DESPAIRING- Female bonding- extreme aggression from one!

[Haymish]

Hi!

I haven’t had any luck searching the internet so far, so am trying my luck with forums now.

Most websites seem to talk about bonding male/female pairs, and ours are both female which apparently is less successful.

We’ve had the older one for longer, about a year now, and thought we’d get her a friend. A young girl (also desexed, so no worries there).

Initially, we did things carefully- the older girl in her house, the younger newbie running around. All fine, no aggression. Great!

Then we tried letting them hop about together, but all went to hell and there was squealing and fur flying and general terror on the part of the shocked humans in the room.

Crap.

So, we’ve tried  ‘bathroom bonding’, but it doesn’t seem to matter where they are. It’s been about five days now.

The older one huddles down and is unhappy (well okay, hard to tell, but we assume she’s frightened and defensive), the younger one will bite and lunge and try to kill as soon as she gets her nose near her.

I’ve put on thick gloves (thank god) and separated them, several times. No good, the younger just hops around the bathroom, then zoom! back to the old girl to try to sink her teeth in again. The poor old thing is doing nothing aggressive, just sitting there.

We’ve tried restraining the nasty little one, but then the older one will hop up, sniff….and bite her on the nose, given the chance.

We’ve tried holding them side-by-side with lots of calm words and patting, which worked well once, but tonight, nope.

We just don’t see the young one letting up any time soon, and it’s distressing to see her so vicious towards an obviously calm older one who only fights back when provoked, but otherwise does nothing (apart from the one bite-on-the-nose!).

We’d love for them to be able to run around together, but it’s not looking good!

Does anyone here have any suggestions for our two beautiful buns, who get along okay when separated by bars, but are deadly when together?

 

 

[LittlePuffyTail]

Maybe they would benefit from “stress bonding” like a car ride.

[Lazee]

I know the feeling, I have a nightmare of my own named Furbee. Her and BB had taken an instant dislike to each other and for a while everyone got along except those 2, but now one of my babies, Louise had taken BB’s side in the fights. Seperating mine with bars only, didn’t work, I had to actually put up a wooden barrier, now everything is much calmer at night and their areas are much less messy.

[Deleted User]

A car ride sounds like a good idea, a five to fifteen minute one is a good starter!

[MoveDiagonally]

Have you read this sites bonding page?:
https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/BondingInfo/tabid/63/Default.aspx

Make sure you have two people on your car ride as they could still fight in the car. The goal is for them to get stressed out and huddle together for comfort.

[MoveDiagonally]

Oops. Double comment.

[Monkeybun]

I have a pair of girls, so it is possible

With an aggressive one, I would definitely suggest some stress bonding. Grab a box or carrier that will fit the 2 of them in it without alot of room to chase each other in it, and take em for a ride. It’s best if you have someone else drive and you keep an eye on the ladies. Have your driver make alot of turns, vary speeds, and even speed bumps help. Try doing sessions at least once a day, wear them down.

Good luck!

[Roxygirl]

This is all helpful advice, thank you! I am currently trying to bond our new lady August with our resident bun Heff and they are fighting when placed in neutral territory of the bathtub. They looked like the Tasmanian Devil, nose to tail circling around! I’ve been wanting to try the stress bonding with the car, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to do it. Monkeybun, do you take them to the car in the box or carrier, or place them in the box or carrier once in the car? I’m worried mine will fight before I can get them to the car and step in to separate them.

[Monkeybun]

If you’re worried about it, take them to the car in separate carriers or boxes first. You’ll want an extra on hand anyway just in case.

[Author]

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