Bonding Siblings after Neutering – update: Now Bonded

[LuvMyLops]

Hi all, so we got Tigger n Thumper neutered 9 days ago and were told we can let them have short supervised playtime together after 10 days. They are 5 month old brothers and were together until mid Jan when we seperated them after their first fight and have not had any interaction with each other since then. 

In my previous about the fighting and humping, members recommended reintroduction after a month.

So, should I wait for a month or as told by the vet start letting them have a litte supervised playtime after tomorrow?

Thank you in advance. 

[Hazel]

Definitely wait a month. They go through what’s called a post neuter craze, where their hormones fluctuate before settling down. In some cases, that means they actually become more hormonal/aggressive during this time, so introductions should wait until at least a month after the neuter. You can start prebonding though, getting them used to each other’s scent by swapping litter boxes, toys, blankets or even swapping the rabbits between cages. 

[Deleted User]

I agree with Hazel. You need to prebond and wait a month. Prebonding is such an important step to get them used to each other. I also wouldn’t just give them play time, even supervised. They need to start out with very short sessions, 10 minutes or less. It’s something that will require all your attention. Bonding sessions also need to occur in neutral territory.

[LuvMyLops]

Perfect………that is what we shall do.
Starting with the 10 mins sessions, if all goes well, how often and how do we proceed from there……..any timeline for increasing sessions etc?
Thank you.

[LuvMyLops]

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[Deleted User]

The end game is to spend 24+ hours together without any incidences. A good increase would be adding 10 minutes every few days they go without any incidences. You want to end each session on a positive or neutral interaction. Flopping, ignoring, and grooming are all things to end on. Never end on a nip, scuffle, or chase. After several hours of being in neutral territory you can switch to semi-neutral territory. Some bunnies also benefit with stress bonding either in a bathtub, in a car ride, or in a box on top of a working dryer. Space is an issue too sometimes. Some pairs do better in a larger space and others do better in smaller spaces, but that’s something you’d have to make note of in the first few sessions.

[LBJ10]

There’s no real timeline. If things are going well, gradually increase the time as A&B suggested. You can always play things by ear as you go along and increase or decrease the time as needed.

[LuvMyLops]

We did prebonding and yesterday we put them both together in neutral territory and all was well until Thumper started humping Tigger…….we thought that was not good and seperated them, it happened again so we put them back in the cages.
I read after that humping can be a neutral sign in bonding:

Some neutral signs in a first bunny date:
– Humping. Mounting can mean “it is important to me to appear to be the rabbit in control” or it can be an invitation to chase, mount, and be the boss.
– Nipping and minor chasing.

It has been a month since having them neutered……Should I continue bonding them or wait a few more weeks because of the humping??

[Sirius&Luna]

Humping can be a dominance behaviour during bonding, so it’s not necessarily that he’s still hormonal.

How did the other bunny react? What does he do if you just gently push him off?

Normally we say to allow humping for up to 10 seconds as long as the other bunny isn’t distressed by it. Stop face humping immediately because that can result in bitten genitals.

What else happened on the first date?

[LuvMyLops]

Thank you for the reply, I decided to ask this question in the bonding forum and was about to delete the question here.
They were mostly just sniffing each other and the humping happened within minutes so they didn’t really get to spend that much time together.

[LuvMyLops]

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[Sirius&Luna]

That’s okay! It sounds like a pretty good first date to be honest – anything that doesn’t end in immediate aggression is good! I know humping can be a bit disturbing, but it’s definitely not bad during bonding. I’ll stop replying here though and let this continue in the correct thread! I would add those details to your thread too if they’re not there already.

Next session, don’t immediately seperate humping unless it’s distressing the under bunny.

[LuvMyLops]

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[LuvMyLops]

Thank you for the help in this thread……Happy to say Tigger n Thumper are bonded, took 3 weeks and they are very happy together.

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