’t certain. The reason why we chose him was because Thumper was also a very calm, friendly rabbit, who was below Joy in the pecking order. 

We went to visit him at the shelter, and the staff there put Joy and George together in the neutral area. Now, we haven’t had many experience in bonding before. When we were bonding Thumper and Joy, they got on almost instantly, and they never had any problems. So when Joy and George were put together we were a bit inexperienced in how it works when bonding two rabbits. The bonding area was quite large, and Joy and George barely went near each other. When Joy did get curious and went over to George, George would hop away. This already felt weird, since when Thumper and Joy were first introduced, they started jumping on each other (for dominance), but the person there said that this was a good sign, since at least they weren’t fighting. 

We though it was going well, so we decided to bring George home, with Joy and George hopefully bonding during the car ride, since the drive took two hours. When we got home we put them in a neutral area together, though it was a lot smaller than at the shelter. This is when it started going badly, Joy kept on chasing George, and George refused to go after Joy. Joy is also a lot slower than George, so she could never catch up to him. This would continue for a few minutes, until they both got tired and rested (far away from each other), with George completely wide-eyed.

We separated them at night, so we could get a bit of sleep and so they could have some time to cool-off. But immediately when we put them together again, they would be at it again. George would also start pooping a LOT when Joy got near him. This was all very frustrating, since bonding Thumper and Joy had been so easy. The only time when George would be happy, was when we let them run around the house (moving away all the cables and other dangerous things), he would start doing binkies (he would not be anywhere near Joy). 

George also has this thing where if you start acting threatening to him, or go in his way, he would start licking you. This is how we got them to groom sometimes, by pushing him towards Joy, even when he tried to hop away, and he would start licking her, almost like it is a form of bribery, like: ‘If I lick you, and be nice to you, you will be nice to me’.

After a few weeks they started doing quite well, they would lie next to each other often and groom each other. We though the bonding process was over, but then after a few days Joy’s hormones would kick in, and she would start chasing him. We refuse to have her sprayed, since she is quite old, and problems can arise if you spray a rabbit that is this age, and we don’t want to take that risk.

We have had George for about 4 months, and things aren’t looking so promising. If Joy goes anywhere near him, he would run to the other side of the cage. We know that Joy likes him, since she often goes to him with her head bowed (for grooming), but he is really scared of her. It is definitely the hormones of Joy that are causing the problems, but we can’t spray her anymore. 

So how can I help them bond better, without having to spray Joy? Or should we return George to the animal shelter, and look for a new partner for Joy? We really don’t want to do this since we have really come to love George. So, what are your suggestions? How can I help them get along better, and for Joy to stop being so wild, without spraying her? 

Thank you in advance, and thank you for reading this very very long forum question .

[Cocoa]

When bonding rabbits, you can’t just put them in the same cage. You have to do pre bonding for a month and then short bonding sessions for a few months. I have never bonded rabbits before but i have been doing a lot of research on bonding since i am about to begin bonding my bunnies. It sounds like you just put them together without proper bonding. A lot of the things i read said that unless both bunnies are fixed they aren’t actually bonded. I don’t think you will ever be able to bond her since she isn’t spayed.

[duckyboy888]

Thank you for the advice, but Joy is too old to be sprayed.

Still, thanks anyways!

[Sirius&Luna]

I’m afraid there’s no way to get rid of Joy’s hormones without spaying her. Some people do successfully bond unspayed girls with neutered boys, but it is harder. I don’t really see how returning George would help, since you’d still need to go through the same bonding process with a new bunny, and the same issues would likely occur.

Are they currently living together or separated? Its not very clear how much bonding you did, or how. That said, if George is really scared of her, it’s not fair to keep pushing them together. You need to give George a break to forget her, before trying again.

The other thing to consider is the high rate of uterine cancer in unspayed females, which often leads to emergency spays anyway. I think it’s worth you doing some more research on that, and talking to a rabbit savvy vet about the safety of spaying her.

[duckyboy888]

Hi!

Thanks for your response, it was really helpful!

We did a mix of keeping them in separate cages next to each other and keeping them in the same area together. After a month of doing this they finally started to get along well with each other; they would groom each other and lie down next to each other. The problem was that Joy would have these outbursts and then she would start chasing George. 

Whenever this happened with Joy and Thumper, he would just lie down and she would start jumping on him. As sad as this sounds, it worked, and Joy would calm down and lie down next to him. With George, he is a lot more sensitive, and doesn’t at all like it when she does this. So, when she began running after him, trying to jump on him, he would start running away, stomping his back feet in the process. 

So whenever they started doing well, Joy’s hormones would kick in and she would start chasing him. This made her lose the trust of George, and we would start the process all over again.

We don’t want to spray Joy, because of the risk, with her age and all. Now, they have this living apart together relationship, where whenever Joy would hop over to George, even when she is calm, George would run to the other side of the cage. We haven’t seen them grooming each other in a long time, which is a worry; they only groom themselves

The vet said that there was a high risk of complications, with spraying Joy. She could possibly die. She also said that if we were to take the risk of spraying Joy, George may become the dominant one, and that could also become a problem.

I think we made a mistake in the original introduction for Joy and George. We should have waited, until we saw that they were showing interest in each other. Instead, they were just avoiding each other. The area of introduction was also far to big, so they weren’t forced to confront each other. Ah well, we make mistakes in life, and now we have to focus on helping them get along better! 

Thanks for your help! We will contact the rabbit savvy vet to in the coming days to see what we can do!

[Sirius&Luna]

I do think you should separate Joy and George if you haven’t already. George is obviously a sensitive rabbit, and while it’s fair that you want Joy to be happy, you can’t sacrifice George for that.

It’s also entirely possible that one day George will have enough, and will suddenly turn on Joy with no warning, and there will be a nasty fight.

To be honest, it doesn’t sound like you’ll be able to bond Joy again, and it doesn’t sound like it will be successful with George, now I’ve heard more details. That said, rabbits can have joy and companionship from living next door to another rabbit, without actually living together. So they can see each other, lie next to each other through bars, and eat together, but not actually reach each other to chase or fight. However, you also need to think about George, and whether he’ll feel stressed just being near Joy after his experiences.

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