Bonding tips please! (Updated with pictures!)

[Lindsay]

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</style> We’ve just got a new bunny, Bea (pictures here: binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/115566/Default.aspx). She’s a 2 month old lionhead and will hopefully be bonded with our 1 year old neutered male lop, Monty.

 

At the moment Monty has free run of a room and we’ve put Bea in the same room, but in an old cage of Monty’s to keep them seperate when they’re unsupervised.

 

So far they get on beautifully, sniffing each other and playing/chasing each other whenever we put them together. Monty’s quite boisterous and chases her out if she’s under the bed too long (his territory) but he does let her drink from his water bowl and would let her eat from his food bowl too (although we don’t let her actually eat from it as she’s too young for his veg and adult pellets).

 

As I’ve said, Monty is affectionate but boisterous and he’s mounted her once. He’s neutered obviously so there’s no risk there and she didn’t seem to mind, I know it’s just him trying to show who’s boss. But I don’t want him getting rough with her and mounting her excessively, especially since she’s so small compared with him at the moment (she should grow to be almost as big as him so hopefully she won’t take any nonsense!).

Is there anything I can do to discourage his mounting when they’re playing? Does it make any difference that she’s not spayed yet (too young at the moment)? Or is it just dominant behaviour? I’m hoping he’ll stop once he gets used to her being around, but if anyone has any tips for the meantime or general bonding tips I’d appreciate the help :-) 

[Lindsay]

just realised this should be in Bonding! Feel free to move it, moderators!

[LoveChaCha]

It just needs to be done.. some rabbits will hump and hump a lot, like Monkeybun’s Monkey. I believe little Monkey still does sometimes. As long as there is no fighting.

Your female maybe tolerate of your male for now, but i hope that when her hormones kick in, she doesn’t become too hormonal. Some rabbits need to be rebonded after a spay or neuter. If she becomes angry, or hormonal, I would recommend seperating the two of them. You do not want any bad fights going on

[Elrohwen]

Chacha’s right that your female is more likely to tolerate him for now because she’s very young. I wouldn’t go past playdates (don’t move them in together or anything) until she’s older and fixed.

Humping is normal. It’s not pleasant for most bunnies, but it will happen as they try to figure things out. Usually you should pull the humper off after a few seconds so the humpee doesn’t get nippy. If he just won’t stop, I would try stressing them – when Hannah was way too humpy I would put both buns in a laundry basket and shake them around for a minute. It would knock her out of that mindset and she’d forget about humping for a bit.

[Lindsay]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I’m keeping them seperate until I can have Bea spayed but they’re having little play dates in the bathroom as it’s neutral for them and has hard floors so it doesn’t matter if Bea has any accidents when she’s out of her cage (not fully litter trained yet).

I’ve had them in the bathroom together twice so far and so far everything has gone really well. They’ve sat close together, and even snuggled up once with Bea grooming the top of Monty’s head. He’s made a vague attempt at mounting her again once but she ran away and he gave up. He also has grunted at her once, but only because she woke him up when he was flopped out by touching his back feet, which he’s sensitive about anyway. No chasing or fighting at all which is excellent.

Here’s a few pictures of one of their dates (sorry they’re not the best quality, I took them on my iphone):

(It looks like Monty has Bea trapped here but she can actually get out behind the sink)

(don’t worry about the cloudy looking water in the bowl, it has probiotic in it to help Bea’s baby tummy)

[Beka27]

So cute! Gosh, I love Monty’s coloring!

[MarkBun]

Yup, yer good.

Do realize though that some of his humping may be due to the fact that she’s still intact and could be producing some hormone scents he’s keying on. Which also means that when she does get altered and returns, you may need to work to re-establish that bond since her scent will change and Monty may not recognize her anymore.

[Elrohwen]

What a cute couple! Monty is just beautiful.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree! Great looking buns. They complement each other well.

[Author]

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