Bonding unaltered young/baby pair

[Jamie]

Hi all, I have two young holland lop bunnies (3 months buck and 2 months doe) and couldn’t find many bonding tips online for unaltered young rabbits, so I wanted to write my experience here to share since I gained so much from others in this forum.

I consulted my first breeder before getting a companion for him and she adviced it is best to bond while they are young, so I adopted a second bunny. The plan is to get my first bun neutered soon before the doe matures around 4 months of age.

My doe came home a week ago and to cut to the conclusion, they are such a cute, inseparable pair now, in just a week.

To give some background, here is the template response –

Spay/Neuter
Are your bunnies spayed/neutered? No
If not, why not? Too young

Housing
My buck is a free roaming (now my doe is, too). He is well litterbox trained and identifies my bedroom as his core litterbox, hay and water space, but not sure if he also thinks of it as his sleeping space. He doesn’t have one designated spot where he sleeps, I think he identifies the entire apartment as his territory. They can go anywhere in my 2 bed, 2 bath apartment, but for some reason they aren’t interested in the guest bathroom, so I used the tub there for the first bonding session.

Bonding background

My doe’s first day home on Sunday, I put her in my bedroom in an x-pen with my buck’s hay feeder, litterbox, and water bowl. My buck slept with my hubs in the 2nd bedroom. I put the travel carrier the doe traveled in in the room for him to smell her scent. Lots of chinning happened in both rooms and lots of territorial poops.

The second day, we let them have a brief session in the afternoon in the neutral guest bathroom tub. Though I had read a lot about bonding and was prepared, I can’t say I wasn’t shocked when I saw my buck who I thought was a baby humping the baby doe. My sweet doe lay flat and tolerated whatever he did – mounting, humping, nipping, and scratching. After a bit she got up and tried to get out of the tub, so I took that sign as too much stress and ended the session. Afterwards, I read that a session should end in good note, so we took them for a drive in the car and it seemed it went well, my doe was leaning to my buck. That night, the buns switched rooms.

The third day, I tried doing a pet session but my buck tried to mount her the whole time. The sweet girl was very compliant. Later that day, my hubs and I discussed what to do for that night, and we thought we’d give them a chance since none of their behavior was aggressive. So, after reminding ourselves that mounting and nipping are “neutral” bonding behaviors that a human shouldn’t intervene, we put them together in the x pen in my bedroom. This time, I built a “rabbit hole” using cardboard boxes so the doe can escape and hide from the buck if she wanted to. There were lots of hide and seek through the first hours, but my doe didn’t seem upset and she even tried to groom him, just my buck was so anxious to mount her that he didn’t stay still for her to really groom him. She will sometimes let him mount her and sometimes run away. There were lots of poops and pees everywhere from both. Oh, I did distract them using treats now and then to break the flow of continuous mounting, and in the hopes that they would associate being together as a good thing.

About 4 hours later, I found my buck much calmer and letting her groom him! Then she flopped next to him and that was it. We let them stay in the pen overnight, and the next day we attempted at letting them play together in the living room, and gradually opened up to the entire apartment. That was Thursday.

From then till today (Sunday), they are doing really well, eating, drinking, sleeping, and running around together. Mostly my buck follows her around, and the mounting behavior is lessening each day. He still tries a lot especially in the evenings, but my doe became a master escaper when he tries, so I think they are in good terms.

I’m going to get my boy neutered soon when the vet approves, and I hope we won’t need to separate them. Then I want to wait till my girl is mature enough, like 6months, to spay her.

In the meanwhile, we found out that my doe can’t hear (going to the vet to confirm, but we are quite sure). Luckily, she has a good buddy to rely on. We noticed that she models after him, and he acts as if he’s surveillancing for her.

I will appreciate any comments or feedback, and also any questions you have. Oh, and my buck doesn’t groom her back. Is this okay?

 

 

[Wick & Fable]

As a general note, males are still able to impregnate a female 6 weeks after a neuter, and females can be impregnated as soon as 12 weeks old. Separation is recommend to prevent pregnancy: https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Pregnant_rabbits

Ultimately, the stance the majority of Binkybunny-goers will have, myself included, is that any bond which includes at least one unaltered (i.e. not spayed/neutered) rabbit is inherently less stable and secure than a bond between two altered rabbits– hormones are invisible and unpredictable, so how the relationship can progress day to day, instance to instance, is more difficult to gauge since hormones, when active/seemingly being expressed, can drive even the most gently rabbits to be aggressive.

Separately, and still important, any bond which includes at least one young/baby rabbit (less than 7mo is my parameter) is safest to be assumed as a temporary state of agreeableness, as no hormones are yet at play. It is safer to assume the relationship harmony is the result of that (lack of hormones), rather than the rabbits establishing a meaningful relationship with each other– this prevents an owner from leaving a pair of rabbits unsupervised during a point in which hormones do indeed activate territorial/dominance behaviors which can escalate to a fight/injuries. It is known formally as a ‘baby bond’: https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/bonding-bunnies.html

While it’s great that you are seeing positive signs while they are in session, I actually propose not leaning into bonding very much until after he’s neutered and she’s spayed and recovered, while also understanding that if you do decide to try a bond with an unspayed doe, hormones will be a factor that can cause unpredictability in both her and him (a hormonal rabbit can cause hormonal reactions in a fixed rabbit). I believe that whether a bond “works” or not is not contingent on if the rabbits establish a “relationship” prior to either being fixed. Again, whatever building blocks seem to appear may simply be a result of lack of hormones, and puberty can act as an “eraser” of that baby bond completely. While yes, it is cumbersome to house two rabbits separately, you do need that set-up regardless when formally bonding, and you can do pre-bonding measures while waiting for both of them to be fixed/recovered. Also note that after any rabbit is spayed/neutered, many people recommend waiting at least a month after the operation not only for surgery recovery, but also to allow the hormones time to “calm down”– trying to bond during a post-neuter/-spay craze can be tumultuous.

 

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Jamie]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>This is the most helpful comment I’ve got so far. Thank you so so much. I was feeling bad that at some point I would need to separate the bonded two until they get altered (plus 4-6 weeks after that), and that they’d miss each other. It’s great to know that I shouldn’t feel guilty breaking the baby bond.</p>
Thank you again, we will arrange for separated housing in the coming weeks before the girl turns 12 weeks. 🙏

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