Bonding two unaltered females

[shyloNsophie]

 I have a 6 year old female dutch, we worked on house breaking for the first year because the intentions were for her to be a house only bun. This proved to be super hard after 6 months old she stopped using the litter box and refused to use it after that. She always left a trail and would go in all corners of the house. Unfortunately this led to her having to be caged. I bought her a bunny condo two story hutch but she still seemed so sad and depressed even when we would sit together in her playpen outside in the grass and had play time in the kitchen. 

So we got Sophie who is now just over 1yr old. She’s a velveteen. I havent altered either of them. I know i need to, but i just dont have the money right now. I tried to house train sophie and she did great with the litter box but chews on literally everything and almost killed herself by finding hidden cords and eating them. Sophie now has a bunny condo as well which is positioned by shylo’s so they see each other but they arent together which makes me sad.

Everytime i let them in the kitchen or playpen together shylo tries to mount sophie and i always break it up but she is relentless. I know bunnies have a good memory and i dont want them to hate eachother. When i put them in the playpen with a barrier they will lay beside one another like they like eachother but then as soon as the barrier comes down shylo starts up again. I dont know what to do. I would love to have them together more often even if its not always and their playtime would be so much longer if i didnt have to have 2 seperate play times. 

 

Please help us!

[Stickerbunny]

The bad litter habits and peeing/leaving a trail are due to not being altered. It’s marking behavior. And not really unusual for an unaltered bun. The mounting is normal dominance behavior and you have to let it play out during bonding (as long as there is no fighting / it doesn’t go on long enough to stress them out too badly). Bonding unaltered females isn’t a really good idea though, in general, since their hormones make them very aggressive and injury is more of a risk… and fighting injuries can be serious enough to run $700+ in treatment. I wouldn’t really suggest it.

If you really want to try them, then you have to put them in neutral area (bath tub if nothing else), let them play out their dominance humping and only intervene for fights / one is stressed to the point of fighting is about to happen / is crying and don’t supply litter boxes or food to start the bonding. Always end on a positive note.

[MoveDiagonally]

Unfortunately it’s not realistic for you to bond these rabbits until they are both spayed. It takes about 4 weeks for them to heal and hormones to dissipate after they are spayed at which point you could start bonding. Until then I would keep them separated.

Contact some rescues in your area and see if they know of any low cost options for spaying. Call around to various vets in your area and if you have transportation surrounding areas. You may find something that will be affordable sooner rather then later.

Edited to add: I didn’t see Stickerbunny’s post until I replied but I wanted to ditto what she said about the risk of injury being higher with trying to bond unspayed rabbits. The treatment of which could easily cost more than getting both spayed. 

[hannaroo]

I would recommend spaying them both ASAP and starting the bonding process a month after surgery

Any bonding beforehand risks injury, stress and the risk of having all the work undone if they do harm each other.

MD makes a very good point about shelters and some vets do very reasonable spaying. Mine were £96 each meds and aftercare included at a vets which is pretty reasonable and they bonded well and have been happy ever since!
Shelters probably do even better rates depending on your area so look around (just make sure they’re rabbit savvy)

[shyloNsophie]

thank you, i found one shelter rescue that will spay them for 100 each i just have to get there, its like an hr away.. i would love to see them bonded and want to do it only if they are going to be safe since shy is older i dont want her stressed out at all.

[MoveDiagonally]

That’s a really good price! I’m glad you found somewhere affordable and I hope you can find a way to get there. Other than the health benefits and being able to bond you will hopefully see vast improvement in litter habits and any hormonal based behavior.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m echoing everything said by the others. Unaltered females are too aggressive and territorial to safely bond. I wouldn’t even attempt it until after they are spayed and their hormones have calmed down. And with the high risk of cancer, it’s in everyone’s best interest to spay them.

$100.00 is a really good price. Hopefully, you will be able to spay them soon and then we can help you with bonding.

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