can i bond a baby and adult rabbit?!

[jen koz]

i would like to adopt a two month old holland lop male,i already have a one year only english lop/ lionhead female who is a little territorial (shes spayed) i would have to keep them separated until the baby is able to get neutered but im worried having the different smells in my room will make ivy become aggressive or more territorial, ( they would have to have 0 contact for roughly 2 months so the male can be neutered and recover) but after could they be bonded?

if Ivy (my lionhead mix) goes crazy because of the change and becomes aggressive or more territorial, can i reverse that?

is it realistic to bond two rabbits with an age difference?

if they are separated but in the same room for roughly 2 months could that help them get used to each others scent?

how and when should i physically introduce them?

[Mimzy]

I think it’s usually not recommended to have a big age gap? Like usually if your rabbit is already matured, they tend to not tolerate little bunnies running around so much, but that’s not to say it can’t work.

My first rabbit was a female & was pretty territorial. She bossed all the other house pets around, my 75lb dog was scared of her too lol. None of the dogs would come in my room. I never intended to get a 2nd rabbit, in fact, I honestly thought Mimzy would never accept another rabbit. But my ex had gotten a rabbit about a year after I got Mimzy & he frequently needed me to bunny sit until he eventually asked if I’d keep him. At first, I had come home with the 2nd bunny’s scent on me & I let her smell around. She wasn’t too happy, but she was fine.

I created a divider down the middle of my room, so if 1 was out of the cage playing on 1 half of the room, the other was in it’s cage on the other side of the room…this way, they were always at LEAST 3 feet away from each other so they could smell each other but no touching. I also made sure to give each bunny a stuffed toy in order to get their scents on it. After each bunny had their stuffed toy for several days, I swapped the stuffed animals. The 2nd bunny didn’t mind it at all, but Mimzy was not happy with the 2nd bunny’s scented toy. I also started switching cages, so Mimzy was kept in his cage for a few days, & he was kept in Mimzy’s cage.
Eventually, I stuck them both in the bathtub to see what would happen & Mimzy almost completely ignored him, she just wanted out of the tub which was a good sign, at least she wasn’t attacking him. The 2nd bunny (Obi-bun), was super docile & sweet so I was never worried about him. Bathtub time was switched up now & then to being walking around the neighborhood in a stroller together, you can do car rides, or really anything that might scare them a little bit in order to encourage them to seek comfort in one another. Mimzy every now & then would try to dominate or get into a scuffle with him but he was so good with her, he never fought back. Eventually I was able to put them in pens together outside in the grass. It started to seem pretty bleak like it was never going to work, it took a while, but Mimzy finally accepted him. Now…from time to time, Mimzy still dominated him or bossed him around (poor guy) especially during dinner time. I sometimes had to pick 1 of the bunnies up to prevent her from aggressively chasing him from over-excitement. Other than that, they were great together.

So, if you wanted to try it, I would definitely plan on taking things slow, try the stuffed animal thing & swapping cages several times so they get used to each other’s scent. I think sometimes you can even take some of the other bunny’s droppings & put them in each other’s litter boxes. She may throw a fit to begin with, but it may be worth seeing if she could eventually get used to it?

[Sirius&Luna]

Age gaps don’t matter, except obviously a really old bunny might be sleepier and lazier than a really young one. A 2 month old and a 1 year old, with the 2 month old being presumably 5-6 months by the time they’re actually bonded is absolutely fine and not a big age gap. A big age gap is normally warned against as the younger bunny might be bereaved early if say a 8 year old was bonded with a 1 year old.

If possible, the new bunny should have time to settle in in a different room to the old bun for a couple of weeks, as it can be very overwhelming for a baby bunny to suddenly be dumped in an aggressive older rabbit’s territory (even when they’re separated).

Then you can move them into the same room. Your existing rabbit most likely will be very grumpy to have a new bunny in her room, but she’ll get over it. You’ll probably see territorial poops everywhere.

Make sure there’s always double bars between them so no one gets nipped through the bars. You can spend the couple of months before the neuter swapping their belongings to get them used to each other, and after the neuter spend another month swapping them between cages before an actual face to face intro on neutral territory.

So assuming he’s neutered at 5 months old, you wouldn’t introduce them until a month after that.

[jen koz]

thankyou both for your responses! my plan is to have the bunny in a cage on my dresser and have playtime is a part of my room my one year old can not get to, would that be okay or should i still have the in separate rooms? one more question! ivy will most likely be every grumpy as you said but is there any way i can help her with that or just give her time? could i go into ivys cage with the babies scent on me or would that be bad haha sorry im just new to this i dont know if thats a dumb question haha

[Mimzy]

She might get upset to begin with but she can’t get used to something if you keep it away from her That’s kind of what I did with my girl. Before I ever brought Obi to my house, I had gone to visit him & had Obi’s scent on me. So I don’t think it would hurt? I know when training dogs, if you’re trying to get them used to something they don’t like, you turn it into a positive thing by giving them treats when they’re around the new unfamiliar thing. I’m wondering if you can do the same with bunnies? Or does it not work the same with bunnies? xD lol

[Sirius&Luna]

I think its best to let the new bun settle in in a separate room for a couple of weeks, to minimise their stress.

Then move them into the same room. You can swap them between hutches to get them used to each others scents, or swap litter trays – she probably will be angry, but really, only time will help. The thing with swapping litter trays/hutches is it means they get used to the scent of each other without actually meeting, so they come to learn that the smell is not something to be afraid of – so hopefully when they meet, they don’t think ‘who is this stranger!’

[jen koz]

both comments are helpful thatnkyou! i came home with milo’s scent all over me and ivy didnt seems to care but that can always change:/

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