Bonding while moving? 7hr car ride, questions

[Svandis]

I asked a couple questions about this in my bonding thread, but as I didn’t get any answers, and I’m moving in two days I decided to make a separate thread..

We are in the midst of bonding Bosse and Lola, and so far the only way of bonding that has worked has been bonding in the bathroom with a fence between them. The car ride is going to take about seven hours, and I don’t really know what the ideal thing to do for the bunnies is.. Should I take this opportunity to bond them in the car or will this long drive already be too stressful without adding the bonding to it? If I choose to bond, should I do it right away and try to keep them together the entire ride (if it is successful and they don’t try and kill each other that is), or should I only do it for parts of the ride? 
When we get to our new place, should I then separate them or should I (giving that the car bonding has been going ok), try and put them together in a pen and do like a marathon bond? If I separate, should I keep them in pens next to each other or totally separate?

i know these are a lot of questions, and that’s just because I am so indecisive about what to do and how to handle this move while bonding
thanks in advance for any answers I might get

[DianeK]

My 2 un-bonded females are going on a 4-5 day ride (Alaska to Vermont!) and I’m also unsure how to proceed with bonding them once we get to our new home.

I’ll be listening in closely too!

[Svandis]

DianeK – Oh my, thats a long ride!! Will you do an update on how it all goes?

[ohbonobogirl]

I’m definitely not the most experienced person here, so YMMV with my experience. First, can you take them on a short ride and see what happens, with someone else in the car to separate them if need be (I’m thinking laundry basket with fleece blanket on the bottom, NIC panel available if they need it between them?)? Take them through the McDonald’s drive through and get some apples or something, just to see how they do. Bandit and Minerva rode home from the shelter in the same carrier with no problem, but they were a pretty easy bond apart from territorial pooping. If they do okay on a short-ish trip, I don’t know what the problem would be with a longer one unless they just get tired and irritable. I’d have an extra carrier available if needed in the car, but I’d probably start them out together.

[Slowebot]

I think you should give it a shot at marathon bonding. Put them in the car together if they don’t fight and if they do fight and you can’t stop them from doing so then separate them. I think having them in the car together should be fine though. It might even work out better, bunnies seek each other out as comfort in stressful situations. After the car ride you can either let them run around together or separately in the hotel. I’d leave them together if they don’t get aggressive. Give them plenty of food and water and a litter box. If they continue to seek each other out for comfort and there is no aggression you can try to keep them together all night. If y’all really need to sleep and are nervous about them fighting then maybe separate them. I found that if I put them in a small pen where they are forced to touch at night they are less likely to fight. However since they are cooped up all day in the car I don’t know if you want to give them the chance to feel normal and eat and poop leisurely. If you do separate them, just put a screen between them so they can still lay next to eachother if they want. I think the traveling is a unique way to bond your rabbits and you should take advantage of it.

[Svandis]

Ohbonobogirl – i cant really take them on a test ride as we dont have ha car. My dad is driving up and helping us with the move on saturday. But we have tried stressbonding with them before, and it wasn’t very successfull. But now that they have become more accustomed to each other I think it might work. Mine have been difficult to bond, agression issues. I think we will try to have them in a box together and have something to separate them with if they start to fight and see how it goes. And we will ofc have separate carriers in case it doesnt work out. Thanks for the input!

Slowebot – Yes, i think we will try it we are not going to a hotel though, we are going to our old apartment i think we are going to try and put them in a pen together after the trip and see how it goes, if they get to pee and poop in peace, etc. Thank you so much for the input!

[Slowebot]

Good luck

Also initially I was having trouble stress bonding my bunnies too and I found the problem was that one of my bunnies wasn’t really stressed enough. I ended up taking them to a parking lot next to a street at night so a car would pass by like every minute or so. The combination of the asphalt and the constant sound of cars was enough to put both bunnies on edge and although the more brave bunny nipped the other a little it was nothing compared to what it had been and it stopped literally in a minute. After that they huddled fairly close. So if you find that the bathtub or the car isn’t working try taking them to a completely different situation altogether with absolutely no familiar smells. That was the only form of stress bonding that made them accept each other. My more aggressive bunny would attack the other bunny even if I was shaking the box they were in. Once I got them to accept each other out in the parking lot, stress bonding the car and bathtub was a cinch, once you get rid of the aggression its just a matter of getting them to like each other.

I think moving to your old apartment is great because there’s no way one can be more territorial than the other! I think my more aggressive bunny could still smell his home from inside the bathtub or the smell of my scent was comforting still so being completely out of the zone helps with bonding.

Once again good luck!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I would probably try it. The car ride will be stressful no matter what and they may find a lot comfort in each other’s company.

Best of luck with your trip!

[Svandis]

Thanks slowebot and LPT! Slowebot – im into strength training etc, so i keep thinking “swolebot” hahah!

But yeah, I am kinda worried that Lola won’t be stressed enough. She is pretty unphased to stress factors. I have downloaded an app with lots of loud noises, hoping that might effect her, and will have a spray bottle on hand.
Also, Lola will poop and pee wherever if she doesnt have a litterbox. Bosse will hold it in. Do you think her pooping and peeing in the bonding box will make her think its more her territory? She is the more aggressive one, and the more territorial. When we have bonded in neutral area and bosse has settled down, he will nip back, but during stress bonding, he will just totally retreat and seek comfort in her. But she doesnt want him close I think and gets agressive.. do i just need to stress her out more? She was unphased by us shaking the box when bonding and everything else we tried.. i guess we just have to go for it and give it a shot, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.

About the old apt. Both buns have been back there on holiday, and the bedroom is very much Lola’s territory, so the apt isn’t 100% neutral. All our furniture from our current apt will come with us on the move. We will ofc make everythink as neutral as possible though. We also have my parents house avaliable for bonding, and their golden retriever for a stressor

[Slowebot]

Yeah I’d say you just need to keep trying to find something to stress the brave one out. Like I said a parking lot worked wonders, I was there for like an hour and the aggressive one never attacked the new bunny ever again it worked like a charm. Once you can get them to stop trying to kill each other it gets a lot easier to relax and let them work it out. Nipping is okay as long as it doesn’t escalate into taking bites at the skin. You can even do a park or even a yard, just the new sounds will put your bunny on edge.

My bunnies peed and pooed all over the place, I don’t think it was directly correlated with aggression though. I did only give them a litter box once they stopped trying to kill each other. They would still get in scuffles but like I said, once you get past the murderous rage it’s just breaking up arguments and forcing them to get used to each other.

Also if they ever started arguing excessively I just took them back outside so they could huddle together.

Swolebot made me laugh so hard

[Veronika]

My bunnies have all been different. Revlon did very well during our 3-day drive from California to Indiana, and back three years later!
She didn’t seem to mind since she was in her cage. When we arrived both times, she didn’t seem to be in shock or anything. Brave girl.

Claudia seemed a little nervous but she was also good.

When I brought my Leviathan home, he was terrified but once he was on stationary ground, he settled in nicely. That car ride was my first hour with him, so he was uneasy. Revlon had already been with us for a long time so she was more at ease.

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