Different bonding methods?

[Bu20055]

Hi guys!

Not bonding my gremlins yet, but planning on it after a good month or more of prebonding cage swaps.

I’ve seen different people recommending all kinds of things from stress bonding, to bonding in a small space to bonding in a large space.

I’m just wondering, what different bonding methods are there, and what do you guys recommend?

Also what is semi-neutral territory? Examples please!

 

Thanks so much guys!

[HipHopBunny]

I really prefer bonding in a small space, unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to work with my ladies, but when I do, small spaces always help. 😀 For when I’m bonding in large spaces, that gives Silver more room to chase Smokey. 🙁 It all really depends on the buns, if either is a chaser, I’d definitely start small! 😉

When I stress bond, I like to play relaxing music, for after the initial stress and shock wear off, they can meditate. 🙂 I try to create as many happy memories with my ladies as possible, I’ve even adopted feeding them all their meals together, where I scatter pellets across the floor, and they get to find them. 🙂 For dramatic effect, I sometimes turn out the lights and have only a flashlight to eliminate the room! 😉

 

For Semi Neutral: That is a place in between neutral, and territory. If they have a designated playpen, or somewhere they go for fun often but isn’t their territory; that is semi-neutral. 🙂

Wishing you bonding luck!

[DanaNM]

Funny you should ask this… I’ve written a blog post for Binky Bunny on this topic, but it hasn’t come out yet!

The gist is that different things work for different rabbits, and different humans! People with more or less experience might do better with certain techniques.

I think most people will try a small space first, because it’s readily available (a bathtub is a common starting point). Personally, I have not had great luck with small spaces. I have found in large spaces, the rabbits have space to get away from each other if needed and fights don’t seem to escalate as fast. (Consider the fight or flight response… if you have no room to flee, you will fight). That said, many people successfully bond in small spaces.

I see a lot of blogs, etc. that promote small space 24/7 bonding. I tried this method once… and it was the only bond I’ve that broke. That’s not to say it isn’t successful, but I just didn’t have good luck with it. I also think it is unnecessarily stressful on the rabbits. I would rather let them build their relationship more naturally (although I realize the whole situation of bonding is somewhat unnatural).

Another big source of contention is when to intervene vs. letting them “sort it out”. I think when you are new to rabbits, and especially new to bonding, it’s very hard to know when to intervene. So I think early on in the process, it is better to intervene too soon and help build some trust between the rabbits, rather than letting things get out of hand and backtracking (or ending up with an injury). Especially if working in a small space, I like to do a lot of petting when the rabbits approach each other (just like you did when your two were on opposite sides of the fence). This helps keep everyone calm and start to build happy feelings. Then when things get a little farther along I will pet less, and let little chases and nips play out a bit more, once I’m sure they aren’t just going to immediately lock on to each other. Some bonders might be more willing to allow fur pulling than others, etc.

About stressing: I often use stressing as a tool in the process, but not the entire method. A car ride together before the main session can work wonders. But it’s not the only thing I do.

It can all be very overwhelming, but it’s really a process of trial and error with your rabbits (unless you get really luck and they just love each other LOL). This slide show by the Georgia HRS is really similar to the process I tend to use, and what is practiced at the rescue (they call it the “gentle bonding” method): https://rabbit.org/articles/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Bonding-Bunnies-PPforrabbit.org_.pdf

. . . 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.  

[Bu20055]

Thank you so much @HipHopBunny and @DanaNM !

With stressing, some of the stuff I’ve seen people suggesting seem weird to me. I get using the vacuum and car rides, those, are things they need to get used to anyways, but shaking them around and stuff seems mean :(.

I’ll check out the link, thanks!

[Wick & Fable]

With my two co-habitating but not-bonded rabbits, I found stress bonding to not be the best because they both handled stress differently.  I think the general idea is, when stressed, rabbits would want to go to each other for a bit of security. In my pair, I found one habituated very well to stress so they’d be fine after a minute and the other is so easily stressed and fearful that she didn’t really register there being another rabbit there. They are the only pair I’ve tried to bond and I didn’t do it successfully (though it’s victorious they can free-roam together without constantly attacking each other?), so take my experience and interpretation with a grain of salt, haha.

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.

[DanaNM]

Agree with Wick!

I have found success with stressing when rabbits tend to want to fight, and the rabbit that is the most aggressive is affected by the stress. So for example, my first pair, Bunston and Bertha were really had to bond. Bunston would just attack Bertha immediately. Short car rides for a couple weeks helped stop this, because he hated the car and would snuggle into her. The car helped him realize she wasn’t so bad after all. Once he stopped attacking her, I didn’t do more car rides unless we were going to bond at another location.

But with Bun Jovi and Bertha, they actually made the most progress when they were in a less stressful, but very neutral space. They didn’t tend to attack each other, but just were kind of in a stalemate. When I would work with them at the shelter, Bun Jovi was just so stressed about being there that he wouldn’t behave normally and would just sit in the corner and stare at the wall. Then when we tried to progress he would get all assertive suddenly and scuffles would break out. The solution was a very neutral but not stressful location (my friend’s house), so he behaved normally and they could properly sort out their hierarchy.

. . . 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.  

[HipHopBunny]

OMG! How could I forget that Stress-bonding is just a tool, and not essential! 😆 It has started being my go-to when I have time to bond them! 😆 I don’t really do the typical stress-bonding, where you take them in a car and such, I just put them all in a small space (laundry basket, bathtub) and I play relaxing music so that they aren’t too stressed. 🙂 As said above, it really depends on the buns. With mine, I have 2 who like to chase each other, so stress-bonding has come in handy! 😉 I don’t do it often (probably once every few weeks) for I don’t want them too stressed. 😉

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